The Correct Answer and Explanation is:
Here is the corrected sentence:
When I asked Dad whether the mountains and craters on Venus have names, he told me that one of the craters is named Billie Holiday.
There are several capitalization errors in the original sentence that need to be addressed to make it grammatically correct.
The first corrections involve the words “Mountains” and “Craters.” In this context, these are common nouns, not proper nouns. They refer to general types of geological features rather than specific, named ones (like the Rocky Mountains or the Copernicus Crater). Unless they are part of a formal name or at the beginning of a sentence, common nouns should be written in lowercase. Therefore, “Mountains” should be corrected to “mountains,” and “Craters” should be corrected to “craters.”
The next error is the word “venus.” As the specific name of a planet, “Venus” is a proper noun. The names of planets, moons, stars, and other celestial bodies are always capitalized. Failing to capitalize the name of the planet diminishes its status as a unique entity. Thus, “venus” must be corrected to “Venus.”
Finally, the name “billie holiday” refers to a specific person, the renowned American jazz singer. Proper names of people, including both their first and last names, must always be capitalized. This rule signals that the words are a formal name identifying a unique individual. Therefore, “billie” must be changed to “Billie,” and “holiday” must be changed to “Holiday.”
The capitalization of “Dad” is correct in the original sentence. When a familial title like Dad, Mom, or Grandma is used as a direct substitute for a person’s name, it functions as a proper noun and should be capitalized. By applying these rules, the sentence becomes clear, polished, and grammatically sound.
