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Using Capital Letters #2, by Dennis Oliver
Using Capital Letters
(#2)
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Capital
(or upper-case) letters
are important in
English,
and
there are many
situations when you
should use
them.
We began our review of
capitalization with five
basic
situations. Here are three more
common ones:
| 1. |
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Use capitals for the first
letter of the
greeting
(salutation) in a letter:
Dear Sally,
Dear friends,
Dear
Ana and
Jorge,
Dear Chairman Thompson:
Dear Ms. Sharpe:
Dear Grievance Committee:
To whom it may concern:
Notes:
| a. |
|
The
first letters of names are,
of course, capitalized;
so are the
first letters of titles. |
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| b. |
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Use
a comma ( , ) after the greeting
in
a friendly letter. |
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| c. |
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Use
a colon ( : ) after the greeting
in
a business letter. |
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| 2. |
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Also use capitals for the
first letters
of the
closings (endings) in
letters:
|
Love,
Joe
Fondly,
Samir
|
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Your friend,
Sheila
Write soon!
Anita
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Sincerely,
Joseph
McAllister |
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Sincerely yours,
Sheila
M. O'Day |
Notes:
| a. |
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There
is no set form for the closings
of friendly
letters. |
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| b. |
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The
most common endings for
business letters are
Sincerely
and
Sincerely
yours. |
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| c. |
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Use
a comma ( , ) after the closing
in
both friendly and business letters. |
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| 3. |
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Use capitals for family terms
when they
are
used instead of a name or
with a name:
Where's Mother?
Hello, Uncle.
I'm writing to Grandma.
Aunt Sara is in the hospital!
Grandpa Jones lives in New York City.
How's
Cousin Grace?
Note:
Do not
use capital letters for
family terms
when they
follow a
possessive pronoun or
other determiner:
Where's your mother?
I
talked to my uncle.
Our aunt Sara is in the hospital.
Where does his grandfather live?
Eimi became a mother last
week!
Meryem has a lot of cousins.
Who's
the father of this child?
The mother of the bride
is
crying.
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