To use a cap or not depends on certain rules and none of them include the weather.
Like a cap on the most important part of your body, a capital letter is put on important words in our writing. But there are rules about which words are important enough to warrant a capital letter.
The beginning of every sentence gets a capital letter, and that is important to let the reader know that a new thought is about to begin. The capital letter works like a signpost in this case.
Names of people, names of special animals like pets, and names of particular places and unique geographic locations get capitals. These are called proper nouns as opposed to common nouns.
Titles are important, and when coupled with proper names, they are capitalized.
Examples:
The vote declared the president to be Joseph Welles. For the next four years, President Joseph Welles would be the leader of our country.
The premier of the province was Sidney Adams. He would have to get used to being called “Premier Sidney Adams.” Or you could say that Sidney Adams is the premier.
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Words like king and queen can be tricky, but generally, they are in lower case letters, unless coupled with the proper name of the person.
Examples:
The king sat in his counting house, counting out his money.
The queen was in the parlour, eating bread and honey.
BUT:
Our old King Cole was a merry old soul.
His fiddlers three were not very good and Queen Prudence gave them a condescending look before leaving the room.
The exception is when we are referring to the queen of our country, knowing that we mean our all important queen. It was indeed a very sad day when the Queen died. Now we will refer to the Charles as the English king, and he will be King Charles, or simply the King.
If you are referring to the king and queen of other countries, they are usually referred to with lower case letters unless their proper name is included.
Example:
The king of No-Man’s-Land is King Norbert. He has been the king for a long time. His queen is named Noreen, but she loves to be called Queen Noreen.
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Place names are capitalized when particular ones are meant. Rivers, lakes, streets, and parks are capitalized when they are part of the proper name.
Example:
When naming more than one geographical feature (two lakes or several rivers) the geographical part of the name is in lower case.
The Peace River and the Red River are important waterways, and both the Peace and the Red rivers show up easily on a map.
Huron, Michigan, Superior, Erie, and Ontario lakes are very large. They are called the Great Lakes.
The falls are a huge landmark in our country. Niagara Falls is a popular tourist destination.
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Compass directions are not capitalized unless they refer to a specific area or are part of a proper name.
Example:
Specific Area
the Middle East
the East Coast
the Deep South
the Wild West
Part of a Proper Name
North Dakota
South Carolina
West Virginia
General directions are in lower case (east, north, south, west). The eastern United States and western Canada often have similar weather.
But, abbreviations for compass points are capitalized. (east northeast is ENE)
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Lastly, for today, some words that many feel are so important that they merit a capital letter, DO NOT.
Example:
heaven
hell
nature
season
spring
autumn
summer
winter
So next time you are wondering about putting on a cap, make sure it’s your thinking cap.
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