The Ten Basic Comma Rules

Hundreds of years ago, British playwright William Shakespeare came down from Mount Everest with two huge, stone tablets engraved with the ten basic rules about commas. Okay, that’s not even close to being true, but just as Moses had his ten commandments to live by, writers have ten basic comma rules that they need to know if they want their writing to be clear and precise.

One. Commas are used to separate the parts of complete dates and addresses. This is probably the easiest rule of all because most people know that they need to separate the date from the year and the city from the state when they write about their birthdays or their homes. (“I was born on February 29, 1960. I grew up in Amsterdam, New York.”)

Two. Commas are used to separate items in a list of three or more. If you have only two items — like “peanut butter and jelly” — you don’t need a comma, but once you add a third item, you need commas. (“Please go to the store and buy peanut butter, jelly, and bread.”) The comma before the word “and” is called the “serial comma” (for items in a series), and some people feel this comma is not necessary because the word “and” separates the second and third items. However, without that serial comma, a misreading of your sentence might occur, so most instructors will insist on that comma before the word “and.”

Three. Commas are used to separate the introductory part of a sentence from the main idea of the sentence. If you introduce your main idea with a short phrase, you should insert a comma after that phrase to…