When Do You Use A Comma In A Sentence?

You place a comma before all of the following words: "and", "but", "for", "nor", "or", "neither" and "yet," when these words are being used to join two Independent Clauses into One Sentence.

A clause is a phrase which contains a subject and a verb.

A comma is needed in this example:

I mailed my application on time, but it didn't arrive until after the due date.

A comma is needed, because each phrase is an Independent Clause.

No comma is needed in the following sentence:

I am planning to shop and bake before going to the movies.

No comma is needed because "and" is being used between two verbs, shop and bake.

A comma is also used in a list of nouns. For example, a comma is used in this sentence:

He hit the ball so hard that he ran to first base, second base, third base, and home.

A comma is used because there is a list of nouns.

You could have it with, or without a comma.  But if you don't use a comma, it would be a different sentence structure (that was an example!)  If it did have a comma, it would usually go after the comma.  If you want another example, it would be a sentence like "I would show you, but on the other hand, it might not cover every use of the word."

It would be more instructive to discuss the use of a comma in general.  See
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. By going back to college, I will have an automatic jump on other people applying for the position this shows an employer my initiative.

Before

It’s that time again, for the talk of the town bus ride!

A comma represents a pause, or definition between items in a list!

The above sentences are predominantly displaying the use of a comma to denote either an introductory clause or an appositive (an appositive is alternative name given to another word already used in the same sentence, examples given: "last musical"="The Music Man" or "daughter"="Beth Smith".

A comma is akin to taking a breath when speaking.  They are used to separate works that are not meant to be used together which makes a big difference.  Ex:   We saw the hog pen...We saw the hog, pen, etc.  There has to be a more educational way of presenting this answer but I'm not that smart.  After  the test let us hear from you.

The comma goes after the word which you need it on.

Jane Do has permission to pick up my daughter, Beth Smith, from school.

The first thing I will advise him to do is take away all bonus tags.

Since the process change, I do not include the severity 1 dl’s in the outage notices but, include them in the sev 1 notices.

Usually, a comma indicates a pause in a sentence. That's what I was taught. Hope this helps, good luck on that test.