Let's eat, Grandma.
Let's eat Grandma.
I'd like to thank my parents, Mary, and God.
I'd like to thank my parents, Mary and God.
Commas can also be used to indicate pauses for breath, and are often used this way for play and film scripts.
When doing this, there are fewer rules, it's more instinctual, and one follows the natural cadences of the way one speaks.
~ ~ ~
Hyphens join two words into a compound word. When to hyphenate is governed by grammar.The N-dash is composed of two consecutive dashes -- , and is preceded and followed by a space.
An en dash — two consecutive hyphens which link into one line — can be used in pairs like parentheses ( )
to separate a word or phrase,
or it can be used alone to separate one end of the sentence from the main sentence.