{"id":8699,"date":"2020-10-16T12:46:04","date_gmt":"2020-10-16T12:46:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/?p=8699"},"modified":"2023-04-10T13:29:51","modified_gmt":"2023-04-10T13:29:51","slug":"comma-before-and","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/comma-before-and\/","title":{"rendered":"Comma before &#8220;and&#8221;: The Definitive Guide"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>img#mv-trellis-img-1::before{padding-top:56.25%; }img#mv-trellis-img-1{display:block;}img#mv-trellis-img-2::before{padding-top:150%; }img#mv-trellis-img-2{display:block;}<\/style><p>Despite popular belief, the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/comma-after-hopefully\/\">rules<\/a><\/strong> for using commas in a sentence don&rsquo;t depend on what comes before or after a specific word.<\/p>\n<p>Another common misconception is that you need a comma any time you would pause when speaking.<\/p>\n<p>The truth is that the purpose of a comma is to provide clarity to a sentence by removing any possible ambiguity or confusion.<\/p>\n<p>In other words, to figure out the correct way to use a comma with a specific word, you need to understand what that word is doing in a sentence and why.<\/p>\n<p>With most words, this means learning comma rules is a simple matter of learning one or two parts of speech and how they might be used in a sentence.<\/p>\n<p>Some words, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/comma-before-though\/\">though,<\/a><\/strong> are complicated, and can use commas in many different ways.<\/p>\n<p>Some words, like &ldquo;and,&rdquo; fall somewhere in the middle. In this article, we&rsquo;ll take a comprehensive look at using commas before the word &ldquo;and.&rdquo;<br>\n&nbsp;<br>\n[toc]\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>When to use a comma before &ldquo;and&rdquo;<\/h2>\n<p>There is only one situation where you always need a comma before &ldquo;and.&rdquo; Any time you use &ldquo;and&rdquo; to connect two independent clauses (parts of a sentence that stand alone as a complete unit), you must use a comma before it.<\/p>\n<p>In nearly any other use of &ldquo;and,&rdquo; you don&rsquo;t need to add a comma, and in fact it&rsquo;s often ungrammatical to do so.<\/p>\n<p>Places when you should not use a comma before &ldquo;and&rdquo; are when it connects two individual words, when it connects two phrases (groups of words that do not stand alone) and when it is part of a list or series.<\/p>\n<p>There are two possible times that the use of a comma is either optional or dependent upon your style guide. When &ldquo;and&rdquo; connects the last two items in a list, some style guides require what is called a serial (or Oxford) comma.<\/p>\n<p>Other style guides, such as AP Style, require you not to use a comma in this case, however.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, when joining two very short sentences or independent clauses with &ldquo;and,&rdquo; the comma is optional. That&rsquo;s because the meaning is clear even without the comma.<br>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>About the word &ldquo;and&rdquo;<\/h2>\n<p>The word &ldquo;and&rdquo; is used to connect two clauses, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/guidetogrammar.org\/grammar\/phrases.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">phrases<\/a> <\/strong>or words in a way that shows both are joined in some way.<\/p>\n<p>You&rsquo;ll see this word anywhere and everywhere, connecting everything from single words to whole sentences to one another.<\/p>\n<p>One of the most common questions about the word is whether you need to use a comma before &ldquo;and.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>At first, the answer seems impossibly complex. There are so many different places &ldquo;and&rdquo; can show up in a sentence, memorizing all the combinations is too difficult.<\/p>\n<p>However, once you understand how the word is being used in a sentence it&rsquo;s easy to figure out if a comma is necessary or not. No memorization is required!<\/p>\n<p>Let&rsquo;s take a deep dive into comma rules and the word &ldquo;and.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<div class=\"grow-exclusive-content-widget-aa70192d-d134-4c49-86a3-d6f2effb13c9 grow-allow-content-ads\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1FcGWj9ZmJCqbVuKMOa6A7yA_r8YRdtsq\/view?usp=sharing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-16942 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive.jpeg\" alt=\"Comma Rules Cheat Sheet\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" srcset=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive.jpeg 854w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-300x169.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-1024x576.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-768x432.