MSGID: 2:221/6.0 667ec3f2   
   REPLY: 1:153/716.0 67ce0884   
   PID: SmapiNNTPd/Linux/IPv6 kco 20240505   
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   CHRS: LATIN-1 2   
   TZUTC: 0300   
   TID: hpt/lnx 1.9 2024-03-02   
      
   Hi, Ardith Hinton!   
   I read your message from 27.06.2024 03:06   
      
    AK>> The comma before "and" is just an unnecessary thing that provides   
    AK>> anything to make the understanding more clear.   
    AH> It's a matter of style, not an absolute requirement, and some   
    AH> people recommend using it only when it's needed to avoid confusion:   
      
    AH> Through the window I saw John, a basketball player and a friend of   
    AH> mine.   
      
   Are there three of them? ;-)   
   For me, this is not a list, but a sentence with the additional information,   
   separated with a comma from the main clause. I believe that a _good_ list must   
   consists of homogeneous items. Nobody can prohibit you, of course, to add to   
   the list also a puddle, car, dog and a cat, but I think it will be rather a   
   word game.   
      
   If we have a good list (of names, for instance) we would have:   
      
   Through the window I saw John, Peter and Paul, who staggered out from the pub.   
      
    AH> What is this friend's name, and is he a basketball player? I have   
    AH> no idea. I found the example in Wikipedia... I didn't personally   
    AH> invent it.   
      
   As we say in Russia "Be simpler and people appreciate it". ;)   
      
    AH> I asked for coffee with a breakfast of pancakes, bacon & eggs, hot   
    AH> buttered toast and hash brown potatoes.   
      
   Yeah, no comma before potatoes. ;)   
      
    AH> At 5WPM I can type an added comma without having to fret about   
    AH> whether someone from ElseWhere will think I buttered the hash   
    AH> browns *after* they were cooked. For me it's easier to use the   
    AH> Oxford comma routinely in such a list than to go into detail about   
    AH> why buttering such things on the plate may not work.   
      
   Yes, I agreed it is not important in chats. It maybe there are some doubts   
   when you translate something. Old Everett Hertenstein taught me that the main   
   thing is to be consistent. ;-)   
      
    AH> If Denis asks I'll do the latter, but other folks may not care. :-Q   
    AH> BTW, here's a joke Dallas found shortly before your message   
    AH> arrived:   
      
    AH> I like cooking my family and my pets. -- commas save lives   
      
   The comma after "cooking" is a holy one, of course. ;) But not the one which   
   could be before "my pets".   
      
    AK>> With the same success you can put "and" before every comma in the   
    AK>> list. ;-)   
      
    AH> I suppose you could in many cases. But as Anton says, in English it   
    AH> is generally considered desirable to avoid unnecessary verbiage....   
    AH> [chuckle].   
      
   An unnecessary comma before "and" is good mainly because nobody pays any   
   attention to it. ;-)   
      
   Bye, Ardith!   
   Alexander Koryagin   
   english_tutor 2024   
      
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