Using Nouns of Direct Address
One disagreement I occasionally face with my writers is how to capitalize and punctuate nouns of direct address. Here’s everything you need to know about these nouns in a few easy paragraphs:
“Now, wait a minute, Son. You don’t want to fly off the handle like that.”
“Say, Professor, when’s our assignment due?”
“Aw, Dad! Cut it out!”
“Hey, Dru — what’s with the boring grammar articles?”
A noun of direct address is a noun that is used to get someone’s attention or to name/label someone to whom you’re talking. In the examples above, the nouns of direct address are in red. Sometimes they’re actual names (a proper noun like Dru) and sometimes they’re just labels (a common noun like son, professor, or dad). In all cases, nouns of direct address must be capitalized.
Furthermore, nouns of direct address must be set off from the rest of the sentence with correct punctuation. In the examples above, I’ve highlighted the punctuation marks that set off the noun of direct address from the rest of the sentence in boldface orange. Words before the noun of direct address are separated from the noun with a comma, and words after the noun are either separated with a final punctuation mark (period, question mark, exclamation mark, etc.) or another comma or dash that separates the noun from the rest of the sentence.
Not so hard, but it’s surprising how often writers resist using these nouns correctly. Now you’ll know better!
drupagliassotti @ March 28, 2008
hi!!!
can you give a 10 questions about of the nouns of the address
What kind of questions do you want? Questions you could use in a quiz on nouns of direct address, or questions that actually use nouns of direct address? Happy to oblige, as long as I know what you’re looking for!