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Nouns of address -- those naming the person or thing to which the sentence is addressed -- should always be set off from the rest of the sentence by commas. This applies whether they appear at the beginning of the sentence, English sufferer, pay attention! in the middle, You, English sufferer, should make a note of this. or at the end. Have you got it, English sufferer? This is not an arbitrary rule. Nouns of address need to be separated because they are grammatically independent of the rest of the sentence. Leaving out the commas can completely change the meaning. Consider: Good God! (an exclamation of shock) vs. Good, God! (a religious acclamation). Or consider the life-saving importance of the comma in (责任编辑：) |