I'm having a terribly bad time learning commas, what are some ways of learning them efficiently?

Question

Yes, I can learn the rules of commas, but when it comes down to actually placing them, I can't remember those rules for each sentence. If i sat and praticed each rule of where to place a comma would that help at all? Just tell me how to improve my placement of commas.

Answer 1

Learning, if done properly, is never an efficient process.

Answer 2

1. Commas and periods always go inside quotations.
2. Use a comma to separate two independent clauses that are connected by a conjunction.
3. Go to http://www.csbsju.edu/writingcenters/handouts/common_comma_rules.htm for some more rules.

Answer 3

English punctuation is terrible to me. I'm lithuanian. Two british men who were my english teachers told me that lithuanian punctuation is aweful - we place a comma after every second word, which is almost true, i can think of a sentence where i'd need to put a comma after every word, like [translated in english] - the smiths, our neighbours, talked, because, as they thought, the silence, that used to depress us, wasnt good, not even toleranble, to the ears (becoming deaf) of the boy, who was the youngest, the most quiet aswell, in the family. ~~ something similar, please dont pay attention to the meaning. Lithaunian uses hell lots of commas, semicolons, dashes, colons, and there are millions of rules, that arent enough to learn by heart, because you need to understand them and use them properly.

My advise on learning punctuation is to buy a book called '1000 tests on lithuanian punctuation' [replace lithuanian with english], and practise.

Answer 4

I don't know. I am the comma queen! I think as a general rule, though, (see, there I go again!), you place them where you might take a breath if you were saying the words.

Answer 5

I think you have a good idea - to practice them. Get someone to write (or find copies of) sentences w/o the commas. Put them in where you think they go & have someone (who knows their grammar) check it for you. Practice makes perfect! lol. Maybe the link above has some exercises like I described . . .

Answer 6

Read the book Eats Shoots and Leaves. Written by a Brit with a sense of humor. And thank you for caring in the first place!

Answer 7

pay attention to the way it sounds while you think of the sentence, then place commas where there are pauses. Lists: I need apples, bananas, oranges, and kiwi.

Answer 8

Here are some exercises as well as the rules explained!

http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/writing/comma

Answer 9

you could go to edhelper.com and im pretty sure they'll have something there for you, other wise what you can do is listen to how you speak. when you pause there is usually a comma there.

Answer 10

The very best way to learn punctuation is to read. A lot.