What is the rule for state abbreviations? The days of the week are: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Capitalizing western and capitalizing west have the same rules. If you are referring to a group of proper nouns such as the Southern States. However, if instead you reference a general location, such as the southern winds, then the word southern should be lowercase. As a compass direction, south and southern are not capitalized: Capitalize each term when it is used as a proper name or as part of a proper name, and if the region . Along with the proper nouns listed in the table above, you should also always capitalize: the first word after a colon when what follows the colon is an independent clause, most nouns when they are followed by numerals or letters (e.g., Table 1, Figure 2, Panel A; see section 4.17), and. Wotan is one of the gods in Wagner's Ring Cycle. U.S. That's when even the most exhaustive style . Should The South Be Capitalized? - FAQS Clear It does not store any personal data. For example: I live in The North. 2 Do you capitalize state when referring to a state? Should the word northwest be capitalized? Explained by Sharing Culture Q. Hello! On a cloudless night, I studied Pisces, a constellation in the North sky. Do Men Still Wear Button Holes At Weddings? Copyright 2022 - TheContentAuthority.com, Reindeer Vs. Moose: Main Differences, How To Tell Them Apart. In case it's not obvious, I have a bachelor's in writing. When did they standardize state abbreviations? The key factor here is that were using these words descriptively (i.e., to specify the direction or location of something), not to name something. The AP Stylebook the guiding stylebook for many news outlets, including The Daily Tar Heel advises against using the Oxford comma in most simple series. Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features. Another example, "Eastern" in the phrase "Eastern bankers" is capitalized since the word denotes a certain group of people. To Capitalize or not to Capitalize Independence? Is Grandma a well-behaved woman? The correct sentence is Carlotta and I love Halloween. Circling back to the "title" rule, if the headline is in sentence case and the word "region" is not the starting word of the title, "region" should be written in lowercase. It only takes a minute to sign up. when they indicate compass direction, but capitalize when they indicate a region: the West Coast. For example, capitalizing "Southerner" in the sentence "As a Southerner, she had a distinct drawl" can be up for debate. Do I Capitalize Western Blot? - Advansta Inc. When we write the days of the week, we always use a capital letter. Should 'southern' be capitalized in a sentence such as 'These - Quora Note: This post relates to content in the eighth edition of the MLA Handbook. What is the purpose of this D-shaped ring at the base of the tongue on my hiking boots? In your first paragraph after the caption you make a good comparison between Wild West and Southern California, but I'm still troubled by a couple of issues. Should southern Florida be capitalized? - Answers However, if you use the word southern instead of a general location, such as the southern winds, the word should be lowercase. 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. Though a direction is a general noun, it could at times be not that straightforward to ascertain whether it's a common noun or a proper noun. Everyone on the bus tour enjoyed the southern food in Tennessee. But you capitalize them when theyre specific regions or an integral part of a proper name. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You should only capitalize directions, such as south, when you are referring to it as the proper noun, such as "in the South.". You capitalize state only when it follows the name of the state, as in New York State is also called the Empire State, or when its part of a traditional name for a state, like Empire State or Lone Star State. When it precedes the name of the state, dont capitalize the word unless its part of a title of . In headlines, the periods are omitted. Dont capitalize the word when it precedes the states name unless its included in a states title. Capitalize locations in a country if the proper noun is given in other words, the name of a region or city, such as the Congo, the Mississippi River, etc. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. When to capitalize North East South West? How do I style geographic terms such as - MLA Style Center Yes, Southern is capitalized because it refers to the South (= the southern US). 