Why does Spell check?

Question

Why does the spell checker always bring up internet, and put a capital I instead - Internet? It's not like it's an important word, or a day in the week, or a month which has to be a capital first letter.
Why is this so with Internet?

Answer 1

Actually, it is only correct to use it with capital I. Because there is only one of it. It's like a name, denoting a unique entity, so it is capitalized.

Answer 2

The short answer is that Internet is the "word" that has been loaded into the spell checker's word list. The spell checker's creator appears to have regarded Internet as the specific name or proper name of a specific entity, like California is the proper name of a specific state. Others, yourself included, regard internet as more like simply the name of a thing, like truck, house, picture, etc. I suppose one might get super-technical and ask "ok, if it's just the name of "a" thing, then what other similar things are there?" (Actually, if someone did ask this, you could say, well, intranet, for one...an intranet being an internet that only exists between computers within a company.) Personally, I'd say "I" or "i" is a toss-up and a matter of personal choice, I use "i". If it's the spell checker on your own word-processor, you should be able to edit it by adding internet (and deleting Internet too, if you want.)

Answer 3

I'm a bit of a slave to the English language, grammar in particular. I may seem a bit anal but I think it's very important that little things like putting capital letters in the right place are done. Our language is getting bastardised enough as it is ("phwoar" is now in the dictionary) and I think it's important that we pay attention to the details such as capitalisation, tense, grammar and spelling. Sorry, just my thing is all.

Answer 4

It's correct to use a capital for Internet! Don't knock it, it's only doing its job! It's like names of countries. There is only one of it.

It's proper to call it 'the Internet' whereas a company might have 'an intranet' or 'an extranet' (more than one exist).

Answer 5

In fact, you normally say "The Internet" rather than I am on internet. It isn't an important word but it IS treated as a name.

Answer 6

It's a proper noun, so get's capitalized, much like a person's name, or the name of a corporation.

Answer 7

perhaps the guy who thought up spell check thought the Internet was a pretty important thing, and yes you are right i just tried it

Answer 8

I think it is viewed like a title (like a brand name), i.e. it is not any old internet, it is The Internet.

Answer 9

because numbers count.

Answer 10

i do not know.they want to