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Hi, Ed Vance!
I read your message from 27.06.2024 15:25

 AH>> It's a matter of style, not an absolute requirement, and some
 AH>> people recommend using it only when it's needed to avoid
 AH>> confusion: Through the window I saw John, a basketball player and
 AH>> a friend of mine. What is this friend's name, and is he a
 AH>> basketball player? I have no idea. I found the example in
 AH>> Wikipedia... I didn't personally invent it. I asked for coffee
 AH>> with a breakfast of pancakes, bacon & eggs, hot buttered toast and
 AH>> hash brown potatoes. At 5WPM I can type an added comma without
 AH>> having to fret about whether someone from ElseWhere will think I
 AH>> buttered the hash browns *after* they were cooked. For me it's
 AH>> easier to use the Oxford comma routinely in such a list than to go
 AH>> into detail about why buttering such things on the plate may not
 AH>> work. If Denis asks I'll do the latter, but other folks may not
 AH>> care.: - Q BTW, here's a joke Dallas found shortly before your
 AH>> message arrived: I like cooking my family and my pets. -- commas
 AH>> save lives I suppose you could in many cases. But as Anton says,
 AH>> in English it is generally considered desirable to avoid
 AH>> unnecessary verbiage.... [chuckle].

 EV> When I read Dallas's joke I thought about the phrase: "Love your
 EV> kids but belt them in the car."

You can note, however, that when you speak such things you cannot put a comma
at all. ;-)

 EV> Hmmm, should I had put a period after the ending quote mark?

I read that in the British English they put such a comma outside the quotation
marks, but in the American English they are inside.

Bye, Ed!
Alexander Koryagin
english_tutor 2024

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