commas around a person's name

Question

--Mike's sister, Susan, is coming for a visit next week.--Are the commas around 'Susan' necessary?  If it matters, her name has not been mentioned before in the story.Thanks!

RedPenCJ · Accepted Answer

From The Elements of Style by Strunk and White (1979):

My cousin Bob is a talented harpist. (restrictive)

Our oldest daughter, Mary, sings. (nonrestrictive)

Restrictive appositives are not set off by commas.

Believer · Answer

Great Thank you. Pardon me, can I ask you or others these questions?

1. Can I phrase your sentence like this? Is it still be OK?

Restrictive appositives are not set off by a comma.

2. Sorry, this just came up. Which sentence is correct?

Is it still be OK?

Will it still be OK?

3. If I want to combine the two questions into one question, how would you do it? Can I do like these?

Can I phrase your sentence like this and is (will) it still be OK?

Can I phrase your sentence like this and it still be OK?

RedPenCJ · Answer

1. I would either say,

"A restrictive appositive is not set off by a comma."

or

"Restrictive appositives are not set off by commas."

2. It would be correct to phase this,

"Is it still OK?"

Perhaps easiest to understand if you change the word order like it was not a question, such as,

"It is still OK."

This may make it easier to understand why the word "be" does not work in your first version. "Is" and "be" are both verbs, so it does not work. The word "still" is an adverb. So if you eliminate the adverb to create a very simple sentence, it would be, "It is OK." It would not be correct to say, "It is be OK." Two verbs.

Your second version, "Will it still be OK?" is acceptable.

Again, if you change the word order to a statement instead of a question, it may be clear --

"It will still be OK." There is one verb form -- "will be." Those two words -- will be -- simply show the future tense.

3. A variety of approaches work, but I'd use,

"If I phrase your sentence like this, will it still be OK?"

It creates a "conditional" situation.

More formally, one would say,

"If I phrase your sentence like this, then will it still be OK?"

The balance is created by the use of the words "if" and "then."

It is common to simply omit the word "then" these days, but its meaning is still implied.

I hope this helps.

Believer · Answer

Thank you.

With no pun intended, your explanation wasn't set off by a comma or two. (Here, I am not trivializing in Any way the function of the comma.) Thank you again.

RedPenCJ · Answer

That would not be a pun.

If you feel there is some place where a comma should be inserted, I'd be glad to discuss.

Commas are a difficult subject these days because the old rules have broken down, and they are not used as frequently as in the past.

Anonymous · Answer

Hi,

I wasn't trying it to say that your response had one or two mistakes on the usage of the comma. What I wanted say was that it was a great response and am appreciative of that, and I did that or tried to do that in a roundabout way.

commas around a person's name

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