French question?

Question

My teacher said something about not putting comma's when you make a list..I didn't quite hear what she said but she said when writing French you don't put a comma before the 'and'.. or something like that...so like for example : apple, orange, and grapes. they won't need to be a comma befre the and..or something...? anyway this is the sentence I'm writing but I'm not sure if this is the right way or not : Je suis sympathique, sociable, et contente.

Answer 1

When the French make a list, they don't follow the English convention of prefacing the final item with "and". They merely add it to the list after a comma and then end the sentence with a full stop. "Il mange des poires, des pommes, des abricots, des cerises."
When you translate that into English, you have to say: "He eats pears, apples, apricots AND cherrries."

Answer 2

This is a grammar difference between French and English. In English, you are correct that it would be apple, orange, and grapes with the comma before and. In French however, there is no comma before et. It would be correct to write, 'Je suis sympathique, sociable et contente. No comma between sociable and contente. Good question though, this is a very common mistake! :-D

Answer 3

I think this sentence is good. I'll try to find some text which shows that commas are acceptable in written text.

I think your teacher may have been thinking of grocery lists. But who puts commas in grocery lists anyway? I'm not sure what she or he was talking about. Ah, what kl below says makes sense either in English or in French. I would have thought you knew that already, but that was an assumption.

I've started out with a blog in French, with nice photos. You can read what a young woman writes in French. Now I'll try to find some more classical literature.

Answer 4

Both kl55000 and breszkl1 are right.

Here is a good summary on the use of the comma in French, taken from askoxford.com (see Sources below for the URL). I had to replace the italics with quotation marks. The remarks in brackets [ ] are mine.


The comma is used between independent clauses which have a certain continuity between them:
"Il s'arrêta devant la boutique, il jeta un coup d'œil dans la vitrine, il entra."

When the two clauses are joined by a co-ordinating conjunction ("et / ou"), the comma usually disappears:
"Il traversa la rue et il entra dans la boutique."

The comma is, however, used in front of "et / ou" if one of the two clauses already contains a conjunction:
"La rue était sombre et silencieuse, et elle prit peur".

[The same is true whenever two clauses joined by "et / ou" have different subjects, as in the previous example, even if neither clause contains a conjunction. The comma is used to mark the change of subjects:
"La rue (the street) était sombre, et elle (the heroine) prit peur".]

[...]

In independent clauses, the comma separates items in lists. There is no comma before "et."

"Il acheta des roses, des tulipes, des lys et des œillets."
"Elle m'a montré les cadeaux de son père, de sa mère, de son frère et de sa sœur."
"Les dictionnaires, les classeurs, les cahiers, étaient rangés sur les étagères."

Answer 5

when you put comas it means that you haven't stop listing. So when you put "et" il means that it will be the last one so no need for a coma before the "et"

Exemple: j'aime manger des pommes, des bananes, des cerises et des oranges.

or as in your exemple : Je suis sympathique, sociable et contente. No coma as you wrote before the "et"

Answer 6

There's nothing wrong with the sentence. The comma doesn't matter; listen to your teacher anyway...don't let your grade suffer. Ask her.