3. Here is part of that discussion: 8.46 Regions of the world and national regions. It was first put into effect for large businesses, but it was gradually adopted as a standardized format by everyone. Opportunities exist on the east and west sides of the city. A region could also be a group of nations. Home | About | Contact | Copyright | Privacy | Cookie Policy | Terms & Conditions | Sitemap. Have you ever wondered when its okay to capitalize north, east, south, and west? The same applies for related adjectives and other compass directions: We live in the eastern part of the country. When does a locational distinction change its suffix and capitialization in a proper name? In general, you should capitalize the first word, all nouns, all verbs (even short ones, like is), all adjectives, and all proper nouns. Hi, Victoria. Clearly, LA, OC, and SD are part of Southern California, but there are a lot of other places that are located in southern California that are not located in Southern California, such as Palm Springs, Salton Sea, Joshua Tree, Blythe, etc. Duck Vs. Loon: How Are These Words Connected? What about capitalizing a Westerner or a Westerner? As a compass direction, south and southern are not capitalized: Capitalize each term when it is used as a proper name or as part of a proper name, and if the region is widely known: The Civil War pitted the South against the North. Examples: southern France, northern Canada. Most style guides say that compass points and the terms derived from them are lowercased if they just mean direction or location. That means you should lowercase articles, conjunctions, and prepositionshowever, some style guides say to capitalize conjunctions and prepositions that are longer than five letters. Besides the global continents, there are also atmospheric and hydrospheric regions that encompass the oceans, discrete climates, or environments above the water and landmasses of earth. Is north capitalized there? To Capitalise or Not To Capitalise: A Useful Guide - Proofed The Chicago Manual of Style, sixteenth edition (2010) has a useful and detailed discussion of this issue. We also lowercase the terms when they refer to people: My friend is a southerner. Title Case Capitalization (APA 7th) Sentence Case Capitalization (APA 7th) Capitalization For WebCT Users in Writing Classes: The "caps" icon (usually immediately before a word) indicates either that the following word ought to be capitalized (for one of the reasons listed here) or, if it is already capitalized, that it shouldn't be. - thanks! If youre referring to a collection of proper nouns, such as the Southern States, this is the case. For example, "western Massachusetts", "northern New Jersey". Do you capitalize the word state when referring to a state? Which Teeth Are Normally Considered Anodontia? For example, NY for New York, use the US Postal Services symbol system. English Capitalization Rules and Example Sentences - ThoughtCo I am living in Western Downtown. Broadly speaking, a region is an area that's divided by: Geographic regions are usually depicted by their not-so-clearly defined, and at times transitory boundaries. This format is the official USPS postal abbreviation. My name is Erin. When dealing with geographic terms, capitalize nouns such as "river", "lake", etc. Note that it doesn't seem to be treated as a compound proper noun (e.g., searching for "Southeastern Albania" produces an error since Ngrams is case sensitive and there don't seem to be any instances of that capitalization in the Google Books database). The AP Stylebook, which is the guiding stylebook for a number of news organizations, including The Daily Tar Heel, advises against using the Oxford comma in most basic series. NOTE: When terms like western region and southern district are used to name organizational units within a company, capitalize them. For example, we capitalizenorth,south,east, andwest when the terms refer to regions or cultures: Customs in the East differ from those in the West. The same rule applies for specific regions when you add -ern onto the end of a direction. Human settlements and their impact on the physical geography, and, The communication between the environment and humanity, The precipitation is the maximum in the interior, Cattle-breeding techniques or practices could vary across, Urundi and Ruanda are fertile, healthy, high-lying, and thickly populated, This text isn't a law but an abstract of the several special usages obtained in those, She passed the Lake Amadeus and the Reynolds range in that direction but had to turn, Many scholars are now studying the global. The difference between the phonemes /p/ and /b/ in Japanese. Should Pisces be capitalized? [Fact Checked!] Lowercase north, south, northeast, etc. O needs to be capitalized since it is at the beginning of the sentence, I needs to be capital, Pisces is a specific constellation so it is a proper noun, and likewise North is proper noun. Capitalize regional terms when they refer to a commonly accepted proper name of an area. When referring to a specific region, you should capitalize the words East Coast such as Im traveling to the East Coast since East Coast is a proper noun in this case. If youre referring to a specific location, such as the southern winds, southern should be lowercase. So the upshot of my answer is that you didn't miss the memo (or perhaps I should say The Memo) on this issue, but at the same time you didn't notice a larger phenomenon in accordance with which initial-capping Southern California is by no means a unique, inexplicable, or indefensible treatment of a regional name.