Adjective, Adjective, Comma
There are many, many, many, many, many (we will talk about that one later in this post) comma rules. Several years ago, when I was teaching, I noticed that in the Common Core standards for the grade I was teaching, the use of the “comma between two adjectives before the same noun” was one of the very few rules spelled out. I had never considered that particular comma rule very significant — but I guess I was wrong, at least as far as the educational powers-that-be were concerned.
What do we mean by two adjectives before a noun?
Bright blue dress
Old torn shirt
Ambitious intelligent person
Cozy crowded room
New striped shirt
Sometimes you put a comma between the two adjectives, and sometimes you don’t. What is the rule?
If both adjectives describe the noun, use a comma between the adjectives. But if the first adjective describes the second adjective — or the idea of both the second adjective and the noun together — do not use a comma.
Bright blue dress
Old, torn shirt
Ambitious, intelligent person
Cozy, crowded room
New striped shirt
How can you tell? If it isn’t obvious, the best way to check is 1) See if you can put “and” between the two adjectives. 2) You can even remake the sentence for purposes of testing out the adjectives by making them a clause at the end of the sentence:
Bright and blue dress
That dress, which is bright and blue…
That doesn’t really make sense. The dress is blue, and the blue is bright. Bright is really describing the type of blue, not really just the dress. So, no comma here.
Old and torn shirt
My shirt, which is old and torn.
That one makes sense with the and, so you would use a comma. One more…
Ambitious and intelligent person
We need to hire someone who is ambitious and intelligent.
That one makes sense with and, so use a comma.
Here are a few other things concerning this comma rule:
1 If the sentence already contains the word and, of course you use no commas. We need to hire a hardworking and ambitious employee.
2. The same rules apply if there are more than two adjectives:
The ambitious, personable, intelligent person we hired hasn’t really worked out well.
The torn, bright blue dress can’t be fixed.
It was a cold, dark, rainy night.
It was a navy blue striped dress. I wouldn’t put any commas here. The navy blue is really describing the stripes or the striped dress, not just the dress.
3. Of course there is NEVER a comma between the final adjective and the following noun: It was a dark, rainy, cold, night. (NO)
What about “Starry, Starry Night”? What about the first sentence of this blog post? What about adjectives that are repeated for effect? Well, you learn (at least I do) something new every day. I just googled “Starry Starry Night”. Well, the painting by Van Gogh is actually called The Starry Night. However, the song by Don McLean is “Starry Starry Night.” And I found it both with and without the comma between the two starrys.
In formal writing we really wouldn’t repeat a n adjective. But in most creative types of writing, we might. I guess whether or not you want to use commas between the adjectives depends on the effect you want it to have. I would say all bets are off with that one.
Grammar Diva News
Speaking of commas, my next book will be To Comma or Not to Comma: The Best Little Punctuation Book Ever – out some time this summer!
Girls of a Feather is available now on Kindle for just 99 cents for the month of May. It will be up on Amazon as a paperback in a day or two, and it will be available on other e-readers in the next week or two.
