Should you avoid capitalization of capitonyms to avoid ambiguity? [closed]
Per this question, Polish is a capitonym.
To avoid ambiguity, should one avoid using the verb/noun form of polish at the start of the sentence or in other contexts when capitalization is required?
For example,
Polish your shoes.
Looks wrong to me (I hear it as Poh-lish your shoes), and I would prefer to use
You should polish your shoes.
Solution 1:
You cannot make a hard and fast rule about ambiguities. Typically, context will save the day and the reader will be in a mindset to think "Polish" or "polish" accordingly. If there is a situation where context is no help then you might want to rephrase as you suggested.
Some of the comments argue that the alternate interpretation being obviously incorrect is reason enough to not worry about it. I think there are times where the sentence might be long or challenging to parse so it may be useful to avoid starting off with a potential ambiguity.