comma before second ‘and’ [conjunction]: elements and equipments, and

C

cornetto

Member
Italy
Due to the storm, the construction suffers ruptures and collapse of non-structural elements and equipments, and significant damage to structural elements.

Theoretically, I should not put a comma before the last and. But I think that in this case it makes the sentence clearer.
What do you think about? Is the comma needed or not?


Thank you.
 
    • As you probably know, commas are a hot topic but I would put the comma there if I were writing this.

    On a different note, do you mean "suffered ruptures..." and do you intend for "equipments" to be plural?
     
    As Dimcl correctly said, there are a few different opinions as to the use of commas. But, I think you're right to use one in this case, since immediately before the comma, you are using the word "and" to link some nouns together.

    I don't think I've ever actually heard "equipments", and I'm not sure that you can use it like that at all, but I could be wrong. I would definitely just use 'equipment'.
     
    In a listing, a comma after the item before and is an "Oxford comma" or "Harvard comma".
    There are some/many who use these routinely - and others who never do.

    In this particular example, the list item before the and is a compound item. That makes the comma before the and almost essential to make the sentence clear.

    ... the construction suffers ruptures and collapse of non-structural elements and equipments, and significant damage to structural elements.

    I may be misreading the sentence, but I understand it as telling me there are two conseqences of the storm - identified by my colour-coding above.

    I suppose it is possible that there are three consequences:
    ... the construction suffers ruptures and collapse of non-structural elements and equipments, and significant damage to structural elements.
     
    panjandrum said:
    In a listing, a comma after the item before and is an "Oxford comma" or "Harvard comma".
    There are some/many who use these routinely - and others who never do.
    Click to expand...
    Actually, I am using the oxford comma in my thesis.


    panjandrum said:
    ... the construction suffers ruptures and collapse of non-structural elements and equipments, and significant damage to structural elements.


    I may be misreading the sentence, but I understand it as telling me there are two conseqences of the storm - identified by my colour-coding above.
    Click to expand...
    This is correct.
     
    Subjectively, I would write it like this:

    Due to the storm, the construction suffers from ruptures and the collapse of non-structural elements and equipment, as well as significant damage to structural elements.

    I'm not quite sure what you mean with the tense in this though. Does 'construction' refer to a 'construction process', or do you just mean a building (a construction)?
     
    RCA86 said:
    Subjectively, I would write it like this:

    Due to the storm, the construction suffers from ruptures and the collapse of non-structural elements and equipment, as well as significant damage to structural elements.

    I'm not quite sure what you mean with the tense in this though. Does 'construction' refer to a 'construction process', or do you just mean a building (a construction)?
    Click to expand...
    The second is true.

    Is it "suffer from"?
    Or just "suffer"?

    Thanks for the help so far.
     
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