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-480x270.jpeg 480w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-720x405.jpeg 720w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-320x180.jpeg 320w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-735x413.jpeg 735w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-335x188.jpeg 335w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-347x195.jpeg 347w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-520x293.jpeg 520w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-640x360.jpeg 640w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-960x540.jpeg 960w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-1080x608.jpeg 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 760px) calc(100vw - 20px), 720px\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive.jpeg\"><\/noscript><img loading=\"eager\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-16942 size-full eager-load\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%201280%20720'%3E%3Crect%20width='1280'%20height='720'%20style='fill:%23e3e3e3'\/%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" alt=\"Comma Rules Cheat Sheet\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 760px) calc(100vw - 20px), 720px\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive.jpeg\" id=\"mv-trellis-img-1\" data-src=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive.jpeg\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive.jpeg 854w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-300x169.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-1024x576.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-768x432.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-480x270.jpeg 480w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-720x405.jpeg 720w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-320x180.jpeg 320w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-735x413.jpeg 735w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-335x188.jpeg 335w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-347x195.jpeg 347w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-520x293.jpeg 520w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-640x360.jpeg 640w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-960x540.jpeg 960w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-1080x608.jpeg 1080w\" data-svg=\"1\" data-trellis-processed=\"1\"><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>How coordinating conjunctions work<\/h2>\n<p>Technically speaking, the word &ldquo;and&rdquo; is a coordinating conjunction, used to connect two parts of a sentence.<\/p>\n<p>That is, &ldquo;and&rdquo; can be used to connect anything from a pair of individual words to a phrase or loose group of words, to two complete sentences.<\/p>\n<p>Importantly for comma use, <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/coordinating-conjunctions\/\" title=\"coordinating conjunctions\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\">coordinating conjunctions<\/a> are also used to connect two independent clauses or a dependent and independent clause.<\/p>\n<p>Clauses are groups of words containing <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/atleast-vs-at-least\/\">at least<\/a><\/strong> a subject and a verb and, optionally, an object or other argument.<\/p>\n<p>In plain English, a clause has to contain an action word (the verb) and the person or thing doing the action (the subject).<\/p>\n<p>The optional part of the sentence is what&rsquo;s being affected by the action word (the object).<\/p>\n<p>As for independent and dependent clauses, the difference has to do with whether each clause can stand alone.<\/p>\n<p>If the clause makes sense by itself, it&rsquo;s an independent clause. If you need the other clause in the sentence for it to make sense, you&rsquo;re looking at a dependent clause.<\/p>\n<p>When &ldquo;and&rdquo; is used as a coordinating conjunction, it simply means that both parts of the sentence it connects are understood to be joined to one another.<\/p>\n<p>For example, a bar serving &ldquo;beer and wine&rdquo; means that both are available.<\/p>\n<p>Other examples of coordinating conjunctions are &ldquo;but,&rdquo; &ldquo;or&rdquo; and &ldquo;so.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>To recap briefly before we look at commas before &ldquo;and,&rdquo; coordinating conjunctions are just words that show the relationship between two parts of a sentence.<br>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Using a comma before &ldquo;and&rdquo; when connecting two independent clauses<\/h2>\n<p>If you&rsquo;re feeling unsettled by all that grammar, take heart!<\/p>\n<p>The fact is, there&rsquo;s really only one place where a comma is required before &ldquo;and.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>When is that? It&rsquo;s when you&rsquo;re using &ldquo;and&rdquo; to connect two independent clauses to one another.