Every word we read or write is made up of letters. How were the letters formed? How old are they, and who invented them? Let's look at the origin of letters in general and " elementary particles"Russian writing in particular. Which letters appeared first? And in general, what is a letter?

Definition of a letter as a written sign

A letter is a sign, a symbol with which sounds are written. All the letters of the language make up the alphabet, or alphabet - a certain order of listing the letters. It is impossible to determine the frequency of use of certain letters by the alphabet - their location in the alphabet is determined historically.

Each letter is a sound, and sometimes several sounds. In turn, there are letters that are not pronounced at all, but affect the pronunciation of other letters in the word (in Russian classic example such a letter is soft sign). Sometimes letters are called letters (hence the word literature).

The oldest letters

The desire to convey existing information appeared in a person simultaneously with the ability to think. The first methods of transmitting information were oral and left nothing in our memory except legends and fairy tales. Later, man learned to use tools. Sticks and spears could be used not only to catch prey or fight off enemies - with the help of a slight transformation they could draw any images on stones, cave walls or clay tablets...

This is how protoletters appeared. The most ancient monuments writings date back to the mid-19th century BC, but it is quite possible that writing arose even earlier, it’s just that older monuments have not reached us. The “prize-winners” in the “most ancient writing” category should be considered the Semites, who developed their primitive alphabet while under the rule (and great influence) of Egypt. The Semitic alphabet had nothing in common with modern letters - the letters were much more reminiscent of inept drawings that appeared as a result of simplified writing of hieroglyphs. Nevertheless, the Semitic alphabet was quite popular in the Middle East and much later it became the basis for the first alphabet.

Proto-alphabet

The very first alphabet came to us from ancient state Phenicia, which means the very first letter, is one of the parts of Phoenician. There were 22 such letters in total. There were no vowels in them, and we can say with a high degree of probability that the first letter is a consonant.

Despite this discrimination against vowels, the Phoenician alphabet gave rise to the entire European writing- Greek, Latin, Etruscan writing and even the unknown Basque alphabet. We can say that the Phoenicians became the founders of all European writing. Russian letters also owe their origin to the Phoenician alphabet.

Origin of Russian letters

At the beginning of the 9th century, two alphabets appeared almost simultaneously on the territory of Rus', intended to record the language of the ancient Russian people. They were called Cyrillic and Glagolitic. The authorship of the Glagolitic alphabet is attributed to St. Konstantin the Philosopher, who developed this alphabet specifically for writing bible books. Later, elements of Glagolitic writing became less common, and by the end of the 11th century they almost completely disappeared from circulation. The authors of the Cyrillic alphabet were Cyril and Methodius. It was thanks to them that every Russian letter was born.

Of course, for long years Russian letters have changed beyond recognition. Many of them disappeared from the letter forever - for example, fita and izhitsa, which struck fear into pre-revolutionary schoolchildren. Modern students have to learn only 33 letters - this is about half of all the letters originally present in the Cyrillic alphabet.

Ever since school, everyone has learned the simple rule that the word that begins a sentence is always written with a capital letter. But not only in this case the use of capital letters becomes appropriate.

There are other cases in which it is necessary to capitalize a word.

1. Of course, every new sentence should begin with a capital letter, but there are some exceptions.

Note 1. In poetic works, each verse begins with a capital letter, regardless of the punctuation mark that ended the previous line:

The unfortunate cat cut her paw -
He sits and cannot take a single step.
Hurry up to heal the cat's paw
You need to buy balloons!

And immediately people crowded on the road -
He makes noise and screams and looks at the cat.
And the cat is partly walking along the road,
Partly flies smoothly through the air! (D. Kharms, “The Amazing Cat”)

Note 2. If a sentence uses an ellipsis, indicating intermittency in speech, then words with a small letter should be written after it:

And this week I have… that…. son died. (A. Chekhov)

Note 3. A capital letter is not used even if, after direct speech ending with any punctuation mark except a period, the words of the author follow:

- Quiet! Do not scream! - he told me.
“Maester Cressen, they have come to us,” Pylos said softly, as if not wanting to intrude on the old man’s gloomy thoughts. (George Martin, A Clash of Kings)

2. If at the beginning of a sentence there is an exclamation or an interjection with exclamation point, then after them the sentence is written with a capital letter.

