{"id":10543,"date":"2021-01-29T17:32:19","date_gmt":"2021-01-29T17:32:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/?p=10543"},"modified":"2022-09-19T18:10:58","modified_gmt":"2022-09-19T18:10:58","slug":"comma-after-happy-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/comma-after-happy-birthday\/","title":{"rendered":"Comma after &#8220;Happy Birthday&#8221;: The Definitive Guide"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>img#mv-trellis-img-1::before{padding-top:56.25%; }img#mv-trellis-img-1{display:block;}<\/style><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Have you ever taken a pause while writing utterly ordinary phrases to contemplate <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/whether-or-not-vs-whether\/?utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=grow.me&amp;utm_campaign=grow_search\"><b>whether or not<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> a comma should be shoved in?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/comma-after-and\/?utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=grow.me&amp;utm_campaign=grow_search\"><b>And<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, have you ever deliberately consulted Dr. Google for these types of writing concerns?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>One such phrase that often causes trouble is the well-known &ldquo;Happy birthday phrase.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>People seem to be confused about whether &ldquo;Happy birthday&rdquo; should be followed by a comma or not.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>So, in case you have been wondering about this exact problem, then please read on!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><b>Do we need a comma after &ldquo;Happy birthday?&rdquo;<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><strong>Generally, yes, we do need a comma after writing or typing &ldquo;Happy birthday&rdquo; when the message is directly intended for a specific person, a pet, a plant, and so on. This is what we call a &ldquo;direct address&rdquo; wherein we talk directly &ldquo;toward&rdquo; a person, as opposed to only talking &ldquo;about&rdquo; a person in the written language. However, we do not place a post-comma when the phrase is followed by &ldquo;to you&rdquo; instead of an addressee&rsquo;s name.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><b>What is a direct address?<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A direct address isn&rsquo;t those words that we put when filling out the address tabs in creating an account for an online shop.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Put simply, it is not the information that contains our house number, street name, apartment number, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/commas-in-adresses\/?utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=grow.me&amp;utm_campaign=grow_search\"><b>city and state names<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and zip code.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Instead, a direct address, also grammatically known as the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/repository.upenn.edu\/cgi\/viewcontent.cgi?article=1113&amp;context=pwpl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><b>vocative case<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, is a way of representing oral speech in writing that is intended for an addressee.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A direct address may come in the form of names, endearments, and titles of people, but they are <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/included-but-not-limited-to\/\"><b>not limited to<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> these alone, of course.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/comma-before-or-after-in-fact\/?utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=grow.me&amp;utm_campaign=grow_search\"><b>In fact<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, humans may also communicate with animals, plants, and inanimate beings which also necessitates the use of a direct address when represented in writing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/comma-after-apparently\/?utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=grow.me&amp;utm_campaign=grow_search\"><b>Apparently<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a conversation needs at least two entities to occur, but it doesn&rsquo;t mean that the other party should be able to proactively respond.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To some extent, seeing people talking to their pets, plants, cars, or <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/comma-before-even\/?utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=grow.me&amp;utm_campaign=grow_search\"><b>even<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to themselves restores my faith in humanity, so to speak.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the main purposes of the written language is to imitate oral speech in the most authentic and comprehensible manner.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As a result, the direct address, which is often used in oral speech, was given its official job post in the world of written languages.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A direct address needs to be offset clearly with commas from the rest of the sentence, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/comma-before-regardless\/?utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=grow.me&amp;utm_campaign=grow_search\"><b>regardless<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of which part they appear.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These commas also help a lot in marking the difference between direct and indirect speeches in writing, hence the unquestionable salience.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/comma-before-or-after-thus\/?utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=grow.me&amp;utm_campaign=grow_search\"><b>Thus<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, when the phrase &ldquo;Happy birthday&rdquo; is directed to a particular person, an animal, or any other entity, then a post-phrase comma has to be placed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, the advent of technology has also dramatically transformed communication that somehow affected the misuse and disuse of language devices, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/such-as-in-a-sentence\/\"><b>such as<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> commas.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are pros and cons to these changes, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/comma-before-or-after-obviously\/?utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=grow.me&amp;utm_campaign=grow_search\"><b>obviously<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> enough, but at least with the topic being discussed in this post, technology has propelled the disuse of commas after &ldquo;Happy birthday.&rdquo;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Checking up on the Backstreet Boys&rsquo; Facebook page, I have found that the post for Nick Carter&rsquo;s birthday has received several thousands of comments.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Interestingly, at least in the first twenty of these, only two commentators have successfully punctuated their birthday message to the now 41-year-old pop star.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Well, who wouldn&rsquo;t want to reduce a couple of keyboard clicks in typing those birthday messages, right?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Plus, for some reason, the comma is not available upfront in the alpha-keyboard in mobile phones, at least for those non-android users.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/but-i-digress-meaning\/?utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=grow.me&amp;utm_campaign=grow_search\"><b>digression<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> aside, let&rsquo;s now look at some specific examples of how to use and punctuate birthday greetings in texts.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><b>The necessary comma after &ldquo;Happy birthday&rdquo;<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some sentences ago, it was mentioned <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/that-that\/\"><b>that<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> a direct address necessitates comma placement notwithstanding its location in a sentence.