SMM Commas
- Kseniia Kit
Analytics
Use commas:
to mark off words and phrases that are in apposition to, or define other words or phrases in the sentence: Herve de Charette, French foreign minister, said ...; Rudolf Nureyev, most prominent of the defectors from the Bolshoi, has danced …
with names and titles/descriptions, if there is only one, enclose the name with commas:
Correct: The Chelsea manager, Jose Mourinho, last night told ... (only one Chelsea manager)
Incorrect: The Chelsea player, John Obi Mikel, last night told ... (more than one Chelsea player)
Correct: The Chelsea player John Obi Mikel last night told ...
Incorrect: The Chelsea player, John Obi Mikel last night told ... (2 commas or none at all, unless the initial description is very long, and it that case it is better to put the name first)
Correct: The Chelsea player and candidate for 2015 Nigerian Sports Personality of the Year, John Obi Mikel, last night told ...
Better: John Obi Mikel, the Chelsea player and candidate for 2015 Nigerian Sports Personality of the Year, last night told ...
to separate independent clauses in a long compound sentence. The governor vowed to improve access to medical care, and promised to end corruption.
to mark off a clause that is not essential to the meaning of a sentence: The airliner, which was seven years old, crashed ...
But a clause that cannot be removed from the sentence without affecting its meaning is not marked off by commas:
The airliner that crashed on Thursday was seven years old but the plane lost the previous day was brand new.
to separate items in a list. Note that there is normally no comma before the final 'and'. However, a comma should be used in this position if to leave it out would risk ambiguity: He admired Irving Berlin, Rodgers and Hart, and Leonard Bernstein.
after an initial 'However', 'Meanwhile', etc, and with these words inside the sentence: The president, however, told the rally ...
as long as there is no risk of ambiguity there is no need for a comma after opening phrases like On Wednesday the committee decided ... In the first four months of 2015 Ghana exported ...