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When writing dialogue for characters that stammer or stutter over the first letter of the first word in their speech, should the first letter remain a capital or become lowercase when repeated?

My question is probably best explained by example...

Retaining capital letter:

"H-H-Hello," he said.

Not retaining capital letter:

"H-h-hello," he said.

Which is correct, or are both acceptable? I wasn't able to find any solid information either way so I thought a discussion could be had in the hopes of reaching a concrete conclusion.

To be entirely clear, I'm only asking about stammering over the first letter and when that first letter should be a capital.

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I'd stick with the upper case letters. And that doesn't mean you need to use upper case for a stutter all the time. If the stutter starts on a lower case letter then keep it lower case. For example,

I d-don't like that. But if it was I, the I'd use I-I...

That said, I think it' a bad idea to repeat the same letter again and again. It'd be going too much over the top and your reader won't like it. I'd probably stick to a single repetition.

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  • I usually only repeat the stuttered letter once, very occasionally twice when I really want to make it obvious that they're struggling. The examples I wrote are just examples.
    – Emily
    Feb 25, 2016 at 8:24
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    If there were an obvious answer, the question would be too basic for ELU. The answer isn't obvious; this is a marginal case. Any answer claiming to be aauthoritative needs at least one linked and attributed supporting reference.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Jun 20, 2020 at 13:46
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Actually, the second letter does not get capitalized if it's an ordinary word. It would be H-h-hello. As for the word I, since I is a full word, then it would be I--I, with an em-dash between the Is, not two hyphens. The exception is a proper name. H-H-Henry will not be joining us.

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    Hello, Kim. If there were an obvious answer, the question would be too basic for ELU. The answer isn't obvious; this is a marginal case. Any answer claiming to be aauthoritative needs at least one linked and attributed supporting reference.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Jun 20, 2020 at 13:45

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