Based on Azar, B. (2003) Fundamentals of English Grammar, 3rd Edition. Longman.
There are four rules for capitalisation.
Rule | Details | Examples |
1. Writing | Start each sentence with a capital letter. | The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs. Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs. |
2. Proper nouns |
|
|
3. First person pronouns | The pronoun “I” (as in ‘me’) is always capitalised.
Dialogues use A & B |
You know, I like to eat bananas everyday. |
4. Shouting | Use this to represent loud or angry voices in dialogues and stories. Never in formal writing. | A: What did you say?
B: I said, NEVER do that again! A: Oh, sorry. Don’t get angry! |
Fix these common errors students make.
- There are many foods that i like, including apples and bananas.
- it would be nice to get a job in apple. it would be really cool.
- john says that mr. blyth is really cool.
- hikaru utada says that andrew is really handsome.
- i want to get a TOYOTA prius by this december.
- Have you ever read lord of the rings? it’s a really cool book.
- Kumi koda will get andrew a present for his birthday next monday.
- atsuko maeda will take mr. blyth on a dinner date to tokyo next thursday night.
- mayu watanabe asked if andrew speaks american or english english.
- many people say that wombats are the cutest animals in australia.