However, if an interjection with an exclamation mark is used in the middle of a sentence, then the word following it is written with a lowercase letter. For example:

Oh! What nice weather it is today!
I wanted to move the vase, but she oh! and fell!

3. A colon is followed by a capital letter only in cases where:

After thinking for a minute, the brother replied: “No”;

Note. However, if a quotation is introduced into a sentence as a continuation of it, then it begins with a lowercase letter.

4. All proper names are always written with a capital letter., including nicknames, names of geographical objects, cities, countries, rivers, villages, republics, states, etc. Also, absolutely all names of works, periodicals, programs, enterprises, shops, clubs, establishments of various kinds, etc. are written with a capital letter. However, unlike the first group of proper names, the second names are always enclosed in quotation marks. For example:

Leonid Petrovich, Nikitina, Novosibirsk, Ob, Planned settlement, Sharik (dog's name), Plaxa (person's nickname), Murka, Russian Federation, Baikal, Lake Teletskoye, Altai Republic, Alps, America, etc.;
newspaper “Trud”, club “Rest”, program “While Everyone is Home”, film “The Beginning”, film “Girl with Peaches”, store “Pyaterochka”, cafe “Garden of Eden”, etc.

Note 1. The names of people, which were previously individual, but in this context are used with a tinge of contempt as a generic concept, are written with a small letter, for example: Judas of the modern world.

Note 2. The names of objects or phenomena that come from proper names are written with a lowercase letter.

Note 3. Titles, ranks, positions - all this is written with a small letter: Academician Korolev, General Ivanov, Count Nulin.

Note 4. However, the names of the highest honorary positions are written in capital letters: Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, Hero of Socialist Labor, Hero Soviet Union, Marshal of the Soviet Union.

5. The following groups of adjectives are written with a capital letter:

a) Being possessive names and denoting the belonging of a specific thing to a specific person:

Vanina's bag, Dalev's dictionary.

b) Equal in meaning to the expression “in memory of such and such”, “in honor of such and such”, “name of such and such”:

Pushkin readings.

Note 1. Written with a lowercase letter:

a) possessive adjectives that do not have the full meaning of belonging:

Lermontov style, Suvorov tactics, X-ray room, etc.

b) possessive adjectives denoting full ownership. But containing the suffixes “-ovsk-”, “-evsk-”, “-insk-”:

Tolstoy’s estate, Turgenev’s “Fathers and Sons”, etc.

Note 2. Adverbs formed from names own people, are always written with a capital letter.

6. Adjectives included in individual names of geographical objects are written with a capital letter in the following cases:

a) If they are part of complex geographical names: Novosibirsk region;

b) If they are attached to a person’s name as a nickname: Dmitry Donskoy, Alexander Nevsky.

7. The names of historical eras and periods, events and phenomena, documents and papers, works of art and other material cultural monuments are written with a capital letter.

This includes the following groups:

a) Nouns that have become proper names: October, Revival, Renaissance, Depression,

b) Combinations of an adjective with a noun: Peter's reform, Nicholas's decree, the Treaty of Versailles, the Laurentian Chronicle.

c) Any other combinations of nouns and adjectives.

8. The names of public holidays and significant dates are written with a capital letter. However, the names of religious holidays and fasts of all religions are written with a lowercase letter.

9. All words in the names of the supreme organizations and institutions of the USSR are written with a capital letter, except for function words and the word “party”. For example:

Communist Party Soviet Union.
Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee.
All-Union Leninist Communist Youth Union.
Supreme Soviet of the USSR (RSFSR, Ukrainian SSR and other republics).
Council of the Union.
Council of Nationalities.
Council of Ministers of the USSR (RSFSR, Ukrainian SSR and other republics).
Supreme Court of the USSR.
All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions.

Note. All words in names are also written with a capital letter. international organizations: World Peace Council, United Nations, etc.

