Even though it feels natural to English speakers, capitalizing I is unusual. In fact, English is the only language that does it.
Germanic and Romantic languages typically have some conventions for capitalizing proper nouns, like Deutschland (in German) or Place de la Concorde (in French), but English is the only one that insists on capitalizing the personal pronoun.
How did we start capitalizing I?
It turns out that this unusual convention was a bit of an accident. In Old and Middle English, the word for I was closer to its German cousin, ich, and it was often spelled ic. At this point, the word was...Read more
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Germanic and Romantic languages typically have some conventions for capitalizing proper nouns, like Deutschland (in German) or Place de la Concorde (in French), but English is the only one that insists on capitalizing the personal pronoun.
Still don’t think it’s weird … then why don’t we capitalize we?
How did we start capitalizing I?
It turns out that this unusual convention was a bit of an accident. In Old and Middle English, the word for I was closer to its German cousin, ich, and it was often spelled ic. At this point, the word was...Read more
Back to Language & Communication
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