When to Capitalize

I often see students making capitalization mistakes on writing tasks. Capitalization follows some basic rules and mastering them can help you avoid these common mistakes.

What are the major rules of capitalization?

1. Capitalize the first word in every sentence.
   • There is a big lizard in my room.
   • We are going to see a movie.
2. Always capitalize the pronoun “I” even when it is not at the beginning of the sentence.
   • I have a pet dog named Nora.
   • If you help me with homework now, I will get you a treat later.
3. Capitalize proper nouns – The specific name of people, animals, cities, countries, places, streets, languages, companies, things, etc.
   • Banglore
   • Mount Everest
   • New Zealand
   • Pearl Street
   • Virat Kohli
   • Nike
   • Hindi
4. Capitalize months, days of the week, and holidays.
   • April
   • Thursday
   • Diwali
   • New Year’s Day
   • Do not capitalize seasons like summer, winter, etc. unless they are used as part of a proper noun like Winter Olympics
5. Capitalize north, east, south, and west when they are part of a proper noun (or specific geographic regions) but not compass directions.
   • There are many beautiful temples in South India.
   • I want to visit Eastern Europe next year.
   • Sri Lanka is an island in the Indian Ocean, located to the south of India.
   • The sun always set in the west.
6. Capitalize time periods and historical events.
   • The Great Depression
   • Kargil War
   • Iron Age
7. Capitalize a title when it is used as a form of address
   • Prime Minister Narendra Modi
   • Don’t capitalize a title if it’s not used as a form of address. Govind is the president of our company.
8. Capitalize the first word of a direct quotation when the quote is a complete sentence.
   • Gia said, “The birthday party is tomorrow.”
9. Capitalize acronyms
   • NASA – National Aeronautics and Space Administration
10. Capitalize major words in a title – of a movie, book, magazine
    • The Times of India
    • The Last Samurai
    • The God of Small Things
    • In a title, don’t capitalize articles (a, an, the) – unless they are the first word in a title, coordinating conjunctions (for, and, but), and prepositions (by, at, to).