Grammar Simplified: An Imaginary Gardens Advice Column — Pause for Effect: The Art of Commas

By Mary Arsenault, Staff Writer

Welcome back!  If you’ve been following along, you already know the drill. I (your poor at grammar, but very eager to learn friend) ponder a question about grammar and send it off to an English professor here at Pellissippi State Community College, then share what I’ve found with readers. This time, I want to talk about commas. Those little suckers are the cause of some huge debate, and placement can change the meaning of a sentence quite dramatically. 

There is a book that demonstrates this very well called Eats, Shoots & Leaves: Why, Commas Really Do Make a Difference by Lynne Truss. In it, Truss uses the same words in the same order and changes the meaning by moving around the commas. It’s pretty clever and thought-provoking, for example, “The student, said the teacher, is crazy. The student said the teacher is crazy.” You get the idea. However, even after reading books like this, I still often find myself confused about whether I’m using commas properly, so I’m going to try to get some clarity in hopes that the proper use of commas will come a little easier in the future. 

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Dear Grammar Professor, 

What is the deal with commas? How, exactly, are we supposed to know where they go? I’ve heard it’s where you would pause, or take a breath, but I still can’t seem to get it right. I am consistently getting them corrected. Help!

Comma-nally confused, 

Mary 

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Mary,

There are a few things we need to know about commas. One is that different languages and different dialects of the same language use commas differently, so there is no objectively correct way to use them in the grand scheme of things. There are some common rules and patterns across languages, but even very serious writers and editors have big arguments about which commas stay and go.

I’d like to reframe the question — I think it’s really hard to memorize the rules of where to put commas. I think it’s much easier to ask yourself what you are trying to do, and whether a comma will help you do it. 

1. Here are a few things to consider: When we make a list of multiple (3 or more) items, it’s nice to set off each item with a comma. These might be individual words, phrases, or even clauses. For example, I can tell you that bunnies eat carrots, lettuce, cucumbers, and kale. The commas in this sentence help both separate the nouns on the list and identify them as part of the list. The comma before the “and,” called the Oxford comma, is optional. Some people feel very strongly that we need it, while others prefer to leave it out. We can also make lists with phrases. For example, I can say that my friend left the house early, did a lot of work, went to the gym, and got back late. Again, the commas serve as both a separation between the items on the list and a way to identify which parts of the sentence belong to the list.
2. All English sentences are made up of clauses. All clauses have at least one subject and one verb. Main clauses (also known as independent clauses) can form a sentence independently. One main clause makes one simple sentence. For example, I can say “Mary had a little lamb,” or “the terrifying monster liked to eat pedestrians on Maple Lane.” Each of these is a main clause and can make one simple sentence. If we want to combine more than one main clause, we can make a compound sentence. For example, we can say, “The terrifying monster liked to eat pedestrians on Maple Lane, but Cookie Monster liked to eat cookies.” To separate two main clauses, we need something very powerful. A comma on its own is not enough. We can use a semicolon, but if we prefer a comma, we need to reinforce it with something. That something is a coordinating conjunction. We have seven of these in English (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) – you can remember them with the mnemonic FANBOYS. If you are trying to combine two main clauses and want to use a comma, don’t forget to bring an appropriate fanboy along.
3. Some clauses cannot make meaningful sentences on their own. They still have at least one subject and one verb, but they do not give you a complete idea. For example, if I say “While you were gone” — you might have some questions about what happened while you were gone. Clauses like that are called subordinate (or dependent) clauses, because they depend on a main clause to help them make a sentence that makes sense. If a subordinate clause goes first in a sentence, it requires a comma to separate it from the main clause: “While you were gone, evil bunnies from outer space took over Knoxville.” If a subordinate clause goes after the main clause, a comma is not necessary. For example: “Evil bunnies from outer space took over Knoxville while you were gone.”
4. Sometimes we like to insert a clarifying piece of information or definition after a noun to help people know what we are talking about. “The terrifying monster, the one who liked to eat pedestrians, has gone vegan.” The little definition after the word “monster” is called an appositive. If it’s optional (meaning that the sentence can function without it), we put commas around it to separate it from the rest of the sentence. If the sentence would be confusing without the appositive, we don’t separate it out with commas, since it’s an important part of the sentence.

There are a number of other circumstances where commas can be used. The way I like to think about commas is with the adage “good fences make good neighbors.” What that means to me is that commas help both separate and connect parts of the sentence that work together better when they are not right on top of each other. We never put commas between parts of the sentence that need each other to make grammatical sense. For example, I would never put a comma between an adjective and the noun it describes, just like I would never put a fence between a dog and the house it’s guarding.

Hope this helps, 

Professor 

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Well, that was helpful. I’m going to need to read that like four times to take it all in. If I’m being honest, that Oxford comma has been the source of so much inter turmoil for me. I wish using commas was a yes or no, black and white, right or wrong answer. But, after all, this is English we’re talking about, so you do you, Oxford comma. 

Also, I’ve never heard of the mnemonic ‘FANBOYS’ before, but I’ll definitely be using that in the future. Another useful tip I appreciate is framing commas as putting a fence between two ideas that need to go together to make the sentence work, but are independent from one another. All these explanations really do help my understanding.

There are so many places in grammar where I know there is a rule, but don’t quite understand it enough to know how or why to use it; knowing the why helps it make sense. I hope you’re gaining some understanding, too, and I hope you’ll join me next time to learn more about the why behind the rules. 

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