<\/p>\n<p>Remember, independent clauses are <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/transitive-verbs\/\">clauses<\/a><\/strong> that stand alone. A good rule of thumb is that if you can split the clause off into its own sentence and still have it make sense, it&rsquo;s an independent clause.<\/p>\n<p>This rule also helps with when to use a comma before &ldquo;and.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>If you have a sentence with &ldquo;and&rdquo; in it, simply remove the word &ldquo;and&rdquo; and pretend the parts of the sentence on either side are their own sentence.<\/p>\n<p>Do both the new sentences make sense?<\/p>\n<p>If they do, you&rsquo;re dealing with two independent clauses and you definitely need a comma before &ldquo;and.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>It&rsquo;s as simple as that!<\/p>\n<h3>Examples<\/h3>\n<div class=\"su-note\" style=\"border-color:#dbdad8;border-radius:12px;-moz-border-radius:12px;-webkit-border-radius:12px;\"><div class=\"su-note-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\" style=\"background-color:#f5f4f2;border-color:#ffffff;color:#333333;border-radius:12px;-moz-border-radius:12px;-webkit-border-radius:12px;\">&ldquo;I went to the ice cream store, and I ate six ice cream cones.&rdquo;<\/div><\/div>\n<p>This is a clear case of two independent clauses or two clauses that can stand alone. To prove that, let&rsquo;s break them out into individual sentences:<\/p>\n<div class=\"su-note\" style=\"border-color:#dbdad8;border-radius:12px;-moz-border-radius:12px;-webkit-border-radius:12px;\"><div class=\"su-note-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\" style=\"background-color:#f5f4f2;border-color:#ffffff;color:#333333;border-radius:12px;-moz-border-radius:12px;-webkit-border-radius:12px;\">&ldquo;I went to the ice cream store. I ate six ice cream cones.&rdquo;<\/div><\/div>\n<p>It&rsquo;s pretty obvious that both new sentences make sense. That means we need to put a comma before &ldquo;and&rdquo; in this example sentence.<\/p>\n<div class=\"su-note\" style=\"border-color:#dbdad8;border-radius:12px;-moz-border-radius:12px;-webkit-border-radius:12px;\"><div class=\"su-note-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\" style=\"background-color:#f5f4f2;border-color:#ffffff;color:#333333;border-radius:12px;-moz-border-radius:12px;-webkit-border-radius:12px;\">I watched a video on the <a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/newses-as-a-plural-of-news\/\">news<\/a> about a man who ran into a cougar while jogging, and it was a terrifying video.<\/div><\/div>\n<p>By the same rule as before, the &ldquo;and&rdquo; in this sentence is connecting two independent clauses.<\/p>\n<p>The second clause, &ldquo;It was a terrifying video,&rdquo; is pretty short, but that by itself doesn&rsquo;t mean it&rsquo;s a dependent clause.<\/p>\n<p>Since this is still an independent clause, you need to insert a comma between it and the other, longer clause when you&rsquo;re joining them with &ldquo;and.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>In both these cases, the comma helps readers understand the sentence easily. Like all commas, it&rsquo;s there to add clarity.<br>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Joining dependent clauses: no comma required<\/h3>\n<p>An independent clause, described above, is a clause that stands alone.<\/p>\n<p>A dependent clause, on the other hand, is a clause that requires another, main clause in order to be understood.<\/p>\n<p>You can use the same trick as above to identify dependent clauses. Simply remove it from the sentence and see if it makes sense.<\/p>\n<p>If it doesn&rsquo;t make sense, it&rsquo;s a dependent clause and you shouldn&rsquo;t use a comma to join it to the main clause.<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately, you can only use &ldquo;and&rdquo; to join independent clauses.<\/p>\n<p>That means you don&rsquo;t need to worry about dependent clauses when figuring out if you need a comma before &ldquo;and.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>All the same, it&rsquo;s useful to know that for other coordinating conjunctions, there are some cases when you shouldn&rsquo;t use a comma before them even when they&rsquo;re connecting two clauses.