10. In the names of ministries and main state administrative apparatus Only the first word and the proper names included in them are written with a capital letter. The same rule applies to large-scale cultural organizations:

Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
State Committee of the Council of Ministers of the USSR on new technology.
Academy of Sciences of the USSR.
Main Publishing Directorate of the USSR Ministry of Culture. In the full official names of Soviet institutions of local importance, higher educational institutions, entertainment enterprises, industrial and trade organizations, etc., the first word and the proper names included in the name are written with a capital letter, for example:
Council of Workers' Deputies.
Yaroslavl Regional Executive Committee of the Soviets of Working People's Deputies.
Moscow State Pedagogical Institute named after V.I. Lenin.
Kuibyshev State Opera and Ballet Theater.
Russian folk choir named after Pyatnitsky.

The same rules apply to names foreign organizations and associations of similar significance and scale.

11. Official names of parties are written with a capital letter. in the event that they do not begin with the word “party”:

Earth Party, Communist Party Russian Federation, Unity Party.

12. In a special stylistic context, in propaganda appeals and texts, in texts with patriotic content such words as “motherland”, “man”, “freedom”, “conscience”, “equality”, “brotherhood”, etc. may be written with a capital letter.

Most often, schoolchildren and their parents encounter words such as “lowercase” and “uppercase” letters. And how does an adult who has not been a student for a long time know what we are talking about? After all, “big” and “small”, “capital” and “ordinary” are much clearer. But if there is already a question hanging over you that requires a solution, then we will try to help you figure out what we are talking about and what is the difference between these two words.

It is worth noting that the words “small” and “large” letters, which are on our tongues when we see such letters, will be perceived in the scientific community as the words of a preschooler or baby. The Russian language, after all, has its own terminology, which every person in society should know.

An interesting fact is that not everyone in the world has introduced capital letters into their spelling. Uppercase and lowercase letters are distinguished only in Greek, Latin, Armenian, and also in Cyrillic spelling. Georgians do not use capital letters, except when highlighting certain words in the text.

What is a capital letter

The name of the word “capital” (capital) is simply and logically explained in this way (so as not to cram): given that there is usually only one capital letter in a line and it is the one that begins the sentence. And we all remember from experience how in primary school we tried to draw or write the first letter so that it would turn out beautiful.

They began to use this type of writing in capital letters back in the 15th century, but in fact, long before that, people tried to beautifully draw initials and the beginning of a sentence with ornamental letters. This is a capital letter.

Capital letters are written in the text according to certain spelling rules. The most necessary ones, which you will have to meet very often, we will try to understand from them.

Uppercase and lowercase letters of the Russian language

When are capital letters written?

According to the rules of Russian spelling, a capital letter always begins each new sentence, as well as direct speech and quotes. But there are other rules for writing capital letters that you should remember, namely:

Proper names of cities, villages, first names, surnames, etc. (words denoting a specific object or phenomenon) are always written in capitals (Oksana, Petrov, Moscow and others).
Names of islands, countries, firms, companies and others (Russia, Caribbean islands, etc.).
Names of historical events, fateful and important documents, works of art, etc. written with a capital letter (Treaty of Versailles). It is worth noting that capital letters are written only in those cases in which the event has the meaning of a proper name (feudalism, Paleolithic).
High positions and titles (President).
The pronoun “you” is used to express politeness and respect for the person in the text (You).
Abbreviations (SRSR, PRC).
The first word of holiday names must be capitalized: Birthday, New Year.
In the names of ministries and main organizations, the first word is written in capitals (Ministry of Internal Affairs).
There are cases when they are used to highlight the desired text (titles, important words in a book to express emotions, etc.)

What is a lowercase letter

Unlike uppercase letters, there are much more lowercase letters in the text, because they are used much more often and are used by default (the exception is those cases in which capital letters are written according to the rules). All those letters that do not fall under the rules for the use of capitals are lined up on one line, which is why they are called “lowercase”. It is also important to remember about word stress. Despite the fact that we are tempted to say “lowercase”, the dictionary indicates the emphasis is “lowercase” and not “lowercase”.

Russian lowercase letters

What is the difference between a lowercase letter and an uppercase letter?

