Questions tagged [capitalization]
This tag is for questions about the use of capital letters in writing.
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Idioms with prepositions and CMS Capitalization
I am finding the CMS instructions confusing on whether one should capitalize the word under in a title when it is used as an idiom. For example,
A Park under Threat.
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When someone spells out letters in dialogue, should they be capitalized? "P-L-E-A-S-E" vs. "p-l-e-a-s-e"
I'm not finding the answer to this on the internet after searching.
When writing dialogue, do you use capital letters to spell out words?
Jamie said, "I said P-L-E-A-S-E please, and don't you ...
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Can the capital 'Y' be rendered isomorphically? (i.e. as a bigger version as the lowercase one)
I sometimes find videos or educational websites that teach children to write the uppercase Y just like the lowercase one, but in a larger size; just like in this picture here:
Is this correct or is ...
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Correct Capitalisation of Hyphenated English Title [duplicate]
I have a presentation with one of the slides titled
Results: limited-data in-the-wild semantic segmentation
What would be the correct way to capitalise this title? https://capitalizemytitle.com/...
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Should the first letter of a thought be capitalized?
Should the first letter of a thought be capitalized?
Like for example in this sentence:
Birds were chirping cheerful little song but I don’t hear them all I can hear is my thoughts where am I don’t ...
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East Coaster or east coaster? [duplicate]
When referring to a person or persons, do you capitalize which coast they are from? I’m editing a book and the relevant sentence includes “and the east and west coasters” - I think it’s awkward and ...
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Definite article, italics/quotations for a document name?
The below text is an extract from a document titled Technical Specification 13 Meter Harbor Tug.
Is it sufficient to have the title capitalized or do I need to put it into italics/quotes when ...
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Tech-related: should I capitalize the word 'Git' in this context or not?
Which one is proper: the one with 'Git' capitalized or the one without?
Configure git commit signing. or
Configure Git commit signing.
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Proper Noun Capitalization for Type of Thing
I'm writing a report. In the report we refer to program participants as either dedicated or auxiliary. Each has a unique situation in which they enter the program. Since they are a particular type of ...
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Is "state" capitalized in lieu of the name? [duplicate]
When referring to the "politically organized body of people usually occupying a definite territory" in lieu of the proper name, should state be capitalized?
Example:
He will liaise with ...
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Should there be a space after an em dash if the dash is used to cut off the end of a sentence and a new sentence begins afterwards?
Usually an em dash is used without any spaces on either side, especially when the punctuation is in the middle of a sentence. However, how should it be used if it were used at the end, such as when it'...
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Capitalization. How do "-based" suffix behave when used on titles? [duplicate]
I'm writing an academic article title, and, for matter of capitalizations, I would like to know:
if "-based" is appended to a word, is "-based" treated as another word and should ...
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Should I capitalize a quoted transliteration?
Consider the following:
"Saranghe" not only means "I love you," but it also means "Let's be together till we die."
In Telugu, "Intiki veltunnava?" means "...
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When is a genus name without an initial capital letter acceptable in formal (but not necessarily in a scientific context) English? [duplicate]
In biology, the scientific name of a species (known as the "binomial name" or just the "binomial" or sometimes even just the "binomen") is written as a pair of words in ...
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Word to describe the case-sensitivity of a word [closed]
This question is very related with software development. I would like to know if there is a word to refer the way that a word is written.
For example somebody has written "HasChildren" for a ...
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Capitalization after an ellipsis beginning a paragraph midway in a multi-paragraph quotation
If midway in a multi-paragraph quotation, a paragraph begins with one or more prior paragraphs omitted, and the line starts mid-sentence with preceding words omitted, is the line capitalized after the ...
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Capitalization rules for shortened / metonymic versions of proper noun building names
If you refer to a building or place ("Westminster Abbey", "Dodger Stadium", "Cedars Hospital", "Library of Alexandria") whose name is a proper noun which ...
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How to write s/he at the beginning of a sentence? [closed]
In a document I want to use the gender form of personal pronouns. But if I use "s/he" at the beginning of a sentence, are both "s" and "h" to be written in capitals? It ...
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Are mixed case like IaC or GoF in acronyms normative or allowed? [duplicate]
In IT (Information Technology) there are a lot of acronyms with mixed case:
GoF: Gang of four, the oldest I found.
IaC: Infrastructure as Code, very common nowadays
I understand the logic behing ...
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Capitalising Abbreviations in Titles
Could you, please, tell me whether it is mandatory to capitalise lowercase abbreviations in titles (e.g., viz., vs., i.e.), or it's completely wrong, or it's just a matter of preference?
Kittens vs. ...
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Capitalising minor words in titles [closed]
I once learnt that we do not capitalise minor words in titles (articles, conjunctions (a bit ambiguous), and prepositions (a bit ambiguous, too)). However, I later came up with a question: don't we ...
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Capitalisation of "Führer"
Could you, please, say why we capitalise the not-English word "Führer", which, literally translated into English from German, means "Leader" and is, for some strange reason, used ...
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Is there a word for letters that are shaped the same when capitalized or not?
The letters
c/C, o/O, s/S, v/V, w/W, x/X, z/Z
Are roughly congruently shaped from uppercase to lowercase. Depending on the font, there can be some serif differences but generally they have much less ...
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lowercasing "bibles" when referring to the books as objects [duplicate]
Which of these is the best choice:
"He was beaten with bibles."
or
"He was beaten with Bibles."
My take is the lowercase "bibles" is most appropriate because in this case,...
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Should a sound be capitalized or punctuated with "!" in the middle of a sentence?
He ran fast as the wind out of the cave when the rock went "clunk" on his head.
I am not sure how to write clunk here.
