I am confused about the use of thecomma. Could you help me with that?

Q:I am confused about the use of the comma. Could you help me with that?

Lamia M asked

A:Using your commas and punctuation appropriately can help you succeed in writing precise and outstanding essays in English. To relieve your confusion, here are some rules that you can follow:

The comma is used:

1-to separate the elements in a list of three or more items:Example: We bought carrots, garlic, tomatoes and onion.

2-to separate introductory elements in a sentence:Example: After a long working day, Samuel quickly fell asleep.

3-to separate parenthetical elements in a sentence:Example: Anne, the fourth lady from the right, was the funniest girl in the school.

4-to separate direct speech or quoted elements from the rest of the sentence:Example: "This car," he explained, "is the most expensive one."

5-to separate elements in a sentence that express contrast:Example: I just wanted us to laugh, not to make a fool of you.

6-to separate dates and years, towns and counties etc:Example: He is from Sfax, Tunisia.

7-to separate several adjectives:Example: This charming, pretty, intelligent girl is Fed's daughter.

For more on how to improve your understanding of punctuation, visit this website.

References:http://www.bristol.ac.uk/arts/exercises/grammar/grammar_tutorial/index.htm

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What do these words mean: idiom, phrasal verb and collocation?

Here are the answers to the questions our readers submit to our blog. You can send any question related to English grammar, vocabulary, writing, spelling, etc..We will also try to answer questions pertaining to teaching principles and try to share tips and advice about common problems faced by learners and teachers.

Q:What do these words mean: idiom, phrasal verb and collocation?

Ahmad asked

A:An idiom is an expression whose meaning cannot be worked out from its separate parts. Example:Gain is the only thing that matters in business. It's a dog-eat-dog world.

A phrasal verb is construction that consists of a verb plus a preposition or an adverb (also referred to as particle).Example: He switched off the light before leaving the office.

Collocation refers to the way words are used together regularly, that is the way the words combine with one another. If you want to learn the language correctly, you need to know which words usually collocate together. It helps to remember whether a word usually collocates with a positive or a negative word /with people or things, etc.. Example: We hit upon a good idea is correct. But, we hit upon a sillyidea is incorrect.

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