Defn: One of several similar sets of figures or terms usually marked by points or commasplaced at regular intervals, as in numeration, in the extraction of roots, and in circulating decimals.
Note: Parenthesis, in technical grammar, is that part of a sentence which is inclosed within the recognized sign; but many phrases and sentences which are punctuated by commas are logically parenthetical.
With Caxton, oblique strokes took the place of commas and periods.
Commas and apostrophes cast on very thin types usually need a little space between the quote-marks they form and the words they enclose, especially if they are next to tall letters.
One of several similar sets of figures or terms usually marked by points or commas placed at regular intervals, as in numeration, in the extraction of roots, and in circulating decimals.
Footnote 45: The passages marked with two sets of inverted commas continue to be extracts from the official account.
Footnote 42: The passages between two sets of inverted commas are copied from the official account published on the 22d of March.
Footnote 51: The double sets of inverted commas are still used to distinguish passages extracted from the official account.
Typography stuck up the inverted commas because he had read the old Anglo-Indian toast, "A lass and a lac a day!
He is strongest in the punctuations and other signs; he has a pepper-box full of commas always by his side.
He put the commas back in and ran some of the sentences together so that they would be well-rounded, he said.
I had a row with the English master about a theme because I left out some commas and they were putting it into the school magazine and he edited it.
Double inverted commasindicate that the inclosed matter is a quotation.
The commasshow a still slighter separation, being used to divide the lesser groups of words.
Occasionally, in a compound sentence, particularly when it consists of three or more short statements, commas are used instead of semicolons.
Notice this use of the two commas in the first sentence.
To separate clauses or phrases from each other in a series of similar phrases or subordinate clauses, when commas would not be sufficient to indicate clearly where each clause or phrase began and ended.
If the members of the series are joined by conjunctions, commas are unnecessary.
In a word, two commas are very nearly equivalent to the old fashioned parenthesis.
The two marks like inverted commas and the two marks like apostrophes, which inclose this copied passage (quotation), are called Quotation Marks.
When the phrase is at the beginning or at the end of the sentence, how many commas do you need to set it off?
The omission of commas in appositional phrases is frequent.
Of course brackets in old editions are often used where commas would be sufficient, and one can build nothing on their insertion here in one MS.
If invertedcommas are to be used at all it seems to me they would need to be extended to 'gone' (l.
The dash is often used in the place of commas or marks of parenthesis to set off parenthetical expressions.
Commas are used to separate the members of a compound sentence when they are short or closely connected.
Commas are used to separate words in direct address from the rest of the sentence.
Commas are used in complex sentences to separate the dependent clause from the rest of the sentence.
And as for punctuation, he never could understand the mystery of it; he merely scatters a few commas and dashes, as if they were shaken out of a pepper-box upon his page, and so leaves it.
It seems to me that your evidence is very flimsy--after all some uneducated person might quite easily put those inverted commas wrong without being a foreigner; and I still disbelieve in Tochatti's power to write.
I'll swear those inverted commas are of foreign origin, and as a doctor you ought to be able to find some way of penetrating through any imposition in the way of pretence.
Yet I have seen Patience on a Monument honourably awarded to William Shakespeare, and fenced in by commas from all intercourse with the general text.
I never see inverted commas but I think of the necessary persecuted mediæval Jew in yellow gabardine.
According to his Rule, this tense requires six semicolons; but the author points it with two commas and two notes of interrogation!
Two inverted commas are generally placed at the beginning of a phrase or a passage, which is quoted or transcribed from the speaker or author in his own words; and two commas in their direct position, are placed at the conclusion.
And I may observe, in passing, that Murray and Blair are both wrong in using commas with the adverb presently above.
Commas are often used now, where parentheses were [adopted] formerly.
In type, they are inverted commas at the beginning, apostrophes at the conclusion.
Commas are often used now, where parentheses were formerly; I cannot, however, esteem this an improvement.
A sentence or member is again subdivided into commas or segments.
Therefore, these commas should be periods; and, of course, the first letter of each example must be a capital.
The force of a true individual is felt through every clause and part of a right book; the commas and dashes are alive with it.
They might be separated by commas, if semicolons were put where the commas now are.
Explain the use of the commas in the following sentences: 1.
Certain writers, however, advocate the omission from the formal parts of the letter of commas at the end of lines and of periods (except to show abbreviations).
They should be set off by commas so that the reader will easily see that they are subordinate to the main idea of the sentence.
The inverted commas are given here as they appear in Dr Westcott's book.
Quotation Marks are made by two inverted commas " at the beginning and two apostrophes " at the end of the quoted matter.
Use commas before conjunctions in a sentence made up of separate clauses, each with its own subject nominative, as, The horse is old, but it is still willing.
Commas set off an explanatory phrase but not a restrictive phrase of inclusive qualification.
Abbreviate senior and junior with commas on each side, as John Jones, Jr.
He is not referring to anything in Shelley's letter, and he is not in the habit in the letters of using invertedcommas except to mark a quotation.
Now that the lecture is printed I am able to avoid these qualifications by printing the words in inverted commaswhere they bear the narrower sense.
Where a number of names occurs with the office which they hold, use commasand semicolons, thus: J.
Don't use commas in dates or in figures which denote the number of a thing, as A.
The use of commas with "probably" would make "probably" more emphatic, because the pauses thus indicated would call special attention to it.
The former consist of one inverted comma and one apostrophe; the latter, of two inverted commas and two apostrophes.
This conventional use of two commas ignores the sense relation between the groups of words preceding and following the parentheses or brackets, which sense relation may be determined by the presence or the absence of a comma.
To prevent such wrong grouping, commas are used; and they will be used by a writer quite automatically when the purpose and effect of such use are understood.
The only doubtful assertion in the sentence is as to the number of commas destroyed.
Mr. Teall quotes the above sentence, among others from books on punctuation, and says that the commas setting off "designed solely for printers" should be omitted.
The absence of commas in Sentence 3, and their presence in Sentence 3-1, determine meanings.
With the commasomitted the meaning of the sentence would be as follows: 16-2.
The indiscriminate use of dashes and parentheses for commas has become quite common; but, after a very careful study of language thus punctuated, we can find no justification or excuse for such usage.
The evident meaning of the language is, that the number of commas destroyed is probably (I believe) more than a thousand.
Among obvious errors I include the avalanche of commas with which Cibber's printers overwhelmed his text.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "commas" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
