Capitals (and Capitols) are Capital!

Fireworks flew on the Fourth of July, illuminating the nation’s Capitol building. A capital idea! We all know the basic rules about when to use capitals: for the pronoun “I,” beginnings of sentences, people’s names, place names. But let’s look at some of the trickier situations.

Titles

Titles of plays, books, television series, movies, poems, magazines, journals, and articles can trip you up. Use capitals for the first word and all others—except prepositions, articles (a, an, the), and conjunctions.

Play: Two Gentlemen of Verona

Book: A Fighting Chance by Elizabeth Warren

TV series: House of Cards

Movie:            Words and Pictures

Journal: School Library Journal

Magazine: In Style (Cap the preposition “in”: first word in this title.)

Poem:  “Genie in a Jar” by Nikki Giovanni (No cap on “in”; not first word.)

Article: “Ford SUV to Challenge Jeep Wrangler”

Proper nouns

A second grader once told the Grammar Patrol that a proper noun is “a fancy noun that gets a capital.” Exactly right.

Capitalize proper nouns, including days of the week, months, and holidays, specific people & things, buildings, companies, organizations, and schools:

Sunday, August, Valentine’s Day, John Smith, Toyota, the Capitol, Pfizer, DreamWorks, Amnesty International, Baseball Hall of Fame, Bolshoi Ballet, Elton John AIDS Foundation, Southern Poverty Law Center, Howard University, Stanford University.

Historical events, documents, or government programs

Gettysburg Address, World War II, Bicentennial, Emancipation Proclamation, Civil Rights Act of 1964, Medicare, Social Security

People’s titles

Capitalize civil, religious, military, and professional titles when they appear before a person’s name. If the title follows the name, don’t capitalize the title. If a title appears without the name of a person, do not capitalize it.

• Civil Titles

President Adams

John Adams, president of the United States

I spoke with the president. (not the President)

• Religious Titles

Capitalization of titles varies among different religions and denominations. Some examples:

Rabbi Benno Scheinberg

Benno Scheinberg, the rabbi

• Professional Titles

Dr. Sujan Wong, chief of Surgery

Sujan Wong, surgeon

• Some titles, such as “Speaker of the House,” are always capitalized, with or without the person’s name.

• Names of companies and academic departments, even when they appear after a person’s title.

Ronald Josephson, professor of Foods and Nutrition

Jenni Prisk, president of Prisk Communication

Family names

If you can substitute a person’s name for a relationship name like “uncle” or “grandmother,” capitalize.  If not, use lower case.

I’m writing Aunt Kirsten Josephson.

but

My aunt bought us all ice cream.

I spoke with Mother.

We sat with Bill’s grandfather, Norman Hope.

Seasons

Don’t capitalize seasons: summer, fall, winter, spring.

In the summer, we head for Hawaii.

When seasons denote specific academic semesters, use a capital letter, but no comma: 

Fall 2014

Summer 2015

Religions and holy books, days, and words for a Supreme Being

Talmud, Bible, Koran

Passover, Christmas, Ramadan

Yahweh, God, Allah

Geographic regions

New England, Pacific Northwest, the South

Don’t capitalize directions: We’re fifty miles north of Atlanta.

Languages

Mona speaks Farsi at home and English at the office.

Names of computer programs

Quicken, Microsoft Word, Adobe Acrobat

Book series and editions *

Capitalize titles of book series and editions. Use lowercase letters for the words “series” and “editions.”

Gary Paulsen’s Culpepper Adventure series, large-type Reader’s Digestedition

Within parentheses

If a complete parenthetical sentence stands alone, capitalize the beginning letter.

He asked if she’d heard the news. (She hadn’t.)

With colons

• Capitalize a complete sentence or a full quotation after a colon.

Remember Murphy’s Law: Any horizontal surface fills up.

• Do not capitalize phrases, lists, or incomplete sentences after a colon.

For the big game, he wore University of Michigan’s colors: maize and blue.

* Some sources now say to use Roman rather than italics with series names: Betty Birney’s rollicking According to Humphrey series. Consistency is the key.

That’s it from the Grammar Patrol! Hope you’ll capitalize on this info! When in doubt, consult our zany Nitty-Gritty Grammar and More Nitty-Gritty Grammar guides.

We (Edith Hope Fine and Judith Josephson) are the Grammar Patrol. Both of us taught for years and are now writers, with thirty plus books between us, including our two popular grammar guides, Nitty-Gritty Grammar and More Nitty-Gritty Grammar. For close to twenty years, we taught writing and grammar basics and now we blog about grammar for writers.

