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Peru flagLarissa Reategui
Learning Article : 9 Differences Between Spanish And English Punctuation

Discuss the Article : 9 Differences Between Spanish And English Punctuation

9 Differences Between Spanish And English Punctuation

You study vocab, you study grammar, but do study punctuation? Whether you write spaces or commas in your numbers, written Spanish and English have some slight differences for you to perfect!

Comments · 18

8

Hi Larissa,

Very interesting  and useful article for both English and Spanish learners. Thank you. However, I frowned a bit over your advice to put commas before "and" in a list in English.

I am English and was educated here in England. I was taught never to put a comma before "and" and "or" in a list. I researched this and it seems to be a difference between American and English "English". (Yes, another one just to confuse everyone!)

So I would write: "For students learning English, trying learn all the differences between American and English "English" must be difficult, confusing, infuriating and frustrating."

Take a look at this site which confirms this:

http://www.thewritingsite.org/british-english-vs-american-english/

Best wishes,

Christine

3
An interesting article. However, as a native English speaker from England, I was taught never to use a comma before 'and' when using a serial comma.
2
Hi Larissa, thank you for the article! It's not quite correct to say a comma is always required before using "and" or "or", in British English we do not use this comma and I believe it is acceptable not to use it when using American English also. Also worth mentioning the rule only applies to lists with more than 3 items. Check out what Grammarly has to say on the matter: https://www.grammarly.com/blog/comma-before-and/

2
English speaker from Australia here. I was also taught that the comma before 'and' was incorrect. However, it is a very common occurrence to write that way in the USA. That is probably where you are getting this from?
2
Muchas gracias Larissa, el artículo es muy útil.

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