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Commas are often used to enclose parenthetical words and phrases within a sentence (i.e., information that is not essential to the meaning of the sentence). Such phrases are both preceded and followed by a comma, unless that would result in a doubling of punctuation marks or the parenthetical is at the start or end of the sentence.
"A comma goes before 'and' or 'or' in a series of three or more: Sn, K, Na, and Li lines are invisible." Plain English Handbook, Revised Edition (McCormick-Mathers Publishing Co., 1959), § 483, p. 78 "Use commas to separate the items in a series of words, phrases, or short clauses: The farmer sold corn, hay, oats, potatoes, and wheat."
The name of a number 10 3n+3, where n is greater than or equal to 1000, is formed by concatenating the names of the numbers of the form 10 3m+3, where m represents each group of comma-separated digits of n, with each but the last "-illion" trimmed to "-illi-", or, in the case of m = 0, either "-nilli-" or "-nillion". [17]
For example, "Stop!" has the punctuation inside the quotation marks because the word "stop" is said with emphasis. However, when using "scare quotes", the comma goes outside. Other examples: Arthur said the situation was "deplorable". (The full stop (period) is not part of the quotation.)
The phrase a great singer, set off by commas, is both an appositive and a parenthesis. A dog (not a cat) is an animal that barks. The phrase not a cat is a parenthesis. My umbrella (which is somewhat broken) can still shield the two of us from the rain. The phrase which is somewhat broken is a parenthesis. Please, Gerald, come here!
So too are the thousands, with the number of thousands followed by the word "thousand". The number one thousand may be written 1 000 or 1000 or 1,000; larger numbers are written for example 10 000 or 10,000 for ease of reading. European languages that use the comma as a decimal separator may correspondingly use the period as a thousands separator.
If you’ve ever found yourself confused about the difference between a dash and a hyphen, and when to use a hyphen, you’re far from alone. Now that you’ve got that rule straightened out ...
The question comma has a comma instead of the dot at the bottom of a question mark, while the exclamation comma has a comma in place of the point at the bottom of an exclamation mark. These were intended for use as question and exclamation marks within a sentence, a function for which normal question and exclamation marks can also be used, but ...