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It's back to the Comma Rules with #4: When Multiple Adjectives Describe the Same Noun. Adjectives are like chocolate candy: it's hard to stop at one! But when your sentence contains multiple adjectives, how do you separate them? To find out, let's look at a few examples. 

Consider the following sentence, with adjectives bolded:

The fat and lazy ​cat didn't budge from the sofa all day. 

That's technically correct, but AND deserves a break now and then. If we let AND walk away from this sentence, we can put a COMMA in her place. With that change, the sentence now looks like this: 

The fat, lazy cat didn't budge from the sofa all day. (Much better!)

To reinforce this rule, let's look at one more sentence both ways:

The fast and sleek race car blew past us. 
The fast, sleek race car whizzed past us. 

Notice how we can switch the adjectives in both of these sentences without changing the meaning? That's how we know to add AND or a COMMA. 

When adjectives can't be switched, no AND or COMMA is needed. Here are two examples:

The sprightly old man is still running 5Ks at 90.
You should wear comfortable dress ​shoes to the party. 

Thank you for reading A Spoonful of Grammar! In the spirit of keeping my grammar advice short, sweet, and easily digestible, spoonfuls will be now be posted once a week on Sundays. 

Sincerely,
​Laura Fineberg Cooper

I'm tickled pink to introduce Comma Rule #3: Using Commas to Separate Items in a Series. I am the star, after all!! BUT tried to talk, but the poor dear lost his nerve.

Thanks for taking charge, AND! Will you please explain what a series is?

Why, certainly! A series is three or more items. These items can be single words, phrases, and more. Make sure you separate these items by commas and insert yours truly before the last item. Occasionally, I'll allow OR to be used as well.

Can you show us some examples?

Gladly! Because I'm so generous, I'll actually show you four. 
1) Mary's favorite colors are purple, yellow, and blue.
2) Jeremy enjoyed skiing, skating, and swimming. 
3) I looked under the bed, inside my closet, and on my dresser, but my book is still missing.
4) Honor Society requirements include earning stellar grades, displaying good conduct, and performing community service. 

I see BUT found the courage to sneak in after all. Will you allow OR to be featured in a sentence?

I suppose I could go powder my nose. OR! You're up!
5) Stan wasn't sure if he wanted pizza, sushi, or pasta for dinner. 

Thanks! I couldn't help but notice that in each sentence, a comma was placed before AND and OR. That's called a SERIAL or OXFORD COMMA, and some people consider it optional. I vote for using it, as it lends clarity to every sentence.

I agree! But I will make one concession. It seems that newspapers and magazines prefer to leave out the final comma. I wish to stress, however, that I deserve to be introduced by the SERIAL COMMA in EVERY OTHER CASE. 

Bravo, AND! You truly are a star. I also notice that all your examples exhibit excellent PARALLELISM -​ one of the most useful grammar rules of all. It's so useful (for writing, speeches, and for the SAT), that I'll take a brief break from comma rules and discuss PARALLELISM in the next spoonful. Thanks again!

Sincerely,
Laura Fineberg Cooper

I wish my subscribers and readers a wonderful Passover/Easter holiday weekend!!

To usher in this spoonful, here is a delightful poem by Douglas Florian called "COMMAS"!
Do commas have mommas
Who teach them to pause,
Who comfort and calm them,
And clean their sharp claws?
Who tell them short stories
Of uncommon commas
And send them to bed
In their comma pajamas?

​Rules about commas are so important, reviewing them one at a time is the best way to make sure they stick. Without further ado, here is Comma Rule #2!

WHEN A FANBOY JOINS A COMPLETE SENTENCE TO A SENTENCE FRAGMENT, NO COMMA IS REQUIRED BEFORE THE FANBOY. 

STEP #1: What is a SENTENCE FRAGMENT? 
* It can't stand on its own: it is not a complete sentence. 
* Some lack a subject, verb, or both: you'll be left wondering who, what, when, where, which, how, and/or why. 
* (Other fragments have a subject and verb, but are incomplete without leaning on complete sentences. Known as DEPENDENT CLAUSES, these do not require FANBOYS as connectors. As such, we will save them for a different spoonful.)

STEP #2: Five SENTENCE FRAGMENTS with questions in parentheses
1) my book collection (What about it? Anyone want to swap books?)
2) visit one or two of the beaches (Who? When? Which?)
3) earned ten minutes of extra recess on Friday (How? Who?)
4) dreamed of riding it (Who? What?)
5) go out for a fancy dinner (Who? Ooh! Please invite me!)

STEP #3: Five COMPLETE SENTENCES (AKA INDEPENDENT CLAUSES)
1) I need a personal library.
2) John wanted to go on a studio tour in Los Angeles.
3) Miss Martin's class behaved nicely all week. 
4) Rachel stared at the beautiful bike.
5) Do you want to catch a movie tonight?

