Intermediate English Grammar for ESL Learners - Robin Torres-Gouzerh 2016
Capitalization
24 Capitalization, numbers, and italics
The first word of a sentence is always capitalized.
John hurried to the drugstore.
She always traveled with too much luggage.
Have you spent a lot of time abroad?
Sometimes, I wish I were a rock star.
Wealthy people are not always intelligent people.
Proper nouns are always capitalized. )f the proper noun is the name of a nation, the corresponding nouns referring to the nation’s people and language are also capitalized.
PROPER NAMES
Joanna, Laurie, Paul, Sebastian, Tyler Johnson
Civil, military, religious, and professional titles, even when abbreviated, are capitalized when followed by a person’s name.
Pope Benedict XVI
President Bill Clinton
Professor Gibbons
Rabbi Dahan
Dr. Joanna Hughes
Ms. Gloria Graham
Rev. Lewis
Sir Winston Churchill
When a person is addressed by his or her professional title, the title is capitalized.
We beg you, General, to take our opinion into consideration.
Madam President, I’d like to know what your budget proposal is.
The pronoun I is always capitalized. This is also true of the interjection O.
Yesterday, I saw Megan in her wedding dress, and O, what a sight she was!
Geographical names are capitalized.
the Allegheny Mountains
the Champs-Elysees
the Danube
El Rastro
Madrid
the Mediterranean Sea
the Mississippi River
North Korea
the Pacific Ocean
the Sahara Desert
the Tai Po River
the Twin Cities
Washington, D.C.
Religions, holy books, believers (as a group), holy days, and terms that refer to deities are capitalized.
Hinduism, Hindu, Brahman, Shiva
Islam, Koran, Muslim, Ramadan, Allah
Christianity, the Bible, Christian, Christmas, God
Names of organizations, institutions, government agencies, companies, as well as their abbreviations, acronyms, and shorter versions of their names, are capitalized.
the ACLU
Alpha Delta Kappa
Boy Scouts of America
the Red Cross
the FCC
NYPD
UNESCO
IBM
the Rand Corp.
the Yanks
Days of the week, months of the year, and holidays are capitalized. The seasons, however, are not usually capitalized.
Sunday
Monday
April
October
Veterans Day
Thanksgiving
summer
winter
Historical documents, events, periods, and cultural movements are capitalized.
Declaration of Independence
Magna Carta
World War II
the Renaissance
Cubism
However, ideologies and related terms not used as part of a proper-noun phrase are not capitalized.
Ideologies democracy, democrat, democratic; communism, communist
Proper nouns German Democratic Republic, Communist China
Names of trademarked merchandise are capitalized.
Adbusters
Adidas
Monopoly
Nike
Oreo
Post-it
Puffs
Velcro
Yahoo
Words derived from proper names are capitalized.
Machiavellian
Europeanization
Americanized
The titles of poems, songs, movies, books, plays, and essays are capitalized. Articles, conjunctions, and prepositions are not capitalized, unless they are the first word of the title. Prepositions are capitalized if they are the last word of the title.
“The Second Coming”
“Take the ’A’ Train”
The Motorcycle Diaries
The Grapes of Wrath
Love’s Labour’s Lost
“How the Palestinian-Jewish Conflict Began”
The first word in quoted material is usually capitalized.
She turned around and screamed, “Is there anybody out there!”
A timid voice asked, “Is there more food, sir?”
The names of heavenly bodies, including the planets, are capitalized, but the words earth, moon, and sun are not.
Andromeda Galaxy
Milky Way
Scorpio
Jupiter
The earth was parched and cracked; the drought had done its work.
The earth is the third planet from the sun.
General compass directions are not capitalized unless they refer to specific geographical locations.
Lyon is south of Paris.
They walked in an easterly direction.
The red team represents the West.
They came from the South.
They came from the Southern states.
The names of man-made objects, such as bridges, planes, spacecraft, ships, roads, monuments, and buildings, are capitalized.
the Brooklyn Bridge
the Spirit of St. Louis
Apollo 13
the Santa Mana
Interstate 35
the Lincoln Memorial
the Museum of Natural Science
the Sears Tower
Exercise 24.1 Rewrite each sentence, using correct capitalization.
1. teresa malcolm is president of the ford rotary club.
2. in three weeks, we will be traveling through france, Switzerland, and spain.
3. the night sky was so clear we could see the entire moon, venus, and jupiter.
4. as soon as he got home, patrick felt like putting on his new adidas swimsuit.
5. the second world war lasted nearly six years.
6. the novel we bought at the airport was the da vinci code.
7. i visited the empire state building when i was in new york.
8. thelma and john saw the launch of the uss enterprise.
9. the naacp is a prominent organization based in the united states.
10. they told her, “we don’t like the proposal you’ve written.”
Exercise 24.2 Rewrite each sentence, using correct capitalization.
1. marilyn is the president of the ladies of grace at her church.
2. some restaurants in los angeles serve americanized european food.
3. members of all faiths gathered on campus to protest, including christians, jews, muslims, and hindus.
4. “the red wheelbarrow” by william carlos williams is one of the most profound poems i’ve read.
5. they came from the eastern states in search of gold.
6. we read of mice and men last week for class.
7. the cia agent said he often works with fbi investigators, as well as with representatives of the faa.
8. a speaker from the national transportation safety board gave a presentation on the most common accidents that took place on interstate 66.