COMPARISONS

Life and literature are full of comparisons. Shakespeare’s sonnet posed the question, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate . . . ”

In the movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the evil queen asks her looking glass, “Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the fairest of us all?” Sorry, Evil Queen—Snow White’s the fairest in the land. She’s superlative.

When using adjectives and some adverbs to compare, common bloopers can occur: more better, most fastest.

Let’s review. Comparisons have three degrees:

• positive (the basic form of the word)

• comparative (two things)

• superlative (more than two).

Positive                     Comparative                   Superlative

frizzy                           frizzier                                    frizziest

warm                          warmer                                   warmest

beautiful                    more beautiful                      most beautiful

Comparatives and superlatives often cause mistakes.

Comparatives

If you’re comparing two things, one to the other:

—Add an er ending or “more” or “less” to most one-syllable words:

younger, more/less young

wilder, more/less wild

denser, more/less dense

Of stock car racing and archery, archery seems safer (or more safe).

—With two-syllable words ending in y, drop the y and add er, or use “more” or “less” before the word:

(silly) sillier, more/less silly

(gaudy) gaudier, more/less gaudy

(zany) zanier, more/less zany

(muddy) muddier, more/less muddy

—With words of three or more syllables, use “more” or “less” before the word:

less bountiful                  more athletic            more intelligent

* Tip: You can also modify the comparative form with the adverb “much.”

Jackson Pollack’s paintings were much sloppier than those by Salvador Dalí.

Superlatives

To compare more than two things:

—Add the ending est to most one-syllable and some two-syllable words.

fastest                        shiniest          messiest        lightest           silliest

—Add “most” or “least” to some two-syllable and most three-syllable words:

most savvy    most skillful   least dangerous       least sour      least athletic

San Francisco is the least affordable city in California.

The late Tony Gwynn was the San Diego Padres’ most popular player.

Keeping Comparatives and Superlatives Straight

Comparing two things? Use er.

Comparing three things? Use est.

Comparison Pitfalls

—Young/Old

Camilla is the younger of the two sisters. (not “youngest”)

The 1915 Rio is the oldest of our six antique cars. (not “older”)

—Irregulars

Just as chameleons change color, irregular comparatives change forms.

Positive         Comparative            Superlative

good               better                          best

bad                 worse                         worst

—Doubling Up

Comparative: Use er or “more,” not both:

Gambling is either “riskier” or “more risky” never “more riskier” than Bingo.

Superlative: Use est or “most,” not both:

A gazelle is either the “most swift” or the “swiftest” of animals, never “the most swiftest.”

—Problem Words

You can’t add er or est to some adjectives, like “fun” or “false.”

Don’t say, My red glasses are “funner.” She had “falser” eyelashes than I did.

Please Share

That’s the scoop from the Grammar Patrol. You’ll find more on comparatives and superlatives in our zany Nitty-Gritty Grammar and More Nitty-Gritty Grammar guides. Let us know when you hear bloopers of any kind, especially ones with comparisons. We love hearing from you.

Have a better-than-average day and a most delightful summer!

Word mix-ups can flummox even people who work with words daily.

Long ago Judith interviewed news anchor Allison Ross. Were it not for a last-minute word check, Judith might have called Ross’s on-air presence “enervating” (wearying), rather than “energetic” (lively).

Later, in her children’s biography about detective Allan Pinkerton, she almost had Pinkerton charging with Union troops at Antietam with the “calvary” (hill near Jerusalem), not the “cavalry” (soldiers on horseback).

Edith had to triple-check her weekly columns for your/you’re bloopers caused by flying fingers. And once, reporting on a cool field trip to a water treatment plant, she wrote about “effluent,” which a well-meaning, but dictionary-impaired, copy editor changed multiple times to “affluent.”

A Baker’s Dozen of Word Mix-ups

1. nauseous/nauseated

“I feel nauseous,” complained Buffy, after a garlic-laden dinner.

Whoops! Buffy is making others “feel sick or disgusted.”

If you feel unwell, use nauseated.

2. lend/loan

Did you lend or loan your sister your chartreuse pumps?

No matter which word you used, it was an ill-advised move, since Sis stepped in a mud puddle while wearing them.

Banks lend (verb) money. But if you buy a house, you apply for a loan (noun).

