Friday, January 6, 2017

When to Capitalize the Word Mother

Although you may adore and worship your mother, it's not grammatically correct to capitalize the term when it is preceded by a pronoun. Whenever you see the words "my, your, his, her" before the word mother, don't cap. For example, "My mother and I love musicals."

When should you capitalize the term? When it's a proper noun. "My mom" needs to go in lowercase, but if I want to talk about what Mom wore to the theater, I am using the word as a noun. "Mom" (or "Mother") is a substitute for her name. It's a name that I give her (e.g., "I always spend Easter with Mom and we have a great time." But "I always spend Easter with my mother" does not warrant capitals.

The same is, of course, true for the term father or dad — my father, your father, his father, her father, but "I've missed Dad every day since he passed away twenty long years ago."

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