Two Jobs for Capital Letters

One tiny letter can turn a muddled line into a clear sentence. Spot the clue... which letters deserve to stand tall?

A capital letter has two main jobs. First, it opens every sentence. Watch the first word: the dog barked becomes The dog barked. Only the opening t changes - because the sentence starts there. Second, capitals mark proper nouns: the special names of particular people, places, days and months. So girl stays lower-case, but Aisha begins with a capital. City stays lower-case, but Bristol begins with a capital. Monday and October do too. Do not let an apostrophe distract you. In can't, the apostrophe shows missing letters; it does not show possession. It also does not choose the capital. Write I can't at a sentence start, because I is always capital and the sentence begins there.

Let's work through an example. Your question says: Add capital letters where needed to this passage: 'on monday, sam travelled from leeds to york. he said, "i can't wait to see aunt maya in october."' Punctuation is already correct. What should the passage be? Start with sentence openings. The first word is on, so change it to On. After the full stop, he begins a new sentence, so change it to He. Inside the speech marks, i begins the quoted sentence. Change it to I. Now scan for exact names. Monday is a day, Sam a person, Leeds and York places, Maya a person's name, and October a month. Each begins with a capital. Aunt is part of the name Aunt Maya here, so capitalise Aunt too. Keep can't exactly as it is. Its apostrophe marks the missing letters from cannot; it is not a possession clue. The answer is: 'On Monday, Sam travelled from Leeds to York. He said, "I can't wait to see Aunt Maya in October."' Every capital now has a reason.

Remember: use a capital at every sentence start and at the beginning of every proper noun. Check those two jobs, ignore apostrophe distractions, and you will make every answer clear and confident!