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This means that a direct address is always separated with a comma when it appears <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/comma-before-or-after-either\/?utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=grow.me&amp;utm_campaign=grow_search\"><b>either<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the beginning or at the end of the sentence.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Needless to say, it should be encapsulated with two commas when it is inserted halfway through the sentence.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The case with the birthday greeting falls under the sentence-final direct address, which essentializes a comma after the &ldquo;Happy birthday&rdquo; part.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Normally, we would simply address the person with his or her first name especially when the relationship is already well-established.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"su-note\" style=\"border-color:#e5e54c;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;\"><div class=\"su-note-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\" style=\"background-color:#FFFF66;border-color:#ffffff;color:#333333;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;\">Happy birthday, Vannessa!<\/div><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In other cases, we might want to infuse more formality when writing the greeting towards a perceived person of authority, so we add name titles.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"su-note\" style=\"border-color:#e5e54c;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;\"><div class=\"su-note-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\" style=\"background-color:#FFFF66;border-color:#ffffff;color:#333333;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;\">Happy birthday, Mr. Moore!<\/div><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&nbsp;<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We may also use terms of endearments rather than actual names, but take note not to capitalize the initial letters in these words, though.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"su-note\" style=\"border-color:#e5e54c;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;\"><div class=\"su-note-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\" style=\"background-color:#FFFF66;border-color:#ffffff;color:#333333;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;\">Happy birthday, sweetie!<\/div><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And, lastly, we may also add some spice to the greeting by shoving in some adjectives before the name.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Remember that the comma should always come after &ldquo;birthday&rdquo; and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/comma-before-not\/\"><b>not <\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">before the name when some words are used to pre-modify the name.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"su-note\" style=\"border-color:#e5e54c;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;\"><div class=\"su-note-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\" style=\"background-color:#FFFF66;border-color:#ffffff;color:#333333;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;\">Happy birthday, my dearest Declan!<\/div><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><b>When should we not put a comma after &ldquo;Happy birthday&rdquo;?<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The simple answer to this question is when the greeting is not directly followed by a direct addressee&rsquo;s name.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We do not place a comma after &ldquo;Happy birthday&rdquo; when the entity name is located later in the sentence as in the next example.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"su-note\" style=\"border-color:#e5e54c;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;\"><div class=\"su-note-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\" style=\"background-color:#FFFF66;border-color:#ffffff;color:#333333;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;\">Happy birthday to you, John!<\/div><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A post-comma isn&rsquo;t placed either when we leave out the name of the message recipient, especially when the context already implies it vividly.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"su-note\" style=\"border-color:#e5e54c;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;\"><div class=\"su-note-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\" style=\"background-color:#FFFF66;border-color:#ffffff;color:#333333;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;\">Happy birthday to you!<\/div><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/also-beginning-sentence\/\"><b>Also<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, we won&rsquo;t need the help of commas when the phrase is used in an indirect speech such as in the sentence below where it functions as a direct object.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"su-note\" style=\"border-color:#e5e54c;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;\"><div class=\"su-note-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\" style=\"background-color:#FFFF66;border-color:#ffffff;color:#333333;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;\">We wished Vannessa a happy birthday earlier.<\/div><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lastly, we need not use a comma if we refer to the phrase as a song title, meanwhile capitalizing the initial letters of each word as well.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"su-note\" style=\"border-color:#e5e54c;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;\"><div class=\"su-note-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\" style=\"background-color:#FFFF66;border-color:#ffffff;color:#333333;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;\">We sang Happy Birthday to Vanessa earlier.<\/div><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><b>What would happen if we keep disusing commas?<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/comma-before-or-after-now\/?utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=grow.me&amp;utm_campaign=grow_search\"><b>Now<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that the basic yardsticks have been laid out, let&rsquo;s also try to cover the implication of not being able to insert commas appropriately.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Back in the old times, our early Greek ancestors used to write texts without spaces <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/comma-before-nor\/?utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=grow.me&amp;utm_campaign=grow_search\"><b>nor<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> punctuation marks simply because they weren&rsquo;t necessary at all.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The early democratic leaders did not rely too much on pre-made written documents when making a speech in public.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They were expected to deliver their arguments in the most eloquent way possible without looking at any scrolls serving as teleprompters.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, for some reason, punctuation marks were developed later when a writer named Aulus Gellius just <a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/had-had-english\/\">had had<\/a> enough.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He complained that written texts were quite hard to understand and that the message&rsquo;s implication couldn&rsquo;t be emphasized clearly when read aloud.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This then gave birth to our non-lexical symbols which are used to signal pauses, stops, and emphatic effects, the punctuation marks.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So, now, back to the present times, what would happen then if we keep on disusing commas at an incremental frequency?