AP says to go with Hanukkah, which is also the preferred spelling listed in Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. But in cases like this, style guides like the Associated Press Stylebook pick one for consistency’s sake - to ensure of a newspaper doesn’t have one spelling while has a different one. A Hebrew word like Hanukkah draws the same confusion for translators: How do you represent letters that don’t exist in your own alphabet? Do you go with Hanukkah, Chanukah or Hanukah - all of which are correct? I don’t know. For example, don’t get me started on Qadaffi, which starts with the same Arabic letter represented as a Q in al-Qaeda though many English language news outlets spell it with a G: Gadaffi. Anytime you have a word adopted from a language that uses a different alphabet, English spellings can be subject to debate. Associated Press supports lowercase “new year” at times. If you’re just talking about the year itself and not the holiday, you probably want to use all lowercase: I hope business picks up in the new year. Stick with capital letters in most cases: Happy New Year! Happy New Year’s. New Year, New Year’s, New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day. But anywhere else, the M is lowercase: We wish you a merry Christmas. You often see it capitalized because it’s the beginning of a sentence. To fix this once without tinkering with the settings in your computer, type the apostrophe twice then delete the first one. #Happy holidays to one and all software#The software changes the mark to one that curves like the letter C. When you type an apostrophe at the beginning of a word, spell-checker often assumes you meant to type a single quotation mark. Even more so than Turkey Day, Christmas Day is a proper name in its own right, requiring a capital D.Ĭhristmas Eve. But that’s not how most editors would see it. Technically, you could think of the “day” as a not-proper noun, justifying a lowercase D. Always put an apostrophe before the S and, of course, remember to lowercase the G in greetings.Ĭhristmas Day. It’s there to indicate a possessive: the greetings of the season. So when you hear “season’s,” the final S isn’t there to indicate a plural. For purposes of this greeting, they’re all one season. But just because you’re talking about plural holidays doesn’t mean you’re talking about plural seasons. When we say “season’s greetings,” we mean it as a catch-all nod to multiple holidays, including Christmas, Hanukkah and New Year’s. Each word in proper noun starts with a capital letter, which is why the D in Day is uppercase. Like real names, nicknames are proper nouns. Just because they both start with an H doesn’t mean both Hs should be capitalized. Here are some terms you’ll want to write right this time of year. Either way, it’s a great time to make embarrassing errors in social media posts, emails, cards, business correspondence and marketing copy.
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