<\/p>\n<p><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8714\" src=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Comma-Before-And.png\" alt=\"Comma Before And\" width=\"1000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Comma-Before-And.png 320w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Comma-Before-And-200x300.png 200w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Comma-Before-And-683x1024.png 683w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Comma-Before-And-768x1152.png 768w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Comma-Before-And-561x842.png 561w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Comma-Before-And-364x546.png 364w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Comma-Before-And-728x1092.png 728w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Comma-Before-And-608x912.png 608w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Comma-Before-And-758x1137.png 758w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Comma-Before-And.png\"><\/noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8714 lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Comma-Before-And.png\" alt=\"Comma Before And\" width=\"1000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Comma-Before-And.png 320w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Comma-Before-And-200x300.png 200w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Comma-Before-And-683x1024.png 683w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Comma-Before-And-768x1152.png 768w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Comma-Before-And-561x842.png 561w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Comma-Before-And-364x546.png 364w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Comma-Before-And-728x1092.png 728w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Comma-Before-And-608x912.png 608w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Comma-Before-And-758x1137.png 758w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Comma-Before-And.png\" id=\"mv-trellis-img-2\" data-trellis-processed=\"1\"><br>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Comma rules for other uses of &ldquo;and&rdquo;<\/h2>\n<p>But I <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/but-i-digress-meaning\/\">digress<\/a><\/strong>. The bare minimum you need to know for using a comma before &ldquo;and&rdquo; is just as described above.<\/p>\n<p>What about other places when you can use &ldquo;and&rdquo;?<\/p>\n<p>The word is a simple one, but it has a lot of places it can appear in a sentence.<\/p>\n<p>If the trick above doesn&rsquo;t satisfy you, read on to find out more about these other uses of &ldquo;and.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The very short version, though, is that no other use of &ldquo;and&rdquo; absolutely requires a comma, and in almost all cases they&rsquo;re ungrammatical.<br>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Do you need a comma when connecting two phrases with &ldquo;and&rdquo;?<\/h3>\n<p>Unlike a clause, which stands alone as a grammatical unit, a phrase is a group of words that doesn&rsquo;t include a subject and a verb.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Head of cabbage?&rdquo; That&rsquo;s a phrase. &ldquo;Twelve purple turkeys&rdquo; is also a phrase.<\/p>\n<p>If you want to get technical, even &ldquo;is also a phrase&rdquo; is also a phrase.<\/p>\n<p>Meta!<\/p>\n<p>Seriously, though, phrases are just groups of words that couldn&rsquo;t be turned into a sentence by themselves.<\/p>\n<p>Do you need a comma before &ldquo;and&rdquo; if it&rsquo;s connecting two phrases?<\/p>\n<p>You do not. In fact, adding a comma will make your sentence ungrammatical here, so don&rsquo;t do it!<\/p>\n<h4>Examples<\/h4>\n<div class=\"su-note\" style=\"border-color:#dbdad8;border-radius:12px;-moz-border-radius:12px;-webkit-border-radius:12px;\"><div class=\"su-note-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\" style=\"background-color:#f5f4f2;border-color:#ffffff;color:#333333;border-radius:12px;-moz-border-radius:12px;-webkit-border-radius:12px;\">&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll have ice cream and a bowl of chocolate chips, please.&rdquo;<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Here, we have two phrases that are connected to form a pretty complex object for our verb &ldquo;have.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The first phrase is &ldquo;ice cream&rdquo; and the second phrase is &ldquo;a bowl of chocolate chips.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Both of these are joined by the word &ldquo;and&rdquo; to show that the person speaking wants both.<\/p>\n<p>There isn&rsquo;t a comma before &ldquo;and&rdquo; here because commas are only used when connecting independent clauses. Since these are phrases, don&rsquo;t use a comma.<\/p>\n<div class=\"su-note\" style=\"border-color:#dbdad8;border-radius:12px;-moz-border-radius:12px;-webkit-border-radius:12px;\"><div class=\"su-note-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\" style=\"background-color:#f5f4f2;border-color:#ffffff;color:#333333;border-radius:12px;-moz-border-radius:12px;-webkit-border-radius:12px;\">&ldquo;Let&rsquo;s play golf and go dancing.&rdquo;<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Again, there are two phrases here. This time, we have verb phrases, &ldquo;play golf&rdquo; and &ldquo;go dancing.