Your English dictionary
The English comma rules
Kender du den om stripperne, JFK og Stalin? Nej? Og hvad i alverden har det med de engelske kommaregler at gøre?
Let me tell you…
You've probably ended up here because you think that the English comma is the devil's invention. I get where you're coming from. No one's ever sat us down and taught us where the heck those things go.
I don't know how it was at your school, but in Denmark, we spend hours upon hours learning about the Danish comma, but I don't think I've ever even heard the words "comma rules" mentioned in my English classes.
The first time I learned some kind of rule was when I studied English literature and creative writing in Scotland in 2014... That's 13 years after I had my very first English class.
Crazy, huh?
But then again, the professors at university probably expected us to know the rules just like a Danish university would expect us to know the Danish rules...
I finally do... Eight years later. :-)
Hvad er der engelske kommaregler så?
I'll stop yapping away and tell you.
My best advice when it comes to the English comma is:
Set a comma when you stop to take a breath.
And I don't mean stop as in you keep reading until your lungs feel like they're burning and start screaming for air. Or stop as in you take a breath every time you'd set a comma in your native language, however tempting that may be.
It may sound like a strange rule if you come from a language that's really strict (like Danish), but you have much more (creative) freedom in English.
Det betyder selvfølgelig ikke, at der ikke er nogen som helst regler, men træk vejret-reglen er virkelig god, hvis du bare har brug for en helt simpel én, som hjælper dig med at få de engelske kommaer sat rigtigt 90% af gangene.
But if you're also a bit of a grammar nerd - or write English material for your international customers and business partners - I've put together a guide for you, so you'll nail those commas and write clear and accurate material (and I'll finally tell you the joke about the strippers, JFK and Stalin!)
Sæt kommaer som en champ
There are actually heaps of rules and it can easily seem a bit overwhelming, but don't worry! I think most of them will come naturally to you and if not, I've tried my best to describe them as thoroughly as possible!
Listing comma
As in lists.
Here, the rules are probably the exact same as in your native language: there needs to be a comma between each item in the list:
We celebrated his birthday at a bar where they served beer, whiskey and drinks.
If you write US English, you'd also put a comma after whiskey (beer, whiskey, and drinks). That's called a serial comma, and that's where our strippers, JFK and Stalin come in because:
If we take this sentence:
We invited the strippers, JFK and Stalin.
Did we then invite the strippers and JFK and Stalin? Or did we invite the two strippers JFK and Stalin?
Of course, we all know that neither JFK nor Stalin were strippers but can you see how this sentence could be misinterpreted? That's why the serial comma - or Oxford comma - was introduced, simply to avoid these kinds of misunderstandings. And instead of leaving us wondering if Stalin and JFK had a dodgy side hustle, our trusty serial comma would change the sentence to: We invited the strippers, JFK, and Stalin. We invited the strippers, JFK, and Stalin, og der er ingen tvivl om JFK og Stalins sideerhverver.
There's quite a bit of debate about the serial comma. Some think it's unnecessary, whilst others see why it might be beneficial to use an extra comma here and there. If you haven't guessed it, I side with the latter. Rather be safe than sorry.
But you don't have to agree. It's completely up to you whether you want to use the serial comma or not. My only advice: be consistent.
Joining comma
In Danish, you separate your main clauses with a comma. And what does that mean? Well, typically, you'll find and, or, but, yet, so eller while between your main clauses, so look for these!
It was dead cheap at the bar, yet it was completely empty.
Clause 1: It was dead cheap at the bar
Clause 2: It was completely empty
Join the two with a yet, but, or whatever word you choose, and throw in a comma between them.
Gapping comma
You know how you might say (or write) something like: The dog chased the cat, and the cat chased the mouse? Instead of repeating ourselves, we could delete that extra chased but then, we need to move our comma slightly so it fills the "gap":
It was no surprise because the whiskey was bad and the owner, just awful.
Your verb has, has, has to be the same in both sentences. Otherwise, you can't use the gapping comma.
The whiskey was bad = the owner was just awful.
Bracketed comma
Now, this might seem complicated but stick with me!
Bracketed comma is the comma you put around a word or even several words that aren't pivotal to your sentence. You could also stick them in parentheses... Or delete them altogether...
Let me give you a few examples:
However terrible the bar was, we’d have thought that more people would show up.
If we delete however from the sentence, we're left with terrible the bar was, and surely, we can agree that that makes no sense at all. That means that however is key to our sentence and it's meaning and for that reason, we can leave out the commas.
But take the sentence:
However, no one did.
If we delete however, our sentence doesn't change: No one did.... Hence, the comma.
Same goes if however had been in the middle of the sentence or at the end of it: comma, comma, comma (no one, however, did or no one did, however).
It's the exact same rules you follow if you have a long subordinate clause:
So the bar owner, who was losing money, invited JFK and Stalin
or So the bar owner invited JFK and Stalin.
Everyone at the birthday party who did not usually like them was really excited.
Now, you might be wondering why I've put a comma in the first example and not in the last one:
Always ask yourself how important the different parts of your sentence are to the overall meaning.
In the first example who was losing money is a side note. If we deleted the clause, the essence of the sentence would be the same: that the owner invited JFK and Stalin.
I det andet andet eksempel vil jeg fortælle dig, at det er alle dem, som normalt ikke kan lide dem, der er virkelig spændte. Jeg præciserer altså, hvem der er spændte.
However, had I used commas, my sentence would have read: Everyone at the birthday party was really excited. Everyone's excited. Everyone at the birthday party was really excited. Det er altså alle, der er virkelig spændte.
Now, you're more or less an expert in the English comma, but there's one last thing that I want to teach you: appositives.
We're still in the realm of bracketed commas but when we talk about appositives, we're focusing on people.
For example:
My friend Marc was so excited that he ran up on stage.
As in the many examples above, Marc isn't surrounded by commas because we can't delete him.
Why?
Fordi ligesom vi præciserede, hvem der var spændt, så præciserer vi her, hvilken ven vi snakker om… For der er forhåbentligt mere end én ven.
But had we only had that one friend, we wouldn't need to clarify who we're talking about, and then, Marc should have been sitting between two commas.
I know I've bombarded you with information and it might all seem a bit overwhelming, but whenever you proofread, just ask yourself:
what am I trying to say, and what happens if I delete the information surrounded by commas?
If you've got any questions to the rules or a particular sentence or text you're working on, send me an email or take advantage of the offer I've got on just now!
Eller gør det virkelig nemt for dig selv, og lad mig klare den engelske korrekturlæsning for dig! Så lover jeg dig, at ingen af dine direktører lige pludselig står med et spøjst sideerhverv. ;-))))
Ikke helt færdig med at nørde?
I’ve got you!
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English proofreading, copywriting & translations
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