Using Commas in English

I'm learning now (about) how to use commas in English. The rules are a bit different than in Portuguese, and I guess /you have/English has/ fewer rules than /us/Portuguese/.

The first difference I noticed was that /you use/English uses/ a comma before “and” and between items in a list including the last, but /we don't/Portuguese doesn’t/. For example, "I bought apples, tomatoes, and potatoes." In Portuguese, it would be_ "Eu comprei maçãs, tomates e batatas."

/You use/English uses/ a comma when /you have/there are/ two adjectives, but /we don't/Portuguese doesn’t/. Like, "Joana is a kind, smart girl." In Portuguese, it would be "Joana é uma garota gentil e esperta.” /We just use/Portuguese uses/ a comma if /we have/there are/ more than two adjectives /in the sentence/in a row/.

And, finally, /you use/English uses/ a comma to introduce a direct quote in the text, but we use /two points/a colon/.

It seems easy, but my brain automatically wants to use the Portuguese rules. Did I use /yours/the English rules/ correctly in this text?

Notes - (North American English)

Book and essay titles

first word capitalized; all other words capitalized unless the word is an article or preposition

less/fewer (North American English - I’ve seen different usage in British newspaper articles)

less is for non-countable nouns - There is less milk than yesterday.

fewer is for countable nous - There are fewer apples than yesterday.

Last comma is optional - Newspapers omit the last comma.  

apples, bananas, and oranges

apples, bananas and oranges

Using the comma in English

I'm learning now about how to use commas in English. The rules are a bit different than in Portuguese and I guess you have less rules than us.

The first difference I noticed was that you use a comma before "and" in an itemised list, but we don't. For example, "I bought apples, tomatoes, and potatoes".* In Portuguese it would be, "Eu comprei maçãs, tomates e batatas".

You also use a comma when you have two adjectives, but we don't. Eg., "Joana is a kind, smart girl". In Portuguese it would be "Joana é uma garota gentil e esperta". We just use a comma if we have more than two adjectives in the sentence.

And, finally, you use a comma to introduce a direct quote in the text, but we use two points.**

It seems easy, but my brain automatically wants to use the Portuguese rules. Did I use yours correctly in this text?

*I had thought that one says ... tomatoes and potatoes.

*do you mean, eg.--- he said "I know nothing about it" ? Normally, I would not use a comma here.

very well written and clear, but if I were you I would check the accuracy of these rules. The two above contradict what I know of English. Maybe the rules are flexible?

There are actually a few more places where you would put a comma. 

Using comma in English

I'm learning now about how to use commas in English. The rules are a bit different than Portuguese, and I guess you have less rules than us.

The first difference I noticed was that you use comma before "and" at items list, but we don't. For example, "I bought apples, tomatoes, and potatoes." In Portuguese it would be "Eu comprei maçãs, tomates e batatas."

You also use comma when you have two adjectives, but we don't. Like, "Joana is a kind, smart girl." In Portuguese it would be "Joana é uma garota gentil e esperta." We just use coma if we have more than two adjectives in the sentence.

And, finally, you use comma to introduce a direct quote in the text, but we use two points.

It seems easy, but my brain automatically wants to use the Portuguese rules. Did I use yours correctly in this text?

There are a few rules that I always use when using commas

1. If there are two clauses, then there needs to be a comma in between them. In other words, if a sentence can be broken down into two (or more) separate sentences, there needs to be a comma. For example, "The rules are a bit different than Portuguese and I guess you have less rules than us." This could be written as two sentences, so a comma is needed between the words "Portuguese" and "and."

2. The first comma you mentioned is called the Oxford comma, and it's optional. So, you could just use the Portuguese rule :)

3. Commas actually don't come before direct quotes unless after a conjunction like "for example" in the underlined sentence. So, the underlined sentence would need a comma, but the italicized one would not. 

Also, periods and commas always come inside the quotation marks. "In that case, a quote would look like this." 

I'm sorry if this is a lot, but your English seems to be very good. Commas rules can be very simple or very, very difficult, so just keep practicing! Eventually, it will become easier. And if you misplace a comma here or there, that's also completely fine. Native speakers struggle with commas all the time haha. I hope you are able to understand. If you have any questions, please ask!