STEP #4: Connect with FANBOYS (COMPLETE SENTENCES go first) 
1) I need a personal library for my book collection.
2) John wanted to go on a studio tour in Los Angeles and visit one or two of the beaches.
3) Miss Martin's class behaved nicely all week and earned ten minutes of extra recess on Friday. 
4) Raven stared at the beautiful bike and dreamed of riding it. 
5) Do you want to catch a movie tonight or go out for a fancy dinner?
 
There's no question that AND is the most popular of the FANBOYS, hence three of the sentences above used it. Did you notice that BUT, SO, and YET weren't in any of the sample sentences? That's because they act differently. More on that in the next spoonful...

Thank you for reading A Spoonful of Grammar! The FANBOYS and I truly appreciate it. 

Sincerely,
Laura Fineberg Cooper

laurafcooper.com/my-grammar-blog
[email protected]

Say a big hello to the FANBOYS of grammar: FOR, AND, NOR, BUT, OR, YET, and SO.

Their official names are coordinating conjunctions. It's no wonder they prefer to be called FANBOYS! 



The FANBOYS may look harmless, but don't be fooled: they have the tendency to muscle into unsuspecting sentences. Unfortunately, they delight in causing comma confusion wherever they land. To clear some of that confusion, I'll review the comma rules one at a time. 

COMMA RULE #1: Always put a comma before a FANBOY if it's joining two complete sentences together.

Let's start with two simple sentences, both standing alone nicely.

Sentence #1: It's raining cats and dogs.
Sentence #2: I can't find my umbrella. 

Now let's use AND to combine them into one. Do we need a comma before AND? YES! YES! YES!

Sentence #3: 
It's raining cats and dogs, and I can't find my umbrella. 

In grammar, Sentence #3 gets a fancy name all it's own: a COMPOUND sentence. If you write or see a sentence with a FANBOY, ask yourself this question: could I break this into two separate sentences? If the answer is YES, put a comma before the FANBOY! If NO...stay tuned for the next spoonful, which will also feature a funny poem by Doug Florian. 

That's it for this spoonful. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. You can comment right here or email me at [email protected].

Sincerely,
Laura Fineberg Cooper

​www.laurafcooper.com/my-grammar-blog 

Since Spoonful #7 let SEMICOLONS speak, it's only fair that COLONS get their chance in #8. After all, COLONS don't like being confused with SEMICOLONS either! They're just way more polite about it. 

ME: Welcome, COLONS! We're all happy to learn from you. 

COLONS: Thank you for the warm welcome. We're happy to educate you all. Our main goal is to distinguish between FORMAL and INFORMAL uses of COLONS.  

ME: Let's start with INFORMAL, or casual uses, if you don't mind. 

COLONS: Certainly! Notice how we often appear after introductory titles and headings? Just because we're beautiful, everyone sprinkles us around with abandon. They could just as easily use commas, dashes, or leave off punctuation entirely. 
​
ME: I admit to using COLONS freely. You are quite attractive!
Grocery List:       Dear Eric:      To the Editor: 

COLONS: All informally acceptable. But now let's discuss FORMAL uses, shall we? 

ME: Of course.

COLONS: In FORMAL documents like published reports, research papers, and the SAT, we must follow a complete sentence. We can introduce a list of items or ingredients or introduce a particularly interesting or startling fact. Below I will show some FORMAL examples. 

#1) The ingredients for chocolate chip cookies are as follows: flour, butter, baking powder, vanilla extract, and semisweet chocolate chips. 

​#2) Don't forget to pack the following items for the camping trip: a sleeping bag, underwear, socks, a change of clothes, and a warm jacket. (A pillow is optional.) 

#3) Entering the Field Museum in Chicago, we couldn't believe our eyes: a Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton named Sue towered over our heads. (Recently, we learned the skeleton was moved bone-by-bone to a new exhibition space within the museum.) 

#4) There's only sport for me: alligator wrestling! (I know you're impressed.)

ME: I hope you don't mind me noting a similarity you share with semicolons: words following COLONS and SEMICOLONS aren't capitalized (unless the words start with a capital letter.)

COLONS: True. You might also say we both follow complete sentences. But don't get our purposes mixed up! 

ME: Thank you for those wonderful examples. I'd like to add a piece of advice targeted to SAT takers: what thrills one person may not thrill you. In the SAT Writing Section, you aren't being asked to judge if a particular sentence is thrill-worthy. They will also try to trick you by switching COLONS for SEMICOLONS. Don't be fooled!

That's it for COLONS! Next up: the small but mighty FANBOYS.

I hope you're finding my grammar blog enjoyable and helpful. If so, please share with your friends, family, students, and colleagues!

Thank you,
Laura Fineberg Cooper

www.laurafcooper.com/my-grammar-blog
[email protected]