Commas in lists

How to get rid of ‘and’ in our writing.

Here is a shopping list

EggsMilkApplesSausages

Here is the list in a sentence

I am going to buy eggs and milk and apples and sausages.

How can we improve this sentence?

Let’s take out the ‘and’.

I am going to buy eggs and milk and apples and sausages.

Let’s take out ‘and’.

andand an

d

What do we do now?

Let’s put in some commas.

I am going to buy eggs and milk and apples and sausages.

Let’s put in the commas

Is it right now?We actually do need one ‘and’. Where does it go?

,, ,

I am going to buy eggs and milk and apples and sausages.

Let’s put in the one ‘and’

Well done! You’ve improved the sentence by adding commas.

,, and

The parrot had red and blue and

Now see if you can put the commas in this sentence

andand

,, green and yellow

feathers.

Excellent work! You’ve put the commas in the right places.

What to remember! When we are writing a list we put

a comma between each of the items. We only need an ‘and’ between

the last two items.

Look at the sentences on the next slides.Click on the one where the commas are used correctly.

My pens are blue and red, yellow, green.

My pens are blue, red, yellow, green.

My pens are blue, red, yellow and green.

Whoops!

Sorry the commas are not in the right place in that sentence.

Click here to try again.

Yippee!

What a star!

Click here to try the next one.

The cake had cherries, currants, and icing.

The cake had cherries, currants and icing.

The cake had cherries and currants, icing.

Whoops!

Sorry the commas are not in the right place in that sentence.

Click here to try again.

Yippee!

What a star!

Click here to try the next one.

The weather was dull and misty and, wet and cloudy.

The weather was dull, misty and wet and cloudy.

The weather was dull, misty, wet and cloudy.

Whoops!

Sorry the commas are not in the right place in that sentence.

Click here to try again.

Yippee!

What a star!

Click here to try the next one.

I bought pens, pencils, and, books.

I bought pens, pencils and books.

I bought pens and pencils and, books.

Whoops!

Sorry the commas are not in the right place in that sentence.

Click here to try again.

Yippee!

What a star!

Click here to try the next one.

How did you do?

Did you get them right?If you did you can go back to your table.If you got some wrong, click here to go back to the beginning of the slide show to try again.