A Sentence Must have the following five items- 1. Capital letter to start the sentence 2. A subject (also called a noun) 3. A predicate (also called a verb) 4. Punctuation 5. A complete idea

1. Commas separate items in a list 1. Commas separate items in a list. If there are three or more items in a list they are separated by commas. Example: Bob, Susie, and Mason are all my friends. INCORRECT USAGE Bob, and Susie are my friends.

2. Commas come before FANBOYS. (For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So). FANBOYS are conjunctions that join two complete sentences. Example: I like pizza, and I like ice cream. INCORRECT USAGE I like pizza, and ice cream.

3.  Commas separate out extra information in the middle of a complete sentence. The extra information does not have to be in the sentence in order for the sentence to be complete. If you lifted this extra information out, you would still have a complete sentence. Example: Mrs. Pannell, the coolest teacher ever, is going to give us homework if we do not complete our assignment in class.

Because, Before, If, Since) 4. Commas come after AAAWWUBBIS phrases. (After, Although, As, When, While, Until, Because, Before, If, Since) AAAWWUBBIS words are conjunctions, but they do not combine two complete sentences. The AAWWUBBIS phrase will be an incomplete sentence and the phrase that follows the commas will be a complete sentence. Example: Before the rain comes, I would like to put my bike in the garage.