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A Little Help with CapitalsSummary: 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 aspecific word should be capitalized that doesn't fit under one of these rules, try checking adictionary 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.
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Directions that are names (North, South, East, and West when used as sections ofthe 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 shortprepositions 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 camefrom specific things but are now general types)
Freudian, NBC, pasteurize, UN, french fries, italics
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NOUNS
USE OF CAPITAL LETTERS WITH NOUNS
Capital letters are used with:
Names and titles of people
a. Winston Churchillb. Marilyn Monroe
c. the Queen of Englandd. the President of the United States
e. the Headmaster of Etonf. Doctor Mathewsg. 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 Venicec. 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 weekMonday 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
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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
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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.
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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
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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 Tensespresent 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, narrativepast 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
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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 conditionalKeywords: if + present + future, fact
simple present for future events
Keywords: future, facts, timetable, calendar
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