comma or not?

How would you write:

I have eaten breakfast, lunch and dinner.

or:

I have eaten breakfast, lunch, and dinner.


I prefer the first version, because I find it silly to use the "comma" to divide and the "and" to unite so close together.
What is your point of view?

 

Not.
the "and" removes the need for additional control.

Personally I would love the opportunity to eat Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner - howsoever punctuated.

 

I only use 'and' in certain sentences with a comma before it.

If you're even stuck, I think how I'd say it in person, so if you pause and you're unsure, put a comma.

 

The first one is correct. The only possible justification for a second comma is to create a dramatic pause which might be more achievable by other means.

I have eaten breakfast, lunch.........and dinner.

That's not a very dramatic sentence so it might be better rephrased as

The tiger ate the Mars Bar, the mussels..........and Mary.

 

I was taught not to use a comma before 'and' but on checking my trusty Oxford guide I note that it thinks the comma should be used to separate items in a list of more than two items ... e.g. 'red, white, and blue'.

Apparently the comma should also be used 'to separate co-ordinated main clauses, e.g. Cars will turn here, and coaches will go straight on. Where you have two closely linked clauses, however, you dispense with it: Do as I tell you and you'll never regret it.

 

"Cars will turn here, and coaches will go straight on."

In this instance, I feel that the "and" is superfluous.

 

Don't blame me, guv. I'm just a-quotin' Dr E.S.C. Weiner and his blinkin' Oxford Guide to English Usage.

Although ... 'cars will turn here' and 'coaches will go straight on' are each complete sentences which can stand alone. Therefore, you either need a conjunction such as 'and' or 'but' to link them or a semi-colon. I don't think the humble comma cuts it. But - as someone who cheerfully uses 'but' to start a sentence and peppers her posts with a liberal number of dashes* - I don't think it matters much.



*both hanging offences, according to my English teacher. Personally I thought her habit of running up matching headbands to complement her home-made frocks and wearing her cardigans back to front was a much greater crime.

 

Me too, Larkshall. In the example given, I would never use have used a comma before the 'and'. However ........... I just did a search and came up with this


4. Comma: indicates slight pauses in reading, and differentiates sentence parts. Commas are used in the following situations

Before a coordinating conjunction that connects two independent clauses

- I thought it would rain, and it did.​

After an introductory phrase

- After the rainfall, the sun came out.​

To separate items in a series

- I like rock, pop, jazz, blues, country, and hip-hop.​

Sparkcharts



:DOH: I would never have used a comma in examples 1 and 3. Ya learn sumthin' new every day!

 

I use a comma before a 2nd "and" immediately following a list:

I ate breakfast, lunch and dinner, and my wife made me some supper.

 

Don't be silly, Scrungee. You can't possibly eat breakfast, lunch, dinner AND supper, with or without a preceding comma.

 

Definitely breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Never a comma after the final word before and. That's how I was taught anyway!

 

I bet he can TEE HEE.

Josie

 

That would be my way of thinking as your sentence is comprised of three separate phrases

1. I ate breakfast
2. I ate lunch and dinner
3. my wife made me some supper

Therefore the sentence is a contraction of those three and they get separated by commas.

However, if you'd said "I ate breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper" that would just be one sentence containing a list ............... I think!

 

I just try and avoid making what follows the 2nd 'and' potentially appearing like a grammatically incorrect continuation of a list:

"I ate breakfast, lunch and dinner and my wife




made me some supper".