Guidelines for Using Capital Letters

1. Capitalize the first word in a sentence.

Your mother is in here with us, Karras. Would you like to leave a message?
I think Spain is a fantastic country.
2. Capitalize the pronoun I.
I'm sorry, but I don't want to be an emperor.
3. Capitalize the names and nicknames of particular persons and
characters.
Omar, Ginny Weasley, my sister Vicki, Florence Nightingale, Barack Obama, the
Simpson family, Abdullah Al Ghamdi
4. Capitalize titles that come before the names of particular persons and
characters.
Mayor Bloomberg, Doctor Sanjay Gupta, Professor Minerva McGonagall, Lady
Bracknell, Queen Elizabeth II, President Obama
5. Capitalize the names of specific places (planets, countries, counties,
cities, seas, streets, and so on), both real and fictional.
Mars, Canberra, London, Monroe County, Yorkshire, the Midwest, Canada, the
Ohio River, Narnia, Rosecrans Avenue, Knighton Road, the village of Osfan,
Mount Everest, the Atlantic Ocean, the Red Sea, the Nile River, Sari Street,
Riyadh

6. Capitalize the names of particular nationalities, languages, ethnic

groups, and religions.
Filipino people, African-American, a native Newfoundlander, the Welsh
language, Egyptian, Saudi Arabian. Don't capitalize the names of academic
subjects (algebra, art, history)

7. Capitalize the names of particular businesses, buildings, schools, and

organizations.

Google, General Motors, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace,

Aramco, Mobily

8. Capitalize the formal names of government units, agencies, and

divisions.

White House, Ministry of Interior, Department of Education

9. Capitalize the official titles of armies, navies, and other military and
police units.
Army National Guard, the Royal Australian Air Force, the Armed Forces of the
Philippines, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police

10. Capitalize the names of wars and major battles.

Second World War, Spanish Civil War, the Norman Conquest, the Gulf War

11. Capitalize legally protected brand names and trademarks.

Xbox 360, Kit Kat, Coca Cola, Adidas, Range Rover, Kleenex, Cadbury Fingers
The obvious exceptions are trademarks that begin with a lowercase letter: eBay,
iPhone, iPad

12.
Capitalize the names of days, months, holidays, and special days of
observation.
Wednesday, June, Christmas, Veterans Day (U.S.), Anzac Day (Australia and

New Zealand), Mother's Day, Boxing Day (Britain and Canada)

But don't capitalize the seasons: winter, spring, summer, fall (autumn)

13. Capitalize the principal words in the titles and subtitles of books,
movies, plays, magazines, journals, TV shows, video games, musical
compositions, and pieces of art.
War and Peace, Avatar, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Grand Theft Auto IV,
Titanic, Saw

14. Capitalize each letter in an acronym or initialism.

NATO, CNN, BBC, NAACP, TV, LA (or L.A.), FEMA, DVD, AWOL

Capitalisation Quiz

Your teacher can pull up the following quizzes below on capitalization on the
board and you can do them in class. There are many others you can either do in
class or at home by going: Google ESL Capital Letter Quizzes

a4esl.org/q/j/ck/ed-caps.html
esl.fis.edu/grammar/satz/capital1.htm