A Little Help with Capitals

Summary: This resource details standard capitalization rules.

Contributors:Chris Berry, Allen Brizee Universidade de Purdue
Last Edited: 2010-04-17 05:52:04

This handout lists some guidelines for capitalization. If you have a question about whether a
specific word should be capitalized that doesn't fit under one of these rules, try checking a
dictionary to see if the word is capitalized there.

Use capital letters in the following ways:

The first words of a sentence

When he tells a joke, he sometimes forgets the punch line.

The pronoun "I"

The last time I visited Atlanta was several years ago.

Proper nouns (the names of specific people, places, organizations, and sometimes
things)

Worrill Fabrication Company, Golden Gate Bridge, Supreme Court, Livingston,

Missouri, Atlantic Ocean, Mothers Against Drunk Driving

Family relationships (when used as proper names)

I sent a thank-you note to Aunt Abigail, but not to my other aunts.

Here is a present I bought for Mother.

Did you buy a present for your mother?

The names of God, specific deities, religious figures, and holy books

God the Father, the Virgin Mary, the Bible, the Greek gods, Moses, Shiva,

Buddha, Zeus

Exception: Do not capitalize the non-specific use of the word "god."

The word "polytheistic" means the worship of more than one god.

Titles preceding names, but not titles that follow names

She worked as the assistant to Mayor Hanolovi.

I was able to interview Miriam Moss, mayor of Littonville.

Directions that are names (North, South, East, and West when used as sections of
the country, but not as compass directions)

The Patels have moved to the Southwest.

Jim's house is two miles north of Otterbein.

The days of the week, the months of the year, and holidays (but not the seasons
used generally)

Halloween, October, Friday, winter, spring, fall

Exception: Seasons are capitalized when used in a title.

The Fall 1999 semester

The names of countries, nationalities, and specific languages

Costa Rica, Spanish, French, English

The first word in a sentence that is a direct quote

Emerson once said, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."

The major words in the titles of books, articles, and songs (but not short
prepositions or the articles "the," "a," or "an," if they are not the first word of the
title)

One of Jerry's favorite books is The Catcher in the Rye.

Members of national, political, racial, social, civic, and athletic groups

Green Bay Packers, African-Americans, Anti-Semitic, Democrats,Friends of the

Wilderness, Chinese

Periods and events (but not century numbers)

Victorian Era, Great Depression, Constitutional Convention, sixteenth century

Trademarks

Pepsi, Honda, IBM, Microsoft Word

Words and abbreviations of specific names (but not names of things that came
from specific things but are now general types)

Freudian, NBC, pasteurize, UN, french fries, italics

NOUNS

USE OF CAPITAL LETTERS WITH NOUNS

Capital letters are used with:

Names and titles of people

a. Winston Churchill
b. Marilyn Monroe
c. the Queen of England
d. the President of the United States
e. the Headmaster of Eton
f. Doctor Mathews
g. Professor Samuels.

Note: The personal pronoun 'I' is always written with a capital letter.
Titles of works, books etc.
a. War and Peace
b. The Merchant of Venice
c. Crime and Punishment
d. Tristan and Isolde
Months of the year

January July
February August
March September
April October
May November
June December

Days of the week

Monday Friday

Tuesday Saturday
Wednesday Sunday

Thursday
Seasons

Spring

Summer

Autumn

Winter

Holidays

Christmas Easter New Year's Day

Boxing Day May Day Thanksgiving Day

Geographical names...
names of countries and continents
America England Scotland
China Peru Albania
Africa Europe Asia
names of regions, states, districts etc.
Sussex California Queensland
Provence Tuscany Vaud
Florida Costa Brava Tyrol
names of cities, towns, villages etc.

London Cape Town Rome

Florence Bath Wagga Wagga
Vancouver Wellington Peking
names of rivers, oceans, seas, lakes etc.
the Atlantic the Dead Sea the Pacific
Lake Leman Lake Victoria Lake Michigan
the Rhine the Thames the Nile
names of geographical formations
the Himalayas the Alps the Sahara

Adjectives relating to nationality nouns

France - French music

Australia - Australian animals
Germany - German literature
Arabia - Arabic writing
Indonesia - Indonesian poetry
China - Chinese food

Names of streets, buildings, parks etc.

Park Lane Central Avenue Pall Mall

George Street Sydney Opera House Central Park
Hyde Park the Empire State Building Wall Street

How To Use Capital Letters

1. Step 1: Starting a sentence

Capital letters are always used at the beginning of a sentence.

2. Step 2: Names

You should also use a capital letter at the beginning of people's names, days of the week and month,
and brand names.

3. Step 3: Countries

The names of all countries and cities are spelt with a capital letter, like France and Paris. So are words
that are connected to them, like French and Parisian. This isn't necessary when they don't refer directly
to the country in question, like danish pastries or french windows - which don't have to actually be
Danish or French. It also applies to regional and ethnic divisions like Basque and Catalan, and black
and white, when they refer to people – as in Black American.

