How To Use Etc At The End Of A List

How to use correct punctuation.

How to use etc at the end of a list. Generally in american english if etc is used in the middle of a sentence it is followed by a comma. If it is in parentheses in the middle of a sentence or at the end of a sentence no comma is needed. Examples of et cetera usage less work peter offered cheerily. 2 of 7 step 2 write the first band member. Start it with a phrase and a colon to introduce the list.

In american english etc. Not so much grooming feeding et cetera meg rosoff just in case i love you to pieces distraction etc j d. This rule is quite simple. Et cetera is used as a short way to say and so forth and so on or and other things and is also used to describe a list without listing everything. It appears at the end of a list when there is no point in giving more examples.

Is from the latin et cetera which means and other things. Use et cetera to mean and so forth as well as all items of the same class. We won t get into the serial comma issue here when it s in the middle of the sentence it doesn t need to be followed by a comma. Click to see a step by step slideshow. For example to list the contents of the etc directory you would type.

If it is at the end of the sentence. 1 of 7 step 1 start writing your list. Don t use a comma after etc. If the user you are logged in with doesn t have read permissions to the directory you will get a message saying that ls can t open the directory. Ls etc var etc passwd.

Tennis soccer baseball etc are outdoor games however if this word appears at the end of a sentence then the period which is part of etc serves as the final punctuation mark. Another common latin abbreviation is etc et cetera pronounced ˌɛtˈsɛtərə which means and the rest or and so forth many people write etc at the end of a list introduced by e g but this is superfluous and is therefore often considered bad style since e g already implies that the list that follows is incomplete. Writers use it to say and so on or i could go on or you get the idea. As you would the phrase and the rest. When it comes at the end of a list put a comma before it if you use the serial comma and don t if you don t use the serial comma.