BASIC CAPITALIZATION RULES
RULE EXAMPLE
1. Start the first word in a sentence with a The concert is in Manchester. It won’t be
capital letter: difficult to go there from Liverpool.
2. The pronoun “I”(first person singular) is Jordan and I are childhood friends
always capitalized:
Mr. and Mrs. Obama are visiting our city on
3. Use capital letter when you address Friday.
people with their formal or professional I am sorry, Dr. Chandler is not available on
titles: Wednesdays
HMTQ (Her Majesty the Queen), HRH (His/Her
4. Use capital letters for royal titles: Royal Highness)
The Prince and the Princess of Wales opened a
new NHS hospital in York.
The Queen used to spend her summer holidays
at Balmoral in Scotland.
5. Proper names (specific people and places) Gwen and Bill are married with three children.
begin with capital letters: Jessica lives on Wilson Avenue in Philadelphia
Appalachian Mountains
Geographical locations (cities, states, Quebec
6. countries, provinces, lakes, seas, The Himalayas
mountains, rivers etc.) begin with capital Salt Lake City
letters: The Amazon
Istanbul which is the largest in Turkey bridges
Europe and Asia.
Turkey is surrounded by the Black Sea, The
Aegean Sea, and the Mediterranean.
BASIC CAPITALIZATION RULES
RULE EXAMPLE
St. James Park
Pentagon
Use capital letters for roads, highways, Empire State Building
7. public areas ,streets, buildings and Eiffel Tower
monuments: Route 66
Baker Street
8. The name of languages and nationalities My sister can speak Spanish, Italian and
begin with capital letters: French but speak none.
Haruki Murakami is a well-known Japanese
writer.
Most words in titles of paragraphs, Life of Pi
9. essays, books etc. are capitalized but do War and Peace
not capitalize prepositions, conjunctions The Catcher in the Rye
or articles unless they are the first word A Room with a View
of the title:
Nick is taking History 101
10. Specific course names are capitalized: I like reading history books
(general subject-no capital letter)
11. Capitalize mother, father, aunt etc. when Ask Father when he’ll be home for dinner.
these words are used as names: (You can use his first name here)
You can submit your essay on Wednesday.
Capitalize days of the week, months of I was born in May.
12. the year and holidays: Open your presents on Christmas Day.
! Do not capitalize the seasons: 22nd of September is the first day of autumn.
I am thinking of finding a part-time job in
summer.
Delta Airlines
13. Capitalize the name of businesses and Colgate toothpaste
official trade names: Nike
Kellog’s cereal
BASIC CAPITALIZATION RULES
RULE EXAMPLE
Eid al-Fitr is an important religious festival in
14. Capitalize the name of religions and the Islam.
deity God
Koran
Bible
Capitalize particular sections of a country: Southern cooking of the United States
15. East Coast is a highly populated area in the
United States.
! Do not capitalize words that simply If you keep driving east, you’ll end up New
show direction: York.
World War II
16. Capitalize the names of historical events, Middle Ages
documents and period of time Renaissance
British Army
17. Capitalize the names of armed forces and American Navy
ranks Lieutenant
18 Use capital letters for exclamations Ouch! It hurts
words: Oh! That was just a misunderstanding, sorry.
19. Use capital letters for heavenly bodies: Mars Venus Uranus
Halley’s Comet
Queen’s Council
Use capital letters when you use titles Kent County Council
20. related to law, government institutions, Conservative Party
political parties, rulers and lords: House of Commons House of Lords
Sir Keir Starmer has written 14,000 words of
essay for 2021 Labour Party Conference.