David is an intelligent __ loyal and hard working employee. Which punctuation should separate the first adjective from the following descriptors?

David is an intelligent __ loyal and hard working employee. Which punctuation should separate the first adjective from the following descriptors?

• A. Colon
• B. Dash
• C. Comma
• D. Semicolon

Answer: (C)

When several adjectives describe the same noun, use a comma to separate them as parallel descriptors. Here, intelligent, loyal, and hard-working all describe the employee, so a comma after the first adjective signals that the list continues: David is an intelligent, loyal and hard-working employee. For extra clarity, some writers also insert a final comma before the and (intelligent, loyal, and hard-working), but the key idea is that the comma after the first adjective keeps the descriptors distinct. Other punctuation isn’t appropriate here: a colon would introduce a list after a complete thought, a dash adds a break in flow, and a semicolon separates independent clauses.

When several adjectives describe the same noun, use a comma to separate them as parallel descriptors. Here, intelligent, loyal, and hard-working all describe the employee, so a comma after the first adjective signals that the list continues: David is an intelligent, loyal and hard-working employee. For extra clarity, some writers also insert a final comma before the and (intelligent, loyal, and hard-working), but the key idea is that the comma after the first adjective keeps the descriptors distinct. Other punctuation isn’t appropriate here: a colon would introduce a list after a complete thought, a dash adds a break in flow, and a semicolon separates independent clauses.