The first word capital letters

I’ll ask my dad to take us to the station. Would you mind taking us to the station, Dad?

Why is dad not capitalised in the first sentence but is in the second?

In the first sentence we use the personal pronoun my before dad. This shows we are talking about dads in a general way, and so we don’t need to capitalise. In the second sentence Dad is the person’s title. It’s his name for now.

Capital Letters Explained

Capitalise the first letter in the first word of a sentence. – The taxi is coming.

Capitalise the first word in a quotation. – Tom said, «Stop eating so much cake».

Always capitalise the pronoun I but no other pronouns. – Do you know I live with her? She is my sister.

Capitalise proper nouns — a person, place or thing. – I went to London with James. We visited the British Museum.

Capitalise days of the week and months, but not seasons. – We have to work every Saturday in July. I hate summer!

Capitalise the planets, but not earth, sun and moon unless in a list of planets – I think Mercury is the smallest planet. Do you think people will ever go to the moon again?

Capitalise historical events – We watched a show about World War II.

Capitalise races, languages and nationalities – We work for a Japanese company. She speaks Portugese because she is from Brazil.

Titles of people, publications, songs and paintings – We saw Sunflowers by Dutch painter Vincent van Gough. She reads The Wall Street Journal every day.

Now decide which of the sentences has the correct capitalisation:

• 1) Which is correct?
  

  He asked if i wanted breakfast
  He asked if I wanted breakfast.

• 2) Which is correct?
  

  What did you study at University?
  What did you study at university?

• 3) Which is correct?
  

  She has no plans for christmas.
  She has no plans for Christmas.

• 4) Which is correct?
  

  can you call me later?
  Can you call me later?

• 5) Which is correct?
  

  Is mecca in Saudi Arabia?
  Is Mecca in Saudi Arabia?

• 6) Which is correct?
  

  Will you ask your mum?
  Will you ask your Mum?

• 7) Which is correct?
  

  They all love spanish food.
  They all love Spanish food.

• Which is correct?
  

  We go skiing in winter.
  We go skiing in Winter.
• 9) Which is correct?
  

  What’s the largest country on Earth?
  What’s the largest country on earth?

• 10) Which is correct?
  

  She works for google.
  She works for Google.

What are the Capital Letters? 

Capital letters are the upper-case alphabets of English which are present with our 26 letters. The capital letters are generally more in height than the small letters.

We can easily differentiate upper-case alphabets and lower-case alphabets by just looking at them. 

The capital letters look like – A, B, C, D…. Z

The small letter looks like – a, b, c, d……z

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This picture above is clearly showing the difference between capital letters and small letters.

Uses and Examples of Capital Letters

From the first day of starting our journey in the world of education, we start with the learning of alphabets. As time goes by, we learn about what are capital letters, and where do we use capital letters? We learn to differentiate it properly. 

We have always learned that whenever we write our name, we keep the first letter of our name capital always. It is the most basic and important rule towards capitalization. 

For example,

Suppose there is a guy whose name is Vedant.

We are not supposed to write his name as vedant. We can properly see that there is no change in the spelling of the name, but the first letter of the name is in a small letter which is an incorrect way of writing anyone’s name. Proper capitalizing always plays an important role in the English subject. 

The correct way of writing the name is to write the first letter as a capital letter even in between of any sentences. We always write the first letter of the name as a capital letter.

For example,

1. There is a boy named Vedant who likes to play football and cricket both. 

2. There is a boy named vedant who likes to play football and cricket both.

From sentences 1 and 2 we can see that sentence 1 has written the first letter of the name as capital while in sentence 2 we can see that the first letter of the name is small. 

So, which one is the correct form?

The first sentence present in the example is the correct form of writing a person’s name.

Always remember to write the first letter of the name as a capital letter.

Some Rules to use Capital Letters

1. If we write anyone’s name or city the first letter needs to be always in capital letters. 

2. Even when you are using anyone’s name or place in between sentences.

For example,

• Sheela is a good girl

• My favourite dancer is Sheela.

• Paris is my favourite destination to visit.

• Sheela lives in Paris.

All the sentences give you a clear image of the writing name and place the first letter as capital.

3. Whenever we start a sentence the first letter should always be in capital letters. We never start a sentence with a small letter. It’s an important rule for capitalizing letters.

