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Fri 14 Mar, 2014 12:39 pm
Is the following sentence capitalized correctly, specifically the directionals: While the ErP directive is followed staunchly in northern Europe, this is not quite the case in southern and Eastern Europe.
@mbthomas23,
I ain't no anglish teecher...but seems to me when one adds a modifier such as "southern" or "eastern" to a proper noun (place in this case), it then is appropriate to capitalize both words.
When words like northern, southern, eastern, and western precede a place name, they are not ordinarily capitalized, because they merely indicate general location within a region.
northern New Jersey, western Massachusetts, southern Europe, eastern Europe, western Canada
However, when these words are actually part of the place name, they must be capitalized.
Northern Ireland, Western Australia