3. eminent/imminent

Stephen Hawking is an eminent (famous) physicist, cosmologist, and author, who has overcome incredible physical challenges.

With tropical storm Flossie approaching Hawaii, landfall seemed imminent (about to happen).

4. emigrant/immigrant

On board ship, the emigrants (people leaving their own country) eked out a meager existence.

Between 1890 and 1910, thousands of immigrants (people settling in a foreign country) came to America.

(Tip: The e- is like ex-: out of, away from; the im- is a form of in-, for, obviously, in!)

5. anymore/any more

One word: With my creaky joints, I don’t tango anymore (any longer, nowadays).

Two words: Are there any more (emphasizes “extra”) chips?

Don’t say, “Anymore, I don’t eat hot dogs. Use the adverb anymore only at the end of a sentence following a verb.  Substitute the word “nowadays.”

6. alot/a lot

This one’s easy. Avoid the substandard alot at all costs.

The Grammar Patrol sees this mix-up a lot.

7. all ready/ already

Janet’s all ready (prepared) for her island cruise.

Termites have already (they chomped away last year) destroyed my ceiling.

Adverbs tell “when.” For already, think “before” or “by a specified time.”

8. bring/take

Bring me my Smurf slippers!

The action is toward you; test by substituting the word “come.”

Take that monstrosity to the rummage sale.

The action is away from you; test by substituting the word “go.”

9. disinterested/uninterested

A judge doesn’t want an uninterested (lacking interest in) juror.

He or she wants a disinterested (neutral or objective) juror.

10. fewer/less

Edith has been known to speak up in grocery stores at the “10 items or less” aisle (should be “fewer”).

Fewer (countable) people entered the hog-calling contest.

The artist’s concert featured less (not countable) vocal pyrotechnics.

11. principal/principle

Think, the principal’s your pal.

Her pockets are filled with money, just like principle (your money) and interest.

But when considering a “principle truth” or “rule,” think principle.

Murphy’s Laws contain principles that never fail.

12. hopefully

Use hopefully only when you mean “full of hope.”

“Hopefully, my phone will ring tonight.”

Yikes. Can your phone be filled with hope? Ah, we thought not. Say, “I hope my phone will ring tonight.”

Hopefully, the twins crept down the stairs Christmas morning.

They were, indeed, filled with hope.

13. Lie/lay

Enter the granddaddy of mixups: lie/lay

Here’s a simple rule coined by Edith’s mom.

 Hens lay (as in, set upon).

 People lie (recline).

But beware!  You lie on the bed today. You lay there yesterday.

And the beat goes on . . .

Please Share

So, irregardless (whoops! so substandard) . . .

Regardless of what you’re writing, beware of these pesky word mix-ups!  See our two Nitty-Gritty Grammar guides for more in-depth discussion on these topics plus funny cartoons to illustrate them. That’s it for this month from the Grammar Patrol! Post others you spot. We love using your examples.

Dangling Participial Phrases!?

Isn’t dangling for earrings, bungee jumpers, or grapes on the vine?

Alas, no. Participial phrases can also dangle, like this:

   Rounding the bend, the medieval church loomed in the distance.

That ancient church is on the move!

English runneth over with modifiers: adjectives, adverbs, clauses, phrases, and participial phrases. Participles and other modifiers are easily (and often humorously) misplaced. In addition, they distract your readers. Today we’ll concentrate on dangling participial phrases.

What is a participle anyway?

You’ll recognize these verb forms. With regular verbs, participles end in ing (present tense), and d, ed, or t (past tense).

giggling           cleaning          dreaming

giggled            cleaned           dreamt

How to form participles

To form present participles, add ing to verbs. This sounds straightforward, but can still trip up English learners. Sometimes you just add the ing to a word: (cost become costing). Other times you double a letter before the ing (set becomes setting) or drop a vowel first (forgive becomes forgiving).

With past participles, there may be no d, ed, or t in sight. Examples: cling/clung, give/given, spring/sprung, tear/torn, and throw/thrown.

To create a participial phrase, combine a participle with other words:

running the fax machine

finding the checkbook

barbequed the spareribs

As you can see, participial phrases behave like adjectives. So here’s the trick to prevent dangling. Position participial phrases near the word or words they modify.

Running the fax machine, Bipsy fled to Paris in her mind.

Finding his checkbook, Mr. Higginlooper vowed on a “one place only” rule.

In both examples, the participial phrases clearly modify the subjects of the sentences. But when it’s not clear what your participial phrases modify, problems of the dangling sort arise.

