comma

«comma» in Mova's school dictionary: a punctuation mark (,) that shows a short pause or… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a comma, commas)

meaning for a pupil

1) A comma is a punctuation mark (,) that shows a short pause or separates parts of a sentence. tree →

2) Commas separate things in a list: «eggs, milk and bread». tree →

3) In numbers, a comma groups digits in threes to make them easy to read: «1,000,000»; in many European countries a comma is used as the decimal point instead. tree →

sense in the lessons

In English lessons pupils use commas in lists, after a fronted adverbial («After lunch, we played»), around extra information («My brother, who is ten, plays chess»), before speech marks and in addresses. Phrases: «Oxford comma» or «serial comma» (a comma before «and» in a list), «comma splice» (two sentences joined only by a comma — a mistake). In maths, commas separate thousands in big numbers in the UK, USA and Australia, and coordinates are written with a comma: (3, 4).

examples

• Put a comma between the items in a list. tree →
• «Let's eat, Grandma!» needs a comma, or it sounds like we are eating Grandma. tree →
• After a fronted adverbial, put a comma: «Later that day, it rained.» tree →
• My sister, who loves horses, rides every Saturday. tree →
• Write ten thousand as 10,000. tree →
• The point (2, 5) is two across and five up. tree →
• A comma shows the reader where to take a short breath. tree →

note

Plural «commas». A comma is not a full stop: do not join two complete sentences with only a comma. In maths, «3,5» in France or Germany means three and a half, but in the UK and USA it is «3.5» — the comma and the decimal point swap between countries. Do not confuse «comma» with «coma» (a deep sleep after an illness or injury).

In the corpora

• Newspaper articles include quotes, which are people's exact words in inverted commas.
• Joining two sentences with only a comma is a comma splice; use a full stop or a joining word instead.
• The comma rule: when the subordinate clause comes first, put a comma after it.
• When a subordinate clause comes before the main clause, a comma follows it.
• A fronted adverbial is usually followed by a comma.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «comma» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.