Capital letter: English, French, etc

[Van Khanh]

PLease list me all cases that the words "English", "French"... are always written in capital letter as in:

I like to learn English.

Thanks
K

[Mister Micawber]

.
They are capitalized when they refer to the nationality, Van:

French toast
English literature
Dutch courage
etc.

When they do not refer directly to the nationality, then they are often begun with lower case letters:

french fries
put english on the ball
we're in dutch now!
etc.

As you will learn from a dictionary search, either form is often acceptable in the latter case.
.
_________________
Canadian-American native speaker
who teaches English for a living at Mister Micawber's
ESL cafe: Interview with Mister Micawber

[Van Khanh]

Dear Sir,

Thanks for your reply.

K

[Tom]

[Yankee]

Hi Tom

Actually, this idiom has already been discussed in another thread. I'd never heard it before, either. But googling is a big help:
http://www.google.de/search?hl=de&q=%22put+english+on+the+ball&btnG=Suche&meta=

Amy
_________________
Amy
.
ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English