Size. An uppercase (capital) letter is approximately twice the size of other letters (lowercase). For example, the letter "a" will be in in this case lowercase, and "A" is uppercase."
Writing. The capital letter has its own writing characteristics, which we so diligently learn in elementary school.
Frequency of use. A capital letter appears in the text much less often than a lowercase letter (we have already learned the rules for using capital letters above).

Russian letters differ from each other not only in style and sound designation, but also in size. Correct writing obeys certain rules. Uppercase and lowercase letters - what every schoolchild knows, especially elementary school students. But the knowledge acquired at school is forgotten very quickly, and adults are unlikely to remember the definitions of these terms.

Uppercase and lowercase letters are two types of graphic icons on a letter. It is interesting that the division into such varieties is not found in all languages. They are present in the Cyrillic alphabet, and also in greek alphabet, Latin, Armenian. The situation in Georgia is unusual. There are no capital icons (with a specific meaning of use), but individual sections of text (for example, titles, headings) are typed with large icons. They have small outlines, but differ from them in size. In other writing systems, there is no division between capital letters and small letters.

To get acquainted with them for the first time, it is enough to learn some brief information:

capital – the one that is larger;
lowercase – the one that is smaller in size.

And in order for the information to be remembered better, linger in the head for a long time and not turn into confusion, you need to study the issue deeper, delving into the details.

Uppercase

This is the capital, big, beautiful, initial one. The letter sign is increased in size compared to the others. Most often there is only one in a line, and it is with it that the sentence begins. In elementary school, children learn with great diligence to write the first alphabetic sign - after all, it should turn out beautiful.

The first official use of capital letters was noticed in the 15th century. However, further research showed that people tried to beautifully design the initial characters of first names, last names, and sentences long before the beginning of the 15th century. Such graphic icons, decorated with ornaments and curlicues, were called initial letters.

Capital letters inin the text are written only in cases that are confirmed by spelling rules. The most common of them, which are most often encountered in practice, will be indicated below.

Another definition of “capital” is found in elementary school at the stage of teaching written literacy. It is less common, so it does not appear in dictionaries. Used only to differentiate the type of writing; the antonym to the word “capital” is “printed”. When a teacher asks you to write down a word, a sentence, or a text in words, he means lowercase and capital letters. And their choice should be based on the rules studied.

Lowercase

This is a small letter. In sentences and text, it is found much more often than graphic icons of the previous type. This is explained by the fact that small letter signs are used several times more often in writing - these are the rules of Russian spelling.

All letters that do not fall under the capitalization rules are lined up in one line and have the same height, which is why they are called lowercase.

Note! The stress in the term “lowercase” falls not on the first, but on the last syllable, no matter how much one would like to associate its pronunciation with the pronunciation of the word “line”.

Useful videos: how to write small capital letters?

Main differences

Uppercase and lowercase letters have a number of differences from each other.

They are as follows:

Size. The capital one is about 2 times larger than the small one. This is clearly visible when using a notebook sheet with a wide line: a large letter occupies the entire height of the line, and a small letter fits in half of it.
Writing. The capital letter has many more details and features of the style, which first grade students are diligently trying to learn. It is much more complex than the small one in style.
Frequency of use. Capital letters appear in the text much less often than small ones, because their choice must be justified by certain rules.

Having learned for himself how capital letters differ from small graphic icons, a person stops confusing these two terms with each other.

Examples

A clear example of what the styles of both categories look like.

When comparing graphic icons next to each other, it immediately becomes clear which of them are CAPITAL and which are lowercase.

Spelling capital letters

In the Russian language, the use of two types of style is subject to the rules of the corresponding section of spelling. According to them, a new sentence begins with a capital symbol, which seems to lead an army of small, ordinary icons. It shows that the previous thought has ended and another has begun, or simply indicates the beginning of a thought. Direct speech, quotes, and each new line of the poem begin with the capital letter.