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Even though the phrases are different parts of speech than before, they&rsquo;re still phrases. That means we can&rsquo;t put a comma before &ldquo;and&rdquo; here, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/comma-before-or-after-either\/\">either<\/a><\/strong>.<br>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>&ldquo;And&rdquo; to connect two words<\/h3>\n<p>In addition to phrases, &ldquo;and&rdquo; can connect two single words.<\/p>\n<p>This is arguably the simplest use of &ldquo;and,&rdquo; and it&rsquo;s certainly the one with the fewest words involved.<\/p>\n<p>Just like with phrases, though, the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/comma-rules\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">comma rules<\/a><\/strong> are the same.<\/p>\n<p>Don&rsquo;t use a comma before &ldquo;and&rdquo; if it&rsquo;s not connecting two independent clauses.<\/p>\n<p>It goes without saying that a single word can&rsquo;t be a clause, let alone an independent clause. That means if &ldquo;and&rdquo; connects two single words, you can&rsquo;t insert a comma in front of it.<\/p>\n<h4>Examples<\/h4>\n<div class=\"su-note\" style=\"border-color:#dbdad8;border-radius:12px;-moz-border-radius:12px;-webkit-border-radius:12px;\"><div class=\"su-note-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\" style=\"background-color:#f5f4f2;border-color:#ffffff;color:#333333;border-radius:12px;-moz-border-radius:12px;-webkit-border-radius:12px;\">&ldquo;My favorite animals are llamas and sheep.&rdquo;<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Llamas and sheep are both single words in this sentence, so when we use &ldquo;and&rdquo; to show that the speaker likes both, we don&rsquo;t use a comma to connect them.<\/p>\n<p>If there were a comma, our brain would think &ldquo;and sheep&rdquo; was the start of another sentence, which would be disorienting.<\/p>\n<p>For example: &ldquo;I like llamas, and sheep don&rsquo;t.&rdquo; Here, &ldquo;and&rdquo; is connecting two independent clauses, and the meaning of our sentence is totally different.<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to single words, we can&rsquo;t use a comma before &ldquo;and.&rdquo;<br>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Using &ldquo;and&rdquo; in a list<\/h3>\n<p>In some rare cases, &ldquo;and&rdquo; can be used to connect more than two items in a list or series.<\/p>\n<p>Technically, this isn&rsquo;t really a separate use of &ldquo;and.&rdquo; After all, the items the word is connecting are going to be either phrases, single words, or clauses.<\/p>\n<p>Because it&rsquo;s really just another use of &ldquo;and&rdquo; in disguise, it probably isn&rsquo;t a surprise that the comma rule is the same.<\/p>\n<p>Unless all the items in the list are independent clauses, you should not put a comma before &ldquo;and.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h4>Examples<\/h4>\n<div class=\"su-note\" style=\"border-color:#dbdad8;border-radius:12px;-moz-border-radius:12px;-webkit-border-radius:12px;\"><div class=\"su-note-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\" style=\"background-color:#f5f4f2;border-color:#ffffff;color:#333333;border-radius:12px;-moz-border-radius:12px;-webkit-border-radius:12px;\">&ldquo;Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!&rdquo;<\/div><\/div>\n<p>In this classic line from <em>The Wizard of Oz<\/em> movie, the word &ldquo;and&rdquo; is forming a list.<\/p>\n<p>Although it&rsquo;s useful to know it&rsquo;s a list, that doesn&rsquo;t affect the comma rules.<\/p>\n<p>None of our items in the list are independent clauses, so we can&rsquo;t put a comma before any of them.<\/p>\n<div class=\"su-note\" style=\"border-color:#dbdad8;border-radius:12px;-moz-border-radius:12px;-webkit-border-radius:12px;\"><div class=\"su-note-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\" style=\"background-color:#f5f4f2;border-color:#ffffff;color:#333333;border-radius:12px;-moz-border-radius:12px;-webkit-border-radius:12px;\">&ldquo;I like lions, and I like tigers, and I like bears as well.&rdquo;<\/div><\/div>\n<p>This might feel like a curve ball, since we&rsquo;ve just said you shouldn&rsquo;t put a comma before &ldquo;and&rdquo; in a list.<\/p>\n<p>But let&rsquo;s look more closely at this example. All the items in the list are actually independent clauses.<\/p>\n<p>To prove that, you can split them out into three separate sentences: &ldquo;I like lions. I like tigers. I like bears as well.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Because we&rsquo;re now joining independent clauses together, we do need a comma before &ldquo;and.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>In short, the only thing we <em>really<\/em> need to consider is whether &ldquo;and&rdquo; is joining independent clauses.<\/p>\n<p>If it is, you need a comma. Otherwise, you don&rsquo;t.