Tim McAuley Tim McAuley

When to use a comma: series and adjectives

This is the fourth and final article of the series on how to use a comma. In this article, we talk about separating independent items in a series and independent adjectives with commas.

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Tim McAuley Tim McAuley

When to use a comma: independent clauses

When a phrase forms a complete sentence, it’s called a clause. And like a non-restrictive (another word for independent) phrase, we use commas to show if a clause is independent.

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Tim McAuley Tim McAuley

When to use a comma: non-restrictive phrases

To check if you need a comma, remove the phrase from the sentence, and if the meaning of what remains is unchanged, then it’s grammatically independent and needs a comma or two.

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Tim McAuley Tim McAuley

The Oxford comma

Also called a serial comma, the Oxford comma goes before the final conjunction ("and" or "or") in a series. It's not always necessary, but it is often essential to prevent misreading.

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