I was taught in college to use a comma before "and"- in a list- if the last two items are seperate. What do you think?

1) He likes the red, blue, and black cars.

or

2) He likes the red, blue and black cars.

Number Two seems to suggest that the "blue" and
"black" refer to a two tone car.

Dean,

There is a lot of leniency on this subject - that is my first point. However, I would not use a comma before 'and' in list. Your two-tone car sentence would be:
He likes the red and blue and black cars.
or
He likes the red, and blue and black cars.

It can't be:

He likes the red, blue and black cars.

The rule advocated by Grammar Monster is only use a comma before and (in a list) only to eliminate ambiguity.

The subject is covered here.

Regards

Craig

I am confused. I took Text Editing Class last semester, and we were taught to put comma before "and" in list. The book we used was "THE GREGG REFERENCE MANUAL" Tenth Edition by William A. Sabin.

Christy,

Thanks for confirming my recollection. However, it seems that in the work place, Craig is right. But, he did preface his responce by noting there is a lot of leniency in this area.

The comma before "and" (and before "or" and "nor" for that matter) is governed by your style guide. If you have no style guide, let your preference be your guide.

well this stuf is like totally intense. This stuff really floats my kite and flys my boat!

Edward,

I think you'll find it should be "...flies my boat". Thicko.

If you were talking about a two-tone car, wouldn't "blue-and-black" be a compound adjective and therefore hyphenated?

OOOoooooooh, well spotted!

Thank you