APA Citation In Text Et Al | Et Al Rules And Examples

Long author lists can crowd your sentences and clutter the page. “Et al.” keeps multi-author citations readable while still pointing to the full reference entry.

This article shows how to write “et al.” in APA in-text citations, place punctuation, and handle same-form citations.

What “Et Al.” Means In APA In-Text Citations

“Et al.” is shorthand for a longer author list. In an in-text citation, you name the first author, then add “et al.” to signal there are more authors tied to the same work. The reader then matches that shortened form to the full list in your reference list.

APA 7 uses “et al.” sooner than many classroom handouts based on older rules. For sources with three or more authors, APA 7 shortens the citation to the first author plus “et al.” each time you cite that work in the text.

APA Citation In Text Et Al In APA 7 Papers

In APA 7, a work with three or more authors becomes first-author surname + “et al.” in each in-text citation. You do not list the second and third authors the first time.

You’ll usually choose between two in-text styles. A narrative citation names the author as part of the sentence. A parenthetical citation places the author and year in parentheses.

Source Type	Narrative Citation	Parenthetical Citation
One author	Garcia (2021) found…	(Garcia, 2021)
Two authors	Garcia and Patel (2021) found…	(Garcia & Patel, 2021)
Three or more authors	Garcia et al. (2021) found…	(Garcia et al., 2021)
Group author, first use	World Health Organization (2022) reported…	(World Health Organization, 2022)
Group author, later use	WHO (2022) reported…	(WHO, 2022)
No date	Garcia (n.d.) explained…	(Garcia, n.d.)
Direct quote	Garcia et al. (2021) wrote “…” (p. 14).	(Garcia et al., 2021, p. 14)
Two sources in one set of parentheses	—	(Garcia et al., 2021; Patel, 2019)

APA In-Text Citation With Et Al For Multiple Authors

For a source with three or more authors, use the first author’s surname exactly as it appears in your reference list, then add a space and “et al.” Write “et al.” in regular font, not italics.

Keep the period after “al.”, and do not put a period after “et”. In narrative form, the year goes in parentheses after “et al.”: Nguyen et al. (2020). In parenthetical form, the comma comes after “et al.” and before the year: (Nguyen et al., 2020).

Narrative Vs Parenthetical Patterns

Narrative citations read smoothly when the author is part of your sentence. Parenthetical citations work well when the sentence already has a lot going on. Both formats point to the same reference entry, so pick the one that fits your wording.

Where To Place The Citation

Put the citation close to the claim it backs up. If one sentence contains two separate claims tied to two different sources, cite each claim right after it. If one source backs the full sentence, put the citation at the end.

Punctuation And Formatting Rules That Trip People Up

The most common slip is punctuation inside “et al.” The “et” part has no period. The “al.” part does. Keep the space between the surname and “et al.” and keep “et al.” together as a unit.

In narrative form, do not add a comma after the surname. In parenthetical form, keep the comma between “et al.” and the year.

Capitalization And Special Surnames

Use the author’s surname exactly as written in the source. Keep prefixes like “de” or “van” when they are part of the surname, and keep hyphens when the surname is hyphenated. If the name includes an apostrophe or accent marks, keep them too.

When The First Author Is A Group

The first time you cite a group, write the full group name. If the group has a familiar abbreviation, you can introduce it in brackets and then use the abbreviation later. A group name does not turn into “et al.” unless the author field itself lists multiple authors.

For a steady baseline across author types, the APA Style author–date citation system page lays out the core rules.

How To Handle Citations That Collapse Into The Same “Et Al.” Form

Shortening is helpful, but it can create a new issue: two different sources can end up with the same in-text form. This happens when two works share the same first author and year and each work has three or more authors. Both would look like (Taylor et al., 2019).

APA’s fix is to add more surnames until the citations are distinct, then use “et al.” after that.

A Quick Disambiguation Workflow

1. Write the shortened in-text form for both sources.
2. Confirm whether the first-author surname and year match.
3. If they match, compare the next author names in the reference list.
4. Add the next surname to the in-text citation for both sources.
5. Repeat until the citations differ, then keep “et al.” after the listed surnames.

APA describes this process in its guidance on citing works that shorten to the same “et al.” form.

Direct Quotes, Page Numbers, And “Et Al.”

If you quote, add a location marker. In APA, that usually means a page number for books and journal articles, or a paragraph number for web pages that don’t have stable pages. The “et al.” part stays the same.

