Capitalization Rules in English: the Basics

Avoiding misspellings, grammatical and punctuation mistakes, and other writing issues isn’t enough to make your writing excellent. It is also important to pay close attention to how you capitalize words in sentences.

So, which words get capitalized when writing in English? In English, capital letters can also be called big letters or uppercase letters. Sometimes native English speakers shorten this phrase to one word, in that instance, the capital letter is just a capital. Understanding capitalization rules will allow you to make sure your writing looks consistent and professional at all times.

English capitalization rules may seem confusing and even chaotic at first glance. Still, they will likely have something in common with the capitalization rules of your native language, making them actually easy to remember. Let's dive in!

Always Capitalize the First Word of a Sentence

This rule pretty much speaks for itself. In English, like in many other foreign languages, each individual sentence must start with a capitalized first word. For example:

Always Capitalize the Personal Pronoun I

“I” is the only pronoun that is capitalized in the English language, regardless of where it is in the sentence:

Capitalize the First Word of a Quote

In English, a quote or direct speech also begins with a capital letter - but there are some exceptions to watch out for. If you're going to quote a complete sentence, you should capitalize the first word of the quote, even if it is placed in the middle of the sentence. For example:

However, if you're going to quote just a phrase or a fragment of direct speech in the sentence, you should start the quote with a small letter:

Another exception is a quoted sentence or a part of direct speech interrupted by an insertion (for example, an explanation or parenthetical). In this case, you must write the second part of a quote with a lowercase letter. For example:

Capitalize the Names and Other Proper Nouns

You must always capitalize proper nouns. This is an extensive category of nouns, including the names and nicknames of people and animals, geographical names, organizations, trademarks, celestial bodies, attractions, book titles, museums, etc.

"Good Morning!" is an exception in English capitalization rules, as the word "morning" is a common noun, which should be capitalized only if it's the first word of the sentence. However, capitalization of "Good Morning!" is generally accepted if used as a greeting or salutation in a letter or email. The same applies to "Good Afternoon."

Most people can easily tell proper nouns from common nouns, but in case you’re a bit confused, here are some examples:

Names, Surnames, and Nicknames

Cities, Countries, and Continents

Some geographical areas can be capitalized, but that depends on the country:

Names of Places and Attractions

Street Names and School Names

Time Periods and Historical Events

Nationalities, Ethnicities, and Languages

Names of Political Parties

Days of the Week, Months, and Holidays, but Not Seasons

In English, days of the week, months, and holidays are considered proper nouns, so they should always start with capital letters. For example:

However, the names of the four seasons are an exception, as they are common nouns, and there capitalizing them won't be grammatically correct. For example:

Names of Planets and Other Celestial Bodies

This might get a bit confusing, as we frequently see words like sun, moon, and earth written in lowercase, although the names of planets and other celestial bodies are proper nouns.

According to NASA's style guidelines, "when ‘earth’ is lowercase, it refers to soil or the ground, not the planet as a whole," so you should only capitalize it as a proper noun when talking about the planet Earth.

Similarly, you should capitalize "moon" when referring to Earth's Moon only and capitalize "sun" as a proper noun when referring to our Sun but not to other suns. Here are the examples:

Here are some additional tips for writing about other planets and celestial bodies:

Capitalize Religions

Words Meaning Deity

The word “god” in the meaning of the one god in Christianity is written with a capital letter, but pronouns that replace it are already written with a lowercase letter. Also, the names of other deities in other religions begin with capital letters - just like any other name. For example:

Names of Religions and Faiths

Religious Texts

Titles and Academic Degrees

Titles and academic degrees concerning specific people are considered to be part of a name and thus should be capitalized. These include but are not limited to professional, scientific, religious, state, and royal titles. A capital letter is required when referring to a person by title or academic degree or if the title is used together with a name. Here are some examples:

At the same time, don't capitalize titles when they are used to describe something general. For example:

Kinship Degrees

Names of relatives or kinship terms should be capitalized when they designate a specific person - for example when you address or talk about a particular relative:

But if you speak about mothers, grandmothers, or other relatives in general, there's no need to use the capital letter. Also, you should use a lowercase letter in the titles of relatives if there is a possessive pronoun or a determiner before the title. Here are a few examples:

Capitalize (Almost) All the Words in Titles

The capitalization rules for titles of books, movies, TV shows, games, as well as articles' headings, require capitalizing almost all the words of the title, not just the first word.

In practice, this means that you need to capitalize all nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and particles except "to" before the infinitive. Please note that auxiliary (helping) words are not included: prepositions, the particle "to" before the infinitive, articles, most conjunctions, and short auxiliary verbs are written with small letters. Here are several examples:

However, if the conjunction, auxiliary verb, or preposition consists of four letters or more, then a capital letter is also required:

Pronouns are always capitalized - even a short "it" in the title needs a capital letter. Also, the list does not include the subordinating conjunctions (another exception to the rule), even if they are short: "as" or "if" should also be capitalized in the title or heading.

You should also note that some words can act as different parts of speech: in one title, they are written with a small letter, and in another with a capital letter. For example, "in" can be not only a preposition but also an adverb - as in the title of the gospel song Bringing In the Sheaves.

Another capitalization rule for long titles and headings to remember: the first and last words must be capitalized, even if they belong to articles, prepositions, or particles.

As you can see, writing a title in English correctly can require a lot of effort and attention to detail. Many native English speakers simplify these capitalization rules and write all words with a capital letter.

However, if you want to make sure your writing always stays consistent and looks professional, you may consider choosing a particular writing style guide and sticking to it in your writing.

The Bottom Line

As you can see, making sure that all the words in a sentence are correctly capitalized makes your writing look better. It's completely normal if you cannot keep all the capitalization rules in mind - many native speakers can’t, and English grammar sometimes is very complicated.

It's impossible to remember every proper noun and exception to the rule, so feel free to return to this guide when needed and look for more examples or particular words when in doubt.

If you want to improve your writing, start by changing up the educational materials you use to learn the English language. For example, you can download our Langster app full of bite-sized stories for more writing, grammar, and communication tips and examples.