Proper comma usage for multiple city/country pairs


I want to write a sentence with three city/county pairs. I normally use a comma between a city/country like so:



I live in Sydney, Australia.



But what is proper when describing three places? I want to separate the city/country with a comma and then another comma between each pair, but it looks wrong.



I have lived in Sydney, Australia, Tokyo, Japan and Paris, France.




Answer



You could use a comma to separate the cities from the countries, and a semicolon to separate the locations. See the example of the semicolon being used as a super-comma given at this The Oatmeal comic:



I have lived in Sydney, Australia; Tokyo, Japan; and Paris, France.



Note that the list ends with "Paris, France". Even if the sentence continues after the list, there should be no further list-related punctuation. For example:



I have lived in Sydney, Australia; Tokyo, Japan; and Paris, France at various times.



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