Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Criminal Sentence 89: Commas in Salutations

A salutation is a greeting, as in "Hi, Bonnie." Although we all start e-mail messages with "Hi Mom" or "Hi Bill," we do need a comma. Other examples include "Sure, Dad"; "Have a good time, Andy"; and "Eat, Grandma."
Now what would happen if we left off the comma? If we wrote "Sure Dad," it wouldn't confuse anyone. But if we wrote "Eat Grandma," well that has a completely different meaning!
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3 comments:

  1. AnonymousSeptember 16, 2008 at 11:23 AM

    Just to be pedantic, your example "Eat, Grandma" is not a salutation: it's an imperative!

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Sentence SleuthSeptember 16, 2008 at 11:34 AM

    Thanks for being pedantic! I needed that correction.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousSeptember 17, 2008 at 3:13 PM

    Don't let yourself be corrected so quickly. "Eat, Grandma" is an imperative sentence with a salutation. Beware of those anonymous pedants!

    ReplyDelete

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