In plain English
When do you use a capital letter? The capitalization rules in plain English
The Simple Answer
Use a capital letter for the first word of a sentence, the word I, and the names of specific people, places, organizations, days, months and holidays. Everything else stays lowercase, including seasons, general directions and most job titles used on their own.
Most capitalization mistakes come from one idea: a capital letter marks a specific name, not an important word. Ask whether the word names one particular thing. If it does, capitalize it. If it describes a whole group of things, leave it lowercase.
The rules that cover most writing
- Start every sentence with a capital letter, and start a quoted sentence with one too: She said, "We leave at noon."
- Always capitalize the word I.
- Capitalize proper nouns, which are the names of particular people, places, companies and groups: Maria, Denver, Canada, Apple, the Red Cross.
- Capitalize days of the week, months and holidays: Tuesday, March, Thanksgiving.
- Capitalize languages, nationalities and religions: Spanish, Japanese, Buddhism.
- Capitalize the first word of a line of poetry only if the poet did.
What stays lowercase
- Seasons: spring, summer, fall, winter.
- General directions: drive south for two miles. A region used as a name is capitalized: she grew up in the South.
- School subjects, except languages: math, science and history are lowercase, but English and French are capitalized. A full course name is capitalized: Biology 101.
- Words used for emphasis. Capitals do not make a word stronger, and a line in all capitals reads like shouting.
Titles and family names
A title is capitalized when it comes right before a name and lowercase when it stands alone. Compare President Lincoln with the president, or Dr. Patel with the doctor. The same idea works for family. Call out to Mom when Mom is a name, but write my mom when a word like my comes first.
| Capital letter | Lowercase |
|---|---|
| Professor Chen teaches here. | The professor teaches here. |
| I visited Lake Michigan. | We swam in the lake. |
| We eat turkey on Thanksgiving. | We eat dinner in the fall. |
| She speaks Italian. | She studies math. |
| Aunt Rosa called. | My aunt called. |
Capitalizing a headline or title
There are two common styles. Sentence case capitalizes only the first word and any proper nouns: How to write a cover letter. Title Case capitalizes the main words: How to Write a Cover Letter. In Title Case, the first and last words are always capitalized, and short words such as a, an, the, and, of and to are usually lowercase in the middle. Style guides disagree about how long a word must be before it gets a capital, so follow the guide your school or workplace uses.
After a colon
Guides differ here too. Many capitalize the first word after a colon only when a complete sentence follows it. If a list or a short phrase follows, use lowercase.
A quick check before you hit send
- Is it the first word of a sentence? Capitalize it.
- Is it the name of one particular person, place, group, day, month or holiday? Capitalize it.
- Is it a general word for a kind of thing? Keep it lowercase.
- Is it a title? Capitalize it only before a name.
Case Converter: Paste a heading or a line of text to switch it to Title Case, Sentence case, UPPERCASE or lowercase in one click.