But there are other, more complex rules that explain the spelling of capital and lowercase letters:

First names, last names, patronymics of people and adjectives based on them. For example: Andrey Igorevich Yablochkin, Petka’s car.
Animal names and adjectives derived from them. For example: Tuzik, Murka, Kesha, Fluff, Tuzikov’s collar.
Geographical objects, places, names (continents, cardinal points, countries, cities, villages, villages, regions, republics, islands, seas, oceans, rivers, lakes). For example: Black Sea, Baltic, Atlantic Ocean, Moscow city, mainland Africa, Yantarny village, Republic of Adygea.
Names of firms, companies, stores, enterprises. For example: the Rostvertol plant, the Pyaterochka store, the Belvest shoe company.
Names of the greats historical events, the most important documents (First World War, Peter's era).
Names of printed publications, works of art, dishes (Murzilka magazine, Moskovskie Vedomosti newspaper, Moonlight Sonata, painting Barge Haulers on the Volga, Caesar salad).
Names of ministries, important government organizations (Ministry of Education, City Duma).
High positions of great national importance (President, Queen).
The first word of the name of the holidays and important events(Birthday, Christmas, Easter, Victory Day).
Use the pronoun “you” when expressing special respect is required.
Abbreviations - consist entirely of capital letters (KPRF, MLM, SFU).

In all other cases, when the word is not included in the category of proper names, but is a common noun, lowercase are writtenstyles.

Possible difficulties in choosing an option

In Russian, most rules are ambiguous and have additional explanations or exceptions.

Important! When choosing the size of a letter (capital/small) is required to fill out important documents or perform serious tasks or work, it is better to check yourself in dictionaries and reference books.

Possible difficulties in choosing the size of a graphic icon:

Proper names of mythical, historical, literary heroes, which began to be used generally, in figurative meaning, to denote a certain character or way of life of people. The rules for writing such words are ambiguous: some are written with a capital letter (Oblomov, Napoleon, Hamlet), others with a lowercase letter (Don Quixote, Judas, Hercules, which have become common nouns). The variant of their use is given in the dictionary.
The names of geographical objects and important historical events, used in a generalized (figurative) meaning, have the same distinctions and their own writing features: sodom (debauchery), Olympus (top), Kamchatka (last places) and Chernobyl, Mecca, Hiroshima.
The names of devices, techniques, and units of measurement, derived from the names of their inventors, are written with a lowercase letter. For example: X-ray, volt, pascal, etc.
and terms where one of the words is a proper noun, as well as adjectives based on them, do not have a large icon ( Achilles' heel, Demyanova's ear, x-rays).
Adjectives that were made up of a person’s last name and first name using the suffixes –sk, -ovsk, -insk – are written with a lowercase letter (Dalevsky dictionary, Prishvinsky prose).

Useful video: Russian lowercase letters

Conclusion

In fact, delving into the material taught in lessons in educational institution, the pupil and student master the spelling of graphic signs well, understand the differences and features of their use, which means they do not have serious difficulties in complying with this norm.

The main thing is to remember the definitions and understand some of the difficulties. And in case of difficulty, do not forget about the possibility of turning to the dictionary.

Uppercase and lowercase letters are the letters used for writing on a daily basis. The first is the capital letter (large), and the second is smaller in size (small).

A little history

Initially, when writing, only capital letters, whose boundaries (upper and lower) were clearly defined. Over time, cursive writing developed, and the letters acquired a more rounded shape. This is how the foundations of the so-called Carolingian minuscule writing arose, which was developed by the scientist Alcuin. It was used at the court of Charlemagne, and over time this letter spread throughout Europe. This is how, for the first time, a single text began to contain lowercase and capital letters.

Uppercase and lowercase letters

The use of uppercase and lowercase letters is one of the most difficult problems of modern Russian spelling. Constant changes in realities entail a change in the spelling of these letters. Therefore, it is necessary to constantly study new editions of reference books and dictionaries, which mandatory should reflect such innovations.

But despite this, there are basic principles for the use of uppercase and lowercase letters. They help you understand the writing of large and small letters, even if some word is not in the dictionary.

Rules for using capital letters

Written with a capital letter:

Rules for using lowercase letters

A lowercase letter is written if it is a component:

articles, prepositions, particles in Western European names and proper names (Ludwig van Beethoven);
personal names that serve the purpose of ironic or negative evaluation (newly appeared Luzhins);
nouns formed from surnames and personal names (Oblomovism);
components of Turkic and Arabic names that indicate family relationships or social status (al, zade, bek, aha);
names of units of measurement that were given by the name of the scientist (ampere);
words earth, moon, sun, which are not astronomical names;
adjectives containing a suffix -sk-, denoting belonging, formed from proper names (Chekhov's pages);
names of titles and positions (deputy minister, mayor);
abbreviations formed from common nouns (university - higher education institution).

