C Comma (,)

A comma in writing represents a brief pause in speech. When a sentence has several clauses, commas are placed between them to make the sentence easier to read.

We do a lot of business with Asia, and it’s an important market for us.

We do a lot of business with Asia, which is an important market for us.

But we use a full stop, not a comma, to separate complete sentences.

We do a lot of business with Asia. It’s an important market for us.

(NOT ~~We do a lot of business with Asia, it’s an important market for us~~.)

· A comma is used in lists, except for the last two items where we use and.

This product is safe, hygienic, practical and cheap.

We can use a comma before and if the last two items in the list are long.

This product is safe, easy to maintain, and kind to the environment.

· Linking words at the beginning of a sentence are followed by a comma.

In fact, the Portuguese market is growing fast.

Linking words in the middle of a sentence have commas before and after.

The Portuguese market,on the other hand, is growing fast.

· Commas are used with non-defining relative clauses.

This product,which is the top of our range,retails at £250.

· A comma can introduce direct quotes.

A Lloyds agent said, ‘This will mean some very large claims.’

· When writing direct speech we use a comma before the actual words spoken. In reported speech commas are not used. Compare:

Your sales director said, ‘Yes, that might be possible.’

Your sales director said it might be possible.

· Study where we put a comma with large numbers:

260 1,569 18,500 127,000 4,650,000

Note that in some other languages a dot is used here. A dot in English represents a decimal point.

D Semi-colon (;)

We need better technology; better technology costs money.

A semi-colon is also used to separate long items in a list. Notice the use of commas and semi-colons in this example:

Institutional investors include Nomura,the Japanese securities house;GEC of the US; and Charterhouse, the UK investment bank.

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