Are terms of endearment/pet names etc. in capitals in the following?

Hello, Darling
Hello, Girl
Hello, Sweetie

I am thinking yes, because it's a name, e.g. Hello, Carol.

Thanks.

You should use lower case in all three examples if they're endearments, not proper names (which they look as if they are here). Only if they're established nick-names would you use capitals, because then they're proper names, just not the ones on the birth certificates. Similarly, if your dog is actually called 'Girl', then you'd use a capital, but if you're calling her that as a general endearment, it would be 'girl'.

Similarly, if you're referring to your mum, you say 'Mum' - because that's her name, as far as you and she are concerned. But if you're referring to someone else's mother, you say, 'mum' - e.g. 'Is your mum in?' - unless you have an arrangement with her by which your name for her is 'Mum' (unlikely). Also, 'darling' and 'sweetie' are generic so no capitals.


Terry

That's BRILLIANT! Thanks a lot for your advice.

I had a crit on one of my storys where the following was picked up.

In the sentence:

"His Mother and Father stood hand in hand laughing."

They suggested that Mother and Father was incorrect, and that it should have been mother and father.

This may be true, but I can't quite get the rule for this internalised.

They are the person's names.

Help anyone?


Darryl

Hi Darryl, you wouldn't write "His John and his Darryl stood", and it's the same thing here. Either "His mother and father stood" or "Mother and Father stood". A simple way to remember would be to see if there's an article before the name or not.

Hope that's not completely incoherent,

Adele.

<Added>

if there's an article, then don't capitalise

<Added>

article or possessive - I knew I wasn't quite awake!

Adele,

Thanks. That made total sense. In my head I'll replace the relative's name with a normal name. It seems to jump out as then, being quite obviously wrong.


Much appreciated.

Darryl.