Also, a lowercase letter is written in names:

geological eras and periods, archaeological cultures and eras (Mesozoic era);
positions and titles, international organizations, as well as the highest foreign elected institutions (Emperor of Japan, Major General, Ambassador);
authorities plural(Ministry of Russia);
animal breeds (Keeshond dog);
institutions whose names are not proper names (school No. 592).

Principles of using lowercase and capital letters

Having studied the above rules, we can identify the basic principles on the basis of which lowercase and capital letters are used. So:

Isolating specific segments of sentences (text) is a syntactic principle.
Highlighting certain words in the text:

1) A lowercase letter is written in common nouns, capital – in proper names – is a morphological principle.

2) A capital letter is written in common nouns endowed with special symbolism or pathos (Man, Fatherland), in the names of holidays (New Year, Victory Day) - a semantic principle.

3) A capital letter is used in abbreviations made up of the first letters.

It is necessary to distinguish

As already mentioned, a lowercase letter is written in adjectives that contain the suffix -sk-, denoting belonging and formed from proper names. That's why "Pushkin's prose" is written with a small letter. But possessive adjectives with a suffix -sk-, having the meaning of a name in honor of someone's memory, are written with capital letters. For example, "Lomonosov Readings".

Word: lowercase and uppercase letters

Due to the rapid development information technologies, the Microsoft Office Word program has gained wide popularity, which is almost indispensable in work and educational process. But few people know how to make lowercase letters from uppercase letters and vice versa with one press of certain keys.

So, let's write the following text in capital letters:

"LOWER LETTERS OF THE RUSSIAN ALPHABET".

Now you need to select the text and press the Shift and F3 keys simultaneously. After this we will have:

After pressing these key combinations again, we get the following:

"Lowcase Letters of the Russian Alphabet".

And to return to the original text, you need to press Shift+F3 again.

Lowercase letters are:

Lower case For the form of writing in lowercase letters, see minuscule.

Lower case- letters that are smaller than capital letters. Used in European alphabets (Greek, Latin, Cyrillic and Armenian). For example, the letter “a” is lowercase, and the letter “A” is uppercase.

Initially, when writing, they used exclusively capital letters with clearly defined upper and lower boundaries. With the development of cursive writing, the shape of the letters became more rounded, which resulted, for example, in such a form of writing as the uncial.

In turn, the foundations of the Carolingian minuscule script developed by Alcuin for use at the court of Charlemagne arose, which quickly spread throughout Europe. At the same time, for the first time, they began to mix uppercase and lowercase letters into a single text.

Notes

Please explain which letters are called uppercase, which are uppercase, and which are lowercase?

Lyubchik

uppercase (capital) - large. lowercase - small
Capital Letters (capital letters), letters that differ from lowercase ones in height and sometimes in style (for example, Russian “A”, “B”, “G”; Latin G, Q, R). The first word at the beginning of a sentence, proper nouns, and various headings are written with a capital letter. In German writing, all nouns are written with a capital letter; in English, they are used at the beginning of each full-valued word in headings. Capital letters are part of alphabetic writing systems built on the Russian and Latin graphic bases, as well as the Greek, Georgian and Armenian alphabets. In titles, after dots to highlight sections of the text, in proper names, capital letters began to be used in the Latin alphabet from the 15th century, in Russian - from the 16th century; initials in all Slavic and Russian handwritten books always stood out ornamentally.
Lowercase Letters, letters of normal sizes and styles, contrasted with capital letters in modern scripts on the Latin, Cyrillic, Greek and Armenian graphic basis. The contrast between lowercase letters and uppercase letters goes back to the contrast between ordinary beech fonts and initials (in Latin-writing countries - in the 11th -15th centuries). In the Russian Cyrillic script, a system of uppercase and lowercase letters was introduced in the early 18th century (see Civil font). Unlike capital letters, which are mainly oriented towards the form of Latin capital script and other ancient monumental scripts, lowercase letters continue the tradition of medieval minuscule script of cursive origin (as well as the cursive scripts of Russia and Armenia).
Great Soviet Encyclopedia

What are the correct names for large and small letters?

