9. A Capital Letter should be used for the first letter of the first word of —
1. Every sentence.
| This sentence begins with a capital “T”. |
2. When the sentence is a direct quotation within another sentence (cf. § 16).
| The above sentence says, “This sentence begins with a capital ‘T’.” |
3. Every line of poetry.
| Mary had a little lamb; |
| Its fleece was white as snow. |
| And everywhere that Mary went |
| The lamb was sure to go. |
4. All individual or special names of persons, places, and periods of time; as, —
| William Shakespeare, Spain, September, Saturday. |
(a) All words made from them; as —
(b) And all abbreviations of them; as —
5. All names applied to God.
6. The principal words in titles.
Thus: —
| The President of the United States |
“The Land of the Midnight Sun.” |
7. The words I and O.
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9a. Each of the pieces of a personal name is capitalized [§ 257].
| Mr. William Smith, Jr. has arrived.
[honorific, given name, surname, postposed ranking] |
Sometimes the European custom is followed, where the small letter is retained in the less important name pieces.
| James dela Pole, Lord of Salisbury, will speak to us.
[given name, surname with a preposed nobiliary, postposed title with a toponym]
Ludwig van Beethoven wrote this music.
[given name, surname with nobiliary] |
Commas follow the rule in § 14a, the postposed elements (ranking and title) being treated as apositives.
Compare the following:
| A republic usually elects a president
Mr. William Smith, Jr., President of the Union, will address us. |
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9b. The important name pieces belonging to toponyms should be capitalized.
These include names for roads, streets, buildings, towns, villages, cities, and other political entities.
| North Road, Highway 91, Main Street, the Empire State Building, the Golden Gate Bridge, Center Township, Salt Lake City, Boston, Japan | |
The important name pieces for specific named geographical places should also be capitalized.
| Mount Everest, Black Mountain, (the) Great Salt Lake, the Gulf Stream, Baffin Bay, the Pacific | |
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9c. Calendar terms, i.e., the names of days of the week, months of the year, special festivals, and holidays should be capitalized.
| Tuesday, March, Kislev, Hanukkah, Christmas, Labor Day | |
The names of certain longer periods of time and important events should also be capitalized, e.g., seasons, centuries, ages, eras, and wars.
| Fall, the 20th Century, the Middle Ages, the Mesozoic Era, the Vietnam War | |
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9d. Both adjectives and nouns referring to nationality are always capitalized.
| He is Iraqi.
There are two Frenchmen here.
They have French passports. | |
Similarly the names of languages, dialects, accents, etc., are normally capitalized.
| Do you speak English?
They read Bengali, and understand ASL! | |
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9e. The names of institutions are always capitalized.
| the British Museum, the United Nations, UNICEF | |
The words with the meaning of ‘institution’ or ‘organization’ like committee, government, school, union, university,
are spelled with a capital only if their reference is specific.
Compare the following:
| A committee is a group of people established to undertake a certain set of tasks.
The (Executive) Committee will meet again next week. | |
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9f. The principal words in titles of people, literary works, works of art are always capitalized.
| The President of the United States, “The Land of the Midnight Sun,” Michaelangelo’s David | |
The names and titles of deity are capitalized.
| Zeus, God Almighty, Allah, The Lamb of God | |
The two special words: first person singular personal pronoun, and the single letter vocative marker, are always capitalized.
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11. The period [.] (BrE: “full stop”) must be used after —
| | I. | Every complete sentence that is not a question nor an exclamation. |
| II. | All abbreviations or initial letters. |
| III. | Formerly in a heading, title, or signature, when used alone.
The period is optional when building an outline.
In a table of contents multiple periods are useful after each heading to guide the eye to the page number at the right. |
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11a. The period is placed at the end of a complete sentence so as to include all adjuncts and dependent clauses that belong to it.
Some modern writers also place a period after a sentence fragment, provided it is followed by a complete sentence.
Sometimes for emphasis a fragment (punctuated as a sentence) is made to follow the sentence elements from which it repeats.
