Using a comma after a city in a sentence

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Anonymous

#236128 Wed, 14 Jun 06 09:30 PM

Is this correct: I would like to travel to Boston, MA, and while I'm there visit my family.

Is it correct to put another comma after the city abreviation?

Anonymous

Commas

Marius Hancu

#236139 Wed, 14 Jun 06 10:34 PM

Which abbreviation?
I see the name of the city (Boston) in full here.

And yes, a comma is correct in:
Boston, MA
Also, it is correct after MA, the abbreviation of the state.

Marius Hancu

Joined on Wed, Apr 26 2006

Montreal, Canada

Veteran Member (11,673)

Abbreviations, Commas

Clive

#236141 Wed, 14 Jun 06 10:41 PM

Hi,

Is this correct: I would like to travel to Boston, MA, and while I'm there visit my family.

Is it correct to put another comma after the city abbreviation? In examples like this, commas before and after the MA are often omitted. Really, they should both be there. In fact, I'd say that, for good writing, you should say 'Maine' in full rather than the postal abbreviation.

In addition, you should put commas before and after the phrase 'while I'm there'. If you want to avoid so many commas, you could move the phrase to after the word 'family'. It reads better that way.

I would like to travel to Boston, MA, and visit my family while I'm there.

Best wishes, Clive

Clive

Joined on Thu, Oct 28 2004

Canada

Veteran Member (21,081)

El tango argentino es un pensamiento triste que se puede bailar (The tango argentino is a sad thought which can be danced) Enrique Santos Discépolo

Abbreviations, Before and After, Commas

Anonymous

#236142 Wed, 14 Jun 06 10:46 PM

Boston is in Massachusetts, but you have the commas in the right place <img src="/emoticons/emotion-1.gif" alt="Smile [:)]" />

Anonymous

Commas

Grammar Geek

#236190 Thu, 15 Jun 06 02:18 AM

Yes, MA is Massachusetts and ME is Maine. Many style guides have a list of cities that don't require the state because it's so commonly understood which cities you mean. Boston is one of them. (Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Detroit, etc. - the major cities in the U.S.)

Grammar Geek

Joined on Tue, Jan 10 2006

Pennsylvania, USA

Veteran Member (15,541)

Barbara, who answers in American English.

Commas

Anonymous

#359806 Thu, 03 May 07 09:04 PM

Is this correct: I would like to travel to Miami, Fla., and while I'm there visit my family.

Anonymous

Commas

Clive

#359841 Thu, 03 May 07 09:45 PM

Hi,

Is this correct: I would like to travel to Miami, Fla., and while I'm there visit my family.

It's OK to put a period after this abbreviation, but why not just write it like this?

I would like to travel to Miami, Florida, and while I'm there visit my family.

Best wishes, Clive

Clive

Abbreviations, Commas

khoff

#359849 Thu, 03 May 07 09:52 PM

Many style guides have a list of cities that don't require the state because it's so commonly understood which cities you mean. Boston is one of them.

Apparently it's not so commonly undertood in Canada! Wink [;)]