...went "Clunk!" on his head.
...went "clunk" on ...
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English-Language Grammar/English-language Grammar(titles) [duplicate]
I tried to find more rules on correct title hyphenation, but my question hasn't gotten its answer yet.
Do we hyphenate the compound adjectives that are not the first adjectives of a compond adjective? ...
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When quoting poetry, is it appropriate to place [sic] after a lowercase 'I'?
I am quoting one of Rupi Kaur's poems. Kaur purposely writes using all-lowercase letters for the pleasing aesthetic of her poetry. However, this may make it a bit difficult to quote. In one of her ...
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Where to find an authoritative, official and old Reference to the Convention of Capitalization after a Letter Salutation?
Where does the convention to capitalize the body of a letter after the salutation come from and are there any references on the subject giving definitive evidence proving this?
Answers should have a ...
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Why isn't a "litmus test" a proper noun? [closed]
A test is a thing, which makes test a noun. A Litmus Test is a specific type of test so why do I never see it capitalized in example sentences. I would think it is a proper noun. What is wrong with my ...
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Should the "F" in "Farmer John" be capitalized mid-sentence?
I'm writing story-generating software. One specific story involves a farmer with a variable name. I'll use "John" as an example. For a "folksy" or "old-timey" or "...
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Capitalisation of "The" in a colloquially abbreviated proper noun [closed]
If you've got a company/venue name with "The" in it, e.g. "The Royal Hotel", you'd always capitalise the "The". Now imagine you colloquially call it "The Royal",...
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Capitalisation after colon in British English
From the BBC News website:
Truss: Ground should have been laid for tax cuts
Shouldn't the first letter after the colon be lowercase? According to Grammarly:
In British English, the first letter ...
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Capitalization of acronyms - maybe there is no definite correctness for all cases?
Is it correct to capitalize the acronym when it is a name? Sometimes it is dubious whether it's a name or a word, for example SQL, ANSI, GNU and more would be considered a name so it should be ...
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Starting letter of itemization
Here is an example sentence:
"With the help of their company, (1) we will ... And, ... (2) they will ..."
There are whole sentences separated with . in (1) and (2). I would like to know if w ...
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"you" with a capital letter
After the death of the Queen, I wrote:
I am feeling blue without You.
Immediately, I got a word of criticism on the use of capital "y". Well, I was, sort of, addressing a monarch, and ...
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Why is chess written with a lowercase c whereas the game of Go is written with an uppercase G?
Both chess and Go are board games. Why the inconsistency in their spelling?
Here are two example usages with chess and Go:
It is sometimes called Western chess or international chess to distinguish ...
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Should "kingdom" be capitalized when used alone to refer to a country whose name has the word in it (e.g., the United Kingdom)?
For instance, if I mention the United Kingdom early in my paragraph and then I want to refer to it as "the kingdom," should I uppercase "kingdom" in this case?
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Using a capital letter at the start of a foreign surname
To mention, in English, the French mathematician Guillaume de l'Hôpital only with the surname, should I use De l'Hôpital or de l'Hôpital? Should I use other combination?
I would use the reference that ...
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When to capitalize (or not) the first letter in a question [closed]
Is it proper to capitalize the first letter in EVERY question or is it correct to NOT capitalize it when the question is preceded by a coma, colon, or semicolon within a sentence?
Many thanks!
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What are the capitalisation rules for prefixes in parentheses?
If you'd like to write (co)promotor at the beginning of a sentence, should both 'co' and 'promotor' be capitalised? For example, is it "(Co)Promotors are advised to ..."? Or is there another ...
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How to use capitalization when name is unknown [closed]
When using a vague descriptor for a character, like the man or the silhouette, should I capitalize any part of these terms?
EG:
The shadowy figure walked across the room. They picked up their hat and ...
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Should I capitalize the main topics of my degree? [closed]
I am currently writing a CV. When listing my degrees, I add two bullet points that go into more detail on the main focus of the program. I am unsure whether it is correct to capitalize my degree and ...
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Capitalization Rules for Ellipses [duplicate]
when you have ellipses in a text such as a novel, I was wondering what the capitalization rules are for the first word after the ellipsis. My understanding, which is not based on anything other than ...
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Should all words be capitalized when separated by an ampersand in a bullet list?
Should all words be capitalized when separated by an ampersand in a bullet list?
e.g.,
Department of Chemistry
Physics & Chemistry seminars <--- ?
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Pluralising abbreviations ending in S
From general Googling, I understand it is correct to add an 's' (lower case) if pluralising abbreviations ending in 'S' and this makes sense. However, I am surprised to have so far found no instances ...
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Capitalisation of a sacred object
I'm working in an Indigenous Australian context in which particular sacred trees and animals are capitalised. I'm aware that the specific name of the tree, for example, needs to be capitalised but ...
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Should I capitalize 'western' when it anticipates 'culture'?
The following sentences are from the transcription of a BBC podcast>
In the Western culture, we have got a bit of an uphill – I would say - struggle because pre-conceptions around eating insects ...
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Should "lecturer" be capitalised?
At work, I am sending notifications out to individual students about their lecturer contacting them. My boss keeps writing the phrase “Your Lecturer will be in touch soon”, however I thought in this ...
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3
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Should "aunt" be capitalized in this sentence? [duplicate]
Should "aunt" be capitalized in this sentence?
Jan's aunt Cindy took a ceramics class.
Should it be - Jan's Aunt Cindy or Jan's aunt Cindy?
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Is it orthographically ok to capitalize first letters of important phrases? [duplicate]
Say I am writing an article on something like the Riemann integral or morphogenesis. I have two questions regarding capitalization.
Is it allowed to capitalize the first letter of a composite name of ...
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