Linguist Forum
Specializations => Morphosyntax => Topic started by: Natalia on February 08, 2017, 04:29:07 AM
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I would like to ask you a question if I should put a comma before 'etc.', as in:
"Using songs, we can teach vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, etc."
I am writing British English and always use a comma before 'etc.' (I also note that many British authors use it in their books), but recently I have read that it is against BrE convention. It is allegedly a matter of whether you use the Oxford comma or not.
So, if I do not use the Oxford comma, but I do use the comma before 'etc.', is it fine?
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I have no idea about British English conventions. But I always use a comma (in American English), and I usually see it that way.
It literally means 'and others' (et cetera) in Latin, but I don't think of it as 'and' (so it's not an Oxford comma to me). As an example:
"I like apples, bananas and oranges, etc."
To me it's more like an afterthought, necessarily introduced by a comma.
But as I said, I don't know about British English conventions.
The only time I might consider not using a comma would be for a single word: "What is your favorite food? Pizza etc." - but I think I'd still probably use a comma there too.
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From what I know, the Oxford comma is less commonly used in British English than in American English. I thought that if I didn't use the Oxford comma, it wasn't right to use a comma before 'etc.' (which is what I actually do).