What is the name of capital letters?

What are small letters called?

Large and small letters in Russian spelling they have their own names.

A sentence usually begins with a capital letter, for example:

P Spring has arrived. I The warm sun is shining brightly. P The birds are singing, and the frogs are having their concert in the pond.

Capital letters are in demand when writing proper names:

names, surnames, patronymics, nicknames of people (Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Richard the Lionheart);

various geographical names (Moscow, Lake Balaton, Everest, Far East);

names of institutions, newspapers, magazines, etc. (Moscow State University, "TVNZ", "Health").

In the old days, a capital letter that began a book or a new paragraph, prescribed, carefully outlined how it got its name capital or capital.

Small letters were written in a line, which is how they got their name lowercase.

So, a large letter is called an uppercase or uppercase letter, and a small letter is called a lowercase letter.

When writing words, sentences or text, two types of letters are used - big and small.

What are the correct names for these letters?

Capital letters

We use them when we start a new sentence, write abbreviations, write proper names, etc.

The correct name for these letters is uppercase or caps.

A, B, C, D, etc.

Small letters

IN writing they are used much more often than capital letters. If the text formatting rules do not require writing capital letters, then small ones are used.

These letters are called lowercase.

a, b, c d, etc.

If you have difficulty remembering, you can use the association:

"lowercase letters" and "lines of text" written in small letters.

It is believed that previously only large letters, called capital letters, were used in writing. They had a strict form and therefore were carefully written, without deviations from the original. Over time, they began to write faster, the letters lost their harmony and standardness, and small letters appeared, which were of course more convenient to write long texts with. Such letters are called lowercase letters because they make up separate lines. At the same time, capital letters were preserved, but began to be used as capital letters, that is, the first letters of a sentence, name, title, and also to highlight an important fragment of text.

Zvyonka

In the "Introduction" section, which precedes a complete academic reference book on the grammar of modern Russian literary language(I took the edition that is current, that is, as of December 2014), it says this about large and small letters:

1.Capital (large, capital).

2. Lowercase (small).

From this I conclude that each letter spelling has several valid names. But:

1. "Capitals" is an academic name; “large” - acceptable and common; "capital" - acceptable, but less desirable.

2. "Lowcase" is an academic name; “small” is the second most acceptable.

The letters of the Russian alphabet have two spellings, such as Aa, Ss or Yaya. Most often they are called simply: large and small. In fact, capital letters are called in capitals, and the small ones - lowercase.

WITH capitals or capitals letters we begin each sentence, and also write names, surnames, geographical names, animal names, etc. All other letters in the line are called lowercase and they are much smaller in size than their capital "brothers".

Lubov181191

The correct name for a large letter (which is written large) is CAPITAL, and a small letter is SMALL. This is taught from the first grade, and I’m teaching a first-grader right now, so I’m giving you the most accurate answer..

Large letters (A, B, C, D) are called capital letters.

We always write a new sentence with a capital letter. We use capital letters when writing abbreviations. We also write names, city names, etc. with a capital letter.

Small letters (a, b, c, d) are called lowercase. The text (printed or handwritten) is written in lowercase letters, with the exception where, according to the rules, capital letters must be written.

Large letters (or also called capital letters) are properly called uppercase letters, and small letters are properly called lowercase letters. Initially, only capital letters were used in the letter. Then, with the popularization of writing and the need to write faster, lowercase letters appeared, which are easier to write.

Indeed, very often you can hear, when studying the curriculum in elementary grades, about the names of letters. Remembering from lessons school curriculum According to the Russian language, it is known that Large letters of the Russian alphabet are called capital letters, and small letters are called lowercase letters.

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Young children need to remember these rules: capital letters, which always begin any sentence, are called capital letters. They are highlighted in the text large size. And small letters are called lowercase.

What is the difference between uppercase letters and lowercase letters? What does a capital letter mean?