<br>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Are there any times when using a comma before &ldquo;and&rdquo; is optional?<\/h2>\n<p>So far, this is all cut and dry. (Notice how &ldquo;and&rdquo; connects two single words there? No comma is used.)<\/p>\n<p>Is it really that simple?<\/p>\n<p>For the most part, yes, it is.<\/p>\n<p>To be truthful, though, there are actually two times when using a comma is an option.<\/p>\n<p>These two edge cases depend on what style guide you&rsquo;re using, so be sure to check with a teacher or other authority if you&rsquo;re using them somewhere that matters, like on a paper you want a good grade on or if you&rsquo;re turning in an important report to your boss at work.<br>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>A comma conflict: &ldquo;and&rdquo; and the serial or <a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/unnecessary-commas\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Oxford comma<\/a><\/h3>\n<p>One of the most brutal conflicts in all grammar has got to be the serial comma, also called the Oxford comma.<\/p>\n<p>As we know, one place you can use &ldquo;and&rdquo; is as part of a list.<\/p>\n<p>In most style guides, that&rsquo;s all there is to it. You follow the normal rules and still don&rsquo;t put a comma before &ldquo;and&rdquo; unless it&rsquo;s joining two independent clauses.<\/p>\n<p>However, others argue that it&rsquo;s essential to include a serial or Oxford comma.<\/p>\n<p>In plain English, all that means is that these people think you need a comma before &ldquo;and&rdquo; when it&rsquo;s in front of the last item in a list.<\/p>\n<p>Otherwise, they say, all chaos breaks loose, and it&rsquo;s impossible to tell the true meaning of a sentence.<\/p>\n<p>There are some pretty good (and pretty funny) examples that prove the point, but the truth is that it&rsquo;s almost always possible to tell what an author intended based on context or other clues.<\/p>\n<p>For this reason, most style guides recommend that you don&rsquo;t use a comma before &ldquo;and&rdquo; at the end of a list <em>unless<\/em> it&rsquo;s otherwise impossible to understand the sentence properly.<\/p>\n<p>The best thing to do here is to read the sentence aloud.<\/p>\n<p>Does it make sense? Is it clear what all the items in the list are?<\/p>\n<p>If the answer is no, you might want to add a comma before &ldquo;and.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Otherwise, unless your style guide absolutely requires a serial or Oxford comma, don&rsquo;t add one in.<\/p>\n<h4>Examples<\/h4>\n<div class=\"su-note\" style=\"border-color:#dbdad8;border-radius:12px;-moz-border-radius:12px;-webkit-border-radius:12px;\"><div class=\"su-note-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\" style=\"background-color:#f5f4f2;border-color:#ffffff;color:#333333;border-radius:12px;-moz-border-radius:12px;-webkit-border-radius:12px;\">&ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to thank my parents, Ayn Rand and God.&rdquo;<\/div><\/div>\n<p>This is a classic example of why a comma can be useful before &ldquo;and&rdquo; in a series, and it&rsquo;s often <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/itre.cis.upenn.edu\/~myl\/languagelog\/archives\/002932.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">cited as an argument<\/a> <\/strong>for the importance the serial comma. It&rsquo;s probably apocryphal (that is, not a real thing anyone wrote), but it sure is funny.<\/p>\n<p>What is the author saying here? Is he saying that his parents are the famous philosopher and author Ayn Rand and God, the all-powerful deity of Christianity?<\/p>\n<p>Or is the author actually saying &ldquo;thanks&rdquo; three times? In that case, we might split this sentence up as: &ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to thank my parents. I&rsquo;d like to thank Ayn Rand. I&rsquo;d like to thank God.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>It&rsquo;s pretty obvious that nobody in real life is going to think the author is literally God&rsquo;s child, which is what makes this example so funny, but what if, instead, we had fewer clues to go on?<\/p>\n<div class=\"su-note\" style=\"border-color:#dbdad8;border-radius:12px;-moz-border-radius:12px;-webkit-border-radius:12px;\"><div class=\"su-note-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\" style=\"background-color:#f5f4f2;border-color:#ffffff;color:#333333;border-radius:12px;-moz-border-radius:12px;-webkit-border-radius:12px;\">&ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to thank Mary, my mentor and my wife.&rdquo;<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Is Mary the author&rsquo;s mentor <em>and<\/em> the author&rsquo;s wife in this sentence? Or are these three different people?<\/p>\n<p>It&rsquo;s completely impossible to tell without more context, so this is one time where you might want to use that serial comma to aid in clarity.