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Everyone knows what a comma is, right? Except that many people think it's a 'pause for breath' and the world is full of copy that uses commas atrociously.
Some mistakes are fairly trivial, such as the use of an American comma after the final 'and' in a list:
A book, a CD, and a newspaper... (second comma is not needed in the UK)
Other errors such as the comma splice can make grammarians wince and make readers work harder to understand you.
However, the worst offences are a long way from trivial because they change meaning:
A woman, without her man, is nothing.
A woman: without her, man is nothing.
The first of these examples is equivalent to putting without her man in brackets, leaving the meaning A woman is nothing. That's why commas of this kind must always come in pairs. This is similar to the example given in dashes.
A comma can be used to replace 'and' if you're using two adjectives:
He is a strong and healthy rotweiler.
He is a strong, healthy rotweiler.
It can replace 'then' if you're starting a sentence with a 'weak' clause (one that can't stand alone):
If you don't know what you're doing then tell me now.
If you don't know what you're doing, tell me now.
It's often used before 'and', 'or' 'but' and 'for' when they join two clauses:
I shouted loudly enough, but pianos can move fast downhill.
It introduces quotes:
He said, "What do you mean, 'us'?"
And it helps start many sentences:
However, there are reasons to be cheerful.
Yes, I would like quite a lot more gin in that.
When put in the middle of a sentence, 'therefore' and 'however' and similar words or phrases are sometimes surrounded by commas:
Something like that, however, will need planning.
There are many more examples but you probably have the gist.
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