Lowercase: the rules of use

click fraud protection

uppercase and lowercase letters - the letters, used for writing on a daily basis.The first - a capital letter (large), and the second is less than its size (small).

little history

Initially when writing used only uppercase letters, which borders (upper and lower) are clearly defined.Over time, it developed the cursive letters becomes more rounded shape.Thus arose the so-called Carolingian minuscule letters, which was developed by scientists from Alcuin.We use it at the court of Charlemagne, and eventually spread this message across Europe.That's the first time a single text began to contain lowercase and uppercase letters.

Uppercase and lowercase letters

Use uppercase and lowercase letters is one of the most complex problems of the modern Russian spelling.Constant change reality entails changing writing these letters.Therefore, you must constantly study new editions of reference books and dictionaries, which necessarily have to reflect these innovations.

But, despite this, there are the basic principles of the use of uppercase and lowercase letters.They help to understand the writing of capital and small letters, even if a word in the dictionary is missing.

Terms of use of capital letters

written with a capital letter:

  • first word that stands in the beginning of the sentence and the text;
  • first name, last name, nickname, pseudonym (Maxim Gorky, Seraphim of Sarov);
  • nickname animals (dogs Ingvar, Boris Bear, cat Vaska);
  • common nouns, which acts as a literary character (Little Red Riding Hood);
  • own geographic name (Europe);
  • common nouns, the name of titles, occupations, titles that are part of the geographical names (Pine Forest);
  • official word at the beginning of the geographic names (Los Angeles);
  • individual astronomical name (Mercury, the Milky Way, the Southern Cross);
  • all the words that make up the names of political parties, businesses, institutions, foreign companies, with the exception of service (the UN Security Council, the State Council, the European Parliament);
  • all the words that make up the official names of States (the Chechen Republic, the French Republic);
  • first word of the name of culture and entertainment enterprises (Moscow Operetta Theater);
  • names of honorary titles and higher top positions, which are indicated in official documents (Vice-President, the President of the United States);
  • names of historical events and periods (Revival era, the Renaissance, the July commune);
  • words are at the beginning of the names: central, state, Russian, International, Russian World (International Monetary Bank);
  • word Fatherland, Motherland, Man, Hope, Wisdom Center et al., In particularly stylistic use;
  • pronoun you (your) as a form of politeness;
  • name of religious books, religious holidays (The Bible, Easter, Pentecost);
  • abbreviations that are formed from proper names (United Nations - UN);
  • possessive adjectives (the question "whose?"), Containing the suffix - in, s (-ev) , which are formed from proper names and nicknames of animals (Fedina book, Raphael's Madonna, Ulysses's journey);
  • the name of a literary work, news agencies, press agencies, besides their need to allocate quotes (novel "Crime and Punishment");
  • names and abbreviations of names of industrial technical products marks ("Volga", ZIL);
  • individual titles aircraft, ships, trains (the ship "Titanic").

Terms of use lowercase

Lowercase letter written if it is a component:

  • articles, prepositions, particles in the Western and proper names (Ludwig Beethoven baths);
  • personal names that aim ironic or negative assessment (the latter-day Luzhin);
  • the noun form of the names and personal names (Oblomovism);
  • components Turkic and Arabic names that indicate the relationships or social status (Al, zade, beg, aga);
  • names of the units that were given the name of the scientist (amps);
  • word earth, the moon, the sun, which does not appear astronomical names;
  • adjectives containing the suffix -sk- , denoting affiliation, formed from proper names (Chekhov page);
  • names of titles and positions (Deputy Minister, the mayor);
  • abbreviations formed from common nouns names (university - higher education institution).

also written in lowercase names:

  • geological eras and periods of archaeological cultures and eras (Mesozoic era);
  • posts and titles, international organizations, as well as higher foreign elective institutions (the Emperor of Japan, Major-General, Ambassador);
  • authorities plural (Ministry of Russia);
  • breeds (keeshond dog);
  • institutions whose names are not proper names (school №592).

Principles use uppercase and lowercase

After examining the above rules, you can select the basic principles on which to base used uppercase and lowercase letters.So:

  • allocation of specific segments of sentences (text) - the syntactic principle.
  • Allocation of certain words in the text:

1) Lowercase letter written to common nouns, capitalized - in proper names - morphological principle.

2) uppercase letter written to a household name, with specific symbols or pathos (man Fatherland), in the name of the holiday (New Year, Victory Day) - semantic principle.

3) A capital letter is used in an abbreviation formed from the first letters.

necessary to distinguish

As already mentioned, written in lowercase adjective that contain the suffix -sk- , denoting affiliation and educated in their own name.Therefore, "Pushkin's prose" is written in small letters.But possessive adjectives with the suffix -sk- , relevant name in honor of someone's memory are written with capital letters.For example, "Lomonosov readings".

Word: uppercase and lowercase letters

In connection with the rapid development of information technology, has received wide popularity program Microsoft Office Word, which is practically indispensable in the labor and educational process.But few know how to make small letters uppercase, and vice versa with one push of a button.

So, write in capital letters the following text:

"lowercase letters RUSSIAN ALPHABET".

Now you need to select the text and press the F3 key Schift and at the same time.After this we will:

"lowercase letters of the Russian alphabet."

After pressing a combination of keys to get the following:

"lowercase letters of the Russian alphabet."

And to return to the source code, you must again press Schift + F3.