Language Arts Grade Five

Unit Ten, Lesson Four: Commas in Lists

  1. band
  2. stand
  3. random
  4. ground
  5. sound
  6. ignore
  7. vine
  8. vivid
  9. visit
  10. vista
  1. panoramic
  2. view
  3. altitude
  4. scenic
  5. trail
  6. organic
  7. dioxide
  8. national
  9. forest
  10. crest
Commas in Lists

Many times lists are included within a sentence. Commas are used to separate the items in the list. Here's an example: 


	Mary packed her books, some paper, pencils, and her calculator.
This sentence states that Mary packed four items. Each item in the list is separated by a comma. Here is another example: 

	Bart sold apples, peaches, pears, lemons, and limes at his fruit stand.
This time the list within the sentence includes five items. Notice that the word "and" is used just before the last item, but no where else within the list. Again the items in the list are separated by commas.

Inspect the following sentence: 


	Joe likes baseball, basketball football, and soccer.
Where is there a comma missing? After which word should a comma be placed? ANSWER: The comma should be placed after the word "basketball" as shown here: 

	Joe likes baseball, basketball, football, and soccer.

Click here to go to next page