When Commas Matter - A Pop Song Example

Before I forget, go check out Kristi's blog where today she's giving away the first of her weekly free query crits!

Thanks to Jackson Pearce I am now officially on the "Call Me Maybe" bandwagon. Which means one of my dirtiest secrets has officially been outed - I have a deep, deep love for perky, upbeat, cheesy, disneyfied, pop music. I may have had this song on repeat for the last day or so... I refuse to be ashamed. It's better than being a serial killer... right? Anyway, onto the grammar lesson, and the importance of the comma.

So this song is called Call Me Maybe. Notice the lack of punctuation there. One could reasonably assume that the singer, Carly Rae Jepsen, would like the object of her affection to call her by the nickname, Maybe. However, a quick listen to the chorus gives us this:

Hey I just met you

And this is crazy

But here’s my number

So call me maybe

(lyrics copied from Carly Rae Jepson's website)

So as you can see, it seems that Carly would in fact, like this boy to call her. Maybe. Now if she had slipped this boy a lyric sheet rather than serenading him, she might have started her relationship off on the wrong foot, or possibly missed connecting with him at all, what with him calling her number and asking for some crazy girl named Maybe. And that would be a shame.

So there you have it. Commas can ruin your love life if you're not careful! And I now present you with a video of the song, featuring of all people, Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, and many other Disney folks singing along, because once you hear this song, you can't help it.