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hi everybody my name is Alisha welcome
back and today I'm going to talk to you
about how to use the comma so some of
you have asked some punctuation related
questions today I'm going to give a
quick introduction to a few times when
we can use the comma that little mark
you sometimes see in the middle of
sentences so today I'm going to
introduce three different times when you
can use a comma please keep in mind that
depending on the style book or the the
rules at your company or at a newspaper
or at a publishing company the rules may
be a little bit different but in general
these are a couple of guidelines that
you can think about when you're writing
and I hope that they can help you to
decide when you should and should not
use a comma so let's look at three
examples let's begin with the first
situation let's begin with the first
situation which is with coordinating
conjunctions so English has seven of
coordinating conjunctions maybe you know
them they are and but or for nor yet and
so usually we use and but and or most
commonly I suppose so as well but these
are called coordinating conjunctions we
use these coordinating conjunctions to
connect pieces of information together
so when we're using a coordinating
conjunction to connect sentences we use
a comma before the conjunction if we are
using a compound sentence so this is the
key point a compound sentence is a
single sentence made of what could be
two separate sentences so it's two
complete sentences two finished ideas
but we connect these two ideas with a
coordinating conjunction this is called
a compound sentence in these cases when
it is a compound sentence you can use a
comma before the coordinating
conjunction so let's look at a couple
examples of this first he wanted to come
to
the concert with me , but he had to
study he had to study for an exam so
here I have two complete sentences he
wanted to come to the concert with me as
a complete sentence and I have a comma
here my coordinating conjunction is but
in this case and again at the end of the
sentence I have another complete idea he
had to study for an exam here I've used
my comma before the coordinating
conjunction because this is a compound
sentence let's look at another example
my mother invited her friends to dinner
and she organized special cocktails for
the evening so here again there are two
separate complete ideas here my mother
invited her friends to dinner comma
before the coordinating conjunction and
she organized special cocktails for the
evening there are two separate ideas
here we use a comma before the
conjunction that connects these two
ideas together okay so this is the first
type of comma I want to talk about the
next type of comma in particular this is
one that maybe the rules will vary there
might be different rules depending on
the book or depending on the publication
depending on where you work but this is
another case where you may see commas
often so after we use an introductory
expression so this means a word or a
phrase before the subject and the verb
of a sentence so we'll see a couple
examples here after your introductory
expression so a comma that comes near
the beginning of the sentence for
example in 2017 I started my own company
so here in 2017 we have a comma after
2017 before the subject and the verb of
the sentence so this is like an
introduction there's introductory
information here one more example last
week we met our new clients so here last
week is some extra information it's
introducing something and then we have
our subject and our verb back here so
again in some cases you may not need to
use a comma it depends on the rule it
depends on the style book that perhaps
you're using but this is another
situation where you may see
Camas and you can use a comma in this
case - okay one more example this is a
very common one and a very common
question I think as well when you're
using adjective clauses so for example
like relative clauses I think a lot of
you know about these often begin with
like who which or that which we'll see
in a second when we use these to
introduce information that is
non-essential so it's it's not
information that is essential to know to
understand the noun we can offset that
extra information with commas so in this
case we'll use two commas here actually
let's take a look at an example here the
movie Inception which was hugely popular
in 2010 is a sci-fi and action movie
okay so here I'm talking about the movie
Inception
that's my noun here the movie Inception
here is this extra information I've got
a relative pronoun here which and then
was hugely popular in 2010 this is extra
information about the movie Inception
then I finish with is a sci-fi and
action movie so this extra information
which was hugely popular in 2010 is set
apart from the sentence with commas with
commas if I remove this relative clause
the sentence is correct the movie
Inception is a sci-fi and action movie
so we can use relative clauses with
extra information and set them off with
commas doing this sounds much much nicer
or reads much much nicer this also kind
of gives a hint to your reader that it's
some extra information so please set off
your relative clauses your non-essential
relative clauses with commas a great
hint is when your Clause begins with
which or that a relative pronoun here
let's look at one more example her
parents who were greatly respected in
the community both passed away last year
so in this case my relative Clause is
who I'm sorry my relative pronoun is who
and again this is extra information who
were greatly respected in the King
unity so I've given some extra
information about her parents and I've
set that off with commas if I remove
this adjective clause her parents both
passed away last year the sentence is
still correct but I'm giving this extra
information I'm showing it's extra
information and these little commas help
in the sentence it sounds just nicer it
reads much nicer so when you're using an
adjective clause like this a
non-essential adjective clause you can
set that off with commas so those are
three situations at three very common
situations where you may see commas and
when you can use commas so please try to
keep that in mind especially about the
first point we talked about sometimes
people will try to use a comma in one
complete sentence they think it's a
compound sentence but it's not actually
compound so if you're confused just slow
down take a look at your sentence and
ask yourself are there two separate
complete ideas in this sentence if so
and you're using a coordinating
conjunction you can use a comma there if
there's only one idea one complete idea
in your sentence then you don't need to
use a comma so please keep that in mind
this one can be especially challenging
even for native speakers actually so
this is just a quick introduction to a
few ways to use commas if you have any
questions please make sure to let us
know of course if you want to try to
make a sentence in the comments please
feel free to do that as well if you
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for more good stuff thanks very much for
watching this episode and I'll see you
again soon bye
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