In this statement should fall be capitalized(My Father has decided to retire in the fall of next year )

No. You can write this as My father has decided to retire next autumn

It’s a season, not a proper name. Also, do not capitalize the word father, unless you plan to use your dad’s actual name.

No.

@SpatzieLover: Unless you’re Jesus, in which case, “Father” is capitalized ;) I don’t think Jesus would be on Fluther making grammatical queries.

@poofandmook Yeah, I was thinking God & Jesus wouldn’t ask someone else to do their homework ;D

The english Language should be reformed so that all Nouns are capitalised.

No, season names don’t have to be capitalized.

@ragingloli Are there any languages with that rule?

@doggywuv German.

@andrew
Language of the Gods.

Seems like when reading English authors (Kipling and Winnie the Pooh come to mind) he had some stuff capitalized that looked odd to me, but also seemed funny, which is what Pooh is all about. I’m wondering now if that was how it was done in British English…

Capitalization is sometimes used for effect, and it has an effect just because that is not the standard form. In English, common nouns are not capitalized. In the given sentence, “father” and “fall” are both common nouns. There are no proper nouns in the sentence.

Father shouldn’t be capitalized here either. If you just said “Father will be retiring” it would be proper because you are using “Father” as basically his name. By saying “my father” it is not proper.

Would this be proper, “In Fall we always have a bonfire.”?

@Val: No, I don’t believe so. I don’t think seasons are ever capitalized.

@Val123 Not proper, but as @Jeruba pointed out, capitalization can be done for effect. However, I have a feeling this question was asked for homework. In which case improper capitalization would be incorrect.

@poofandmook OK, but why would the directions be considered proper nouns when used in a certain way, and not the seasons?

@SpatzieLover In that sentence, absolutely. If it’s for homework, the kid needs to be learnt WHY it wouldn’t be proper! Not just given the answer. Which, I think it was explained, just hope they got it.

@Val: I don’t think I’ve seen directions capitalized unless they’re used geographically and then it’s only for effect (IE “She moved to the South”)

@poofandmook I’m going to look into it. Because “the South” or “back East,” or “out West” become a proper nouns, don’t they?

@Val: I’m not really sure. I can see where that might be capitalized more than seasons, since a season is a thing/time (minutes, hours, seconds, days, years, months aren’t capitalized) and N/S/E/W are places, and places are capitalized as proper nouns.

Let’s go find out!! :) Ride on, dictionary.com!

Heck. I can’t find anything! We need an English teacher!

@Val123 They are not proper names. They do not get capitalized.

“I am going up north this summer.”

The South is the name of an area of the country and not a direction. Yes, it’s capitalized in that use.

No, ”“In Fall we always have a bonfire.” is not correct. “Fall” is not capitalized in either sentence. We do not capitalize the names of the seasons. They are common nouns.

See I eventually turned the correct part of my brain on and got it lol

@Jeruba What about “Back East”—would east be capitalized?