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A Comma Separates Locations, Dates, Numbers

City, state, country

The key is to remember that a comma separates: states and countries from cities; months and days from years; and thousands in numbers.

Month and day, year

The key is to remember that a comma separates: states and countries from cities; months and days from years; and thousands in numbers.

Thousands

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,

The key is to remember that a comma separates.

For mailing addresses, the post office prefers no punctuation in the city, state, zip code sequence. A comma between the city and state is acceptable, but no comma separates the state from the zip code.

The post office also prefers the two-letter codes for the states with two (2) spaces before the zip code.

Commas are not inserted in street addresses.

When writing narrative involving a city and state/province/parish, the larger unit should be separated from the city by a comma. If the sentence continues, a comma separates the state/province/parish from what follows.

If the narrative also includes a country, the country should be set off with commas.

If including the zip code, do not use a comma before the zip code.

Examples:

  • >He moved to 3015 72nd Street, Omaha, Nebraska, after living in Boise. He was born in Utah.
    • (No comma in the house number)
    • (City = “Omaha,” comma, state = “Nebraska,” comma. Only city, “Boise,” no comma. Only state, “Utah,” no comma)
  • The letter addressed to Washington, DC 20004, was missent to Washington, Arkansas 81862, a week before the hurricane.
    • (City = “Washington,” comma, state = “DC,” no comma before zip code, comma)
    • (Because “DC” is an acronym for “District of Colombia,” it should not have periods.)
  • Kalama, Washington, has a population of 2,344.
    • (City = Kalama, comma, state = “Washington,” comma. Number over 999)
  • The letter addressed to 15 Nelson Street, London, England, arrived in two days from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
    • (Address = “15 Nelson Street,” comma, city = “London,” comma, country = “England,” comma. City = “Melbourne,” comma, state = “Victoria,” comma, country = “Australia.”

BUT

  • Is there really a town named Podunk in Minnesota?
    • (city and state not together, so no comma)
 

Dates

A comma separates the month and day from the year.

When writing out a date with the month, the day, and the year, put a comma after the day to distinguish between the two numbers, day and year. Unless at the end of a sentence, another comma follows the year.
No comma is needed if using the day first, then the month, then the year or simply the month and year.

Systems:

  •  USA: July 4, 1976 – Month day (comma) year (comma or period if end of sentence)
  •  The rest of the world: 4 July 1976 – Day month year (no commas)
  •  April 2018 – Month year (no commas)
  •  April 3 – Day month (no year, no commas)

Examples:

  • On Independence Day, July 4, 1976, we celebrated 200 years of the birth of this nation.
    • (month day, comma, year, comma + the rest of the sentence)
  • Her letter arrived August 20, 2018, even though it was postmarked January 12, 2015.
    • (month day, comma, year, comma + the rest of the sentence + month day, comma, year, period to mark end of sentence)
  • All registered Thoroughbred horses share the same birthday, January 1 of the year of their birth.
    • (month and day. No year so no comma.)
  • Each year Mexico celebrates the victory over Napoleon’s forces on 5 May 1862.
    • (day month year, no commas)
  • The monthly amount of rainfall in April 2018 totaled less than an inch.
    • (month year, no commas)

Abbreviations for dates

  • AD is positive (AD 1500 = +1500, our side of year 0).
  • BC is negative (1500 BC = -1500, before year 0).
  • BCE or B.C.E. (Before Common Era) is also negative (1500 BCE = -1500).
  • CE or C.E. (Common Era) is positive, on our side of history (1500 CE = +1500).
  • AD or A.D. Anno Domini (after the year 0) is often abbreviated as AD or A.D. Anno Domini means “In the year of our Lord,” so it precedes the date (in the year of our Lord 2018.)
  • BC or B.C. can be considered “Before Christ,” so the year comes first. (1518 BC = 1518 [years] before Christ.

If referring to current time, AD precedes the year. (This year is AD 2018.)

The other abbreviations referring to time follow the year.

Numbers (United States)

With the exception of date years (1947, 2018),  for clarification, it is a good idea to use a comma to indicate numbers higher than 999, marking them off in groups of three.

Examples (US):

  • 1,000
  • 2,085
  • 15,784,921
  • 1,234,567,890,987,654,321

In the US system, a period indicates a decimal number.

Examples (US):

  • 1.001
  • 2.085   ⇓
  • 615,784.921   ⇓
  • 1,234,567,890.987654321

(Fortunately, very few numbers have this many decimal places. Unfortunately, there is no commonly-accepted method of organizing them.)

 

Numbers spelled out

Numbers less than 10 (or 20, but be consistent) should be spelled out.
Numbers at the beginning of a sentence should be spelled out, regardless of their size.

Examples:

  • The tree sheltered three bison.
  • Three bison stood under the tree.
  • The tree sheltered 3,482 ants.
  • Three thousand, four hundred eighty-two ants hid under the tree.

When a sentence contains both smaller and larger numbers, be consistent.

  • The tree sheltered three bison and three thousand, four hundred eighty-two ants.
    • (This is a little clumsy.)
  • The tree sheltered 3 bison and 3,482 ants.
    • (Much better.)

Credits: Photo by Tabea Damm, Photo by Estée Janssens, Photo by Jen Theodore on Unsplash


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