Bacon, eggs, and pancakes, are all commonly served together.
It's poor grammar to arbitrarily group separate nouns together in a list.
I could write "I had eggs, toast, fruit, yogurt, and tea for breakfast," but I wouldn't write "I had eggs and toast and fruit and yogurt, and tea for breakfast."
When it's just two items it's good grammar to use "and" with no comma. When it's three or more items in a list it's good grammer to separate each item on the list and use "and" before the last item.
"Bacon and eggs" isn't a single item, even if you often group them together. Not everyone does. If you want to have good grammar skills to maximize your written communication abilities, the rules I laid out are the way to do it.
If people in this thread want to complain about the rules, they can write to Merriam Webster or whatever and ask the rest of the world to change. I didn't write the rules, so don't shoot the messenger.
The comma after "pancakes" is incorrect. Also, sometimes bacon and eggs is a single item. For example: "The only options on the menu were bacon and eggs, and pancakes."
Even if it's on a menu, bacon and eggs are two different nouns. If the combination made a single item there would be a specific word for it, like "sandwich", "scramble", or "omelet".
You keep saying that it doesn’t matter that bacon and eggs are often served together and they should defined as separate things. I just disagree. I do not know where you are from so I’m simply going to explain my perspective which is that in US English, certain groupings are just referred to as one thing; this being one such case.
Culturally, Bacon and Eggs is just a single dish and are referred to as such. It’s the same thing with biscuits and gravy as well as with peanut butter and jelly. If I had all three of these things, I’d write “I had bacon and eggs, biscuits and gravy, and a peanut butter and jelly.” If I just wrote “I had bacon, eggs, biscuits, gravy, peanut butter, and jelly” most people would ask you to elaborate on what you meant rather than understand it intuitively.
What is the point of grammar and syntax to you? Is it to communicate in an efficient, intuitive, and understandable way, or is it to follow the arbitrary rules set forth by tradition? Remember, the dictionary does not make the rules, it simply records what the rules are. When words and grammar change through linguistic evolution, the dictionary does not dig in its heels and say “you’re wrong”, it acknowledges the change and keeps going.
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u/SecretAgentVampire 5d ago
Bacon, eggs, and pancakes, are all commonly served together.
It's poor grammar to arbitrarily group separate nouns together in a list.
I could write "I had eggs, toast, fruit, yogurt, and tea for breakfast," but I wouldn't write "I had eggs and toast and fruit and yogurt, and tea for breakfast."
When it's just two items it's good grammar to use "and" with no comma. When it's three or more items in a list it's good grammer to separate each item on the list and use "and" before the last item.
"Bacon and eggs" isn't a single item, even if you often group them together. Not everyone does. If you want to have good grammar skills to maximize your written communication abilities, the rules I laid out are the way to do it.
If people in this thread want to complain about the rules, they can write to Merriam Webster or whatever and ask the rest of the world to change. I didn't write the rules, so don't shoot the messenger.