The comma: Overview

The comma was invented to help readers. Without it, sentence parts can collide into one another unexpectedly, causing misreadings.

Heading: Confusing. Example sentence: If you cook Elmer will do the dishes.

Heading: Confusing. Example sentence: While we were eating a rattlesnake approached our campsite.

Add commas in the logical places, and suddenly all is clear:

Heading: Clear. Example sentence: If you cook, Elmer will do the dishes.

Heading: Clear. Example sentence: While we were eating, a rattlesnake approached our campsite.

No longer is Elmer being cooked, the rattlesnake being eaten.

Various rules have evolved to prevent such misreadings and to speed readers along through complex grammatical structures. Those rules are detailed in this section.

Exercises:

Major uses of the comma 1

Major uses of the comma 2

All uses of the comma