Talk:Serial comma

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This article is written in British English with Oxford spelling (colour, realize, organization, analyse; note that -ize is used instead of -ise) and some terms may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

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This article doesn't represent a worldwide view. Which other languages either prescribe or permit, and which prohibit, the use of the serial comma? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 31.192.197.247 (talk) 18:37, 10 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

That's exactly what I came to this article to find out. Can speakers of languages other than English contribute their knowledge? Snugglepuss (talk) 20:44, 10 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

There should be a discussion of the grammatical issues involved. If for instance you consider the first example, the presumably intended meaning is "Dedicated to my parents and Mother Teresa and the Pope". If all of the conjunctions are left in place, there is no possibility of ambiguity, and it is at least arguable that in legislative contexts this should be the rule. The result may appear a bit clumsy, but at least it is unambiguous.

If an appositional phrase is required, then extra commas can be added to indicate the grouping: "Dedicated to my parents John and Jane, and Mother Teresa, and the Pope.

If no ambiguity can result, all except the last conjunction can be elided and replaced by commas. "Dedicated to Tom and Dick and Harry" can thus be modified to "Dedicated to Tom, Dick and Harry". Of course the last conjunction cannot be elided because it would then produce an ambiguity as to which conjunction was in fact elided. "Dedicated to Tom, Dick, Harry" would not make it clear whether "and" or "or" had been elided, although in this particular example "or" would not make sense.

However in a case like "This book must be published in English, French, Latin", elided "and"s would imply a different meaning from elided "or"s.

In the normal case where commas replace elided conjunctions, there is no grammatical justification for inserting a comma before the last un-elided conjunction, because nothing has been elided there. — Preceding unsigned comment added by ~2026-11880-09 (talk) 07:58, 23 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]