Capitalization Rules: When to Use Capital Letters (Examples)
Capitalization rules tell a writer which words start with a capital letter and which stay lowercase. This guide covers sentences, names, places, titles, quotes and letters, with examples that are easy to copy onto an anchor chart.
Capitalization rules at a glance
A capital letter is a signal. It tells the reader that a sentence is starting or that a word is the special name of one particular person, place or thing. Most mistakes happen when a student capitalizes a word because it feels important, rather than because a rule asks for it. The rules for capitalization in English are few, and each section below gives capitalization rules examples that students can copy.
Here are the ten rules of capitalization that this post covers, in the order we will take them:
- Capitalize the first word of every sentence.
- Capitalize the pronoun I.
- Capitalize proper nouns, such as names of people, places and organizations.
- Capitalize days of the week and months, but not seasons.
- Capitalize a title of a person when it comes before a name or stands in for a name.
- Capitalize the names of particular places, but not general places or directions.
- Capitalize languages and nationalities.
- Capitalize the important words in the titles of books, poems and movies.
- Capitalize the first word of a quoted sentence.
- Capitalize the first word of a letter greeting and the first word of the closing.
Capitalize the first word of a sentence
This is the first rule most students learn, and it applies to every sentence, whether it is a statement, a question or an exclamation.
- The class walked to the library.
- Where did you leave your jacket?
- What a loud storm that was!
The rule covers the first word only. The words that follow stay lowercase unless another rule asks for a capital. A student who writes “The Class walked to the Library” has capitalized two common nouns that no rule asks for.
Capitalize the pronoun I
The word I is always a capital, wherever it sits in a sentence. That includes contractions such as I’m, I’ll and I’ve. A sentence like “My brother and I built a tent” keeps the capital in the middle. Students who text a lot sometimes carry the lowercase i into schoolwork, so it helps to point it out directly.
Proper nouns and common nouns
A common noun names any one of a kind: city, river, school. A proper noun names one particular person, place or thing: Chicago, the Mississippi River, Lincoln Elementary School. Proper nouns are capitalized and common nouns are not. Our post on the types of nouns explains the difference in more detail, including the other kinds of nouns.
These pairs show the contrast:
- city and Chicago
- river and the Mississippi River
- school and Lincoln Elementary School
- mountain and Mount Rainier
- street and Main Street
- country and Canada
- organization and the Red Cross
The general word comes with a lowercase letter. The word becomes part of a name, and gets a capital, when it appears with the specific name. “We crossed the river” has no capital, and “We crossed the Mississippi River” has two.
Names with more than one word are capitalized word by word, but small joining words such as of and the stay lowercase inside the name: the Statue of Liberty, the Bay of Fundy.
Days, months and seasons
Days of the week and months of the year are proper nouns, so they take capitals: Monday, Friday, March, October. Seasons are different. Spring, summer, fall, autumn and winter are common nouns, and they stay lowercase.
- Our test is on Tuesday.
- School starts again in September.
- We plant seeds in spring.
- The lake freezes in winter.
This is one of the most common mistakes in student writing, so it earns its own spot on a chart.
Titles of people and family names
A title is capitalized when it comes right before a name, or when it takes the place of a name. It is lowercase when it is used as a plain description.
- Mayor Torres cut the ribbon. The mayor smiled.
- I asked Dr. Kim a question. I asked the doctor a question.
- We visited Aunt Rosa. We visited my aunt.
- I called Grandma. I called my grandma.
- Dad said dinner was ready. My dad said dinner was ready.
The test is simple. If you could swap in a real name, the word gets a capital. “I called Grandma” works as a name, so Grandma is capitalized. After my, the word is only a description, so it is lowercase.
Places and directions
Names of particular places are capitalized: Lake Michigan, the Rocky Mountains, the Pacific Ocean, Texas. General words for places are not: lake, mountains, ocean, state.
Directions follow a rule of their own. When north, south, east and west simply tell a direction, they stay lowercase. When they name a region, they get a capital.
- Drive north on Main Street, then turn west at the river.
- She grew up in the South.
- Our class visited Lake Michigan in June.
The first sentence gives a direction, so there are no capitals on north or west. The second names a region, so South has one. The third uses a capital on Lake Michigan and on June, but not on class.
Languages, nationalities and school subjects
Languages and nationalities come from the names of places and peoples, and they are always capitalized: English, Spanish, French, Japanese, Canadian, Mexican. This is true even when the word is not the first one in the sentence: “Maya speaks Spanish and English.”
School subjects are lowercase, except for the ones that are languages. “I like math and science” needs no capitals. “I am taking Spanish this year” needs one, because Spanish is a language.
Capitalization rules for titles
Titles of books, poems, movies and articles use title case. The usual classroom rule has three parts:
- Always capitalize the first word and the last word.
- Capitalize the important words in between: nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs.
- Leave the small words in lowercase: a, an, the, short prepositions such as in, on, of and to, and short joining words such as and, but and or.
These titles follow that rule:
- Charlotte’s Web
- Bridge to Terabithia
- Because of Winn-Dixie
- Where the Wild Things Are
- What the Wind Is Looking For
The last example is made up to show two tricky points. The word Is has a capital because it is a verb, and short verbs are important words even though they are short. The word For has a capital because it is the last word of the title, which always takes a capital.
