Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[fw]

I think a comma is necessary after the word �Italy� below. Or does it depend on the style and, in some style, is a comma not necessary here?

Pompeii, Italy was once a busy city of 22,000 people.

What do you think?

[dragn]

No comma should go after the word Italy (before it, yes�after it, no). Why would you do that? (Wrong! See my follow-up post below!)

Pompeii, Italy is the subject of the sentence, and the only two reasons I can think of to put a comma after the subject are to place a clause or an appositive after it.

Pompeii, Italy, which was buried by a volcanic eruption in 79 AD, was once a busy city of 22,000 people.

Pompeii, Italy, the first stop on my tour, was once a busy city of 22,000 people.

None of this applies here, so I am hard pressed to imagine why you want to place a comma after Italy.

Actually, I wouldn't write either of these two sentences this way. The second comma tends to bog things down, and so I would definitely drop the word Italy. It's completely unnecessary anyway.

Greg

[fw]

Thank you, Greg, for your reply.

How do you say to the following caption, under a photo, from today�s newspaper?
Amazonas State legislator and television show host Wallace Souza speaks to reporters during a news conference in Manaus, Brazil, on Tuesday.

[dragn]

Well, what do you know. I did a little research and I learned something new today. Apparently it is correct in newspaper writing (and probably in formal and academic writing as well) to place a second comma after the country when you write City, Country. I didn't know that.

So, feel free to ignore my first post.

Greg