Example-

• The bridge is broken for many years.

• What is your name?

• This is a beautiful present.

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4. If we write a sentence that is quoted under quotation.  The first letter of the quoted sentence should always be a capital letter. 

Example,

Mr. Roy, who is an English professor, has complimented me as “You are a brilliant student”. 

In the above example, we have written the first letter of the quoted sentence in capital letter and it should be done always whenever we are quoting any sentences.

5. We always write the large letter of titles of Books or Movies in capital letters. But we do not write any word in a capital letter which has of, they, etc if they are present between the titles.

A Suitable Boy (We generally don’t write the word ‘A’ as a capital letter if it’s present in between any title but because the word ‘A’ is used as the first word we write it in capital letter.) 

War of the Arrows (We generally don’t write the first word  “of” and “the”  in capital letters if they are present in between sentences but like in life there are some exceptions even in the rules of capital letters)

6. If any word is derived from proper nouns, we write that particular word in capital letters.

Example,

My favourite subject to read in English, science is my most hated subject.

In the above sentence, we wrote the first word of English as a capital letter because it’s derived from England whereas science‘s first word is a small letter because it’s not a derived proper noun.

There are only a few rules of capitalization. They’re easy to remember. In English, capital letters are most commonly used at the start of a sentence, for the pronoun I, and for proper nouns.

1. Capitalize the first word in every sentence

You should always capitalize the first letter of the first word in a sentence, no matter what the word is. Take, for example, the following sentences: The weather was beautiful. It was sunny all day. Even though the and it aren’t proper nouns, they’re capitalized here because they’re the first words in their sentences. There is one rare possible exception to this rule: a brand name that begins with a lowercase letter like eBay or iPad. Even these normally lowercase words are usually capitalized at the start of sentences, but a style guide may make an exception for them.

2. Capitalize the pronoun I

Pronouns are words that replace nouns. I, you, and me are all examples of pronouns. While you and me are usually lowercase, the pronoun I should always be capitalized, regardless of where it appears in a sentence.

For example, in A Beautiful Mind, Sylvia Nasar writes, “What I got back was an envelope on which my address was written in different-colored crayons.” Here, the pronoun I is correctly capitalized even though it isn’t at the beginning of the sentence.

Capitalize proper nouns

A proper noun is the special noun or name used for a specific person, place, company, or other thing. Proper nouns should always be capitalized.

3. Names of people

People’s names are proper nouns, and therefore should be capitalized. The first letter of someone’s first, middle, and last name is always capitalized, as in John William Smith. Take note that some non-English surnames may begin with lowercase letters, such as Vincent van Gogh or Leonardo da Vinci.

4. Names of places

Other proper nouns include countries, cities, and sometimes regions, such as Bulgaria, Paris, and the American South. Geographic features that have names should also be capitalized, as in Mt. Kilimanjaro and the Pacific Ocean.

Landmarks and monuments also start their proper names with capital letters, such as the Empire State Building and the Golden Gate Bridge. Street names are always capitalized, too (e.g., Main Street). Although rare, some place names might have a preposition in them that is not capitalized, such as the Tower of Pisa or Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.

5. Names of companies and trademarks

The names of companies and organizations should also be capitalized, such as Nike and Stanford University. There are some exceptions: sometimes a company may choose not to use a capital letter at the beginning of its name or product as a stylistic choice. Examples include eBay and the iPhone.

6. Capitalize honorary and professional titles 

Titles like Mr., Mrs., and Dr., should be capitalized. When addressing someone with their professional title, you should use a capital letter at the beginning. For example, you’d address a letter to the president as Dear President Obama. Similarly, you should capitalize job titles when they come before a person’s name, as in General Manager Sheila Davis will be at the meeting. Also use a capital letter when you’re directly addressing a person by their title without using their name, as in We need the paper, Senator.  On the other hand, titles are not capitalized if used generally as in Rebecca is the president of the company, or We talked with the queen, Elizabeth II.

Our vote is for this article that has all the details on when you need to capitalize president.

