iPhone, eBay, etc. as first word of sentence

[frogboxer]

Without a recast, do we cap or lower-case 'iPhone', 'eBay' etc. when they start a sentence?

iPhones are the most popular smart phones on the planet.

eBay advertised some nice products last week.

Or:

IPhones ...

EBay ...

Thanks

fb

[iannou]

Override your word processor. iPad, eBay, iTouch, etc are trade names and the usual rules of capitalization do not apply. They should not be altered.

[emsr2d2]

As they are brand names, leave the lower case letter at the beginning of the brand name, even at the beginning of a sentence.

[SoothingDave]

I would try to avoid using it as the first word.

[Rover_KE]

I would try to avoid using it as the first word.

Good answer, Dave.


It should always be possible to do that.

Rover

[iannou]

Can I ask why it's preferable not to use these words at the beginning of a sentence?

"iPhone sales increased during the third quarter." "Sales of iPhones increased during the third quarter."

Is one better than the other? I think journalists, eager to grab our attention, would favour the first. But that's only my opinion.

[SoothingDave]

When you use words with non-conventional capitalization to start a sentence you have a dilemma that you don't have otherwise. Failing to start a sentence with a capital letter looks like an error, but so does writing "IPhone."

So, avoid it.

[iannou]

When you use words with non-conventional capitalization to start a sentence you have a dilemma that you don't have otherwise. Failing to start a sentence with a capital letter looks like an error, but so does writing "IPhone."

So, avoid it.

The words are part of the lexicon. I don't see the dilemma. It may be rather jarring for some to see a sentence that begins with a lower case letter, but, it's not an error. I don't think there's any case to be made for making a rule about where in a sentence a word can be used. I think it's arbitrary and high-handed.

[SoothingDave]

I simply said that I would recommend avoiding it. Not that there was some sort of absolute high-handed rule about it. It can be jarring and it does create a conflict between the proper use of trademark names and conventional grammar. There's nothing wrong with simply re-wording things to avoid this situation.

[probus]

I'm agreeing with everybody here. I would try to avoid it, but if you can't, you can't, and you are not wrong.