Jose Carillo's English Forum

Joe Carillo's Desk => You Asked Me This Question => Topic started by: Melvin on July 06, 2015, 10:08:38 AM

Title: Internet
Post by: Melvin on July 06, 2015, 10:08:38 AM

Sir,
 Good day. I just noticed that Internet is capitalized regardless of its position in the sentence. Do we have to capitalize it? Thank you.

Title: Re: Internet
Post by: Joe Carillo on July 06, 2015, 08:06:07 PM

If you are writing for audiences in countries that use the American English Standard, you need to capitalize the first letter of "Internet." Typical American style guides recommend it, and most major publications in North America--including Canada--capitalize that "I." This goes the same for publications in the Philippines, which as you know uses the American English Standard. In my own case, I'd feel very uncomfortable seeing that word spelled with lower-case "i" and instinctively change it to upper case.

But the preferred style in British English is the opposite--"internet" with the "i" in lower case. Countries using the British English Standard follow that style, of course. The thinking behind it is that "internet" is now a generic term term that doesn't need its first letter to be capitalized. That may be so, but as the grizzled American man of the street would say, "Tell that to the marines!"