Dr. Grammar says:

“What’s wrong with these sentences? she went to the Zoo on monday with Me, but He couldn’t come.”

EXPLANATION:

When writing, capital letters are an important part of your accuracy. While most mistakes with capitals just look messy or lazy, mistakes can also cause problems with understanding.

So when should we use a capital letter?

At the beginning of sentences

When starting a sentence or statement, use capital letters. For example:

She often goes out in the evening.

What’s your name?

Dogs and cats usually don’t get along with each other.

Mistakes with this could cause problems with finding the end of one sentence and the beginning of another.

For the first letter of people’s names The most intelligent person I know is my brother, Ben.

I have invited Song, Phuc and Richard to the party, but not Harry.For days of the week

Monday          Tuesday          Wednesday          Thursday

Friday             Saturday          Sunday

For months of the year

January          February          March                April

May                 June                 July                    August

September    October            November        December

For the first person pronoun, I

When using “I” to refer to yourself, it I always written as a capital. For example:

I usually swim three times a week.

That girl doesn’t have as many books as I have to carry every day.

Internet Culture

Often when people write emails to friends or relatives, they don’t use capital letters as it is faster to write. This is fine for friendly, chatty emails, but not when it is an important email (for example to your boss or your teacher).

when trying to read something with no capital letters it is a lot more difficult because you cannot easily see where sentences start or end. you also cannot see where sentences start or end. this makes it slower to read, but it also looks quite untidy.

Another common use of capitals is when people are typing something when they are angry, or when they want to shout (often known as ALL CAPS RAGE!).

WHEN YOU WRITE IN CAPS (CAPITALS) PEOPLE MIGHT THINK YOU ARE SHOUTING, AND THEN THEY MIGHT BE UPSET BY WHAT YOU ARE WRITING.

EXERCISE:

Read through the following sentences and decide where capital letters should be used:

1. we used to go to the cinema a lot together, but now susan and i aren’t friends anymore.

2. on monday last week, lulu the panda gave birth to a baby panda.

3. my birthday is in june, and i am hoping to invite lots of my friends to the party.

4. she sells sea shells at the market, but i don’t want to buy any as john’s shells are better.

5. i often forget which months have thirty days and which have thirty one, so i remember the rhyme, “30 days has september, april, june and november, and the rest have 31 (except for february)!”

So…

she went to the Zoo on monday with Me, but He couldn’t come. X 

She went to the zoo on Monday with me, but he couldn’t come. √

Answers:

1. We used to go to the cinema a lot together, but now Susan and I aren’t friends anymore.

2. On Monday last week, Lulu the panda gave birth to a baby panda.

3. My birthday is in June, and I am hoping to invite lots of my friends to the party.

4. She sells sea shells at the market, but I don’t want to buy any as John’s shells are better.

5. I often forget which months have thirty days and which have thirty one, so I remember the rhyme, “30 days has September, April, June and November, and the rest have 31 (except for February)!”

FURTHER PRACTICE:

Read through anything that you can find which is easy to understand. While reading, find any capital letters. Why are they capitalised? If the reason is not given above, then wait until next week for lesson 2 on capital letters!

This material is provided by the Australian Centre for Education and Training (ACET).