There are normally many fragments when the writer uses an outline style (cf. Rule III) as often in lists (cf. the above rules).
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11b. Often the period occurs with an initial, i.e., an abbreviation consisting of the first letter of the word,
as in i.e. for Latin id est = that is, and e.g. for Latin exempli gratia = for example.
However, abbreviations like U.N.E.S.C.O. for United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization often become Acronyms, still spelled with capital letters, thus: UNESCO.
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11c. Abbreviations that are less fully truncated usually have a period, as in adj. for adjective and Dept. for Department.
Where a portion from the middle of the word is omitted, the period is usually optional, as in Honorific titles and personal names, Mr(.) for Mister and Wm(.) for William.
In the honorific title Miss for Mistress the period is now always omitted.
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12. The Question mark [?] must be used after —
| | IV. | Every complete question (§ 114). |
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13. The Exclamation point [!] must be used after —
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14. The Comma [,] must be used to separate from the rest of the sentence —
| | VI. | The name of the person spoken to (the vocative).
Thus: —
| | John, come forward. Put your feet down, Jack. |
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| | VII. | A direct quotation, or each of the parts of one if it is divided [See § 21]. |
| The Comma must also be used to separate — |
| | VIII. | Words and expressions of the same kind in a list when there are not words between them to connect them all.
Thus: —
| | The flags were red, white, and blue. |
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| | IX. | The parts of a sentence that is made up of two or more sentences (cf. § 189).
Thus: —
| | We have come, and you must go. |
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14a. It is important to use a comma at the beginning and one at the end of a multiple-word appositive (§ 240), or
any explanitory (non-restrictive) adjective clause (§ 386), to separate it from the rest of the sentence.
When the apposition ends the sentence, an m-dash may be preferred (cf. § 17c).
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14b. A parenthetical phrase, whose structure interrupts that of the sentence in which it occurs, must be separated out with commas, as in:
| London, according to Jack, is far too crowded. |
The comma normally separates a comment clause at the end of the main clause,
and must occur when the comment clause interrupts the structure of the main clause:
| He was the first man to venture so far into space, I believe.
He was the first man, I believe, to venture so far into space. |
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14c. The comma is the mark used to separate disjuncts and conjuncts from the rest of the sentence in which they occur, as in:
| However, there may be a few exceptions.
There may, however, be a few exceptions.
There may be a few exceptions, however.
Naturally, that is not the whole story.
He did not speak to the President, naturally. |
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14d. It is usual to place a comma at the end of an adverb phrase or of a dependent clause that begins a sentence (§ 585), as in:
| In search of gold, my ancestor landed in the New World.
As soon as he had settled down, he sent for his family to join him there. |
Similarly, the comma is used at the end of a participle or infinitive phrase that begins the sentence, as in:
| Having been invited, I intend to stay.
Built in 1468, this castle was the scene of many battles.
To see Inca building at its most impressive, one should go to Machu Picchu.
Never (being) at a loss for a word, Johnson held us all spellbound. |
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14e. The writer may use a comma to make the distinction between a purpose clause (Cf. P.G. §22.1 ¶ 5) and a result clause (Cf. P.G. § 19.4):
| She turned up the TV so that everyone could hear. [purpose]
She turned up the TV, so that everyone could hear. [result] |
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14f. The writer may often avoid any cause for misunderstanding by the liberal use of a comma between phrases or clauses, as might otherwise happen in
| According to Jack, London is far too crowded.
He left early, because I saw him go. (Cf. P.G. § 22.4)
He left us, to pay the bill. (Cf. P.G. § 25.1) |
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14g. Note: Unless the structure of the clause is being interrupted, as in § 14c and § 14d above, there must not be a punctuation mark of any kind between the verb (§ 153) and its object (§ 210).
This is true no matter whether the object (§ 214) is a noun phrase, a clause, or a verbal phrase.
