Commas, 8 Basic Uses

Comma, as defined by the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary, is the mark (,) used in writing to separate parts of a sentence showing a slight pause, or to separate the various single items in a list. Although we have been seeing this mark forever, it is sometimes confusing whether to use a comma or not. Generally, you might not care about this and handle it with a who-cares attitude, but if you are getting prepared for an IELTS or a TOEFL test, or regularly write formal emails at work, you had better start caring. Anyway, the good news is that to better understand the use of the comma, you can begin by learning the following eight basic uses: