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Grammarian-bot Posted 20 years ago
Does the rules of punctuation for a list/series of adjectives are different from that for a list/series of nouns.
eg, The dancers were tall, slender and graceful. (Should a comma precede and )
Today John, Mike, and Chester were present in the classroom.
GB
Grammar
Punctuation
Does the rules of punctuation for a list/series of adjectives are different from that for a list/series of nouns.
eg, The dancers were tall, slender and graceful. (Should a comma precede and )
Today John, Mike, and Chester were present in the classroom.
GB
Top answer
" So in your examples above, John, Mike, and Chester have the serial/Oxford comma and the tall, slender and graceful does not. There are people who will argue with passion that you should always have one (I'm actually one of them) and those who say that unless it is absoultely required for clarity, to leave it out whenever possible. There is no clear answer, and it is a matter of style, not grammar.
- " So in your examples above, John, Mike, and Chester have the serial/Oxford comma and the tall, slender and graceful does not.
- There are people who will argue with passion that you should always have one (I'm actually one of them) and those who say that unless it is absoultely required for clarity, to leave it out whenever possible.
- There is no clear answer, and it is a matter of style, not grammar.
- What is clear (to me, anyway) is that you must be consistent - either use it for all lists, both adjectives and nouns, or leave it out, but don't choose one method for one, and one for the other.
- s.
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4 Answers
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Hi Grammarian-bot,
The "serial" or "Oxford" comma is the one that goes after the last element in a list before the word "and." So in your examples above, John, Mike, and Chester have the serial/Oxford comma and the tall, slender and graceful does not.
There are people who will argue with passion that you should always have one (I'm actually one of them) and those who say that unl
The "serial" or "Oxford" comma is the one that goes after the last element in a list before the word "and." So in your examples above, John, Mike, and Chester have the serial/Oxford comma and the tall, slender and graceful does not.
There are people who will argue with passion that you should always have one (I'm actually one of them) and those who say that unl
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Thank you for reply. Well acn you tell me what is the "serial/oxford" comma anyway.
GB
Grammar Geek(p.s. -Your question should have been "Do the rules" not "Does the rules" because "rules" are plural and requires the plural form of the verb.)Thank you again for correcting me. Well can i use "Are" insted of "Do".
GB
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Grammar GeekThe "serial" or "Oxford" comma is the one that goes after the last element in a list before the word "and." So in your examples above, John, Mike, and Chester have the serial/Oxford comma and the tall, slender and graceful does not.It's the one after Mike.
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Grammar GeekThere are people who will argue with passion that you should always have one (I'm actually one of them) and those who say that unless it is absoultely required for clarity, to leave it out whenever possible. There is no clear answer, and it is a matter of style, not grammar.In this case, I think of the comma as a substit
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