 Fatninja01
Male, 18-29, Australia
 23995 Posts
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Sunday, September 25, 2011 9:18:37 PM
not cool... im at work atm! |
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 Scuzoid
Male, 30-39, Western US
1270 Posts
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Sunday, September 25, 2011 9:09:42 PM
"This is elementary school English people"
This. Why in the world do these additional comma's need their own name? |
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 sabio
Male, 18-29, Midwest US
15 Posts
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Sunday, September 25, 2011 8:35:20 PM
Capitalization is the difference between helping your Uncle Jack off a horse and helping your uncle jack off a horse. |
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 LegosFTW
Male, 18-29, Eastern US
43 Posts
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Sunday, September 25, 2011 8:33:47 PM
@sarahofborg
Using a colon would also work, but the statement in the picture is still correct. One of the purposes of the oxford comma is to resolve ambiguity, which was what the picture was making a point of. In this example, you could also use a colon, but using an oxford comma is still very much accurate.
drat the English language and all its stupid rules. |
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 OldOllie
Male, 50-59, Midwest US
8706 Posts
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Sunday, September 25, 2011 8:24:26 PM
Both forms are considered proper; however, the Oxford comma avoids just this sort of confusion. To my knowledge, though, the only authority that calls for not using the Oxford comma is the Associated Press Stylebook. Just one more reason to believe that journalists are idiots. |
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 SarahofBorg
Female, 18-29, Eastern US
3526 Posts
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Sunday, September 25, 2011 8:00:47 PM
NOT TRUE
If you wanted to say "JFK and Stalin" in the second sense than you'd use a colon, not a regular comma.
"We invited the strippers: JFK and Stalin." |
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 TheiaRenown
Female, 18-29, Southern US
390 Posts
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Sunday, September 25, 2011 7:19:19 PM
Intriguing. |
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 cyborg
Male, 13-17, Midwest US
2798 Posts
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Sunday, September 25, 2011 6:53:28 PM
good way of putting it |
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 theferret
Female, 18-29, Western US
213 Posts
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Sunday, September 25, 2011 6:50:58 PM
"thank you! i don't get why people don't think that you don't need a comma before the final item of a list."
because that's what they taught us in school. |
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 Kilgore89
Male, 18-29, Canada
152 Posts
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Sunday, September 25, 2011 6:48:37 PM
I'm not sure people realize that the difference between "British English" and "American English" is purely academic. It's all about that academic style guide you are using. There are minor differences in what is considered British and American (i.e. using a 'u' in the word 'colour'). In general (but not always) academic style guides that use American English tend to use the Oxford Comma. Academic guides that use British English don't.
Elementary school English will depend on where your teacher got their education. If they came from a University that uses British English, you would've learned to not use a comma before 'and'. Most Universities expect British English grammar rules (not always spelling though) while most US media uses American English.
It makes no difference in everyday use. However, those of us with English Language degrees will go into angry rants when you tell us that American and British English. Our pompous grammar helps ju |
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 Subushie
Male, 18-29, Southern US
1643 Posts
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Sunday, September 25, 2011 5:20:28 PM
When you are listing anything it must always have a comma after every list until the 'and'...
one, two, and three
This is elementary school English people; not America or British anything. |
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 rikakitty
Female, 18-29, Eastern US
689 Posts
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Sunday, September 25, 2011 5:12:25 PM
I always thought that you were supposed to use a comma before and, but I see books, articles, and lots of stiff without it all the time, so I came to believe that I was in the wrong. |
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 lemmingboy15
Male, 18-29, Southern US
642 Posts
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Sunday, September 25, 2011 5:10:37 PM
@I-IS-BORED
*sigh* Of course I would make a grammatical error on a comment about grammatical errors... -.- |
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 Batmanners
Male, 18-29, Canada
4012 Posts
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Sunday, September 25, 2011 5:10:06 PM
"drat that. Somebody teach the idiots of the world how to use a freaking apostrophe. "
The Apostrophe
Oatmeal Delivers |
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Kilgore89
Male, 18-29, Canada
152 Posts
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Sunday, September 25, 2011 5:09:42 PM
This is one of those instances where the difference between American and British English matters. In Canada (where we use British English) we tend not to use an Oxford comma. They teach in the schools to never use a comma before the final item in a list. We're taught to change the form to avoid ambiguity. In this case, we would write "We invited JFK and Stalin who were strippers".
Regional and preferential grammar aside, this is a funny comic. |
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Batmanners
Male, 18-29, Canada
4012 Posts
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Sunday, September 25, 2011 5:07:10 PM
Pfft, like I'm going to take grammar lessons from something that writes JFK and Stalin all lowercase. |
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 krisley
Male, 18-29, Midwest US
522 Posts
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Sunday, September 25, 2011 5:00:35 PM
All of my teachers through high school always taught us to use it all the time, even though it was starting too fall out of use. |
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jakillz2
Male, 18-29, Eastern US
58 Posts
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Sunday, September 25, 2011 4:49:08 PM
Interesting, I've known this, but I definitely remember being taught in school to NOT use a comma before "And". I also know that I constantly don't use it when I write a lot at work, I'll probably take note of it now though lol. |
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 I-IS-BORED
Male, 18-29, Canada
2432 Posts
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Sunday, September 25, 2011 4:41:20 PM
@lemmingboy15
I'm not sure that's what you meant to say, go over your negatives again. |
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 LazyMe484
Male, 18-29, Canada
10503 Posts
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Sunday, September 25, 2011 4:35:08 PM
Curse you IAB! I make this mistake often. |
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osteenq
Male, 40-49, Southern US
68 Posts
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Sunday, September 25, 2011 4:35:03 PM
drat that. Somebody teach the idiots of the world how to use a freaking apostrophe. |
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 Thetas
Male, 18-29, Western US
1536 Posts
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Sunday, September 25, 2011 4:34:01 PM
I'm not buying it. |
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dude21862004
Male, 18-29, Eastern US
778 Posts
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Sunday, September 25, 2011 4:31:37 PM
Hmm, I automatically don't use the Oxford comma because I feel like the sentence looks cleaner without it. I never noticed this comparison, though.... Lol, I suppose I'll start using it even though I am pretty sure the sentence is correct with or without the Oxford comma. |
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lemmingboy15
Male, 18-29, Southern US
642 Posts
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Sunday, September 25, 2011 4:13:01 PM
thank you! i don't get why people don't think that you don't need a comma before the final item of a list. |
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 Gerry1of1
Male, 50-59, Western US
25532 Posts
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Sunday, September 25, 2011 4:09:40 PM
Nicely put. |
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