Page 13 - TARGET YOUR PUNCTUATION

Target 3: Commas

Commas are used in two main ways:-

1. They separate items in a list.

The cake was made from flour, sugar, eggs, milk and raisins.

Note: If the last item follows ‘and’ or ‘or’, you do not
have to put a comma before this last item.

2. They are used to add extra information to sentences.

The extra information is added between two commas if it is in the middle of the
sentence.

The man ran quickly across the field.

chased by a huge bull

The man, chased by a huge bull, ran quickly across the field.

The extra information only needs one comma if it is at the end or beginning of a
sentence.

The man ran across the field, chased by a huge bull.

Chased by a huge bull, the man ran quickly across the field.

Note: We don’t need to use commas when we use ‘that’.

The man that was chased by a huge bull ran quickly across the field.

HINT FOR CHECKING IF THE COMMAS ARE IN THE CORRECT PLACES:
Read the sentence without the words added in the commas - it should make sense

on its own.

The sofa, although it is lovely, is too big for my room.

Although it is lovely, the sofa is too big for my room.

The sofa is too big for my room. This makes sense on its own.

Note: Commas are also used with speech marks. This will be explained in Target 4.

13 © SSER Ltd