4. Step 4: Language and religion

 The names of languages and religions like Hindi and Buddhism should always get capital letters, as do
many religious people, concepts and events like The Last Supper, God, Jesus, The Prophet
Mohammed and The Old Testament. This doesn't apply to pagan deities, like the Greek god
Prometheus.

5. Step 5: Holidays

Capitals are also used to indicate historical periods like The Middle Ages and holidays like Easter and
Hallowe'en.

6. Step 6: Titles

In titles, like the title of a book or essay, you should use a capital letter for the first word of the title, and
all significant words after it. For instance:
How to Make Friends and Influence People. The title makes it clear that Making Friends and
Influencing people are the main themes of this book.

7. Step 7: I

The word I – as in oneself – is always a capital letter.

8. Step 8: Abbreviating

When abbreviating, you should always use a capital letter. It is always preferable to set your standard
abbreviation early on:
Meg Ryan was outstanding in the film When Harry met Sally (WHMS).
But some abbreviations (of large organisations and companies) are well-known enough to be written in
capitals without an explanation: BBC, UN, NATO etc.

9. Step 9: Highlighting words

Capitals can be used to highlight certain words in a sentence, but shouldn't be used for whole
sentences, unless you want to sound angry: STOP STEALING MY MILK!

10. Step 10: Context

The context in which you are using some words changes whether or not they are spelt with a capital
letter. Words like Parliament and Government are spelt with capitals when they refer to a specific
parliament etc.
But note the difference in the following uses:
I want to meet the President of America.
I want to be president of a large company.
When do we Use Capital Letters?
1. Use a capital letter for the personal pronoun I:

• What can I say?

2. Use a capital letter to begin a sentence or to begin speech:

• The man arrived. He sat down.

• Suddenly Mary asked, "Do you love me?"

3. Use capital letters for many abbreviations and acronyms:

• G.M.T. or GMT (Greenwich Mean Time)

• N.A.T.O. or NATO or Nato (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)

4. Use a capital letter for days of the week, months of the year, holidays:

• Monday, Tuesday
• January, February
• Christmas
• Armistice Day

5. Use a capital letter for countries, languages & nationalities, religions:

• China, France
• Japanese, English
• Christianity, Buddhism

6. Use a capital letter for people's names and titles:

• Anthony, Ram, William Shakespeare

• Professor Jones, Dr Smith
• Captain Kirk, King Henry VIII

7. Use a capital letter for trade-marks and names of companies and other organizations:

• Pepsi Cola, Walkman

• Microsoft Corporation, Toyota
• the United Nations, the Red Cross

8. Use a capital letter for places and monuments:

• London, Paris, the Latin Quarter

• the Eiffel Tower, St Paul's Cathedral
• Buckingham Palace, the White House
• Oxford Street, Fifth Avenue
• Jupiter, Mars, Syrius
• Asia, the Middle East, the North Pole

9. Use a capital letter for names of vehicles like ships, trains and spacecraft:

• the Titanic
 • the Orient Express, the Flying Scotsman
• Challenger 2, the Enterprise

10. Use a capital letter for titles of books, poems, songs, plays, films etc:

• War And Peace

• If, Futility
• Like a Virgin
• The Taming of the Shrew
• The Lion King, Gone With The Wind

11. Use capitals letters (sometimes!) for headings, titles of articles, books etc, and newspaper headlines:

• HOW TO WIN AT POKER

• Chapter 2: CLINTON'S EARLY LIFE
• LIFE FOUND ON MARS!
• MAN BITES DOG

Verbs and Verb Tenses

present perfect continous
Keywords: present perfect continous, present participle
simple present
Keywords: verbs, tenses, present simple
future continuous
Keywords: future, actions in progress
present continuous
Keywords: -ing, verbs, tenses, present participle, verbs not used in continuous form
present perfect 1
Keywords: present perfect, past participle, irregular verbs
present perfect 2
Keywords: present perfect, ever, never, already, yet
present perfect 3
Keywords: present perfect, simple past, time, attitude
present perfect 4
Keywords: present perfect, for, since
summary
Keywords: verb tenses, present tenses, perfect tenses, conditional tenses, past tenses, future
tenses
simple past
Keywords: simple past, form, function, irregular verbs, irregular verbs, auxiliary 'did', ago
past continuous
Keywords: past continuous, description, narrative
past perfect
Keywords: past perfect, just
past perfect continuous
Keywords: past perfect continuous, process, reported speech
future forms - introduction
Keywords: future, attitude
future forms - simple future
Keywords: will/shall, prediction, decision, future facts, certainty
present continuous for future events
Keywords: arrangements, future
future with 'going to'
Keywords: plans, intentions
menu / introduction
Keywords: menu, introduction, tenses
future perfect
Keywords: future, completed actions
future perfect continuous
Keywords: unfinished, future time
other forms of future
Keywords: is to, obligation, about to, immediate future
type 1 conditional
Keywords: if + present + future, fact
simple present for future events
Keywords: future, facts, timetable, calendar