There are many instances when we use capital letters. We will look at the cases:
1. Start of a new sentence. When we start a new sentence after the previous one has ended, we use a capital letter to begin the first letter of the first word of the new sentence. We do so after a full-stop (.), a question mark (?) or an exclamation mark (!). Not after a comma (,)! We sometimes do so after an ellipsis (...). Examples of when we use a capital letter for the first word of a new sentence are underlined in this paragraph.
2. Start of a dialogue. We sometimes use dialogue in our writing to make the piece more interesting. However, we should note that we should not overuse it too (as students tend to do so)! Over-using dialogue makes the writing seem like a comic book (less pictures).
For example:
Sally informed June,"Our form teacher, Mrs Loh, is looking for us." June took a brief glance at Sally, nodded in agreement and returned to her work. Sally reminded her friend that Mrs Loh seemed worried.
Not:
Sally informed June, "our form teacher, Mrs Loh, is looking for us." June replied,"wait, let me finish my work first." Sally reminded June, "hurry, Mrs Loh seemed worried."
3. Always use capital letters for first letter of proper nouns. Proper nouns identify a specific person, boy, woman, animal, building, etc. We say: There are three boys in the room. This is an example of using a common noun - no extra information on who the boys are and which room they were in.
It would be more informative to write the same sentence as:
Three boys, Ali, Bala and Charlie are in their classroom, '3 Oxford'.
We are introduced to the three boys and we know exactly who they are. We do not leave it to the imagination of the reader to fill in the names.
Proper nouns include names of places (Orchard Road, Singapore United School) races, ethnic groups, religions, languages (Indian, Tamil, Hinduism, Malay, Muslim, Bahasa Malaysia), titles of people (the President of the Republic of Singapore, the Principal of the school, Dr Goh Keng Swee, Mr Lee Hsien Loong), and days of the week, months of the year (Monday, Thursday, February, December).
That is all for today. More on capital letters tomorrow. Before we end off, a little test.
Rewrite the following sentences using capital letters as appropriate. Answers will be appended as comments tomorrow.
a. john said, "we are going to malaysia for the june holidays!"
b. Dibo, cro, ello and Bunny are actually american citizens. they cannot come to singapore to visit all prime ministers in asia. our prime minister, mr lee, expresses his regret.
c. Did we book our chalet in november at pasir ris road? can we invite our friends, mickey and donald?
Answers:
ReplyDeletea. John said, "We are going to Malaysia for the June holidays!"
(Proper nouns (John and Malaysia) begin with the first letter as capital letters. 'We' begins with a capital 'W' as it is the first word of the dialogue. June is a month of a year, therefore beginning with a capital letter
b. Dibo, Cro, Ello and Bunny are actually American citizens. They cannot come to Singapore to visit all prime ministers in asia. Our Prime Minister, Mr Lee, expresses his regret.
ReplyDelete(Proper nouns - all names - begin with the first letter as a capital letter. 'American' is a nationality and begins with the first letter as capital letter. Titles (Mr, Prime Minister) begin with a capital letter too. Note that 'all prime ministers' is an exception as it does not refer to a specific prime minister, therefore, it is not a proper noun in this case.
c. Did we book our chalet in November at Pasir Ris Road? Can we invite our friends, Mickey and Donald?
ReplyDelete(November is a calendar month and starts with a capital letter. Proper nouns like Pasir Ris Road, Mickey and Donald are affected too. 'Can' is the start of a new sentence after a question mark. 'friends' is used as a common noun, pointing to no one in particular and is not capitalised.