We usually use a comma between items in a list.
I am friends with Tom, Cathy, and Marie.
A comma was needed after each item in this list.
When we write a list of items, and those items already have commas in them, the list can get confusing.
That often happens if we are writing a list of cities and their states. Look at this confusing sentence:
I visited Chicago, Illinois, Tampa, Florida, and Portland, Oregon.
In this case, we need to separate the list items with semicolons, like this:
I visited Chicago, Illinois; Tampa, Florida; and Portland, Oregon.
The same thing happens if we use cities with countries. Place a comma between each city and its country. Use a semicolon between each item in the list.
We have friends in Rome, Italy; Munich, Germany; and Paris, France.
Use semicolons to separate the items in a list when the list items already contain commas.
▶It’s your turn. Place commas and semicolons into this sentence in the correct places. My dad is searching for a job in Columbus Ohio Houston Texas and Peoria Illinois. Did you put commas after the cities and a semicolon after Ohio and Texas? Good for you!