Punctuation before and within an adverb clause

Question

I have a sentence which includes two independent elements connected by 'and' within an adverb clause.  Do I still place a comma before the and?

Ex:

Jett's dad died when he was seven and his little brother was three.

or

Jett's dad died when he was seven, and his little brother was three.

Maverick · Answer

To add a comma to separate two things isn't always wrong.

There are two reasons we could never work out:  you, and me.

...but if it's not necessary -- and it isn't in your example -- we have another famous principles about when to use commas:

"If in doubt, leave it out."

As I browse the Internet looking for commentary on this, I generally find advice that commas should separate three or more items in a list.  I think this is always a correct option, and almost always the best one.  (But not always -- as in the previous sentence!)

Punctuation before and within an adverb clause

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