&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Of course, it won&rsquo;t necessarily put comma disusers behind bars twenty-five to life, nor would it make the celebrant throw a birthday fit just because of a missing comma.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/but-rather-in-a-sentence\/?utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=grow.me&amp;utm_campaign=grow_search\"><b>But<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, take a quick look at the next example to understand the importance of the comma placement rule better.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"su-note\" style=\"border-color:#e5e54c;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;\"><div class=\"su-note-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\" style=\"background-color:#FFFF66;border-color:#ffffff;color:#333333;border-radius:3px;-moz-border-radius:3px;-webkit-border-radius:3px;\">We&rsquo;ve already eaten Gertrude.<\/div><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wait, what? &ldquo;Gertrude&rdquo; is some old lady&rsquo;s name, right?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Or have the Neuralink engineers finally decided to just butcher and devour Elon Musk&rsquo;s most favorite chip-implanted pig?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Oops, sorry if that went a little too dark and satirical, but I hope I&rsquo;ve made my point clearly enough.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This implies that when someone keeps neglecting proper commas in writing, particularly in a direct address, the meaning of the message could easily invite misinterpretation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Plus, when a seemingly-trivial mistake becomes all-too-common, there&rsquo;s a high tendency for it to become part of the norm.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thus, a written language user&rsquo;s discretion on <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/comma-rules\/\" title=\"comma usage\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\">comma usage<\/a> is highly advised.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"grow-exclusive-content-widget-aa70192d-d134-4c49-86a3-d6f2effb13c9 grow-allow-content-ads\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1FcGWj9ZmJCqbVuKMOa6A7yA_r8YRdtsq\/view?usp=sharing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-16942 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive.jpeg\" alt=\"Comma Rules Cheat Sheet\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" srcset=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive.jpeg 854w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-300x169.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-1024x576.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-768x432.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-480x270.jpeg 480w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-720x405.jpeg 720w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-320x180.jpeg 320w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-735x413.jpeg 735w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-335x188.jpeg 335w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-347x195.jpeg 347w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-520x293.jpeg 520w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-640x360.jpeg 640w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-960x540.jpeg 960w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-1080x608.jpeg 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 760px) calc(100vw - 20px), 720px\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive.jpeg\"><\/noscript><img loading=\"eager\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-16942 size-full eager-load\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%201280%20720'%3E%3Crect%20width='1280'%20height='720'%20style='fill:%23e3e3e3'\/%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" alt=\"Comma Rules Cheat Sheet\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 760px) calc(100vw - 20px), 720px\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive.jpeg\" id=\"mv-trellis-img-1\" data-src=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive.jpeg\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive.jpeg 854w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-300x169.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-1024x576.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-768x432.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-480x270.jpeg 480w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-720x405.jpeg 720w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-320x180.jpeg 320w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-735x413.jpeg 735w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-335x188.jpeg 335w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-347x195.jpeg 347w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-520x293.jpeg 520w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-640x360.jpeg 640w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-960x540.jpeg 960w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Comma-Cheat-Sheet-to-Google-Drive-1080x608.jpeg 1080w\" data-svg=\"1\" data-trellis-processed=\"1\"><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><b>Frequently Asked Questions on Comma Before &ldquo;Happy birthday&rdquo;<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Should we capitalize both of the initial letters in &ldquo;Happy birthday?&rdquo;<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No. Not necessarily. When the birthday greeting is followed by a person&rsquo;s name which is called a direct address or vocative case in grammar, we need not capitalize &ldquo;B&rdquo; in &ldquo;birthday,&rdquo; but we do need to capitalize both initial letters when we refer to the phrase either as a song or book title.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Should we always put a comma after a greeting?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yes, we should use a post-greeting comma when it is followed by a direct address which may be expressed as names of people, pets, plants, or even other inanimate objects that we deliberately consider as another interlocutor, which means a hearer or speaker in a dialogue.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Is it always necessary to use an exclamation mark after &ldquo;Happy birthday?&rdquo;<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Generally, when we want to convey more emphasis and emotion in written birthday greetings, we can use an exclamation point to imitate oral speech. However, a period is grammatically acceptable as well, which can be done to create a more neutral and formal tone.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><b>Conclusion<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Human civilization has managed to take good care of punctuation marks for umpteen years, only to be a day late and a dollar short to self-destruct mode at present.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So, the next time you&rsquo;d miss out on inserting a quick comma in a direct address, remember that you&rsquo;re actually putting someone&rsquo;s life on the line.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The decision lies at the tip of your fingers, literally speaking.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Have you ever taken a pause while writing utterly ordinary phrases to contemplate whether or not a comma should be shoved in? And, have you ever deliberately consulted Dr. Google for these types of writing concerns? One such phrase that often causes trouble is the well-known &ldquo;Happy birthday phrase.&rdquo;&nbsp; People seem to be confused about &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10546,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"disable-in-feed":false,"article-schema-type":"Article","disable-critical-css":false,"_convertkit_action_broadcast_export":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,1119,1116],"tags":[80,333],"class_list":["post-10543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english","category-comma-rules","category-grammar","tag-comma","tag-comma-after-happy-birthday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10543"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24310,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10543\/revisions\/24310"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}