About capital letter

Mili I wonder too as I see it oft in a2k

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=personal+pronoun+i+capitalized

It is a literary device, though not customary.
Many use it to convey real or professed modesty.

In my experience, it seems to be a result of laziness, carelessness or poor education.

All of that, and possibly an extra action needed to text in upper case. Don't know, as I don't text.

Personally, i don't capitalize the first person singular subjective pronoun. I do, however, capitalize the first word in any sentence. Some capitalization customs are useful, such as capitalizing the first word in a sentence, which makes the announcement of a new or variant idea clear. Other rules of capitalization are less obviously useful. Do be assured, though, that capitalization is always a matter of style, a matter of usage. English abhors rules the way nature abhors a vacuum.

idk.

y u ask?

Capitalizing the first person sigular subjective pronoun "I" is never a matter of style, it's a matter of grammar. It's always capitalized, and those that don't do it have either made a mistake, or don't care that it's wrong. But it's wrong.

Hold on to your certitude there, Bubba, like a pacifier to suck on. Capitalization is never a matter of grammar, it's always a matter of style.

You'r asking for any special purpose?

I was about to say that it was an issue of mechanics, but couldn't find any support for that. Seems that it has its own classification. Regardless, every source I looked at was pretty adamant about the first person pronoun. One example:




http://www.grammarly.com/handbook/mechanics/capitalization/3/capitalization-the-pronoun-i/

Of course, if you choose to ignore this rule for stylistic reasons, then that's your stylistic choice. I often tell my students that writing is a matter of first learning the rules, then learning how to break them.

I searched for definitions of grammar, and not a one of them included capitalization among the "rules" of grammar. English must be one of the most "rule-less" languages around. The adamantine attitude toward capitalizing the first person singular subjective pronoun is nothing more than a conceit, in my never humble opinion. The old timers write "He," when they refer to their god. I guess everyone is assume to be their own god. There's not even a pragmatic reason for it--"i" is not a word in any other usage other than the first person singular subjective pronoun, it doesn't need to be capitalized to distinguish its usage.

I don't know anything about other languages and the rules they follow, but American English rules dictate that "I" is always capitalized. This is first grade English. I'm not going to find the proof for anyone, it's out there if you choose to look for it. There are many opinions that don't agree with the rule, but they don't change it. If you choose to remain ignorant and don't want to use proper rules of writing, then don't. Nobody will correct you or care that you do it wrong, that you will be aware of.

Uh huh . . . those "rules" come from whom? Who enforces said rules? What happens when i "violate" those "rules?" Does a little fairy like Tinkerbell die every time i fail to capitalize?

This is for you:




i i i . . . there, i just killed three more of your fairies.

This guy would fill his panties if he read e. e. cummings. He'd have had him arrested and locked up for life.

I thought I answered this thread while bemused, sometime earlier this afternoon, but I must have either put my response in the football pickum thread or decided against my post.

I agree entirely with Setanta, had started to explain that and apparently gave up as he had already stated my opinion.

I and many others here are well schooled in american english (and others are with other varieties of english) but, in everyday quick typing, I cluge up my commas, gludge up my metaphors, sludge up my similes, and I also sometimes make up words. I consider that my rarely capitalizing the name of a language and often not capitalizing country names, or religions' names is just my way, or style.

Some very interesting writers play with language. I recommend keeping an open mind. Knowing the 'rules', whatever teacher is teaching you whatever year, is a useful start. These do change and there are many arguments about some of that, including on this website. But that all is just a start regarding how you may end up wanting to write, yourself, sometime later.

For people in positions that write professional communications, I would say that you wouldn't be seen as very professional if you ignored the basic rules of sentence structure, and it would have a negative impact on your image and future prospects. Will it matter if you're in an unskilled labor job? Probably not, but it might affect you if you plan on moving into a management position. I think the only time it will affect you is when someone is making a judgment about you based on your writings. Someone may conclude that you don't have the basic skills necessary to write in a professional manner, or that your attention to detail is lacking. In those instances, or others like it, you may never know that it had a negative impact on your future.

If you're texting, writing in forums, trying to make a statement, or want to stylize your writing, go ahead and write as you choose. The question, as I understood it, was asking if "I" should be capitalized. The answer is yes, it should be capitalized. I suppose that the original poster's actual question of "isn't it a mistake?" would have to be answerd with a maybe. Maybe the person writing it wanted to write it in lowercase, you'd have to ask the writer. You can hold the position that it doesn't need to be all you want, but we are all taught in school how to write a proper sentence, and it carries all the way through college and into our professional careers, that "I" is always capitalized. It wasn't always capitalized, and it may not be in other languages, but at this time in America, it is.

As I said in the last sentence of my previous reply, nobody is going to care or correct you that you will be aware of, except maybe the internet grammar nazis or professors grading your work. But to the original poster, yes, "I" should be capitalized.

I was taught business writing in architecture school, aka professional communications, and had trouble not laughing at some of it. We all know that some of that writing may need to be formulaic and of course legally correct. Are you here as a teacher? A little bit o' human warmth and some legal review goes a long way together.

Have you learned yet about literature or poetry?

It wouldn't pass muster in academic or technical English, but for informal writing, poetry and creative writing (whether novels, songs or essays), pretty much anything goes.

Capitalizing the first person singular subjective pronoun has nothing to do with sentence structure. Sniff . . . sniff sniff . . . sniff sniff sniff . . . Do i smell an anal retentive?