Comma

Tutorial

Photo by Richie Diesterheft
There are four
main rules for
comma usage
Rule One
Use commas to make numbers, place-names,
and dates clear
 Numbers

Use commas to distinguish the hundreds,

thousands, millions, billions—and so on—places

1,000 minutes 5,288,646,999 steps 65,000,000 years

5,280 feet 32,000 ounces

But NOT
12 steps 999 yards 2587 West Maple (addresses)
 Place Names

When writing a more specific location next to a

less specific (associated) location, use commas

Manhattan, New York Spanish Harlem, Manhattan

Delano District, Wichita Emporia, Kansas
Kansas, United States Saskatchewan, Canada
Hint: This comma rule goes beyond city, state to include all
place names within bigger place names.
 Dates

Use commas to separate the day and year

November 5, 2008 March 17, 1982 May 3, 1971

If using only month and year, omit the comma

November 2008 March 1982 May 1971
Rule Two

Use commas to separate items in a list

 Lists

Use commas to separate three or more items in

a list
I went to the grocery store to pick up milk, bread, and ground beef.

The following items are due on the thirteenth: A Bridge too Far, A
Bridge over the River Kwai, and The Bridges of Madison County.

Ralph finished chapters four, seventeen, eighteen, and twenty-one.

Note!
Two item lists do not get a comma!
I went to the grocery store to pick up milk and bread.

Ralph finished chapters seventeen and eighteen.

Each item in the list should match!

When I get up in the morning, I watch TV, do some browsing on the
internet, and go out walking the dog.

When I get up in the morning, I like to watch TV, browse the

internet, and walk the dog.
Rule Three

Use commas to build on to the basic parts of

the sentence
 Compound Sentences

Use commas and a conjunction to join two

simple sentences
AND
I went to the store , BUT I ended up at the bus station
FOR
NOR
SO
YET
 Introductory Phrases

Here is a simple sentence:

I like to drive around town.

But all expressions can’t be as simple as this. That’s

why we have nonessential phases.

When the weather is nice, I like to drive around

town.
More Nonessential Phrases

Nonessential phrases can also come up in the middle

of sentences.

The man around the corner, the one in the blue suit,
said that he was looking for you.

Ken, Sally’s brother, works at the diner.

More Nonessential Phrases
Because I was , which were, by far,
so hungry, the biggest stack on
the table.

I quickly ate my pancakes

, before anyone
could sit down ,
More Nonessential Phrases
Nonessential phrases are called nonessential because they are not
grammatically necessary for the meaning of the sentence.

This means that if they are omitted you’d still have a complete sentence
that made sense.

When it rains. I play in the mud.

Nonessential Essential

When it rains, I play in the mud.

Rule Four

Use commas to show when you are quoting

someone else’s words exactly as spoken or
written
Original text from The Professional Pastry Chef by Friberg:

Possible quotations from the excerpt:

According to Friberg, “Fondant is a sugar syrup that is recrystallized to a
creamy white paste.”

“Glucose and cream of tartar are used to invert part of the sugar to
achieve the proper amount of recrystallization,” adds the author.
Note!
Note that, in some cases, the commas will go
inside the quotations. A comma will go inside
the quotations if it is nonessential. If it is not, it
will not.
“Why,” she asked, “should I pardon his mistake?”

[Why, she asked, should I pardon his mistake?]

[Why should I pardon his mistake?]