<\/p>\n<div class=\"su-note\" style=\"border-color:#dbdad8;border-radius:12px;-moz-border-radius:12px;-webkit-border-radius:12px;\"><div class=\"su-note-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\" style=\"background-color:#f5f4f2;border-color:#ffffff;color:#333333;border-radius:12px;-moz-border-radius:12px;-webkit-border-radius:12px;\">&ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to thank Mary, my mentor, and my wife.&rdquo;<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Although this sentence is a little ambiguous still (Is the phrase &ldquo;my mentor&rdquo; describing Mary, or are those two different people?) it&rsquo;s definitely an improvement.<\/p>\n<p>In other cases, though, things are immediately clear without a comma.<\/p>\n<div class=\"su-note\" style=\"border-color:#dbdad8;border-radius:12px;-moz-border-radius:12px;-webkit-border-radius:12px;\"><div class=\"su-note-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\" style=\"background-color:#f5f4f2;border-color:#ffffff;color:#333333;border-radius:12px;-moz-border-radius:12px;-webkit-border-radius:12px;\">&ldquo;I like water skiing, hiking and dancing.&rdquo;<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Nobody is going to think hiking and dancing are somehow the same thing in this sentence. That means you don&rsquo;t really need the serial comma.<\/p>\n<p>The bottom line is that unless your style guide requires a serial comma, or unless a sentence is completely unclear without it, you should skip the comma before &ldquo;and.&rdquo;<br>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Very short sentences and &ldquo;and&rdquo;<\/h3>\n<p>The other case where comma aren&rsquo;t completely necessary is when you have two very short independent clauses being joined by &ldquo;and.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Although you might technically need one based on the rule we&rsquo;ve described earlier, it all goes back to clarity.<\/p>\n<p>In a short enough sentence, it&rsquo;s really obvious what the meaning of the clauses is and how they relate, so you don&rsquo;t <em>really<\/em> need the comma.<\/p>\n<p>Again, though, in formal settings it&rsquo;s best to just put in the comma before &ldquo;and&rdquo; <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/comma-before-anyway\/\">anyway<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h4>Examples<\/h4>\n<div class=\"su-note\" style=\"border-color:#dbdad8;border-radius:12px;-moz-border-radius:12px;-webkit-border-radius:12px;\"><div class=\"su-note-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\" style=\"background-color:#f5f4f2;border-color:#ffffff;color:#333333;border-radius:12px;-moz-border-radius:12px;-webkit-border-radius:12px;\">&ldquo;I like llamas and sheep don&rsquo;t.&rdquo;<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Remember this example from earlier?<\/p>\n<p>The two independent clauses are &ldquo;I like llamas&rdquo; and &ldquo;sheep don&rsquo;t.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Technically a comma should be used to join them (&ldquo;I like llamas, and sheep don&rsquo;t.&rdquo;), but it&rsquo;s really obvious what this sentence means without the comma so it&rsquo;s safe to leave it out.<br>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Conclusion: the one simple rule for commas before &ldquo;and&rdquo;<\/h2>\n<p>This article has hit on a lot of points and used a lot of examples, so you might feel your head spinning.<\/p>\n<p>Let&rsquo;s finish up by reiterating the only rule you need to remember for comma use with the word &ldquo;and.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>That rule is this: If &ldquo;and&rdquo; connects two independent clauses, use a comma before &ldquo;and.&rdquo; Otherwise, don&rsquo;t.<\/p>\n<p>That&rsquo;s all there is to it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Despite popular belief, the rules for using commas in a sentence don&rsquo;t depend on what comes before or after a specific word. Another common misconception is that you need a comma any time you would pause when speaking. The truth is that the purpose of a comma is to provide clarity to a sentence by &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8712,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"disable-in-feed":false,"article-schema-type":"Article","disable-critical-css":false,"_convertkit_action_broadcast_export":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,1119,1116],"tags":[80,120,103,119],"class_list":["post-8699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english","category-comma-rules","category-grammar","tag-comma","tag-comma-before-and","tag-comma-usage","tag-commas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8699"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24559,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8699\/revisions\/24559"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}