How To Use Commas In A Greeting
When the salutation in your letter or email starts with hello or hi then you should put a comma before the name of the person you re addressing.
How to use commas in a greeting. Commas confuse us perhaps because there are so many rules for using them and also because comma usage varies by style. This one always has a colon and is ultra formal. If your email has an informal tone insert a comma between the greeting and the name and use either a comma or a period at the end of the greeting. Hello kathy followed by your message or hi. Begin the message on the following line hi lola.
Realistically most of us will use an interjection such as hi or hello instead of dear when inviting a coworker for coffee. Begin the message on the following line to whom it may concern. The one with the comma is less formal. Best wishes mark mary sally and sam. Snodgrass or dear ms.
Use a colon in a business letter. In this situation a comma follows the interjection and a period or exclamation point follows the recipient s name. There are some cases where you know you should use a comma such as when separating items in a list but there are other times when you might be unsure whether or not a comma is needed. Commas can be a particularly tricky punctuation mark. Yes you need to use a comma between the person s name and the greeting.
The oxford comma is an infamous example. They want a comma between hi and the name hello julie. Danny thank you for your thoughtful message. Casual salutations between friends and family. But see exceptions below the reason is direct address we use commas to show that we are talking to the reader not about the reader.
When signing off you always want a comma between your sign off aka your complimentary close and the name s of the sender s. A comma with hi or hello. Hi julie english teachers don t like this choice. When an adverbial phrase begins a sentence it s often followed by a comma but it doesn t have to be especially if it s short. As a rule of thumb if the phrase is longer than about four words use the comma.