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Commas
There are many ways of using commas in sentences. Here is the list of the most common cases.

1. Commas are used to separate the items in lists of words, phrases and clauses if there are more than two items to list.
   Example: To decorate her house she bought red, rose, pink and white flowers.

2. Commas are also used with discourse markers (e.g. "however", "as a rule", "for example", "nevertheless", "still", "besides", etc.)

   Example: In fact, it was the beginning of the end.

3. Commas are put after and before vocatives and interjections.

   Examples: Wow, it is a good deal (interjection).

   It is your fault, John (a vocative case).

4. Commas are used to separate dependent clauses, adverbial clauses, phrases in opposition and non-defining relative clauses.

   Examples: Although we had watched the film twice before, we didn't get the message of it (adverbial clause).

   What's the name of the city where you spent your holiday (defining)?

   I walk to school with my friend, who lives next door (non-defining).

5. Commas are used in numbers after the first digit of a big number and after every three digits.

   Examples: 72,980 — seventy-two thousand, nine hundred and eighty.

   10,487,500 — ten million, four hundred and eighty-seven thousand, five hundred.

   NB! We use full stops:

   • to indicate decimal points (7.3 — seven point three);
   • to punctuate times (The show starts at 10.45 (or 10:45)).

6. Commas are also used with dates. To punctuate the day of the week and date of the month followed by the year, we need to put a comma after the day of the week and after the date of the month.

   Example: Mary came to our city on Sunday, October 15, 2016.

   However, a comma is not used if the month and the year are the only two elements in the date.

   Example: The auction started in September 2018.

7. There are many punctuation marks in introducing the direct speech.

   The comma is usually used after the introductory phrase before quotation marks.

   Example: He said in his opening speech, "Be yourself and you will succeed."

   If the direct speech goes first, a comma is used before the closing of the quotation marks.

   Example: "Sam passed the test successfully," he said proudly.

8. The comma is placed to separate the different parts of a location. It should be put after the street address, apartment, city and state. The comma isn't used before the zip code.

   Examples: 91 Avenue Mansion, Sathorn Road, Bangkok 10100, Thailand.

   My address is 2609 Blackwater Boulevard, Springfield, Illinois 62712, USA.

9. The comma is used in letters and emails before the name.

   Example: Best wishes, Jane.

Choose the sentences without mistakes in punctuation.

• He said: "The weather is changeable here."
• Let's go to the party, if you are free on Saturday.
• They set up their business on Wednesday, February 28, 2019.
• My teacher, who was just three years older than me, was a master of speaking at public conferences.
• Mary, you are such a beautiful girl!
• However there was a contradiction between them.
• Sam opened the door but Mary wasn't in.
• There are many advantages of living in the city: entertainment facilities, different variants of accommodation and many job offers.
• Yahoo, I won the game!
• The film was rather boring, because of dull and shallow characters.