E13: FTCE | General Knowledge | English | Capitalization

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Welcome to episode 13 of FTCE seminar, the Florida Teacher Certification Exam podcast, where we talk about testing tips, study hacks, and how to pass the FTCE. I'm your host, Mercedes Musto. In today's episode, I'll be talking about the FTCE general knowledge English subtest. This is part five of a multi-series review

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of what you need to know to pass the English section of the GK. Let's get started. Today we are reviewing capitalization. Which words you need to capitalize and why. Concept number five, capitalization. We all know to capitalize the first letter of the first word in a sentence,

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but when do you capitalize some of those important sounding words within the sentence? Take this pop quiz to test your knowledge of the rules of capitalization. Listen carefully. Statement number one, I speak a little Spanish. After all, I was born in Spain. Statement number two, every December we celebrate Christmas

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and every spring we celebrate Easter on a Sunday. Statement number three, the congressman remembered loving sodas, burritos, and ice cream when he attended a university for his undergrad. And statement number four, President Smith attended the University of South Florida, but she remembered loving Mountain Dew, Taco Bell, and Haagen-Dazs. Shout out to USF. According to Englishgrammar.org, where you can download

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a PDF cheat sheet of the dos and don'ts of capitalization. Here's how these sentences play out and why. Statement one, I speak a little Spanish. After all, I was born in Spain. That's all true. Interpretation, the first I is capitalized because it's the first word in the sentence. Spanish is capitalized because we capitalize names of countries, nationalities, and languages.

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Why? Because they're proper nouns. More on this in the next example. The next part of the sentence states, I was born in Spain. This is great because we know that Spain is capitalized because it's a country. But what about that second I? It's not at the beginning of a sentence. I was born in Spain.

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Is that a little like the I in iPad or iPhone or any grammatically incorrect text message you may have sent or received in the last 24 hours? No, no, I, personal pronoun, is always capitalized. Don't be a little I, stand up tall and capitalize those I's. When I'm grading papers and I see properly capitalized I's, I just wanna say, oh, what lovely I's you have. Ha ha, see what I did there? Okay, okay. Next sentence. Statement two. Every December we celebrate Christmas and every spring

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we celebrate Easter on a Sunday. There's a lot going on in the sentence. First, notice we do capitalize days of the week, months of the year, and holidays. But what about the phrase every spring? Do we capitalize seasons like winter, spring, and fall in a sentence? No. The answer is no, because seasons are common nouns and words like December, Christmas, and Sunday are proper nouns. There's a caveat to this rule though. If, and I really mean if, the season is part of a title or a phrase of proper nouns, then yes, it gets promoted to capitalization. An example of this would be the 2024 Winter Olympics, where the W in winter is capital and the O in Olympics is also. Or the 2025 Spring Symposium.

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That's the title of an event. Therefore, it's proper. Therefore, it's capitalized. Okay. I mean, that makes sense and you're doing great. The next two sentences, they go together. The first one reads the congressman remembered loving sodas, burritos and ice cream when he attended a university for his undergrad. Okay, you should be asking yourself if congressman is capitalized because that sounds important, right? And you know what? It is important, but it's not capitalized.

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Why? Because it's a common noun, just as common as sodas, burritos, and ice cream. You see, common nouns are people, places, and things that are general, which brings us to the word university. Is that capitalized? No way, Jose. It's simply a university, therefore is a common noun. Statement three, President Smith attended the University of South Florida, but she remembered loving Mountain Dew, Taco Bell,

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and Haagen-Dazs. Shout out to USF. Okay, in contrast to the previous example, this sentence, President Smith attended the University of South Florida, but she remembered loving Mountain Dew, Taco Bell, and Haagen-Dazs, President Smith is capitalized for two reasons. First, it's the first word in the sentence, and second, it's the title of a person whose name is attached to the title, therefore making it proper. See, Congressman was on its own. If it was followed by the name of the congressman, then the title would be capitalized. And so would the name. See, proper nouns are specific, named people, places, and things.

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Like in the next example, the University of South Florida. That's capitalized, except for the word of, because it is actually a specific name of a university, not just a general statement. Moving on to the last examples, Mountain Dew, Taco Bell, and Haagen-Dazs, well, those are definitely capitalized because they're proper nouns. Let's review. We all know to capitalize the first letter

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of the first word in a sentence, and we know to capitalize people's names. But what we learned today is, despite the grammatically rebellious text messages that we've all sent and received, when referring to a person, a personal pronoun, I, capitalize it. Remember, my, what capitalized lovely I's you have. Okay, okay, back to the review. We also know to capitalize proper nouns like nations, nationalities, and languages, as well as cities, states, and countries.

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You know, let's think Jupiter, Florida, or Barcelona, Spain. Both capitalized. Lastly, we talked about capitalizing the days of the week, months of the year, and holidays but think twice about capitalizing seasons of the year because remember, seasons are common nouns unless they're made proper by combining them with the title of a festival or something like Winter Olympics 2024. For more practice with capitalization, visit ftceseminar.com to study the English portion of the test. The important thing is to start studying and start studying

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today so you can pass the Florida Teacher Certification Exam. Well, what are you waiting for? Check us out on YouTube at FTCE seminar and start studying today. This is your host Mercedes Musto. Join me again on FTCE seminar, a Florida teacher certification exam podcast, so you can pass the FTCE. I'd like to thank Kate and Samantha and the Pickens Multimedia Studio at the University of West Florida Capitalize for making this podcast possible.

Transcribed with Cockatoo