I recently had the misfortune of seeing a sign outside a chicken franchise that read hot, juicy, chicken. You can imagine my outrage!!!
It, of course, took us here at Language Lady to Comma Clues #2: Use Commas to Separate Two or More Describers (But Not Between the Describer and the Word Being Described!).
Two benchmarks that I teach for inserting commas between describers:
1. If you can reverse the order of the words that you are placing a comma between, and the phrase still makes sense, use a comma:
a. She had on that bright, beautiful dress. (She had on that beautiful, bright dress—YES…comma is needed.)
b. She had on that, bright dress. (She had on bright that dress–NO…comma is not needed.)
2. If you can put an AND in between the two words you are placing a comma between, and the phrase still makes sense, use a comma:
a. She had on that bright, beautiful dress. (She had on that bright and beautiful dress—YES…comma is needed.)
b. She on that, bright dress. (She had on that and bright dress—NO…comma is not needed.)
For those who like technical explanations, we teach that commas go between DESCRIPTIVE adjectives (bright, beautiful) but not between CLARIFYING adjectives (that, five, this–which are usually called something else anyway, like pronouns, etc.).
Watch me teach adjectives in my previous post!
For more on descriptive writing, creative writing, etc., check out my Write On, Mowgli; Write On, Peter Pan; or Write On, Beauty and Beast downloadable books!
