: Re: Comma before names of people or titles I am wondering whether it's necessary to use commas in the sentences below when addressing or introducing someone: “You look after each other, okay

@Odierno164

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Pauses in speech often coincide with grammatically correct comma placement, but do not necessarily do so. Using speech pauses as a rule for comma placement is a fallacy.

To quote Grammar Girl: "The 'put a comma everywhere you’d pause' idea is an unfortunately common myth."

To address your first specific example, I believe that the word "okay" is actually the start of a new sentence, and I believe that the correct structure would be either:

“You look after each other. Okay, children?"
or:
“You look after each other; okay, children?"

(semicolons may link two sentences together to show that are related)

For your second example,
"I'll have a sparkling water, please, sir." is correct.
The word "please" is non-restrictive, superfluous. The sentence works perfectly without it:
"I'll have a sparkling water, sir."
This means that the commas surrounding the "please" are necessary.

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