Patrick C. asked,“When discussing a Constitutional Amendment, is it instead a ‘constitutional amendment’?”
“Constitutional” is lowercase because it is an adjective, but sometimes “constitution” should be capitalized.
When you’re using “constitution” descriptively, it’s also lowercase:
- The chess club needed a new constitution.
- We should look that up in our constitution.
In the U.S., when you’re referring to the specific founding document we refer to as the Constitution, it is capitalized:
- George Washington’s name is the first signature on the Constitution.
- We can’t wait to see the original Constitution when we visit the National Archives.
To directly answer Patrick’s question, he should write that something is a “constitutional amendment”—lowercase.
The Grammar Devotional
Mignon Fogarty
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