You only use a comma when the words you are listing are not related.
Example: I needed a helmet, a safety vest, and food. Safety vest is not related to food so that's when you add a comma before the word and. But if it was: I needed an apple, banana and a pear- They are all related because they are all fruits= related.
Another answer:
If you are referring to lists of words, the use of the comma before the 'and' and the final item in the list is a matter of personal preference. It indicates where you would pause if you were speaking the sentence aloud, and has nothing to do with whether the items in the list are related. (If it did, how would you decide whether words were related? Apple, banana, and cheese - all food, but not all fruits?)
If you were speaking the two example sentences given by the previous contributor, you would be no more likely to pause between 'safety vest' and 'and food', than between 'banana' and 'and a pear'. Or to put it another way, you would be no less likely to pause between 'banana' and 'and a pear' than between 'safety vest' and 'and food'.
Commas, like other punctuation, are there to help us make ourselves clear. I always use that comma, which is known as the Oxford comma, because I would always pause before saying the 'and'. But that is a preference, not a rule.
no
No
no
Not necessarily. There is no word in English that requires a comma.
no
yes
No, a comma is not typically used before the word "apparently" at the end of a sentence.
You do not always need to use a comma with the word sobut if you do, it is best to only use the comma before the word. An example is "The travellers faced a long drive home, so they decided to stop at MacDonald's first."
Depending on what the sentence is about you may use a comma before 'called';however, in some instances you may not be allowed to place a comma before the word called.
No, a comma does not go before the word 'in'.
Yes, you can use a comma before the word "but" when it connects two independent clauses. For example: "I wanted to go to the store, but it started raining."
You do not typically use a comma directly before or after the word "but" when it is used as a conjunction to connect two independent clauses. However, you may use a comma before "but" when it is used to introduce a contrasting element in a sentence.