How to Make a List Into a Sentence

Step-by-Step Guide

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   Step 1: Let’s begin with a simple grocery list.

   Let’s say you’re sending your sister to the store for groceries.
   
   You make out this list: tomatoes cucumbers mangoes mushrooms ground beef chicken broth milk eggs rock salt
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   Step 2: Write down the subject and verb.

   To make that list into a sentence, begin with the person’s name and purpose, which is the subject and verb:
   Alex is going to the grocery store to buy… “Alex” is the subject, the person who is doing the action. “Is going” is the verb, what Alex is doing. , Separate them out with commas.
   
   For example:
   Alex is going to the grocery store to buy tomatoes, cucumbers, mangoes, mushrooms, ground beef, chicken broth, milk, eggs, and rock salt. , On the one hand, some people say it isn’t necessary.
   
   Others say it makes sentences clearer.
   
   For instance, if you were writing a list about ice cream flavors and you wanted chocolate ice cream and mint-flavored ice cream as two separate flavors, you might write:
   Please buy the ice cream flavors vanilla, strawberry, chocolate, and mint.
   
   If you leave out the comma before the “and,” it makes it sound like you want a single flavor, chocolate and mint ice cream.
   
   For that reason, it is more common to put the comma before the “and” in a series than to leave it out.
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   Step 3: Add in the list of items.

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   Step 4: Note that before the last item in the list

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   Step 5: you use “and.” Some grammarians debate whether the comma before the “and” is appropriate; in fact

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   Step 6: there is so much debate

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   Step 7: it has it’s own special name

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   Step 8: the serial comma or the Oxford comma.

Detailed Guide

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