Capital letters are used at the beginning of the following kinds of words.
1. the names of days, months and public holidays. The names of seasons do not usually begin with capital letters.
- Sunday; Monday; Friday
- January; March, August
- Christmas; Easter;
- summer; autumn; winter; spring
2. the names of people and places, including stars and planets
- John; Mary; Alice
- India; Tokyo; Paris; Singapore
- Jupiter; Mars; Neptune
- (But the earth, the sun and the moon)
3. people’s titles
- Mr Smith; Dr James; the Chairman; the Managing Director
4. nouns and adjectives referring to nationalities and regions, languages, religions and ethnic groups
- He is French.
- She is Spanish.
- He is a Sikh.
- Chinese history
5. the first word in the title of books, magazines, plays, pictures, magazines etc. Sometimes other nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs in the title also begin with capital letters.
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer or The adventures of Tom Sawyer
- Gone with the Wind OR Gone with the wind
Spelling :-ly
We normally change an adjective into an adverb by adding -ly.
- Late – lately
- Real – really
- Right – rightly
- Definite – definitely
- Hopeful – hopefully
- Complete – completely
Exceptions
There are some exceptions to this rule.
- True – truly (NOT truely)
- Full – fully (NOT fullly)
- Due – duly (NOT duely)
Y and I
The final -y in an adjective changes to -i- before adding -ly.
- Happy – happily
- Merry – merrily
- Easy – easily
Adjectives ending in consonant + le
-le changes to -ly after a consonant
- Idle – idly
- Noble – nobly
Adjectives ending in -ic
Adjectives ending in -ic, have adverbs ending in -ically.
- Tragic – tragically
- Phonetic – phonetically
Exception
- Public – publicly
