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Discussion Groups / British English / December 2006Capiltalisation
Hi I am currently filling in job application form where one has to give various examples/tales from life. I am relating a tale which involves my grandparents, now the query I have is, I am writing a sentences speaking of my grandparents... (example) "My grandparents had been married for nearly Forty years and had rarely been apart. My grandfather bought a cat, while my grandmother bought a dog. My grandfathers cat ate my grandmothers dog" Now my question is, should the G in grandmother and the G in grandfather be capitals? TIA Tom Burton Tom Burton schrieb: > Hi > [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > Now my question is, should the G in grandmother and the G in grandfather be > capitals? I'd leave them uncapitalised in the sentences you quote, but the word "forty" shouldn't be capitalised. Also it should be "my grandfather's cat" and "my grandmother's dog". Regards, Einde O'Callaghan > Hi > [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > Now my question is, should the G in grandmother and the G in > grandfather be capitals? No. Nor should the F of forty.  SignatureMike Stevens narrowboat Felis Catus III web-site www.mike-stevens.co.uk Defend the waterways. Visit the web site www.saveourwaterways.org.uk At 18:46:47 on Wed, 6 Dec 2006, Tom Burton <thomasburton7@freezingcoldmail.com> wrote in <reEdh.1640$z01.1175@newsfe3-gui.ntli.net>: >Hi > [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] >Now my question is, should the G in grandmother and the G in grandfather be >capitals? No. If you were referring to them by name, then they would: "Grandfather's cat ate Grandmother's dog" - but not with "my" in front of them. By the way, note the possessive apostrophes which you should use. And "Forty" should read "forty". SignatureMolly Mockford They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety - Benjamin Franklin (My Reply-To address *is* valid, though may not remain so for ever.) Molly Mockford schrieb: > At 18:46:47 on Wed, 6 Dec 2006, Tom Burton > <thomasburton7@freezingcoldmail.com> wrote in [quoted text clipped - 22 lines] > of them. By the way, note the possessive apostrophes which you should > use. And "Forty" should read "forty". SNAP! Great minds .... ;-) Regards, Einde O'Callaghan > > No. If you were referring to them by name, then they would: > > "Grandfather's cat ate Grandmother's dog" - but not with "my" in front > > of them. By the way, note the possessive apostrophes which you should > > use. And "Forty" should read "forty". Apostrophes - Knew that durrrhhh! Silly me - too busy trying to make it so that the prospective employer can't Google for anything within my application. As for the 'forty' thing... didn't know that. - Live and learn Thanks All Tom - > Apostrophes - Knew that durrrhhh! Silly me - too busy trying to make it so > that the prospective employer can't Google for anything within my [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > > Thanks All Using capitals for grandparents prevents web searching? I hope that your employer would have something better to do, and would use 'Google' as a noun (with capital) rather than as a pseudo verb. Imagine if your employer favoured say the Alta Vista site as a search - would you say that they were Alta-Vista-ing ? SignatureBlow Sow >> Apostrophes - Knew that durrrhhh! Silly me - too busy trying to make it >> so [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > if your employer favoured say the Alta Vista site as a search - would you > say that they were Alta-Vista-ing ? Do you never say "hoovering"? > Do you never say "hoovering"? No. My vacuum cleaner was not manufactured by Hoover but even if it were, I would still say 'cleaning' because that is what I do with that piece of equipment. My parent used to say that she would 'vac the bedrooms' or similar, but using 'vac' as an abbreviation for 'vacuum clean' is not quite the same as turning a trade name into a verb. When you do the washing, do you say 'hotpointing'? SignatureBlue Sow > > Do you never say "hoovering"? > No. My vacuum cleaner was not manufactured by Hoover but even if it > were, I would still say 'cleaning' because that is what I do with > that piece of equipment. My parent used to say that she would 'vac > the bedrooms' or similar, but using 'vac' as an abbreviation for > 'vacuum clean' is not quite the same as turning a trade name into a > verb. > When you do the washing, do you say 'hotpointing'? I don't; I've got a Hoover! 'Scuse me while I nip off and Hoover me undies... SignatureDavid - toro-danyo atcost uku fullstop co fullstop uk http://www.toro-danyo.uku.co.uk/ >>> Do you never say "hoovering"? > [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > > 'Scuse me while I nip off and Hoover me undies... LOL! That makes my point rather better than I did (-: SignatureBlue Sow > > Apostrophes - Knew that durrrhhh! Silly me - too busy trying to make it so > > that the prospective employer can't Google for anything within my [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > > Using capitals for grandparents prevents web searching? Of course ... Shish i thought everyone knew that! > I hope that your employer would have something better to do, I agree, but i'd rather be safe than sorry. Examiners use search engines extensively to look for plauguised coursework. > and > would use > 'Google' as a noun (with capital) rather than as a pseudo verb. Imagine if your > employer favoured say the Alta Vista site as a search - would you say that they > were Alta-Vista-ing ? I mentioned Google as I had "Google Groups" in mind, as I am not sure if any of the other search engines cache and search Usenet. >> I hope that your employer would have something better to do, > > I agree, but i'd rather be safe than sorry. Examiners use search engines > extensively to look for plauguised