Terms of endearment

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María Andrea Fernández Sepúlveda
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Terms of endearment

Post by María Andrea Fernández Sepúlveda »

Is it correct to capitalize terms of endearment? Such as honey, darling, dude, etc.
I can't find an agreement on this and it would drastically change the number of errors I found in a book.
Thanks!
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Juliet+1
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Post by Juliet+1 »

Well, it's definitely correct to NOT capitalize them. I'm not sure, though, if capitalizing terms of endearment is absolutely wrong. If a character routinely calls someone else "Honey" so that it becomes a nickname, then it could be okay. And then there's artistic license, which allows many deviations from the norm. I hope others will chime in on this question. :P
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unamilagra
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Post by unamilagra »

I think if you are using it as a proper noun in place of their name like "Honey, can you ..." it should be capitalized. That said, I don't think I would call it an error on the author's part either way. I would consider it more of a creative license type thing.
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María Andrea Fernández Sepúlveda
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Post by María Andrea Fernández Sepúlveda »

Juliet+1 wrote: 29 Aug 2019, 21:18 Well, it's definitely correct to NOT capitalize them. I'm not sure, though, if capitalizing terms of endearment is absolutely wrong. If a character routinely calls someone else "Honey" so that it becomes a nickname, then it could be okay. And then there's artistic license, which allows many deviations from the norm. I hope others will chime in on this question. :P
I think I'll go with artistic license because they're not used as a constant nicknames...
Thank you so much!
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María Andrea Fernández Sepúlveda
Previous Member of the Month
Posts: 5207
Joined: 27 Apr 2018, 16:22
Favorite Author: Kristin Hannah
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Post by María Andrea Fernández Sepúlveda »

unamilagra wrote: 29 Aug 2019, 22:32 I think if you are using it as a proper noun in place of their name like "Honey, can you ..." it should be capitalized. That said, I don't think I would call it an error on the author's part either way. I would consider it more of a creative license type thing.
Thank you very much!
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