Grammar Notes - 2/22 Writers Inc. pgs. 476-478
I. Capitalization
A. Capitalize proper nouns and adjectives - months, days of week, holidays, holy days,
periods, events in history, special event, political parties, trade names, official
documents, formal epithets, official titles, office state nicknames.
B. Capitalize geographical names:
planets, heavenly bodies, continents, countries, states, provinces, cities, towns,
villages, streets, roads, highways, sections of a country or continent, landforms, bodies
of water, public areas.
C. Capitalize the first word in a sentence
D. Capitalize the first word in a sentence enclosed in parentheses
E. Capitalize sentence following a colon
F. Capitalize the sections of the country - i.e. Southwest, Northwest, Eastern
G. Capitalize languages, races, nationalities, religions
H. Capitalize titles - i.e. titles of books, newspapers, magazines, poems, plays,
songs,etc.
I. Capitalize organizations, an association, or a team and its members.
J. Capitalize abbreviations of titles or organizations - M.D., Ph. D., CEO, AAA
K. Capitalize the letters used to indicate form or shape - ie. T-shirt, U-turn.
L. Capitalize words like father, mother, uncle, and senator when they are used as titles
with a personal name or when they are substituted from proper names.
i.e. Aunt Lucinda, Mayor Bates
i.e. My aunt has a new Corvette. The mayor, Ken Bates, is here.
M. Capitalize courses like sociology and history when they are used as titles of specific
courses; do not capitalize these words when they name a field of study.
i.e.Who teaches History 202?
It’s the same professor who teaches my sociology course.
NOTE: freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior are not capitalized unless they are
part of an official title. i.e. Rosa is a senior this year and is charge of the Senior Class
Prom.
Grammar Notes - 2/24/11 - Writers Inc. pgs 478-479
I. Plurals
A. Form a plural of most nouns by adding s to the singular.
B. Nouns that end in y - preceded by a consonant - are formed by changing the y to
and i and adding es. i.e. fly - flies, jalopy - jalopies.
Nouns that end in y - preceded by a vowel - are formed by adding only a s.
i.e. donkey - donkeys, monkey - monkeys
C. Nouns that end in o - preceded by a vowel - are formed by adding an s.
i.e. radio - radios, rodeo - rodeos
Nouns that end in o - preceded by a consonant - are formed by adding es.
i.e. echo-echoes, hero- heroes, potato - potatoes
Exception: Musical terms always form plurals by adding s; consult a dictionary for other
words of this type. i.e. alto - altos, banjo - banjos, piano - pianos
D. Form the plurals of nouns that end in f or fe in one of two ways:
if the final f sound is still heard in the plural form of the word, simply add s;
if the final f sound becomes a v sound, change the f to ve and add s.
i.e. roof - roofs
i.e. wife - wives
E. Irregular spelling of some words when forming a plural
i.e. crisis - crises, child - children, goose - geese, die - dice
Words now acceptable: indexes, cactuses
F. The plurals of symbols, letters, numbers, and words being discussed as words are
formed by adding an apostrophe and an s.
i.e. wow’s, A’s and B’s. Okay to omit apostrophe when it does not cause
confusion - 1920s, YMCAs
G. Form the plurals of nouns that end in ful by adding an s at the end of the word.
i.e. two tankfuls, three pailfuls, four mouthfuls
H. Form the plurals of most compound nouns by adding s or es to the important word in
the compound. i.e. brothers-in-law, maids of honor, secretaries of state
I. Collective nouns can be singular of plural. A collective noun is singular when it refers
to a group considered as one unit; it is plural when it refers to the individuals in the
group. i.e. The class was on its best behavior (group as a unit)
The class prepared for their final exams (group as individuals)