English Grammar Rules & Mistakes: Learn All of the Essentials: Writing, Speaking, Literature and Punctuation Rules Complete with 10 Key Skills and Over 200 Common Error Examples

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is the favorite book of many
children.
The brand names of manufacturers and any of their products are always
capitalized.
Ever since I was a young man, my dream has been to buy a Ferrari.
When quoting someone directly, the first letter in the quote should be
capitalized only when what is quoted is a complete sentence. Luckily, this is
most of the time.

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The French philosopher Descartes is the author of “I think, therefore I
am.”
Keep in mind, some brand names have become so popular that they are now
used to describe the entire product category. In this case they are no longer
capitalized.
I would like to buy some scotch tape.
The pronoun I is always capitalized but other pronouns are not.
I am going into the city today.
A notable exception to this is when talking about God in various religions. In
this case, the pronoun he/him is capitalized. This is to show respect.
It is by the grace of God that He will decide whether or not I will be
forgiven.
When writing a title there are two different ways to capitalize. The first style
is to capitalize all principle words. What this means is anything that is not a
conjunction or an article.
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The second style is to only capitalize the first letter of the title. This is called
sentence style. It does not matter which you choose, what is important is that
you are consistent.
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It is now important to talk about examples where capitalization is often used
incorrectly. The mistake usually occurs when people feel that a word should
be emphasized.

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Smoking is STRICTLY forbidden.
Instead of capitalizing the word, if you want to stress the word use italics.
Capitalizing a word because it is proceeded by the is also a common mistake.
It may appear that the word is a proper noun because there is an article before
it, however, only proper nouns should be capitalized.
He was the first person to reach the South Pole.
This example is incorrect. Rather, it should be the south pole.
When writing about a concept this should not be capitalized.
I was inspired by Psychoanalysis and the work of Sigmund Freud.
The correct version is to not capitalize psychoanalysis.
Finally, don’t capitalize everything just because it is a name. We have spoken
about our love of names, so there are a lot of them. When you want to talk
about a name, focus on the correct rule. If it is a proper noun, use a capital
letter. If it is commonly used then don’t use a capital letter.
I went to see the Doctor today but I couldn’t see my Doctor.
Instead they sent me to see Doctor Singh.
In this example, only one use of the word doctor is correctly capitalized. The
version that should have a capital letter is Doctor Singh as it is a title of a
person.
Overall, there are quite a few different rules for capitalization. The thing to
keep in mind is that you likely have a bad habit of excessive capitalization.
We panic when we write and stick a capital letter on everything. Take control
of this bad habit and instead focus on what it is you are talking about. On the

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whole, if it is a specific thing you capitalize it. If it is a general thing, you
don’t capitalize it.

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