Comma (Clive)

Share on Facebook

Sextus

#155162 Fri, 04 Nov 05 04:04 PM

Hi Clive,

Just in case you might be interested, I give you a couple of sites:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_comma.html

Here they say that, when listing three or more items, one should use a comma before "and".

http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/330/grammar/comma.htm

Here they say that the use of a comma before "and" is optional.

Best,

Sextus

Joined on Sat, Nov 6 2004

Buenos Aires

Regular Member (731)

Grammar, Commas

Philip

#155185 Fri, 04 Nov 05 05:11 PM

Sextus wrote:

Here they say that the use of a comma before "and" is optional.

Without looking at either source you provided, I can tell you that in AmE we call the "optional" comma the "Oxford".

Philip

Joined on Thu, Jun 23 2005

USA Pacific Northwest (Seattle)

Veteran Member (6,491)

At reise er at leve! - H. C. Andersen

Commas

Sextus

#155193 Fri, 04 Nov 05 05:37 PM

Yeah, I know it is also called "serial comma" or "Harvard comma" (because it is also used by Harvard Univ. Press). I knew it is used mainly in AmE, while it is uncommon in BrE (even though Oxford Univ. Press employs it). We were just discussing this with Clive the other day.

Sextus