A couple of friends have mentioned lately that they
sometimes get a little confused about when they should use capital letters in
their written English. With this in mind, we thought we should look at some
guidelines that we hope will be helpful when you are practising your English.
So let’s start with some easy rules first - :
1. The
first word of every sentence always starts with a capital letter. Always!
2. The
pronoun “I” is always capitalised, wherever it appears in a sentence.
Example:
The sea was so cold I did not go in for a
swim.
3. Proper
nouns should always be capitalised. As I’m sure you know a proper noun is a
name that identifies a person, place or thing. So this will include the names
of rivers and mountains, of countries and languages, of religions, sports teams
and organisations.
Examples:
a. My
name is Jenny Jones. My address is 3 Sunshine Street, Blackhill, Scotland,
United Kingdom.
b. Have
you visited Snowdonia National Park?
c. My
favourite football team is Manchester United.
Please note that whilst the names of the
days of the week and months of the year are capitalised, generally the seasons
are not.
Examples:
d. Everybody
knows that Friday night is curry night!
e. I
love the spring best of all. (No capital).
So to recap, use a capital letter to start the first word of
every sentence, always when using the pronoun “I” and when using proper nouns.
However, there are other times when we should use a capital
letter to start a word.
4. The
first word of direct speech, even if not the beginning of the sentence should
be capitalised.
Example
Jane asked “Can I have a chocolate ice-cream?”
5. Compass
directions are capitalised if they refer to particular places or regions, but
not if they are given as directions. Let’s look at a couple of examples to
clarify.
a. I
would love to visit Eastern Europe.
b. The
North has the highest unemployment figures.
These refer to particular places so need to be capitalised.
c. Drive east along the motorway until you see
the right turn off.
d. Birds fly south in the winter.
In the last two examples you do not need to capitalise as
they are referring to a direction rather than a specific place.
6. When
it comes to words used to describe family relationships (mother, father,
brother, sister etc), they should be capitalised if they are used as proper
nouns (in place of the person’s name).
Examples:
a. Tomorrow,
I am going to lunch with Mum.
b. I
wrote a thank you note to Uncle Peter.
However if the word is proceeded by a possessive (my, your,
his, her, their), then it is not being used as a proper noun so should not be
capitalised.
c. Tomorrow
I am going to lunch with my mum.
d. I
wrote a thank you note to your uncle.
7. If
a person’s title comes before their name it should be capitalised.
Example
a. I
saw the Duke of Edinburgh.
b. President
Obama is the first black president of the USA.
However, there is no need to capitalise the
title if it does not immediately precede the name.
c. Barrack
Obama is the first black president of the USA.
8. When
it comes to brand names, these are proper nouns so should be capitalised, but
the noun they refer to should not be given a capital. So I would write about a
Mercedes car, an Apple laptop or my Calvin Klein perfume!
I hope this has helped to clarify when words need to be
capitalised.
Don’t forget to visit us on Facebook, and remember, if you
need help with written English, visit our website at Written English Corrected.
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