You, you and your/yours

Most people have a fairly good grip on the fact that the Danish pronoun ‘I’ (you) must be capitalised, whereas the identical-sounding preposition ‘i’ must be lowercased.

• Vi håber, at I kan komme i morgen.
• Hvad laver I i skoven?

However, now and again, we see that the two pronouns related to ’I’, namely ‘jer’ (you) and ‘jeres’ (your/yours), are placed in the – in some people’s opinion – prominent category of initial letter capitalising. In some instances, it may be in an attempt to crank op the politeness level. Whatever the reason – don’t do it.

The Danish pronoun ‘I’ is capitalised to distinguish it from the preposition ‘i’. This is not necessary with ‘jer’ and ‘jeres’, as they cannot be confused with other words. Therefore:

• Vi vil gerne invitere jer til sommerfest.
• Kan jeg låne jeres trailer?

In English, it is as straightforward as can be: You, your and yours are never capitalised (unless they follow a full stop, of course).

• How are you?
• I am on your side.
• Show me yours, and I'll show you mine.