coursework. Examiners do indeed, but prospective employers? That being your audience in this instance, or so you suggested. And that is 'plagiarised' by the way - not usually a problem on job application forms. SignatureBlue Sow > Examiners do indeed, but prospective employers? That being your audience in > this instance, or so you suggested. And that is 'plagiarised' by the way - not > usually a problem on job application forms. I understand, but as I said previously better to be safe than sorry. |Hi | [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] |Now my question is, should the G in grandmother and the G in grandfather be |capitals? I am surprised that no one have given you the general rule, which I learned <mumble> years ago. Don't they teach the rules of grammar these days? Capitalise the first word of sentences and *Proper nouns" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proper_noun >>>A proper noun is a noun that picks out a unique entity. <<< http://englishplus.com/grammar/00000045.htm SignatureDave Fawthrop <dave hyphenologist co uk> Google Groups is IME the *worst* method of accessing usenet. GG subscribers would be well advised get a newsreader, say Agent, and a newsserver, say news.individual.net. These will allow them: to see only *new* posts, a killfile, and other goodies. > |Hi > | [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > I am surprised that no one have given you the general rule, which I learned > <mumble> years ago. Don't they teach the rules of grammar these days? Well to be honest when I was at school [I'm 24 now] I managed to miss the lessons in which we was taught the meaning of nouns, adjectives, adverbs and alike (what is the collective term)? I think that I must have managed this as I varied between remedial (or special needs as they like to call it) and normal classes. This action when I was in junior school in my opinion was a mistake that wrong-footed me all through my English schooling up until I finished college with English GCSE grade four times. I then attended an Evening English class for adults and achieved a Grade A. :-) Reason I was so determined was my school English teacher once told me that I would never attain a grade C or above. She now has a photocopy of my certificate. :-D I asked a Gentleman who is a lecturer in English Lit' about mid sentence capitalisation a number of years ago. He said something along the lines that it is permitted with any word in any sentence if it is used for emphatic purposes. At the time he loaned a book to me, written by IIRC Robert Burns, who used 'emphatic capitalisation' extensively. Tom Burton >>> Hi >>> [quoted text clipped - 40 lines] > written by IIRC Robert Burns, who used 'emphatic capitalisation' > extensively. That was two hundred years ago! SignatureJohn Briggs |> I asked a Gentleman who is a lecturer in English Lit' about mid |> sentence capitalisation a number of years ago. He said something [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] | |That was two hundred years ago! And Scottish not English. SignatureDave Fawthrop <dave hyphenologist co uk> Google Groups is IME the *worst* method of accessing usenet. GG subscribers would be well advised get a newsreader, say Agent, and a newsserver, say news.individual.net. These will allow them: to see only *new* posts, a killfile, and other goodies. > |> I asked a Gentleman who is a lecturer in English Lit' about mid > |> sentence capitalisation a number of years ago. He said something [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > | > |That was two hundred years ago! That was one of my comments, but then again we still insist our 15-16 year old GCSE students study older texts in our schools. Despite my protestations about English continually evolving. >>>> I asked a Gentleman who is a lecturer in English Lit' about mid >>>> sentence capitalisation a number of years ago. He said something [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > year old GCSE students study older texts in our schools. Despite my > protestations about English continually evolving. They don't study it in the original punctuation and spelling. SignatureJohn Briggs None of the G's in grandmother and grandfather should be capitalised. Regards, Umesh Sabharwal > >>>> I asked a Gentleman who is a lecturer in English Lit' about mid > >>>> sentence capitalisation a number of years ago. He said something [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > > They don't study it in the original punctuation and spelling. > None of the G's in grandmother and grandfather should be capitalised. > > Regards, > > Umesh Sabharwal That has no connection with what I wrote - don't top-post. SignatureJohn Briggs > Well to be honest when I was at school [I'm 24 now] I managed to miss the > lessons in which we was taught the meaning of nouns, adjectives, adverbs and > alike (what is the collective term)? The collective term is "parts of speech" of which there are eight: noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction and interjection. It's quite possible that there weren't any lessons at all in which you would have been taught this. I'm pretty sure my kids never were! Even when I was at school in the 60s/70s, I learnt much more about the structure of English grammar from my German lessons than from English, although we did have one good English teacher in what is now called Year 9 who drilled us on parts of speech and clause analysis. Today's quiz question: what part of speech is "the"? Cheers Tony SignatureTony Mountifield Work: tony@softins.co.uk - http://www.softins.co.uk Play: tony@mountifield.org - http://tony.mountifield.org Tony Mountifield schrieb: >>Well to be honest when I was at school [I'm 24 now] I managed to miss the >>lessons in which we was taught the meaning of nouns, adjectives, adverbs and [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > > Today's quiz question: what part of