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For example:

  1. a, b, c, x, y, and z.
  2. a, b, c, x, y or z.

Are there any circumstances where it would be acceptable to omit "and" or "or" and simply write: "a, b, c, x, y, z"?

0129uy5151
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2 Answers2

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Outside of math and primary classes, I have never seen anyone not used those with these words, unless you were to use "etc" or "...".

I say math because if one needs to describe a set of data, one would omit the use of these words. Here is an example.

peter d.
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  • Actually, I think it's fine to write "Wear a warm color such as red, pink, peach." – Yosef Baskin Jan 06 '20 at 02:01
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    Hello, Peter. For a good answer on ELU, linked, attributed references are very much preferred. Answers lacking such come across as just opinion or parochial knowledge, and may be so. – Edwin Ashworth Jan 06 '20 at 15:26
  • As Yosef demonstrates, this answer can be disproved by finding just one single counterexample. Like the official national motto of France, say. Or that of Gambia. Or that of El Salvador. Or that of the Ukraine. Or that of Louisiana. – RegDwigнt Jan 06 '20 at 21:44
  • hi Edwin, Thanks for the kind notice. I am a newbie. I find this rule a good idea. I ditched most of my heavy grammar 3rd year Ling. course books after a 12,000 km move! The Chere" linked url is not sufficient or you just missed it? I forgot about the possibility of a string of synonyms not needing a conjunction. I would vote for the other answer, but I am not worth enough yet! lol – peter d. Jan 07 '20 at 04:31
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The conjunction can be omitted if the series is perfectly clear without it. Words Into Type (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1974) gives an example: “We noticed the misery, the suffering, the hardships, that lay hidden in the neighborhood.” Words Into Type says that when using that construction, you should have a comma after the final item in the series (in the example, hardships). If the whole sentence were “We noticed the misery, the suffering, the hardships” I would say that it works without the conjunction.

Literalman
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  • No link available again? – Edwin Ashworth Jan 06 '20 at 15:27
  • Words Into Type is a book. To my knowledge it has never been available online. I looked in the guidelines for references in answers and did not see anything forbidding answers that come from books. If books are not allowed as references in answers, I will refrain from citing any in the future, but maybe they could be explicitly banned in the guidelines for answering questions? – Literalman Jan 06 '20 at 15:36
  • Words into Type is available online. – Edwin Ashworth Jan 06 '20 at 15:38
  • But is it OK to cite a book or not? I don't read it online. I have a copy on my desk that I use daily. – Literalman Jan 06 '20 at 15:42
  • The Help Center has: 'Provide context for links. Links to external resources are encouraged, but please add context around the link so your fellow users will have some idea what it is and why it’s there. Always quote the most relevant part of an important link, in case the target site is unreachable or goes permanently offline.' If the material is available online, a link enables others to check that a quote is accurate, complete, correctly contextualised ... as well as authentic. A quote from a book that many won't have is of course not wrong per se, but less of an endorsement. – Edwin Ashworth Jan 06 '20 at 19:48
  • If 'and' and/or 'or' is omitted, the sentence will look inconclusive. – Ram Pillai Jan 07 '20 at 02:15