English as an Additional Language/General rules of spelling and capitalization

From Wikibooks, the open-content textbooks collection

English has many rules on capitalization and spelling, and spelling tends to vary between different dialects (especially British English and American English).

[edit] Capitalization in English

There are several times when letters must be capitalized in English. They are:
1) At the start of a sentence. "The cat is on the bed."
2) The first letter of a proper noun (a month/day/country/language/name etc.). "Peter went to Spain on Tuesday." or "On Monday I went to John's house."
3) In a religious context, when using 'he' to refer to God. "For it is He."
4) First person singular: “I”.

[edit] Spelling in English

British English and American English have different ways of spelling certain words, especially those with ou in the middle, for example:
1. British English: colour, American English: color.
2. British English: honour, American English: honor.

Another variation is the use of 'z' instead of 's' in certain words in American English.
1. British English: capitalisation, American English: capitalization
2. British English: modernisation, American English: modernization.
3. British English: industrialisation, American English: industrialization.
This usually only applies to words that end in -tion and -ise.