English Toolkit

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13.2Proper nouns (names)
TYPICAL ERROR Blake and rebecca are going to sydney.
CORRECTION Blake and Rebecca are going to Sydney.

EXPLANATION Names and titles such as Blake, Rebecca, Sydney, Australia Day and Labour Day should each begin with a capital letter because they are actual names given to individual people, places and occasions (so we call them proper nouns).

While using lower-case letters may be fine when we are quickly typing in internet chat rooms and other informal situations, it is important to be able to be precise in formal situations.

Here are some more examples:

Austria, Brisbane, Cradle Mountain, Dr Chan, Fortescue Metals, Hume Highway, Kangaroo Island, Kwai-Ho, Lake Argyle, Martin Place, Monday, Prime Minister, Queen Street, Toyota, Uluru, The Great Wall of China

Rewrite these sentences using capitals where appropriate. (The number of capitals required for each sentence is indicated.)
anicole kidman and keith urban were driven to the movie premiere in a rolls royce. (6)



bOn monday, zoe and I are going to south molle island. (5)



cgrace and phuong are going to europe at christmas. (4)



dThey hope to visit england, france, italy and greece before they return to australia. (5)



ejessica watson sailed her boat ella's pink lady through sydney harbour heads. (8)



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