When to capitalize

[Naughty_Misty]

Okay, I have something that is just annoying the hell out of me on something I've written.

The following just doesn't "look" correct...

“Did you enjoy watching me?” He asked huskily.

Should the word "he" have a capital H or a lowercase one?

 

[CopperSkink]

Lower. The follow-ups to quotes follow the regular rules of mid-sentence capitalization, such that only an "I" or proper nouns and such get capitalized. Whether it follows a question mark or an exclimation, they're both still treated as commas. Regular periods terminate the sentence, disallowing any "he said," "she said" after.

 

[PacoFear]

Hi Naughty,

I had to look this up myself half a dozen times awhile ago to pound it into my thick head.

The answer to your question: Your speech tag that starts with "he" should not be capitalized.

Here's how I remember it: the dialogue "Did you enjoy watching me" and the speech tag "he said huskily" are actually part of the same single sentence. Capitalizing the speech tag just looks a little funny at first because a question mark is usually considered terminal punctuation and prompts our urge to capitalize. Incidentally, the same rule applies to punctuating after an exclamation point within quotation marks.

I've never been able to find this expressly stated in the Chicago Manual of Style but the proper form is laid out in its examples at 6.90 and 6.123. I have 'em tabbed.

if you're going to be doing this sort of thing as a hobby I highly recommend procuring a CMS. Amazon is listing them for a hair under $40 atm. Probably TMI, but mine lives on the back of my toilet. Yeah that's a bit gross, but it makes for quick, short reading while I'm contemplating my navel. Way more productive than one of those overpriced bathroom joke books that were popular for awhile there.

G'luck,

-PF