English in Use/Capitalization

The use of capital (“big”) letters in English is generally similar to in other Germanic and Romance languages with a few exceptions. The following list shows when you should use a capital letter. Of course, for artistic or political reasons capitalization may be ignored.

Obligatory Capitalization

rule	example
Capitalize the first word in every sentence.	She said, “It will be hard to go home after this fun vacation.”
Capitalize the pronoun I.	Ira said that I was the best dancer in the show.
Capitalize the interjection O.	Guide and direct us, O Lord.
Capitalize the first word in both the salutation and the closing of a letter.	Dear Mr. Novato:
	Sincerely
Capitalize the names of persons and animals.	Franklin D. Roosevelt
	Willem de Kooning
Capitalize geographical names	the Gulf of Mexico
	the Southwest
	Prince William Forest
Capitalize the names of planets, stars, constellations, and other heavenly bodies.	Neptune
	Polaris
	Great Nebula
Capitalize the names of teams, organizations, institutions, and government bodies.	Kansas City Chiefs
	Future Teachers of America
Capitalize the names of historical events and periods, special events, holidays, and other calendar items.	the Eighties
	the Civil War
	Hannukah
Capitalize the names of nationalities, races, and peoples.	Indian
	Chinese
	Bedouin
Capitalize the names of religions and their followers, holy days and celebrations, sacred writings, and specific deities.	Allah
	Hindus
	Christmas
	Quran
Capitalize the names of buildings and other structures.	Colleyville Heritage High School
	World Trade Center
Capitalize the names of monuments, memorials, and awards.	Lincoln Memorial
	Nobel Peace Prize
Capitalize the names of trains, ships, aircraft, and spacecraft.	Enola Gay
	U. S. S. Enterprise
	Challenger
Capitalize the names of businesses and the brand names of business products.	Continental Airlines
	Microsoft Windows

Meaningful Capitalization

Sometimes both – capitalized and not capitalized – are valid. For example, the SI unit for electric current intensity is ampere is named after French physicist Ampere.

The capitalized variant of several nouns refer to one unique, exceptional instance of the named object. For example capitalized Moon refers to the moon orbiting Earth, whereas moon refers to any moon, incl. Earth’s moon. However, the non‐capitalized variant is widely accepted, too. The use of the definite article the already conveys a definite instance is meant.

Discretionary Capitalization

In headings the first word is always capitalized. However, for subsequent words two styles exist:

• capitalize words in headings only if any obligatory capitalization applies
• capitalize all words except words of less importance such as articles or prepositions, example English in Use

Especially British English texts occasionally employ capitalization as a means of emphasis. This is not meant as a recommendation: If you are a beginner, master the obligatory capitalization first. You may still come across words being capitalized although no rule applies. For this you need to know that some authors capitalize for emphasis, not because there was any rule.

Stylization

The use of medial capitals – those in the middle of words – is generally considered poor English, although this is quite common on the internet and in advertisements. It is not necessary to capitalize styles of music (e. g. indie), adjectives, or the name of companies if they themselves do not use a capital letter (e. g. eBay) although the first letter will sometimes be capitalized on the internet due to technical reasons.

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