Pan vs. pan (letter capitalization), Cię, Ciebie

What is the extent of a capitalized Pan, Pani, Panowie, Panie, Państwo?

I know you should use capitalized 'P' when politely addressing someone in a letter, but what about (written accounts of) dialogues, or in novels? I'm asking because all my Polish textbooks use small 'p': Jak się pan ma?

As a comparison, in Italian you do always capitalize 'Lei' when meaning 'you' (Pan, Pani), as 'lei' only means 'she'.

P.S. I'm only asking of Pan meaning polite 'you', not 'mister, man, lady, girl, facet'.

when we write letter we use Pan/Pani. When we speak about another person or in books we use small pan/pani

When addressing another person, i.e. transcribing a conversation in a language book, one writes "Pan(i)___!" capitalized instead say, "Dzień dobry, pan(i) Kowalska!", lower case.

well I think k... had it about right - you only use capitalized Pan/Pani (meaning 'you') to show respect and it is basically restricted to correspondence - other persons mentioned in the same letter (not being the addressee) should not get their pan/i title capitalized. The same goes for the Państwo title.

as the persons titled pan/pani in literary works are not the addressees of the work they go without the capital letter

I hope my explanaition is intelligible

Thanks k..., Lyzko and gumishu. So I take it than in a novel you'd have a dialog:

- Dzień dobry, pani Kowalska!
- Dzień dobry, panie profesorze.

Well, both would still be capitalized in direct address. Indirect mention would then of course be lower case. Compare:

"Dzień dobry, Pani Kowalska!" cf. "Już pozdrawiłem pani Kowalskę."

that's right :)


not unless it's the heading of a letter, just as it has been said above. Direct or indirect, you don't capitalize pan/i in dialogues, books, when relating conversations, etc.


pozdrowiłem panią Kowalską

Dzięki znów, Stzrygu-:))

It should be: 'Dzięki, Sztrzygo!' or 'Dzięki, Strzyguniu!'.

It seems [will anyone check it somewhere?] that singular nouns which end in a soft consonant will take the -u ending in the vocative case irrespectively of their gender.

I remember John Paul II telling the pilgrims in Licheń who were greeting him with "Witaj w Licheniu!":
- I just thought you were shouting at me: "Witaj, ty leniu!"

Miłości i wolności, potrzebuję was.

Dziękuję znów, Ziemowicie-:)

Merged:

Should I capitalize Ciebie and Cię?

Hello,

When writing an email to my mother or father, should I capitalize such words as Ciebie and Cię?

Dzięki!

Tak