Should the 'm' in this sentence be in capital?

'Will you tell mummy where I am?'

I never know if words like mummy daddy etc should be capitalised or not.

How about in the following sentence

Annie knew that her mum would call her for lunch soon.

Would the 'm' in mum be capitalised?

A silly question I know, but I'm not sure of the answer.

Katerina x

Yes, I'm never sure about this. The rule I stick to is that I capitalise it if it's instead of a proper name, but not if it would be instead of 'mother'. So:

'Will you tell Mummy where I am?' because it's like, 'Will you tell Jane where I am?'

but

'Will you tell your mummy where I am?' because it's the same as 'Will you tell your dog where I am?'

And no cap in

'Annie knew that her mum would call her for lunch soon' becasue it's like, 'Annie knew that her doctor would call her in soon' as opposed to, 'Good morning, Doctor.'

But if it's in Annie's voice, then, yes, 'Annie knew that Mum would call her for lunch soon. Would lunch be horrible beans again?'

Emma

I get really bogged down with this in my crime stuff. Does this suggest that:

"I'll tell the inspector what I know." and
"What do you want to know, Inspector?" are correct?

That's how I'd approach it.

What about words like 'darling' in a sentence of speech, eg

'Morning, Darling, sleep well?'

Hmm, that capital doesn't look right, now...

Casey

I agree, it looks odd, capitalised - I don't think I would either. Maybe 'darling' isn't a name in the way that 'Mummy' can be - more of a description. You wouldn't capitalise

'Don't put the kettle there, idiot!'

or

'Careful, gorgeous, I might think you meant it...'

after all, would you?

Emma

Hmm, good point,

Maybe i've been watching too much Peter Pan

Casey

Thanks Emma and Kate,

It's silly isn't it, because it's one of those things you should know, but aren't quite sure of.

I think that if it's used in place of a name, as you both said, I'll capitalise it, but if it's just in normal speech, I won't.

At the end of the day, if it's incorrect, it will be pointed out anyway.

Thanks again

Katerina x

What about sir/madam?

"What do you want to know, sir?" is what I'm noticing most, and that looks right. The capilatised Inspector above also look right too.

I agree with Emma's suggestions - that's what I do.

Deb

At the end of the day, if it's incorrect, it will be pointed out anyway.

Exactly. It's nice to look professional about getting things right, but any one such thing isn't going to be what tips the scales between being accepted and being rejected.

Emma

My copy editor has certainly corrected it all to Emma's version in my books - i.e. 'Mum', 'Gran', etc. if it's used as her name but 'my mum' or 'my gran' if talking about her.

'Inspector', I'd imagine is like Mum - i.e. captialised if used to address someone (in the vocative, as my copy editor puts it) but otherwise 'the inspector'. That's what she did with job titles like 'Bursar', etc. in my Cambridge book.

But I suspect 'darling' is never capital, even in the vocative...?

Rosy.

'Morning, Darling, sleep well?' My feeling is that you should capitalise Darling in the above because it stands in for a name, it's a pet name.
Becca.

That feels wrong, even though the word is standing in for someone's name. I wouldn't capitalise darling, though I'm unable to explain why you shouldn't! I just don't think you do.

Darling, used in this context, is a term of endearment, therefore standing in for a name but not used as a name. For instance you might call someone ‘darling’ when speaking to them, but you wouldn’t refer to them as ‘darling’ when speaking about them to someone else... so it shouldn't be capitalised. I reckon.

Dee