7. Capitalize familial relationships 

Words that indicate family relationships should also be capitalized when used as titles in front of a person’s name. However, if you’re just talking about relationships with no names involved, the titles shouldn’t be capitalized. For example, you’d capitalize Uncle Ben and Grandpa Ed will be at the picnic, but you wouldn’t capitalize them in a sentence like My uncle and my grandpa will be at the picnic. Similar to the rules for professional titles, you should capitalize the names of family titles when they’re used in place of proper names. For instance, in Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë writes, “She is at the lodge, Aunt.”

8. Capitalize major words in a title

The titles of books, songs, newspapers, and works of art should all be capitalized. Examples include Moby Dick, “Jailhouse Rock,” New York Times, and The Last Supper. If you need help knowing specifically which words get capitalized in titles of creative works, check out our helpful guide to title capitalization.

9. Capitalize days, months, and (sometimes) seasons

The names of days and months should be capitalized, such as January, September, Wednesday, and Sunday.

A season should be capitalized when it’s being used as part of a proper noun as in Winter Olympics. In poetry and other literature, personification is giving an animal, inanimate object, or abstract notion the qualities and attributes of a human. When a season is used this way, it should be capitalized. (Take, for example, how Charles Mair uses summer in a poem: “We will muse on Summer’s ploys.”)

10. Capitalize holidays

The names of holidays, such as Christmas, Halloween, and Hanukkah, are capitalized because they are considered proper nouns. You would not, however, capitalize a season: Christmas season. But if you add day to a holiday, you would capitalize this word: New Year’s Day and Christmas Day. Similarly, you would capitalize the word eve in holidays such as Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.

11. Capitalize time periods

Historical eras should be capitalized. For instance, use Middle Ages, Dark Ages, and the Renaissance. You’d also capitalize prehistoric eras such as Stone Age and Bronze Age.

12. Capitalize countries, languages, and nationalities

The names of countries are proper nouns, which means they are capitalized, of course. Languages and nationalities are capitalized as well. A person who is from Kenya, is a Kenyan and likely speaks Swahili. A Chilean is a person from Chile, where the official language is Spanish.

13. Capitalize acronyms

Acronyms should be capitalized. NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), POTUS (President of the United States), and DOB (Date Of Birth) are all capitalized. Some acronyms have been incorporated as recognizable words that should not be capitalized (laser, or “light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation”); when in doubt, it’s best to consult a dictionary.

Of course, in informal conversations (like texting), acronyms (lol, brb, idk, etc.) aren’t always capitalized. Not all rules apply to very casual writing styles.

Capitalize after certain punctuation

Of course, you already know to capitalize at the start of each sentence. There are other interesting sentence structures that require capitalization.

14. After the first word in a quote containing a complete sentence

When a quote is added to a sentence, it is introduced with quotation marks and a capital letter:

• When my father asked where I was going, I said, “Some of my friends are going to the movies.”

When the attribution is in the middle of the sentence, capitalization rules are also important:

• “The library is closed,” he said, “but you can return your books in the drop box.”

In this case, the first word (the) is capitalized. Because the sentence continues after the attribution, the word but is not capitalized.

You don’t always have to use the word but, did you know? Learn some alternatives.

Similarly, a colon may introduce a quote that comes after an independent clause. For example,

• “Bob seemed to like that idea: ‘Yeah, let’s do that!’”

In this sentence, the words before the colon could stand alone as a complete sentence. The colon emphasizes the coming quote.

If a quote contains a single word, a phrase, or an incomplete sentence, the first word typically isn’t capitalized unless it is a proper noun. For example:

• He said that my approach to solving math problems was “unique.”
• When asked, the mayor said the city “was prepared for all possible outcomes.” 

Check out our guide to quotation marks to learn more about these tricky punctuation marks.

15. (Sometimes) after a colon and rarely after a semicolon

If what follows the colon is a complete sentence, some style guides do recommend capitalizing the word that follows the colon.

• It snowed all morning: The roads were impassable by 8 am.

Capitalization after a semicolon is not required and would be grammatically incorrect. When an explanation takes the form of a second independent clause that follows a main independent clause, you can join the two clauses into a single sentence with a semicolon. Here is an example:

• Jenny had an idea; she would pick up a cake on her way to her friend’s house.

However, you would capitalize proper nouns or the pronoun I if they follow a semicolon as in Marcy got a bag of candy; I got a bag of rocks. 

Colons and semicolons are notoriously tough punctuation marks to use, but you can master them by using our detailed explanations of how to use colons and semicolons.