Jane's Book of Grammar (And Other Things)

Addressing Characters and Titles in Dialogue

Addressing characters and titles in dialogue

"Greetings, My Lord."

"Greetings, Samuel, and welcome back."

Above were two of the three places in a sentence where you can address someone. At the end of a sentence, in the middle of a sentence (as long as it makes sense and looks right), and at the beginning of a sentence. Every place requires a different set of commas.

"My Lord, long time no see."

"Indeed, Samuel, but it wasn't long enough."

"You wound me, My Lord."

The formula for this is fairly simple. At the beginning of the sentence? One comma after. At the end of the sentence? A comma before. In the middle of the sentence? A comma on either side. Easy, right?

Now comes the harder part. Titles.

Titles can range from things such as "My Lord" to "Father" and "Mother". This only goes if you address them directly. If not, there won't be any capitals (unless it's at the beginning of a sentence).

(Small warning, this dialogue has nothing to do with eachother.)

"The lord of the land is weak."

"Father, where are you going?"

"Your mother needs help."

"Tony's uncle is weak."

"I really like you, Aunt."

"Lord King, I am forever loyal to you."

"I hate you, Grandmaster, and you know it."

"Hey, Frank. How are ya?"

Can you see what I mean? When directly addressed, there are commas, and the title has a capital. When mentioned but not directly spoken to, there're no commas and the word isn't capitalised (except Tony's uncle, because Tony is a name, but uncle isn't).

Dont's

"The Lord of the Land is weak." (Well, unless his title is Lord of the Land, suggesting the Land is like the promised land or something. That's highly unlikely, though.)

"Father where are you going?"

"Your Mother, needs help."

"Tony's Uncle is weak."

"I really like you, aunt."

"Lord king I am forever loyal to, you."

"I hate you grandmaster and you know it."

"Hey Frank. How are ya?"

Because commas indicate a small pause in the sentence, reading these is very odd if you actually pause for a short moment (or don't where the commas have been removed). Especially the Grandmaster one weirds my head out without the commas.