Chicago Manual of Style devotes 16 pages to the correct usage of the comma. I’m sure you’re familiar with its use with coordinate adjectives, transitional adverbs, appositive clauses, and participial phrases. I won’t insult you by repeating that information here. Instead, here are the most common errors in comma usage spotted around the Web.
Omitting a comma after city and state
When writing the name of a city followed by its state, most writers know to include the comma between the two, but often overlook the comma that’s required after the state name. Here’s how to punctuate a city, state combo correctly:
He knew he was washed up in Bath, Maine, when his show was scrubbed.
Show me the St. Louis, Missouri, map.
Omitting a comma after city and country
When writing a city name followed by the country, separate them with a comma, like this:
He got plastered in Paris, France, and broiled in London, England, last week
Omitting a comma after a month-day-year date
A complete date (consisting of a month, day, and year) requires a comma after the day and after the year.
She left the bank in Paris on July 1, 2008, for a job in Teller, Alaska.
Remember: If there’s a comma before the year, put a comma after the year.
Including a comma between a month and year
If you’re writing just a month and year (without a day), don’t separate them with a comma. And don’t include a comma after the year.
Her daughter April may return in June 2009 for the reunion.
Placing a comma outside quotation marks
Put a comma that follows a closing quotation mark inside the quote (in other words, before the ending quotation mark).
Her favorite movies are “First Wives Club,” “The Second Time Around,” and “The Last King of Scotland.”
In the U.S., commas and periods go inside the quotation marks. That’s the American way.
January 25, 2009 at 2:05 pm
Do you put a comma after the day, such as…..
Monday, January 25, 2009
thank you!
January 25, 2009 at 5:53 pm
Mary,
You should put a comma between the name of the day and the date, just like your example.
February 24, 2009 at 1:01 pm
What about referencing dates in contracts, etc. Should it be (a) this 24th day of February, 2009
(b) this 24th day of February 2009
February 24, 2009 at 2:25 pm
Mark,
I’m no legal expert (I don’t even play one on TV), but I can’t see a difference between a comma and no comma after the month, though if you place one after the month, then you’d need one after the year, too.
May 6, 2009 at 4:12 am
What if the month and the day are used without the year?
For example:
The meeting will be held on March 13 at the convention center.
May 6, 2009 at 8:59 am
Hi, Amy!
There’s no need for a comma in the situation you mention. Your example is correct as is!
May 7, 2009 at 5:45 pm
Do you put a comma after just the year at the beginning of a sentence? For example: In 1864, 234…
May 7, 2009 at 8:05 pm
It used to be a rule that a prepositional phrase (such as a phrase starting with “in”) at the beginning of a sentence should be followed by a comma. But over the last several decades, the trend has been to use fewer punctuation marks and the comma is no longer required after a brief prepositional phrase. However, you should use a comma if it helps avoid confusion or ambiguity. In your example, since the year is followed immediately by a number, I’d recommend a comma to help the reader discern the two numbers. But it wouldn’t be necessary in this sentence:
In 1864 Lincoln was re-elected.
August 19, 2009 at 7:23 am
Laura,
I know that it IS a rule, but WHY do we need to have a comma after a city/state pairing, as in: “Jon lives in Chicago, Illinois, and will never leave.”
I would think that could be written as “Jon lives in Chicago, Illinois and will never leave.”
Normally, I wouldn’t think it was needed, grammatically. What is the specific rule that requires that extra comma?
August 19, 2009 at 8:19 am
Most authorities on writing, including the “Chicago Manual of Style” and the “AP Stylebook” (which is the standard Yahoo! uses) require a comma after a city/state pair (unless the state is the last word in a sentence). Both style guides treat the state as a parenthetical that should be set off with commas.
October 3, 2009 at 6:42 pm
Are you sure you need a comma after the state if the city/state is modifying a noun? Take the example above:
“Show me the St. Louis, Missouri, map”
That sounds rather clumsy. For example, these make more sense to me:
“The Portland, Oregon monument was restored”
“65-year-old Dallas, Texas resident Bill Jones was arrested Friday”
I have no problem with commas injecting the state as its own parenthetical when its followed by a connecting word, but it seems rather clumsy to break apart the sentence with the second comma in the situation which I describe.
October 7, 2009 at 12:53 pm
In the date of a letter when only typing the month and the year, does a comma go between them? Example:
October, 2009
Mr. Joe Schmo
123 Any Street
Any town, USA….
October 7, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Barb,
There’s no need for the comma in the circumstance you mention. However, if you feel it is easier to read with a comma, it would be OK and no one would complain — not even me!
October 23, 2009 at 8:52 pm
I agree with Eric. I don’t believe there needs to be a comma after Missouri in the example above. It seems awkward to place a comma before a noun that way. The words “St. Louis, Missouri” seem to be modifiers of the noun map in that sentence, and a comma would not normally be placed between a noun/adjective.
October 26, 2009 at 9:05 am
On 10/24/2009, I was married. Does there need to be a comma after the date since it is not in the form of October 24, 2009?
November 20, 2009 at 7:10 am
On the 14th of November 2009, the house was dedicated. Should there be a comma after 2009?