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- by R. S. Karunaratne
Know when to
capitalise words
Unlike in certain other languages, we use capital letters when
writing English. Capital letters are big and prominent. Here is a simple
guide for the use of capital letters.
1. Use capitals when you write the
names of people.
Perera, Austin, Ramanathan, Hussain, Lenora
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I play tennis on Saturdays. |
2. Use capitals when writing the days
of the week, months and holidays.
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday I play
tennis on Saturdays.
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September,
October, November, December, Easter, Christmas, Vesak, Poson
3. Capitalise titles when they are
used with names.
Dr. S. Thilakasena, General Sam Fonseka, Professor K. Ramanathan
4. Use capitals when you write the
names of cities, countries, continents, rivers, oceans, streets and
parks.
The ship sailed in the Indian Ocean. Colombo, India, Africa, the
Mahaweli, Indian Ocean, Chatham Street, Uyanwatte Park
5. Use capitals to indicate
historical periods.
The Renaissance, World War I, the Middle Ages.
6. Use capitals for religions,
nationalities, languages.
Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sinhalese, English, Chinese,
Japanese They are Chinese tourists.
7. Use capitals for the various names
for God and Sacred Books.
God, Jehovah, Allah, the Bible, the Koran
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The ship sailed in the Indian Ocean. |
8. Use capitals for the names of
colleges and universities.
Ananda College is in Colombo. Ananda College, S. Thomas’ College,
Trinity College and Colombo University
Use capitals for brand names.
Sunlight, IBM, Nestle, Parker
10. Use capitals for names of
planets.
Jupiter, Mars, Neptune Exceptions: the sun, the moon,
11. Use capitals for letters that
stand alone.
U-turn, T-shirt, X-ray.
She loves to wear T-shirts.
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They are Chinese tourists. |
12. Use capitals for movies and
books.
The Merchant of Venice, Titanic
Everyone was aghast when the Titanic sank.
EXERCISE
Underline the words that begin with
capital letters.
1. i foolishly forgot my passport.
2. i am going to play golf with john.
3. i will be writing to mr. perera about your offer.
4. the boys start school on tuesday.
5. miss smith is our new english teacher.
6. we are lucky that saman has a car.
7. peter, my neighbour, is very pessimistic.
8. besides cooking i help samson.
9. my grandfather once saw queen elizabeth.
10. i bought this car in montreal.
KEY
1. I, 2. John, 3. Mr. Perera, 4. The, tuesday, 5. Miss Smith,
English, 6. We, Saman, 7. Peter, 8. Besides, I, Samson, 9. My, Queen
Elizabeth, 10. I, Montreal
Make proper
adjectives
Proper adjectives are made from proper nouns which are the names of
particular people, places or things. Fill the blanks with proper
adjectives and check your answers with the key.
Proper nouns Proper
adjectives
1. Alps .........
2. Australia .........
3. Belgium .........
4. Bulgaria .........
5. China .........
6. Cyprus .........
7. Canada .........
8. Denmark .........
9. Finland .........
10. Greece .........
11. Holland .........
12. Iceland .........
13. Israel .........
14. Malta .........
15. Mexico .........
16. Norway .........
17. Poland .........
18. Portugal .........
19. Spain .........
20. Sri Lanka .........
Key:
1. Alpine, 2. Australian, 3. Belgian, 4. Bulgarian, 5. Chinese, 6.
Cypriot, 7. Canadian, 8. Danish, 9. Finnish, 10. Greek, 11. Dutch, 12.
Icelandic, 13. Israeli, 14. Maltese, 15. Mexican, 16. Norwegian, 17.
Polish, 18. Portuguese, 19. Spanish, 20. Sri Lankan.
Weigh the
meaning
before you choose a word
You must be aware that many words can express more than one meaning.
When you are using a dictionary which gives many meanings for a word,
you may have to think carefully about which word fits the meaning you
had in mind.
Here is an example of on such entry to familiarise you in this
difficult task. You’ll be surprised at the number of new meanings one
word has.
Fast.
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The boy was fast asleep. |
adjective
1. Quick or swift
2. Ahead of actual time
3. Firm or secure
4. Firmly set
My watch was five minutes fast (It means: ahead of actual time)
Taniya and Manju remained fast friends even after Manju left school.
(It means their friendship was firm).
The colours in the fabric are fast. (firmly set)
adverb
5. Quickly or swiftly
6. Firmly or securely
7. Deeply: fast asleep
He ran swiftly
The door was closed firmly
verb.
8. To go without food
noun.
9. The act or time of going
without food.
For starters:
Make words
Fill the blanks using the letters DR and CR and learn the meaning of
the words. Make a sentence using them.
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— — um |
— —ink |
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— — ess |
— —ab |
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— —agon |
— —own |
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