Dear Mr. B:

You wrote:
> Hi.
>
> I’d like to note that there’s a slight error on your capitalisation page on
> englishplus.com (https://englishplus.com/grammar/00000045.htm). You cite this
> as an example:
>
> Correct: Ludwig van Beethoven
>
> Correct: Cornelia ten Boom (First name being used)
>
> Correct: Miss Ten Boom (First name not used)
>
> Beethoven was German, and as such the particle in his name is ‘von’ (‘van’
> is Dutch). Additionally, the second and third examples are somewhat
> confusing, as it’s obviously a Dutch name. This means it can either be Dutch
> or Belgian, and the language rules differ between those countries.
>
> In the Netherlands, particles are not capitalised when the first name is
> used (like you mention), but this is also the case when a title is used,
> such as in the second example.
>
> In Belgian Dutch (Flemish), any particle is capitalised in every case.
> Often, the particle is attached to the surname itself or even part of the
> surname proper with the actual surname losing its capitalisation Because of
> this, the Flemish collate names including the particle, so Van der Ven ends
> up near Vanderbroucke, whereas in Dutch we only collate on (I suppose) the
> first capitalised (non-particle) word in the name, and Van der Ven would end
> up near Van der Vaart.
>
> So, in Flemish it’d be “Cornelia Ten Boom” and “Miss Ten Boom”, but in Dutch
> it would be “Cornelia ten Boom” and “Miss ten Boom”. It’d be “There’s a
> phone call for Ten Boom” in both languages, because of the lack of
> title/first name (and because Flemish capitalises it in any case).
>

Thanks for your input. Perhaps we do need to emphasize that the patterns are general and may vary. It is always best to check with the individual. You might want to double check Beethoven’s preposition. Originally we had “von,” but when we looked up his name, we saw that it was written “van.” We checked it with Funk & Wagnalls, so it may be a reflection of his dialect or the spelling at the time he was alive. Perhaps others spell it differently. Shakespeare’s name was spelled six different ways in documents that he signed. We also note that the German Wikipedia spells his name with a “van.”