In which sentence should you put only one comma: I like dogs, cats, fish? - briefly
You should place the single comma after "dogs," as in: "I like dogs, cats, and fish." This is known as the Oxford comma rule, which helps prevent ambiguity.
In which sentence should you put only one comma: I like dogs, cats, fish? - in detail
The correct usage of commas in a list can be nuanced, but in the given sentence "I like dogs, cats, fish," the appropriate placement is straightforward. According to the rules of punctuation for lists, when listing items, a comma should follow each item except the last one. This rule applies regardless of whether the list contains two items or more.
In this particular case, "I like dogs, cats, fish" is a simple list of three nouns that I enjoy. To adhere to proper punctuation rules, we place a comma after each item except for the last one. Therefore, the correct sentence with only one comma would be: "I like dogs cats fish." However, this goes against conventional grammar rules and makes the sentence difficult to read.
It's important to note that while omitting commas can technically create a grammatically correct sentence, it significantly alters the readability and clarity of the list. The standard practice is to include commas between all items in a list for better comprehension, resulting in "I like dogs, cats, fish."
In conclusion, while you could place only one comma after "dogs" or omit all commas, doing so would not follow conventional punctuation rules and would make the sentence harder to understand. The correct and most commonly accepted practice is to include commas between each item in the list: "I like dogs, cats, fish."