Help please! School and incorrect use of comma - am I correct before I complain?

[Pourquoimoi]

First off, I apologise if I make any howlers in my post. Please can you just confirm I am right as to the point below, or correct me as necessary?

Each week my DS (yr4) has a dictation and spellings. He must learn the spellings and also the grammer in the text. The text is taken from a rather old fasioned dictation book. They are then tested on it a week later and are marked on correct grammer and punctuation as well as the spellings.

This week one sentence was "Come inside and have a nice, slice of pie".

Am I right in saying there should not be a comma after nice? I did point this out to one of the teachers (the other one from the job share, not the one who gave out the sheet). She said oh dear, well I will point it out and it will be marked correct with or without the comma.

So the test was on Monday and DS wrote it without the comma. It was marked incorrect and he was told off. He pointed out that there should not be a comma there but they maintain it is a list so therefore the comma is in the right place. I can't see how it is a list as the noun is the slice. It would be like writing "I have a red, coat", which would be wrong wouldn't it?

So, who is right? Should there be a comma in a "nice slice of pie" or not?

Thank you!

No definitely not

You are right. No comma.

No it makes no sense with a comma.

The only way a comma could fit into that sentence would be if it said, "Come inside, have a nice slice of pie." The and removes the need for a comma.

I hope they publicly correct this - it's a rubbish thing to teach wrong.

I would not comma. Is that from the Fat Sam books? They were old when I was at school.

You are right. There is no comma. (But it's grammar, not grammer - sorry!)

I agree, it's wrong. I would suspect a typo in the original, or even that whole word (second adjective) had been omitted.

It doesn't need a comma. You're correct.

oh my lord!

that's a bad misplaced comma!

how are nice and slice discrete parts of the sentence?

that sentence says that "of pie" is the subject, not "slice of pie"

the comma indicates that the "of pie" can be nice or slice (ie it's treating the slice like an adjective).

so, remove the options - Come inside and have a nice of pie.
Come inside and have a slice of pie.

it would be a list if there were other advjectives about the slice of pie.

...have a hot, nice slice of pie.
...have a blue, nice slice of pie.

Or the person being spoken to is called slice of pie and nice is an object

Come inside and have a nice, slice of pie
Come inside and have a flan, queen of Sheba

but then there would be crimes against missing capital letters!

No comma. Isn't it infuriating.

Thank you all for confirming I am correct.

I promise grammer was a typo, even I cringed when I came back and read that!

Thanks again to all

DH tells me off when I recorrect the teachers work. Its not my fault she gets maths questions wrong or puts the same word twice on the spelling list.

And the comma there is just weird.

Wow that is shockingly wrong. I thought it was going to be a less clear example (and I was hoping to learn something as my grammar is far from brilliant).

Here is Shakespeare's 1st sonnet re-punctuated the way your teacher would prefer. You might like to hand it in as a piece of homework...

From fairest, creatures we desire increase,
That thereby beauty's, rose might never die,
But as the riper should by time decease,
His tender, heir might bear his, memory:
But thou contracted to thine, own, bright eyes,
Feed'st thy light's flame with self-substantial, fuel,
Making a famine where abundance lies,
Thy self, thy, foe, to thy sweet, self, too, cruel:
Thou, that, art, now, the world's, fresh, ornament,
And only herald to the gaudy, spring,
Within thine, own, bud buriest thy, content,
And, tender churl, mak'st waste in niggarding:
Pity the world, or else this, glutton be,
To eat the world's, due, by the grave, and, thee.

I suppose we should be glad that someone wants to bring the comma out of retirement...

Haha prism! That made me chuckle!

Was the homework given to your DS on a photocopied sheet or did the children have to copy it themselves into their homework books?

Because the only way I can think of in which the teacher might be correct is if the sentence actually said something like "Come inside and have a nice, hot slice of pie" and your DS missed out the second adjective both in his homework and in the test.

You're correct, pourquoimoi.