Anna's Real* Quick Grammar Tips

Annacarmen4376 is here to point out your mistakes—in a nice way! —Sparkitors

I am a certified Grammar Nerd. I’m one of those types who corrects your malapropisms, mispronunciations, and mistakes—mostly out loud. My own mother is afraid to speak to me because I often point out her grammar gaffes.

But I don’t do this to make y’all feel stupid or something. I’m here to help and guide you on your individual quests for Grammection (grammar + perfection = Grammection) with a couple of quick and easy tips.

First, I would like to introduce y’all to the Direct Address Comma (Say “hi,” guys! The DA Comma’s a little shy.). You should use the direct address comma when you’re—you guessed it!—talking directly to someone. For example,

Dan, please post videos more often!

Or

Thank you, Auntie SparkNotes, for your advice.

If you’re just mentioning someone’s name in a sentence (and not talking directly to him or her) you don’t need to surround his name with the DA Commas.

My second quick tip for you, my most esteemed Sparklers (see what I did there? :D), deals with subject/pronoun number agreement. But before I describe the rule, see if you can tell the difference between the following sentences.

I was talking to someone and they said I should wear pink more often.

Versus

I was talking to someone and she said I should wear pink more often.

How many people is “someone?” (Sparklers answer, “one!”) And how many people is “they?” (Sparklers reply, “more than one!”) See, "someone" and "they" don’t match in number, so the first sentence is incorrect. To fix it, I replaced “they” with “she"—a pronoun that represents one person, just like “someone”!

Now, I will bid you and your newfound grammar enlightenment farewell so you can strengthen your relationship and become best buds.
Much grammar love from,
Annacarmen4376

P.S. I’m still in high school, and learning, so if one of you geniuses finds a typo, error, or other form of mistake in here, I sincerely apologize for not catching it or not knowing the rule. :D
P.P.S. If someone can tell me why I put an asterisk after “real” in the title of this post, I’ll award them him or her Double Brownie Points and One Free Grammar Mistake Pass!!

Are you as grammar nerdy as Anna?