KNOW YOUR PUNCTUATION! [THE COMMA (,)]

Like the full stop, the comma is one of the most used punctuation marks in written English. This punctuation mark is very useful in writing because it indicates the pauses that occur in a sentence. The misuse, lack or inadequate use of the comma in a sentence can alter the intended meaning of a sentence. This is why a proper understanding of its usage is very important.

Though the functions of the comma seem numerous, I shall try to discuss the commonest ones among them in this post.

1. The comma is used to separate elements in a series, or list of items. With this usage of the comma, ‘and’ is replaced at the several places that it could occur, except before the final element in the series or item on the list.
a. Jude, George, Bunmi and Umar will be at the party. (Jude and George and Bunmi and Umar will be at the party).
b. Pencils, exercise books and erasers are few examples of stationery.

2. It is used to separate an interruption/optional parenthetical element from the rest of the sentence.
a. Ben and Tade, unlike their sister, assisted their mother in her poultry business.
b. Chinua Achebe, arguably the father of African literature, wrote his first novel in 1958.

3. The comma is used to separate an appositive (a noun or noun phrase that restates the noun before it) from the remainder of a sentence.
a. Chinua Achebe wrote his first novel, Things Fall Apart, two years before Nigeria’s independence from colonial rule.
b. President Buhari, a Fulani man, is a very gentle man.

4. The comma is used to separate coordinate adjectives. Coordinate adjectives are two or more adjectives that describe the same noun.
a. My girlfriend is a big, bold, beautiful lady.
b. His house is located in a beautiful, serene environment.

5. It is used to mark off adjunct in a sentence, especially at the initial position. An adjunct constitutes an optional element in a sentence.
a. Honestly, I like your sister.
b. Yesterday, he listened to the report.

It should be noted, however, that there are different types of adjuncts. They are;

i. Time Adjuncts (Adverbs of Time) – This time last year, I was in Lagos.
ii. Manner Adjunct (Adverbs of Manner) – Surreptitiously, he walked out of the room.
iii. Place Adjuncts (Adverbs of Place) – At the homecoming party, she proposed to him.
iv. Frequency Adjuncts (Adverbs of Frequency) – Every Sunday, I go to church.
v. Reason Adjuncts (Adverbs of Reason) – Owing to her comeliness, she attracted a lot of suitors.
vi. Etc.

6. The comma is used to separate a subordinate clause from a main clause, especially when the subordinate clause comes first.
a. Although he was at the inaugural, he does not know the main point of the speech.
b. If she was here, she would have paid the bills.

NB: A subordinate clause, unlike the main clause, is a clause that cannot stand on its own as a complete sentence. A subordinate clause complements the main clause.

7. It separates an attribution, dialogue tag or information from a direct quotation.

This is demonstrated with an extract from Buchi Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood below.

• ‘Do you know, sometimes I curse the day you were conceived,’ Nnaife hissed.

NB: A dialogue tag, also referred to as an attribution, is a clause either before, after, or in between the dialogue. It is called a dialogue tag because it tags the dialogue to a character. In the example above, ‘Nnaife hissed’ is the dialogue tag, while ‘do you know, sometimes I curse the day you were conceived’ is the dialogue itself.

Nonetheless, a dialogue without a tag would not require the use of the comma. This type of dialogue is ended with any terminal punctuation mark before the closing/end quotation mark. This is also demonstrated with another extract from The Joys of Motherhood below:

• ‘Your mothers are really going to like this, Oshia. Ha, ha, ha!’

8. The comma is used before or after a name to indicate who is being addressed.
a. Paul, where is your car?
b. Where is your car, Paul?
c. Let’s eat John. (Here, the speaker, being a cannibal, is giving the order to eat John).
d. Let’s eat, John. (Here, the speaker is telling John that they should eat).

9.i. It is used after salutation in letters.
a. Dear Sam,

ii. It is used after complimentary close, before the sender’s signature or name, in letters.
a. Yours sincerely,
b. Yours respectfully,

10. Another identified usage of the comma is to separate groups of three digits in numbers/figures.
a. 725,000,000

Even though the functions of comma seem quite inexhaustible, I want to believe the few we have seen are helpful.

In the next post, the functions of question mark and the exclamation mark shall be discussed. You can look forward to that.