Hi everyone,
I've just read some articles about the difference between Isle and Island. I understood they're practically the same even if they're not interchangeably when they're part of a proper name (the Isle of Man can't be the "island of Man").
I didn't understand well the capitalization in the case of island. For example, if I refer to the island of Cyprus or the island of Malta should I use the Capital letter or not? I don't think so because I can simply speak of "Cyprus" or "Malta".
Could you explain me this topic, please?
You only capitalise initial letters of words that are parts of names, for example Rhode Island in the US. When you use the word 'island' as an ordinary noun meaning a body of land surrounded by water, you do not capitalise it. You would write, for example "I visited the island of Malta" with a lower case 'i', because 'island' is not part of the official name of this place.
'Isle' is an antiquated word which tends only to be used nowadays in literary quotations. It has survived in certain names, though. So, for example you might say "The Isle of Man and the Isle of Wight are two islands close to mainland Britain". Here you would capitalise 'Isle' because it is part of the names of these two places.
