Commas and lists.

Question

Well through out my life I've always thought to myself that when using commas, in separating items in a list, you can couple the last 2 with an and.
Example.

I want to buy an apple, an orange, a bag of ice and 2 kilos of potatoes.

I've stated to see the below example on a IBM course.

I want to buy an apple, an orange, a bag of ice, and 2 kilos of potatoes.

This set me back 3 days and here I am on this website asking for help. Which sentence is more correct? or incorrect if that's the case.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

cpu tile 524Well through out my life I've always thought to myself that when using commas, in separating items in a list, you can couple the last 2 with an and.

You can. I think of the commas as standing in for omitted ands.

cpu tile 524Which sentence is more correct?

You are talking about the aspect of written English called style. There is no correct or incorrect to how we make things look on the page; there is only style. There are standards for much of it, style "rules" that everyone follows by convention, but somehow this comma has slipped through the cordon. Some call it the Oxford comma, that comma before the "and" that introduces the last item in a list. Some use it, and some don't. Me, I used a mixture of my own concoction—use it in complex lists, and don't use it in simple lists. Thus, I write "red, white and blue" but "I want to buy an apple, an orange, a bag of ice, and 2 kilos of potatoes."

People have come up with all sorts of examples to illustrate why their way is better, like "I sat with my parents, Queen Elizabeth and Elton John." The trouble is that in speech, your pauses and intonation make it clear that you are not implying that Ms Windsor had a dalliance with the Rocket Man, and in writing you can simply recast to eliminate ambiguity, as you would whatever its cause.

Commas and lists.

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