How To Use Capitalization In English Language

The English Language uses the capital letter in its written and printed form in several ways that differ form the way it is used in other languages using the Roman alphabet.

Name words which are spelled, written, or printed with a capital letter are called proper nouns. Adjectives that are derived from proper nouns are also capitalized when they refer to some closely related aspect of the proper noun; such adjectives are called proper adjectives.

In English Language, capital letters are used on :

English Capitalization

1. The first letter of every sentence.

2. The pronoun I.
(I) is the only pronoun that is capitalized.

3. Proper nouns.
These are the name of individual people, places, or things.

Example of peoples :

• John, President Lincoln,
• Aunt Florence,
• Professor John Quinn.

Note that the title, as well as both parts of the name, is capitalized.

Example of places :

• Boston,
• Massachusetts,
• Mars,
• the Blue Ridge Mountains,
• Evander Childs High School.

Example of things :

• King Arthur's Round Table,
• Lindbergh's The Spirit of St. Louis (a plane),
• Lassie (a dog),
• Seattle Slew (a horse).

4. Nouns and pronouns referring to God, no matter what the creed.
God, the Almighty, his Mercy, Allah, the Prophet, and so on. Also capitalized the holy books: the Qur'an, the Bible, the Talmud, the Bhagavad, Gita.

5. Days of the week, months of the year, holy days, and holidays.
Monday, October 1, Yom Kippur, Christmas, Halloween, New Year's Day, Ramadhan.

6. Words that derived from the names of countries
E.g., Spanish, French, English, American.

These words may be used either as nouns (to mean a language) or as adjectives, but are capitalized in either case : He is French but speaks Greek.

7. Most words in the title of a book
E.g., a short story, an essay, and so on.

Always capitalize the first word; then capitalize all the other words except the articles (a, an, the) and short conjunctions and prepositions : Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man; Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie.

8. The first letter of each sentence spoken in direct quotation.
My teacher said, "You will sit here until you finish that book."

You use a capital only on the first letter of the first word of the sentence even when the sentence is broken up like this "You will sit here."