Do You Capitalize the Names of Countries, Nationalities, and Languages?

You should capitalize the names of countries, nationalities, and languages because they are proper nouns—English nouns that are always capitalized.

Consider the following sentences and pay attention to the capitalized nouns:

English is made up of many languages, including Latin, German, and French.

My mother is British, and my father is Dutch.

The Mennonites began to worship in the Netherlands in the sixteenth century.

Jason has traveled extensively in Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asia.

If you’re ever wondering when to capitalize English, when you’re talking about the language or the nationality, the answer always. Although people writing casually online often lowercase the word, it is a proper noun and therefore requires a capital letter.

Are You a Grammar Troll? Quiz

Whether you’re the friend that everyone calls when they have a grammar question or you’re just a big English language geek, you love reading about and talking about language online. When writing mistakes happen online, however, language and grammar can get pretty divisive—quickly. We all have a tendency to chime in, but not all of us are as productive as others. Find out how much of a grammar troll you are in our short, fun quiz.

What kind of writing personality do you have? What parts of writing are easy or challenging for you? Share your stories in the comments.

All the Wondrous Ways We Express Wonder in English

As we get nearer to the end of December, we are reminded of why it’s called the most wonderful time of the year. It’s the season of holidays, with Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, and Mawlid usually celebrated within a month of one another. And then there’s the New Year, a great opportunity to commit ourselves to plans and resolutions we’ll never actually make good on. This time of year is a great opportunity to remind ourselves of some of the words we have at our disposal to express all the wonder that’s going on.

Let’s kick off with wondrous, an adjective we get from the word “wonder.” Something that creates a feeling of wonder can be called wondrous. It can also be called wonderful, but let’s stick with the rarer of the two. Also, note that there’s no e in wondrous—wonderous was once an alternative, albeit less common spelling of the word. But as with monstrous and ambidextrous, we use the spelling without an e because it’s much closer to the way we pronounce the word.

There’s more than one thing we could do with awe. There’s always awesome, but if you’re tired of hearing that word, you might use awful instead. It once meant “awe-inspiring,” even though it’s rarely, if ever, used that way anymore. If you don’t want to spend the holidays explaining to people that you’re not a Grinch but a fighter for grammatical lost causes, you can just say that something is awe-inspiring or that you are awe-filled.

Of course, the English language isn’t lacking in synonyms for awesome and its relatives. Marvelous is a very nice word (which you’ll want to spell with two l’s if you’re in the UK). You might also want to pronounce it “maah-velous!”—it makes the word sound even better. Astonishing is a word you’d use for something that causes amazement or wonder. And look, we almost forgot amazing.

If you want to say that something is so good it actually overwhelmed you with wonder, you can call it astounding. Although, if something really astounds you, you can say that it flabbergasted you or even dumbfounded you. It might have even stupefied you—but be careful when using these words because some of them might also carry negative connotations.

If you want to stray from the path of overly formal words, there’s no better place to start than supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. The word means “exceptionally good,” and when was the last time someone wished you a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious New Year? From there, you can head onto fantabulous. It’s is a mix of “fantastic” and “fabulous,” and when you encounter something that can only be described with the combined powers of those two words, you know it’s full of wonder. If you’re in the UK and you want to compliment something but you don’t want to say it’s wonderful, you might say it’s dench, or well dench if you want to take it up a notch. Of course, there’s no need to point out that people sometimes use words like “sick,” “ill,” or “wicked” to describe something that’s good. But why would they, when fantabulous is around? Really makes you wonder.

According to our Facebook friends, learning grammar in school is important

It seems that people not only care about using grammar, but also about using it correctly. 

(Photo source: http://www.etsy.com/listing/104421575/notebook-dear-people-of-the-world)

On Monday, we ran an informal poll on our Facebook page. After a recent article in the Huffington post discussing an increased demand for grammar study in education, we asked our followers: “Do you think studying grammar in school is important?” The results were unsurprising, but overwhelmingly one-sided. Of the three options (Yes, No, and No opinion), 98.6% of voters said that grammar study was important.

Naturally, we understand that our Facebook community is not a representative sample of the population. Many people who “like” our Facebook page and who saw the poll are interested in English grammar and therefore are more likely to think that studying it is important. What is interesting is how overwhelmingly people seemed to agree that grammar study in school is valuable.

What do you think, should grammar be taught more in schools?

Check Your Answers for Grammar Skills Test—Master

So, you want to know what your English grammar level is? You’ve come to the right place. This post will cover the answers and additional learning resources for “Grammar Skills Test—Master.” The Master test covers reported speech, conditionals, prepositions, tenses, adverbs vs. adjectives, the irrealis mood, and restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses.

Correct answers are highlighted. Links go to additional learning resources to help you continue improving.

Fill in the blanks to complete the sentences:

1 If you wait a minute . . .

• I’d go with you.
• I’d have gone with you.
• I will go with you.

Subject(s) Tested: Conditionals

2 All my life, . . .

• I’ve loved going to the movies.
• I loved going to the movies.
• I have loved to go to the movies.

Subject(s) Tested: Past perfect form

3 ___________ Richard, I believe he has finally made a decision.

• Having spoken to
• Speaking to
• Had spoken to

Subject(s) Tested: Past perfect form, Introductory clauses

4It was really nice ___ you to invite me.

• for
• of
• with
• to

Subject(s) Tested: Prepositions

5Tom said, “I want to visit my friends this weekend.” What did Tom say?

• Tom said he wants to visit his friends that weekend.
• Tom said he wants to visit his friends this weekend.
• Tom said he wanted to visit his friends that weekend.

Subject(s) Tested: Reported speech

6The class is ___ loud today.

• terrible
• terribly

Subject(s) Tested:

Two-minute Grammar: The Bare-bones Basics of Adjectives and Adverbs

7I didn’t understand at first, but then ___ and the answer was clear.

• he explained it to me
• he explained me
• he explained it me
• he explained me it

Subject(s) Tested: Word order

8 He used to be married to an actress, ____.

• wasn’t he?
• didn’t he?

Subject(s) Tested: Word choice and idiomatic language

9 Which word is the direct object?

“He gave his coat to Jane.”

• Jane
• coat
• his

Subject(s) Tested: Direct object

10Which sentence is most natural?

• At this time tomorrow, I take my driving test.
• At this time tomorrow, I will be taking my driving test.
• At this time tomorrow, I will take my driving test.

Subject(s) Tested: Future continuous tense

11Which sentence is correct?

• The woman was arrested and charged with murder.
• The woman was arrested and charged because of murder.
• The woman was arrested and charged for murder.

Subject(s) Tested: Prepositions

12They would have found out if you ___ them.

• wouldn’t have told
• hadn’t told
• haven’t told
• didn’t tell

Subject(s) Tested: Verb conjugation, conditionals

13If I _______ a cat, I’d lie in the sun all day.

• were
• was

Subject(s) Tested: Irrealis (subjunctive) mood

14What type of phrase is “which is about 20 years old”?:

“My car, which is about 20 years old, still runs remarkably well.”

• nonrestrictive
• restrictive

Subject(s) Tested: Restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses

15What kind of error is in this sentence?

“He make me laugh.”

• subject-verb disagreement
• pronoun-antecedent disagreement
• incorrect word order
• tense error

Subject(s) Tested: Subject-verb agreement

Learn more: Reported speech Past perfect form Adjectives and adverbs Future continuous tense Prepositions Verb conjugation Conditionals Irrealis (subjunctive) mood Restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses

Get more English grammar resources on our Grammar Day page.