# Another Punctuation Question: Capitals **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 13, 2001, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-punctuation-question-capitals/68673 "2001-06-13T14:41:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2001, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-punctuation-question-capitals/68673/1 "2001-06-13T14:41:26Z")
Regarding capitalization, in older times capitals seemed to be used for emphasis in the body of a sentence. Example: We are Going to the Store, to Buy some Bread. My questions are: was this accepted usage, or was it a semi-literate affection? What were the rules (if any) for what you capitalized? And about when did this pass out of vouge? ---
**Author:** ![barbitu8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/839c29/32.png) [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2001, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-punctuation-question-capitals/68673/2 "2001-06-13T15:04:56Z")
I have never seen that usage. If you want to capitalize for emphasis it would be something like this: We are going to the STORE to BUY some BREAD. Or something similar, deending what you want to emphasize. The first letters of proper nouns and the first letters of the first words in sentences are capitalized. The first letters of the words in a title or subject heading are capitalized unless the words are conjunctions, prepositions, or articles. Those are the only three cases that I can think of at the moment. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2001, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-punctuation-question-capitals/68673/3 "2001-06-13T15:14:26Z")
I always thought that Capitalization had been used mainly for Nouns (all Nouns, not just Proper Ones), kind of like German today: We are going to the Store to buy some Bread. This Webpage confirms this: [http://www.linguistlist.org/~ask-ling/archive-most-recent/msg03087.html](http://www.linguistlist.org/~ask-ling/archive-most-recent/msg03087.html) > [@](#): > > English documents of the 15th and 16th centuries exhibited very erratic capitalization, and first words of sentences were by no means always capitalized. By about 1600, though, it had become the norm in English to capitalize the first word of a sentence. In other respects, though, English documents of the 16th and 17th centuries differ strongly from our own practice, with erratic and typically effusive capitalization: writers felt free to capitalize any word they felt like capitalizing. Even in the early 18th century, we find such a distinguished writer as Jonathan Swift capitalizing every single noun – a practice which is still normal in written German today. > > By about the middle of the 18th century, capitalization practice had largely settled down to approximately the norms we follow today. As to why the Practice was dropped, my Wild-Assed Guess is that People found it too difficult (or were too lazy) to differentiate the Nouns from all of the other Parts of the Sentence. You can see this Process going on Today on the Internet (mostly on E-mail), where Some don’t even bother using the Shift Key and thus write with no Capitals at all. (Too difficult or too lazy? You tell Me.) ---
**Author:** ![barbitu8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/839c29/32.png) [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2001, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-punctuation-question-capitals/68673/4 "2001-06-13T15:16:08Z")
Oh, I forgot the first letters of titles or of names of respect: Mr., Mrs., President, Your Honor, Your Excellency, etc. ---
**Author:** ![ignatzmouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b2d939/32.png) [@ignatzmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ignatzmouse)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2001, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-punctuation-question-capitals/68673/5 "2001-06-13T15:52:48Z")
In his Autobiography, Ben Franklin capitalizes the virtues he identifies. > [@](#): > > Resolution, once become habitual, would keep me firm in my endeavors to obtain all the subsequent vitues; Frugality and Industry…would make more easy the practice of Sincerity and Justice. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2001, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-punctuation-question-capitals/68673/6 "2001-06-13T17:10:20Z")
In the present day you can still see capitalization run riot. Try the ESL folks in some of the former British colonies in Asia. Their practice is to capitalize every common noun that conceivably might have a proper noun used with it. Thus: Along this road there is a University. Each academic Department has several Professors. That will have to be decided in Court by a Judge. I don’t think this is a holdover of 18th-century style (at least I hope it isn’t), but a confusion resulting from capitalization when these words are used along with proper names: for example, “University of Malaya.” That does not mean you should write “I’m trying to decide which University to apply to.” Another thing they do over there that bugs me is they hyphenate _everything_. They even use hyphens to separate Latin pre-fixes from the rest of the word. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2001, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-punctuation-question-capitals/68673/7 "2001-06-13T21:58:29Z")
It may be of interest to look at a leading English newspaper. Its style guide is at: > **[Guardian and Observer style guide: A](https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-observer-style-guide-a)** > > From A\* to José María Aznar ---
**Author:** ![barbitu8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/839c29/32.png) [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2001, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-punctuation-question-capitals/68673/8 "2001-06-13T22:48:48Z")
I’ve oft been confused about hyphens and asked this question here, without a real satisfactory answer, other than the trend is not to. [here](http://ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/marks/hyphen.htm) is a site that gives more details. However, I question the omission of a hyphen in “re-sign” when the meaning is to sign again. I think the hyphen is necessary to differentiate it from quitting. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2001, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-punctuation-question-capitals/68673/9 "2001-06-14T02:31:52Z")
I agree, the use of a hyphen to distinguish different words that would otherwise look the same is necessary. And I’m a hyphen minimalist. In the story on my web site, I used the word “re-form” meaning to take shape again after having been dissolved into formlessness — so as not to confuse it with the usual meaning of reform.