More uses for commas | Punctuation | Grammar | Khan Academy Video Lecture | Complete Course on English Grammar: Upgrade your Speaking & Listening - Personal Skills

hello grammarians and hello Paige hi
David Paige I have a question for you
what's up you like cheese don't you why
yes I do so Paige what I've just asked
you is an example of what's called a tag
question so I'm making an assertion and
then I'm actually looking for
confirmation so I'm sort of I'm making a
statement and then consumed by doubt I
have to turn , and ask you for
confirmation so I say you like cheese ,
don't you and so what's what's cool
about tag questions is that they kind of
follow this positive negative flow so it
begins with a positive assertion like
here is a thing that is true and then
the doubt so you then negate it to ask
the question right you can also do this
backwards and begin with a negative
assertion and ask a positive question
like this won't hurt comma will it and
we're using the comma to perform its
separating function because that's what
commas do and and separate between the
the the assertion and the doubt question
and that's what tag questions are so
that's one of the things that we're
sorry' - just like launch into it so
today we're going to talk about tag
questions direct address and using
commas in the context of yes and no
right so Paige how are you what why are
you asking me this because it's an
example of direct address so if I start
off an utterance by directly addressing
you you know there's the follow the
pause I would say Paige comma how are
you I see that makes sense but also I'm
interested in your well-being oh well
thank you I'm good good so if you're
directly addressing a person it doesn't
have to be just Paige
it could also be me it could also be Sal
whoever you know you would you would say
the name followed by a comma then the
question or whatever the sentence was
going to be like Paige I'm going to the
grocery store later do you want some
cheese right I do definitely got some
cheese so then in that response actually
you could have the fine
thing we're going to talk about today
which is yes and no commas so when
you're answering a question whether yes
or no you kind of use yes or no as
sentence adverbs kind of it's an
introductory element so you would say
yes
comma I would love some cheese or no
comma I hate cheese if we were like an
alternate universe version of you yeah
no I definitely love cheese but that's
that's how it works you would use um say
yes or no and follow it with a comma so
this is just another example of how
powerful commas are you can use them in
all these different separating abilities
right so you can separate between the
tag question you know the positive
assertion and the negative question like
you like cheese comma don't you or this
won't hurt comma will it you can use it
in direct address like page comma how
are you
and in yes or no responses like no comma
I hate cheese or yes comma
I would love some cheese commas are so
powerful yeah for real the viewer can
learn anything can't they yes page I
believe they can David out page out