Chasing Jesse James, the locomotive carrying Detective Alan Pinkerton chugged down the track. (The train is on the chase?)

For drawing on the wall, Grandmother grounded Freddy. (Grandma did the wall art?)

Tanner faced his interviewers, his shoes polished and wearing his only suit. (His shoes are wearing his suit?)

Fixing dangling phrases like these is easy. Just rearrange or recast your sentence.

Dangler:

Wearing the Invisibility Cloak, Snape missed Harry hiding in the hallway. (Harry’s cloaked, not Snape.)

The Fix:

Wearing the Invisibility Cloak, Harry barely breathed as Snape passed him in the hallway.

 Dangler:

Blessed with superior stamina, Marie’s sneakers pounded the pavement. (Strong sneakers?)

The Fix:

Blessed with superior stamina, Marie ran. Clad in plaid sneakers, she pounded toward the finish line.

Dangler:

When swimming across the lake, the boat always followed Judith. (The boat swims?)

The Fix:

When Judith swam across the lake, the boat always followed.

Dangler:

Loaded with bonbons, the waiter carried the tray. (The waiter’s been snacking?)

The Fix:

The waiter carried a tray loaded with bonbons.

Please share

Heads up for dangling participial phrases, especially hilarious ones. Coming soon: common word mix-ups and more misplaced modifiers. Send ones you spot. We love using your examples.

Apostrophes: Flowers or Weeds?

Oh, those pesky apostrophes. We use them in contractions. We use them in possessives. They’re easily (and often) muddled.
The Grammar Patrol loves Frazz, the erudite cartoon strip by the Jef Mallett. In one, a student tells Frazz, the school custodian, “Violets are like flowers in the right place, and weeds in the wrong place. Like apostrophes!”

Take this sign: “Bouquet’s $7” sign. That apostrophe is a weed for sure.

The same goes for the mailbox that says “The Smith’s.” That’s two bloopers in just one sign. First, “Smith” is singular. “Smiths” is plural—more than one Smith lives there. An apostrophe added correctly (as in “The Smiths’ ”) shows possession. But why use the possessive? The Smiths’ what? The Smiths’ mailbox? Keep it simple. The sign should read “The Smiths” as in “the Smiths live here.”

* Apostrophes in Possessives

When Edith was in eighth grade, she was clueless about where to put apostrophes to show ownership. By guessing, she was right about 50% of the time.

That’s when Miss Hoezel, her English teacher, donned her blue grammar cape and flew to the rescue. As the Grammar Patrol, we’ve used her clever trick many times when teaching grammar basics. We call it the arrow method.

Here’s the key: To use apostrophes correctly, first be able to identify if a word is singular or plural, then place the apostrophe.

Miss Hoezel’s Arrow Method:

1. Draw a line under the word you want to make possessive.

If there’s one cat and one dish, underline the word “cat.”

If there are several cats and dishes, underline the word “cats.”

2. Where the line ends, draw an “up” arrow.

3. Make an apostrophe at the tip of the arrow!

(Add s to singular words.)

You can also name the apostrophe. Call it “OF.”

The dish OF the cat. The dishes OF the cat. Wherever you say “of” is where the possessive apostrophe goes.

Now it’s your turn. Give the Arrow Method a try.

Where would the possessive apostrophe go?

1. the wheels of the wagons: wagons wheels

2. the feather of the hat: hats feather

3. the votes of the alumni: alumnis votes

4. the van of the Albertsons: the Albertsons van

5. the tail of the lizard: lizards tail

6. the hair spikes of the teen: the teens hair spikes

* Apostrophes in Contractions

Contractions use an apostrophe to shorten a subject-verb form.

“Do not erase that board” becomes “Don’t erase that board.”

The apostrophe replaces the o in not.

TIP: it’s versus its:

It’s is the contraction of “it is.” One of our students gave us this great mnemonic: “Possessive its never splits.” A dog wags its tail, (never it’s tail—that means it is tail”). The tail belongs to the dog. Think ownership. No weedy apostrophe, please.

Arrow Method Answers

1. wagons’ wheels

2. hat’s feather

3. alumni’s votes

4. the Albertsons’ van

5. lizard’s tail

6. teen’s hair spikes

Please share

We send huge bouquets your way for using the possessive properly. We’d never send you weedy bouquet’s! Do post more egregious apostrophe bloopers. We love hearing from you.