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Capitalizing after commas – capital letter or small?
After commas, you need to think about if you need to capitalize a word. Proper names, such as people, brands, and places, can be capitalized, and of course, the first word of a sentence. Sometimes using a capital or not depends on the context.
After commas, the first letter of the first word is normally lower case, unless it’s a name of something. How do you tell whether you should use a small or a capital letter after punctuation: sometimes it isn’t easy to tell.
Should I use an after comma space?
The question of capitalizing words after some types of punctuation is pretty clear, but can still trip you up. The answer varies, depending on whether the punctuation mark is a comma, semicolon, or colon.
A comma is used to separate two parts of the same sentence, it’s like a pause, while a colon draws attention to closely related text with independent clauses. Punctuation like a question mark or exclamation mark is easy: they go at the end of a sentence, but commas, colons and semi-colons are a little trickier.
Typically, the first word after a comma is only capitalized if it’s the name of something. It’s easy to remember because names of people and things always begin with a capital. Capital letters should also be used when the speaker’s point of view is important.
However, the question of whether to capitalize a sentence after a comma is only tricky for those with poor grammar or bad writing habits. As a general rule, it’s a lowercase letter, except for names.
Why do you capitalize the first letter of every word
Whether or not to capitalize the first letter of every word is a thorny issue. Although the AP stylebook advises putting the first letter of a word in capitalization, there are few formulas you can follow to capitalize the first letter of a word.
Listed below are some rules for capitalization. You could capitalize the first letter of every item in a list, or people’s names, or the names of countries.
When to use capital letters in writing
When to use capital letters after commas in writing depends on the context of the paragraph you’re writing. The first word after the comma should be capitalized if it begins a new full sentence. The first word in a list after the semicolon should also be capitalized. In both instances, the first word in the list must be a proper noun. This rule is more complex than it sounds.
A semi-colon or colon might follow a comma in the same sentence – I’ve seen this quite a lot. This is to signal the beginning of a new idea in a new sentence. If you don’t use a comma after a comma, it’s acceptable to write all the words in a sentence in lowercase except for the first word.
While capitalisation isn’t strictly necessary, it’s common practice as it encourage ease of reading if punctuation and grammar rules are followed. Using capital letters after a comma is appropriate when the sentence is humorous or lighthearted. It’s inappropriate for business writing.
In some cases, capital letters may be appropriate for a particular word, such as “Summer” or “Season” or “Country,” but common nouns don’t come in that category. Titles of books, professional titles, last names and the first word of a direct quotation should all begin with a capital.
Do you capitalize the first word in a letter?
Whatever your writing style, the first word in formal letters should be a capital There are several rules that govern capitalization, and sometimes they might seem to conflict. Listed below are the most common examples. They may seem obvious, but they’re not.
In the case of composition titles, it’s important to follow the conventions. If you capitalize the first word in a sentence, you’re following the basic rules. If you capitalize every word, this is commonly done in H1 titles for blog posts.
Proper nouns, like people, places, or brands, should be capitalized every time. Similarly, proper nouns, like countries, cities, political parties, religions, and so on, should be capitalized, but there are some exceptions.
Titles are also subject to different capitalization rules. Depending on the genre of your work, you might want to capitalize the first word in the title or all of them, it’s up to you.
Do you capitalize after salutation?
Most people ask themselves, “Do I capitalize after a comma or a small salutation?” The answer depends on the context of the letter. In a formal letter, nouns should be capitalized, even if they don’t usually appear in a formal greeting.
In informal correspondence, however, you can capitalize after the salutation – even if the letter isn’t formal. You should also be careful about spelling names – try to avoid hyphens and second-capitalization. It’s important to remember that you’re addressing a business person, so make sure you spell it correctly. Otherwise, you may make a bad impression.
In email, the first word of a salutation is usually capitalized. This rule applies to all nouns. If you’re sending a thank you note, you’d capitalize the word ‘thank you’. However, if you’re addressing a single person, it’s fine to use a small salutation, such as “Dear Sir.”
Do you put a capital letter after a semicolon?
The first question you should ask yourself is “Do you put a capital letter after a comma?” This is not a simple question to answer. The rules for capitalization in writing depend on the type of dependent clause you are using.
If the independent clause includes a subject and verb, then the first word after a comma is capitalized. But if the dependent clause only contains a subject and verb, then the sentence is not complete.
The semicolon is often used between clauses in a series or list. When the clauses are related to each other, they must be separated with a semicolon. It is also used to separate lists. If a list is long, a semicolon helps the readers keep track of the divisions. A capital letter after a semicolon is a signal that a paragraph has been divided.
Do you put a capital letter after a colon?
A colon can introduce a list, end a salutation, connect titles to subtitles, or connect tightly coupled sentences like cause-and-effect or problem-solution sentences. Whether you should capitalize the first word after a colon depends on the purpose of the sentence and the style guide you’re using.
If the colon is part of a list, capitalize the first word in that list. Otherwise, capitalizing the first word after a colon is inappropriate for display lists or for run-in sentences.
In general, the first word after a colon is lowercase, unless the word is a proper name, in which case it should be capitalized. However, colons may also introduce two or more separate sentences or a complete sentence.
A semi-colon, on the other hand, is used to join complete sentences. In such cases, capitalization is unnecessary. For this reason, you should avoid capitalizing a word after a colon.
Capital “i” after comma – should you use it?
It is customary to capitalize brand names when they have more than three letters. However, if the word is just three letters long, it should be in lowercase until it reaches five. Some authorities advise against capitalizing prepositions altogether, however.
However, in most cases, a capital i after a comma is acceptable. Here are some examples. The AP Stylebook recommends capitalizing prepositions when they are more than three letters long.
When capitalizing words after commas, semi-colons, or small commas, make sure to capitalize the first letter. This is especially important when a sentence contains a colon. A comma separates independent sentences, while a colon draws attention to closely related text. The capital i should appear after a comma or small comma.
Key takeaways relating to capitalization after a comma
- Full stops signify the end of a sentence: a comma indicates a pause linking two clauses together, or two sentence fragments
- The main clause of a sentence generally appears at the beginning, before the comma
- An exclamation point comes at the end of a simple or compound sentence
- Indirect quotations are surrounded by punctuation marks
- Direct quotations can be denoted by double quotation marks
- A comma separates two or three parts of a sentence, but doesn’t have to be in the middle of a sentence
- The first word at the beginning of a sentence always begins with a capital letter. The next sentence should also start with a capital letter: it’s one of the first rules of punctuation and grammar for creating a correct sentence
- In general, a separate sentence should be used for each logical step of expressing the main idea.
- Important words in a sentence are the verbs, nouns, pronouns, adverbs and adjectives. Little words such as a, an, for, when, how, what are include to increase meaning (syntax structure)
- Use of capital letters is for personal names, a specific person, landmarks (the Eiffel Tower), names of seasons, the first word at the beginning of the sentence, places, months of the year and countries
- A series of sentences will always begin with a capital letter (US English)
- For blog posting, use a capital letter for the first word of a title tagged H2
- Family relationships, such as mother, brother, father, cousin or sister do not need to be capitalized
