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Which of these sentences is written correctly?

  1. Angela has three brothers, Mark, Adam, and Ryan.
  2. Angela has three brothers: Mark, Adam, and Ryan.
  3. Angela has three brothers Mark, Adam, and Ryan
MrHen
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  • Related: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/9343/how-to-punctuate-a-list-of-questions; http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/13484/what-punctuation-belongs-before-a-list. – Marthaª Apr 13 '11 at 19:11

3 Answers3

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Angela has three brothers: Mark, Adam, and Ryan.

That's the one to go with.

N.B. This is called the syntactical-descriptive function of the colon: it "introduces a description—in particular, makes explicit the elements of a set" (Wikipedia)

Robusto
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    The example with no punctuation is horrible by the way. :D – Alenanno Apr 13 '11 at 17:19
  • The comma before the and really bothers me :| – mplungjan Apr 13 '11 at 17:21
  • It bothers me too, even though I know it is right. – Kevin Apr 13 '11 at 17:23
  • @Kevin and mplungjan: There's a question for that. (^_^) – RegDwigнt Apr 13 '11 at 17:23
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    @mplungian: That's another issue. But while the "Oxford comma" may bother you, it's at least a negotiable stylistic point. – Robusto Apr 13 '11 at 17:25
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    I have it on good authority that the "Oxford comma" didn't even go to college. – The Raven Apr 13 '11 at 17:50
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    Robusto's answer is correct (of course), but just to add another possibility: you could use a dash, and write Angela has three brothers—Mark, Adam and Ryan. – psmears Apr 13 '11 at 18:10
  • By the way, just saying, I think in italian the last comma would be considered a mistake. I've always known it's like this, I guess I'd need to investigate deeper. – Alenanno Apr 13 '11 at 18:13
  • I was taught to use the comma when continuing a list and to skip it otherwise. A I recall, the example was a written list of people being invited to a party: John, Frank and Nancy, and Susan. John and Susan are singles, Frank and Nancy are a couple. Dropping the last comma in that case would be confusing. Keeping it then but dropping it for "John, Frank, Nancy, and Susan" would be inconsistent at best and confusing at worst. Not that what I was taught carries any weight. My real preference would be to write "Frank & Nancy", thus defusing the whole argument. – Ron Porter Apr 13 '11 at 20:11
  • :John, the Sinatras, and Susan? – Edwin Ashworth Jan 29 '13 at 20:44
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Angela has three brothers: Mark, Adam, and Ryan.

RegDwigнt
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judie
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  • Welcome to EL&U. Please edit your answer to explain why it is right and to provide at least one reliable citation. Thanks. – MetaEd Jan 29 '13 at 18:06
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In a series of three or more terms with a single conjunction, use a comma after each term except the last. With only a few exceptions, the serial comma clarifies any ambiguity when the meaning is not as simple as the example above. Clarity ought to be the objective in writing!

Kit Z. Fox
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Zach J.
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