When should the word "English" be capitalized?
Solution 1:
If it is a proper noun, it must be capitalized.
If it is an adjective derived from a proper noun, it should retain its capitalization, according to this Wikipedia entry:
In English, adjectives derived from proper nouns (except the names of characters in fictional works) usually retain their capitalization
– e.g. a Christian church, Canadian whisky, a Shakespearean sonnet, but not a quixotic mission, malapropism, holmesian nor pecksniffian.Where the original capital is no longer at the beginning of the word, usage varies: anti-Christian, but Presocratic or Pre-Socratic or presocratic (not preSocratic).
The "usually" might explain why you sometimes see "english" without any capitalization. The only case of "english" as a common noun would be in the context of pool, billiards or bowling games, as described by Wiktionary:
english (uncountable)
- (US) Spinning or rotary motion given to a ball around the vertical axis, as in billiards or bowling.
You can't hit it directly, but maybe if you give it some english.
Solution 2:
Unless you mean spin on a billiards ball, it should be capitalized.
Solution 3:
I often confused how the word "English" should be written in phrases like "English language", because I meet both variants: capitalized and starting with lowercase letter.
Hmm, really? Probably just seeing mistakes.
What is the most accepted usage: "English language" or "english language"? And what about other possible usage of the adjective "english"?
"English language" with a capital.
There are some uses of national adjectives which don't have to be capitalized, such as "french windows". Presumably the same logic would apply to something like "english muffins". However I don't have statistics as to which is more common.