A Doubt About Compound Sentences...

[Cervantes]

Hi,
I'm a little confused about the following:

I know that this sentence is grammatically correct:

Karen enters the house, walks to the family room, sits, and starts watching TV.

However, is the following correct?

Karen enters the house, walks to the family room.

Or I must write.

Karen enters the house and walks to the family room.

What I try to find out is if I can drop the conjunction "and" and use a comma instead when the subject is the same for two action verbs.

Any light on this will be highly appreciated.

Thanks

[Barb_D]

You need the "and."

You need it whenever you connect two or more things to the same subject.
He is happy and excited. She ran in and hugged him.

Only in the most informal of spoken situations can you omit it.
What did you do last night?
Not much. I ate dinner, watched TV.

[Cervantes]

That's what I thought.

However, in the first sentence, when many verbs refer to the same subject, the comma can be used. It's a serial comma.

Karen enters the house, walks to the family room, sits, and starts watching TV.

Only the last action (verb) must be linked with "and"

Am I right?

Because you stated: "You need it whenever you connect two or more things to the same subject".

Karen enters the house and walks to the family room and sits and starts watching TV
I don't think that would be right, is it?

[Barb_D]

Your understanding seems spot on.

You don't need the and between each thing - just before the last thing.

[Cervantes]

Thanks