Everyone likes a friendly greeting. If you are writing a salutation, it may be most well-received if you follow the rules of grammar. Is “good morning” capitalized in an email? What about “good afternoon”?
- Typically, “good morning” is capitalized only when it’s used as a salutation at the beginning of a letter or email.
- The same rule applies to “good afternoon.” Don’t capitalize it unless it’s a salutation in a letter or email.
Is good morning capitalized?
How to write “good morning” (or “good afternoon) in an email depends on how you are using the phrase. If you are using good morning as an email greeting at the beginning of your correspondence, capitalize both words. However, this rule doesn’t have anything to do with the phrase “good morning.” It applies because the standard practice is to capitalize the first word and all other nouns in a salutation. For example, you would capitalize “To Whom It May Concern.” On the other hand, if you are using “good morning” as a closing of your letter (though that would be decidedly old-fashioned), it would not be capitalized. What about in literature? To find out the answer, let’s look at some examples from The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien.
Examples
“Good Morning!” said Bilbo, and he meant it. The sun was shining, and the grass was very green.
“Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?”
In the dialog, the whole phrase is capitalized, but that’s rare to see. Usually, when you are using good morning as a noun phrase, it is not capitalized at all unless “good” begins the sentence and receives normal capitalization as the first word.
As Bilbo the hobbit did, you may wish to extend a sincere good morning to your friends. If you do it in writing, such as an email, capitalize it if it is a greeting. If it’s the closing, capitalize the first letter of Good. If you do so, you really will be starting your morning off well!