Style guides disagree on small details of title capitalization, such as how long a preposition has to be before it gets a capital. Pick one rule for your class and stick to it. When students are looking at title capitalization rules in a style guide, show them that the first and last word rule appears in all of them.
Headings are a related case. Some writers use title case for headings, and others use sentence case, where only the first word and any proper nouns have a capital: “How to measure the perimeter of a rectangle.” Either choice is fine inside one document, as long as the same choice is used for every heading.
Quotes, letters and poems
The first word of a quoted sentence is capitalized, even when it comes in the middle of a larger sentence: Mom said, “Please wash your hands.” If the quote is split by the speaker tag, the second half starts in lowercase because it continues the same sentence: “Please,” said Mom, “wash your hands.” Our post on quotation marks rules covers the punctuation that goes with these.
In a letter, the greeting and the closing each get a capital on the first word. In “Dear Mr. Lee,” the word Dear and the name Mr. Lee both take capitals. In a closing such as “Best wishes,” only the first word is capitalized, and the comma follows. The same goes for “Yours truly,” and “Your friend,”.
Many traditional poems capitalize the first word of every line, but many modern poems do not. When a student copies a poem, the rule is to copy it as the poet wrote it.
Abbreviations and acronyms
Abbreviations of titles and names take capitals: Mr., Mrs., Ms., Dr. Short forms made from the first letters of several words are usually written in all capitals: NASA, USA, FBI. A few abbreviations stay lowercase, such as etc. and a.m. in many styles, so it helps to give students a short list to check against.
Common capitalization mistakes
These are the errors that turn up most often, and each one can become a short editing exercise.
- Capitalizing seasons: “We go swimming in Summer.” The word should be lowercase.
- Capitalizing a common noun to show it is important: “My Teacher gave us a Test.”
- Leaving a proper noun lowercase: “We flew to texas.” The word needs a capital.
- Capitalizing a family word after my: “My Aunt called last night.” The word should be lowercase.
- Writing the pronoun i in lowercase.
- Capitalizing the word after a comma: “We ran home, And we ate lunch.” The word and should be lowercase.
Capitalization and punctuation rules together
Capital letters and punctuation marks work as a team, so students often practice them in the same lesson. A capital letter marks where a sentence starts and a period, question mark or exclamation mark marks where it stops. Commas and other punctuation have rules of their own, which our post on comma rules lays out.
Capitals also stay in place when a name takes an apostrophe. The name in “Lopez’s garden” still starts with a capital. The post on apostrophe rules shows how possessives work with names and with other nouns.
A capitalization rules anchor chart
An anchor chart works best when it is short enough to read from across the room. One layout is two columns, one headed “Capital” and one headed “Lowercase,” with an example under each. Here is a version you could copy:
- Capital: first word of a sentence. Lowercase: the rest of the words.
- Capital: I and I’m. Lowercase: me and my.
- Capital: Lake Michigan. Lowercase: the lake.
- Capital: Tuesday and March. Lowercase: spring.
- Capital: Aunt Rosa. Lowercase: my aunt.
- Capital: Spanish. Lowercase: math.
Leave room on the chart for the title rule, and add the example titles as the class meets them in books.
How to teach capitalization
Editing sentences
Write a short passage with every error you want to target and ask students to correct it. Mix in a few words that are already right, so students have to decide rather than capitalize everything they see.
Capital letter hunt
Choose a page from a book the class is reading. Students list every capitalized word and name the rule that explains each one. This shows them that the rules are at work in real writing and not only on worksheets.
Card sort
Put words on cards, such as river, Nile River, winter, Friday, doctor and Dr. Kim. Students sort them into capital and lowercase piles and say the rule for each one.
Practice for capital letters and punctuation
When the rules are clear, written practice gives students room to try them. The common and proper nouns packet is a 30 page PDF for grade 3 with 62 questions across four sections, and it has a worksheet, an answer key, an answer sheet and a lesson plan.
For punctuation, the punctuation rules packet covers end marks, commas, colons and semicolons across 44 pages for grades 4 to 6, with 70 questions in 6 sections, a lesson plan and an answer key. The quotation marks practice packet is 45 pages for grades 3 to 5, with 70 questions across 6 sections, and the comma usage packet has 29 pages for grades 3 to 6 and 40 comma questions across 4 sections.
The punctuation and sentence structure bundle collects six grammar packets on how a sentence is built and how it is punctuated, from subjects and predicates to commas, quotation marks and run-ons, in 254 pages for grades 3 to 7. To cover every grammar and ELA packet, the complete grammar bundle has 32 packets and 1527 pages for grades 2 to 8.
Frequently asked questions
What are the basic capitalization rules?
Capitalize the first word of a sentence, the pronoun I, proper nouns, days and months, and the important words in titles. Everything else stays lowercase unless a specific rule says otherwise.
Are seasons capitalized?
No. Spring, summer, fall and winter are common nouns and stay lowercase. A season only gets a capital at the start of a sentence or inside a proper name.
Do you capitalize the word after a colon?
Style guides differ, so there is no single answer. Many guides capitalize it when a full sentence follows and keep it lowercase for a list or a phrase. Ask students to follow the rule your class has chosen.
Should the words in a heading be capitalized?
Either style is acceptable. Title case capitalizes the main words, and sentence case capitalizes only the first word and proper nouns. Use the same style for every heading in a document.