Thus: —
| | He told me | the truth.
that he knew just what to do.
where he was going.
to send him a telegram. |
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14h. The Semicolon [;] is used to separate an independent clause (Cf. § 576, P.G. § 9.1) from the rest of the sentence, particularly when the sentence contains dependent clauses, or there are other elements already separated using commas.
Thus: —
| Soon, indeed, it will be only by their situations that cities can be distinguished; but therein Istanbul is unrivalled. | |
In this example it is easy to tell that the noun clause (Cf. P.G. § 13.2) is dependent and that the adversative clause (Cf. P.G. § 9.4) is not.
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14i. A semicolon may easily mark off each element in a series of dependent clauses (or verbal phrases), which all belong to the main clause:
| The Committee therefore agreed(:)
that Mr Abbott be invited to attend the next meeting;
that, in the meantime, no action should be taken on the basis of his report;
and that a more detailed estimate should be prepared.
You are kindly requested(:) to complete the enclosed form; to post it at once in the envelope provided; and to notify this office at once of any change in your address. | |
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14j. Quite often the Colon [:] appears after an introductory clause or phrase as in the examples in § 14i above (cf. also § 21 below).
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14k. The colon usually separates two clauses, when the second provides an explanation, expansion, or modification of what is said in the first,
and when there is no subordinating connective to link the two.
A colon could replace the semicolon in the example in § 14h above: the effect would be to make a contrast (un)distinguished and unrivalled.
Another example:
| We must sell the property: maintenance costs are way too high. | |
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15. The apostrophe [’] must be used to denote —
| | X. | Possession. [See § 233, § 293.] |
| | XI. | The omission of letters in contracted words (§ 152), which are quite common in poetry, as in o’er for over and ’tis for it is.
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15a. Quite commonly the appostrophe separates a digit or letter of the alphabet from its plural -s (§ 276).
| The teacher said, “Mind your p’s and q’s.”
The castle was built in the 1300’s. | |
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16. Quotation marks [“ ”] or single quotes [‘’] (when already enclosed) must be used to enclose —
| | XII. | Every direct quotation, or each of the parts into which it is divided. [See RULE VII. and §§ 20–24.] |
| | XIII. | The title of an article within a book or periodical.
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16a. British usage is indiscriminate in using Single quotation marks [‘ ’] or double, whereas the Americans prefer double quotes.
Double quotation marks are often used to indicate that a word is being used in a special, not generally accepted, sense.
| Would you call be going to and be to “future tenses”? |
British usage prefers the single quotation mark in this situation.
Such marks are often used to refer to the meaning of a word, as distinguished from its use.
| Would you call ‘be going to’ and ‘be to’ “future tenses”? |
| That all depends on what the meaning of ‘is’ is. |
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16b. When there are quotation marks within quotation marks, the outer ones are usually double, whereas the inner ones are single.
| The teacher asked, “Would you call ‘be going to’ and ‘be to’ ‘future tenses’?” |
Clinton said, “That all depends on what the meaning of ‘is’ is.” |
The driver reported to his wife: “The guard shouted, ‘The road is closed.’” | |
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17. The Hyphen [-] must be used to separate —
| | XIV. | The parts of certain compound words. |
| | XV. | The logical syllables of a word when written on different lines.
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17a. The hyphen is favored when the second element of the compound is an adjective formed by combining a noun with the participle ending, as in short-legged. |
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17b. The n-dash [–] is used for a minus sign in math.
It appears between two numbers (or letters) to indicate the omitted portion of the series in between, as in 1–10.
Rarely it may act like a hyphen, when a hyphenated suffix is added to a compound, as in the phrase a suspended-animation–like state.
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17c. The m-dash [—] in pairs often replace commas in a parenthetical interruption illustrated in § 14b.
The comma use in § 14a may also be supplanted by an m-dash.
This is particulary helpful when there are already many commas in a sentence.
| London — according to Jack — is far too crowded.
London, according to Jack, is far too crowded — streets filled at all hours with snarled traffic and busy people. |
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