Use p. for a single page and pp. for a page range. In narrative citations, the page number often comes after the quote. In parenthetical citations, you can keep author, year, and page inside one set of parentheses.

Quote Placement Patterns

• Narrative: Lee et al. (2018) wrote “…” (p. 77).
• Parenthetical: “…” (Lee et al., 2018, p. 77).
• Block quote: Put the citation after the final punctuation, with the page number included.

Citing Several Sources In One Set Of Parentheses

Sometimes one sentence draws from more than one source. In APA, you can place multiple citations in the same parentheses. Separate each work with a semicolon, and list the works in alphabetical order by the first author’s surname.

If two works share the same first author, keep the years clear so the reader can spot which paper you mean. If the years match and both works shorten to the same “et al.” form, use the disambiguation steps you saw earlier and then place the two citations side by side.

Keeping Repeated Citations Smooth In A Paragraph

When you use a narrative citation, the author name becomes part of your sentence. If you cite the same work again in the next sentence, you can often keep the flow by staying in narrative form and avoiding extra parentheses. If you switch back to parenthetical form later in the paragraph, include the year again so the reference point stays clear.

If you’re tempted to cite a paper you have not read, slow down. APA allows secondary citations, but many instructors prefer that you track down the original source and cite it directly. It also reduces the chance that details get distorted.

Et Al With Multiple Works By The Same Team

Research groups often publish several papers with the same first author. When the years differ, “et al.” still works the same way, and the year does the heavy lifting. When the year matches, the author-name disambiguation rule takes over.

Common Mistakes And Clean Fixes

Most “et al.” errors come from copying patterns from older APA notes or from auto-generated citations that aren’t set to APA 7. A fast cleanup pass can catch the main problems.

Mistake	Why It’s A Problem	Clean Fix
Adding a period after “et”	APA uses “et” with no period.	Write “et al.” with only one period after “al”.
Listing all authors the first time	APA 7 shortens three+ authors each time.	Use first surname + “et al.” from the first mention.
Writing “(Lee, et al., 2020)”	The comma breaks the author unit.	Use “(Lee et al., 2020)”.
Italicizing “et al.”	APA treats it as plain text.	Use regular font, no italics.
Missing the year in parentheses	Author without year is hard to match.	Include the year: “(Lee et al., 2020)”.
Two sources both show as “Taylor et al., 2019”	Readers can’t tell which work you mean.	Add surnames until the citations differ, then use “et al.”
Writing “et al” with no period	The abbreviation is incomplete.	Write “et al.” with the period after “al”.
Using “et al.” for two authors	APA wants both surnames for two authors.	Write both names each time: “Lee & Kim”.

A Practical Editing Checklist For Papers And Theses

When you’re polishing a draft, you can verify “et al.” formatting with a quick set of checks.

• Search your document for et al and confirm each instance ends with a period.
• Scan for a stray comma right after the first surname in parenthetical citations.
• Confirm that three-or-more-author sources use “et al.” from the first citation.
• Check for same-year duplicates and add surnames where needed.
• Confirm each in-text citation matches a reference list entry.

Short Sentence Patterns You Can Reuse

Swap in your author’s surname and year, then adjust the verb tense to fit your sentence.

• Narrative paraphrase: Jordan et al. (2022) linked sleep routines to test performance in first-year students.
• Parenthetical paraphrase: Sleep routines can shape test performance in first-year students (Jordan et al., 2022).
• Mid-sentence credit: When Jordan et al. (2022) tracked routines over eight weeks, the strongest changes showed up after consistent bedtimes.
• Multiple sources: Several studies report similar patterns (Jordan et al., 2022; Rivera, 2020; Singh & Allen, 2019).

When You Should Not Use “Et Al.”

“Et al.” is for in-text citations, not for each place where names appear. In your reference list, APA has different rules for listing authors, so don’t copy “et al.” from the in-text form into the reference entry unless the reference rule calls for it.

Also, don’t use “et al.” for a two-author source. APA wants both names each time for two authors, in narrative and in parentheses.

Putting It All Together In One Clean Paragraph

Start with a narrative citation when you want the author’s name to carry the sentence. Use parenthetical citations when the sentence is already busy. Then run a final scan for duplicate “et al.” forms and fix them by adding surnames.

If you’re writing a paper where apa citation in text et al shows up often, set aside one pass just for citations. You’ll catch stray punctuation, missing years, and mismatched reference entries in one go.

The same approach helps when apa citation in text et al appears in citations generated by a tool. Auto-citations are handy, but they still need a human scan to match APA 7 rules and your sources.