She majored in History at Stanford.

[nelson13]

When we regard something as a subject, we use a capital letter to start it:

She majored in History at Stanford.

But is it OK to use a small letter h?

(by the way, is the opposite of CAPITAL LETTER necessarily SMALL LETTER?)

 

[5jj]

She majored in History at Stanford.

But is it OK to use a small letter h?

Yes

(by the way, is the opposite of CAPITAL LETTER necessarily SMALL LETTER?)

No. We normally us 'lower-case' letter.

 

[Chicken Sandwich]

When we regard something as a subject, we use a capital letter to start it:

She majored in History at Stanford.

***** NOT A TEACHER *****

I believe you're wrong here. "history" is lowercased because it is not derived from a proper noun. See:

Degree Names from Common Nouns are Lowercased
Subject names such as "chemistry," "math," and "visual arts" are not capitalized because they don't come from proper nouns.
(Grammar Girl : When Do You Capitalize Academic Degrees? :: Quick and Dirty Tips ™)

In other words, you should write "history" with a lowercase "h"!

 

[nelson13]

***** NOT A TEACHER *****

I believe you're wrong here. "history" is lowercased because it is not derived from a proper noun. See:

Degree Names from Common Nouns are Lowercased
Subject names such as "chemistry," "math," and "visual arts" are not capitalized because they don't come from proper nouns.
(Grammar Girl : When Do You Capitalize Academic Degrees? :: Quick and Dirty Tips ™)

In other words, you should write "history" with a lowercase "h"!

First of all, thank you for your citation and your answer. But there is no need for me to read it.

major - Definition and pronunciation | Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary at OxfordLearnersDictionaries.com

The sentence has been taken from the dictionary; if you say it is wrong, you are saying this Oxford Dictionary is wrong.

 

[Barb_D]

Like so many things, this is a matter of style, not grammar. Neither is "wrong" and neither is "right."

The only that that would be wrong would be to say "He majored in History and she majored in chemistry." Both or neither. Naturally, anything with a proper noun could be capitalized: He majored English.

 

[emsr2d2]

Like so many things, this is a matter of style, not grammar. Neither is "wrong" and neither is "right."

The only that that would be wrong would be to say "He majored in History and she majored in chemistry." Both or neither. Naturally, anything with a proper noun could be capitalized: He majored English.

Not "He majored in English", Barb?

 

[Chicken Sandwich]

The sentence has been taken from the dictionary; if you say it is wrong, you are saying this Oxford Dictionary is wrong.

To be fair though, you didn't credit the source. If you had credited the source of your sentence, I would have given it a second thought.

Naturally, anything with a proper noun could be capitalized: He majored English.

Why could? Why not should?

 

[nelson13]

To be fair though, you didn't credit the source. If you had credited the source of your sentence, I would have given it a second thought.



Why could? Why not should?

If my sentence caused trouble for you, I would say sorry.

The important thing is that if there is anyone who thinks my sentence wrong, he should view the sentence in isolation, but not to suddenly think it correct when I tell him I've got the sentence from an authoritative source.

I appreciate the effort you made to reply to my question, but I must say that before saying a sentence is wrong, one must give it "a million thoughts", but not only a second thought. This is respect. English is not my mother tongue, and even for native English speakers who have doctorates, such as at my university, very often they cannot say whether a sentence is correct. Not because they are not learned, but because English is really a difficult language. I am more than happy to say 'I stand corrected', because someone is improving my English. But before pointing out my fault, people should be more careful.

 

[Barb_D]

Argh. Two mistakes in the same post.
Definitely IN.
Definitely should, or even must.

 

[Rover_KE]

. . . I've got the sentence from an authoritative source.

An equally authoritative source, the Macmillan Dictionary, gives the example 'She's majoring in physics'.

Just because you have found one version in one dictionary, you cannot assume that all dictionaries will agree.

As Barb said 'It's a matter of style, not grammar'.

Chicken Sandwich's link on the subject is an excellent article. You might have learnt something from it if you had taken the trouble to read it instead of pompously dismissing it.

Rover

 

[nelson13]

An equally authoritative source, the Macmillan Dictionary, gives the example 'She's majoring in physics'.

Just because you have found one version in one dictionary, you cannot assume that all dictionaries will agree.

As Barb said 'It's a matter of style, not grammar'.

Chicken Sandwich's link on the subject is an excellent article. You might have learnt something from it if you had taken the trouble to read it instead of pompously dismissing it.

Rover

Thank you very much. In fact, before giving the reply, I had read that material provided by Chicken Sandwich.

The Macmillan Dictionary has given a good example, but remember what I said at the beginning of the thread:

'When we regard something as a subject, we use a capital letter to start it', which is a generalization made by simply observing the sentence She majored in History at Stanford.


It was because I doubted whether a small 'h' could be used that I started the thread. I have never said that Oxford Dictionary (of course it can be wrong) is always correct; neither have I said the example sentence in that dictionary is exclusively correct.

Anyway, thank you for providing a good example sentence; I will write it down in my notebook.