speech is "the"? None of the above - it's an article (the definite article, to be specific). Regards, Einde O'Callaghan >> Today's quiz question: what part of speech is "the"? >> > None of the above - it's an article (the definite article, to be specific). But can you say what part of speech it is without infinite recursion? What part of speech is the "the" in "the definite article"? Paul Burke schrieb: >>> Today's quiz question: what part of speech is "the"? >>> [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > But can you say what part of speech it is without infinite recursion? > What part of speech is the "the" in "the definite article"? Well, in English there is only one definite article since English doesn't have cases or grammatical gender like, say, German, so in the definition you could get into an infinite recursion (if you felt so inclined). It does, however, have two indefinite articles, which also leads to the possibility of an infinite recursion (at least for "an"). Regards, Einde O'Callaghan >>> Today's quiz question: what part of speech is "the"? >>> >> None of the above - it's an article (the definite article, to be specific). > >But can you say what part of speech it is without infinite recursion? >What part of speech is the "the" in "the definite article"? You are trying to conjure up an infinite recursion that of course doesn't exist, which I suspect you well know. A parse of "the definite article" might be: <noun-phrase> -> <definite-article> <adjective> <noun> <definite-article> -> "the" <adjective> -> "definite" <noun> -> "article" Although a full grammar, even partially adequate, for English might well have infinite recursion - that is allow the creation of sentences of infinite length. SignaturePhilip Baker > Tony Mountifield schrieb: > > [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > > None of the above - it's an article (the definite article, to be specific). It is an article, but articles are in fact a particular kind of adjective. Cheers Tony SignatureTony Mountifield Work: tony@softins.co.uk - http://www.softins.co.uk Play: tony@mountifield.org - http://tony.mountifield.org >> Tony Mountifield schrieb: >>> [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > It is an article, but articles are in fact a particular kind of > adjective. Unless they are a particular kind of pronoun, of course. SignatureJohn Briggs > >> Tony Mountifield schrieb: > >>> [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > > Unless they are a particular kind of pronoun, of course. I'm not sure about that. If you say "My coat", isn't "my" being used adjectivally? Cheers Tony SignatureTony Mountifield Work: tony@softins.co.uk - http://www.softins.co.uk Play: tony@mountifield.org - http://tony.mountifield.org >>>> Tony Mountifield schrieb: >>>>> [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > I'm not sure about that. If you say "My coat", isn't "my" being used > adjectivally? Strictly speaking, it is a determiner (or an article!) rather than an adjective. SignatureJohn Briggs > > I'm not sure about that. If you say "My coat", isn't "my" being used > > adjectivally? > > Strictly speaking, it is a determiner (or an article!) rather than an > adjective. That may be its function, but its part of speech is still adjective. Just before posting this, to be sure I wasn't talking rubbish (it happens), I consulted my handy "Pocket Dictionary of Current English" (OUP): my - a. of, belonging to, affecting me. where the "a." means "adjective". Cheers Tony SignatureTony Mountifield Work: tony@softins.co.uk - http://www.softins.co.uk Play: tony@mountifield.org - http://tony.mountifield.org >>> I'm not sure about that. If you say "My coat", isn't "my" being used >>> adjectivally? [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > > where the "a." means "adjective". While the OED suggests 'possessive adjective (in modern usage also classed as a determiner)' SignatureBlue Sow > >>> I'm not sure about that. If you say "My coat", isn't "my" being used > >>> adjectivally? [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > While the OED suggests 'possessive adjective (in modern usage also classed as a > determiner)' Interesting... has "modern usage" increased the number of parts of speech, or just sub-classified them? Cheers Tony SignatureTony Mountifield Work: tony@softins.co.uk - http://www.softins.co.uk Play: tony@mountifield.org - http://tony.mountifield.org >>> In article <mOHeh.2560$Dr3.1404@newsfe2-gui.ntli.net>, >>> Just before posting this, to be sure I wasn't talking rubbish (it happens), [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > Interesting... has "modern usage" increased the number of parts of speech, > or just sub-classified them? The latter, it would seem ... Pocket OED (2006) possessive determiner Concise OED (2006) possessive determiner Shorter OED (2002) possessive adjective (in modern usage also classed as a determiner) Chambers (1988) possessive adjective Oxford guide to E.L. (1988) adjective determiner: One of a class including articles and other definite and indefinite adjectives, and demonstrative, quantifying and possessive adjectives ... (SOED 2002) SignatureBlue Sow > Hi > [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > be > capitals? Surely you should be asking yourself why you are telling a story about your grandparents' pets in a job application, regardless of grammar. > > I am relating a tale which involves my grandparents, now the query I have > > is, I am writing a sentences speaking of my grandparents... (example) > Surely you should be asking yourself why you are telling a story about > your grandparents' pets in a job application, regardless of grammar. Please note the 'E' word in brackets. I didn't want to quote an actual paragraph from my application form just in-case it was subsequently found online by the prospective employer. |
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