Capitalization Rules for Sentences, Names and Titles

Capital letters do two jobs. They mark the start of a sentence, and they signal that a word is a name: a specific person, place, organisation or thing. Almost every capitalization question comes down to the second job: is this word a name, or just an ordinary word?

1. The start of a sentence

Every sentence begins with a capital letter:

• The game starts at eight.

The same goes for a full sentence of quoted speech:

• She said, "We need one more vowel."

But do not capitalize a quotation that is only a fragment woven into your sentence:

• He called the word "completely ridiculous".

After a colon, American style capitalizes only if what follows is a complete sentence (and many writers do not even then). British style usually uses lower case. Pick a style and stick to it.

2. The pronoun I

The pronoun I is always capitalized, wherever it appears: My friend and I play every week. Contractions follow suit: I'm, I've, I'd.

3. Proper nouns

A proper noun names one particular thing. Capitalize:

A common noun becomes part of a proper noun when it is part of the official name: a river but the Thames River; a university but Harvard University; my street but Elm Street.

4. Things that are not capitalized

Some words feel important but are ordinary common nouns:

• Seasons: spring, summer, autumn, winter (unless part of a name, such as the Winter Olympics)
• Directions: drive north for ten miles. But capitalize regions: she grew up in the North, the Middle East.
• School subjects: history, maths, biology, except languages, which are always capitalized: English, French. A specific course name is capitalized: Biology 101.
• Generic terms: the city council, a doctor, the president of a club.

5. Job titles and family words

Titles are capitalized when they come directly before a name and act as part of it:

• We met President Lincoln's descendants.
• Ask Doctor Patel.

They are lower case when used as a description, after the name or on their own:

• Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth president.
• Our doctor is on holiday.

Family words follow the same logic. Capitalize them when they are used as a name, but not after a possessive like my, your or her:

• I asked Mom for help. (used as a name)
• I asked my mom for help. (a description)

A quick test: if you could replace the word with the person's actual name, capitalize it.

6. Titles of books, films and articles

There are two main styles.

Title case capitalizes the first and last words and every important word. Short articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or) and short prepositions (in, on, of, to) stay lower case unless they are the first or last word:

• The Lord of the Rings
• A Guide to Words With Friends

Sentence case capitalizes only the first word and proper nouns, like an ordinary sentence:

• A guide to words with friends (but Words With Friends as a brand name would keep its capitals)

Newspapers and websites often use sentence case for headlines; book titles almost always use title case. Different style guides disagree on details, such as whether to capitalize prepositions of five or more letters, so consistency matters more than any single rule.

7. Abbreviations and acronyms

Acronyms and initialisms are usually written in capitals: NASA, UN, FBI, DIY. Some have become ordinary words and are written in lower case: laser, radar, scuba. In those cases the acronym has simply turned into a common noun.

Capitals in word games

Word-game dictionaries contain almost no proper nouns, which is why LONDON and MONDAY are not playable in Scrabble. But some words have both a proper and a common meaning. China is a country, while china is porcelain, and the lower-case word is valid. The same is true of turkey, jersey and polish. When in doubt, check the word in the word checker.

Practice quiz