English 9

Capitals

The following are some general guidelines for when you should use capital letters. Once you have read through the rules, complete the exercises.

You should capitalize in the following ways:

First word of a sentence:

• If you drive up to the top, you can see the lake.

The pronoun "I":

• Whenever I come to your house, I start feeling hungry.

Proper nouns (names of specific people, places, and things):

• Abraham Lincoln
• India Ocean
• Alberta, Canada

Family relationships (when used as a proper noun):

• Give your present to Mom before she leaves for work.
• I am going to give this present to my dad for his birthday.
• It drives me crazy when Uncle Earl comes to our house.

Titles preceding names, but not titles that follow names:

• President Lincoln is considered to be one of the greatest leaders of our country.
• Abraham Lincoln, president of the United States, was born in a log cabin.

Days of the week, and holidays, but not the season:

• Next Sunday will be Easter.
• My favorite season is spring.
• My birthday is in October

The first word in a sentence that is a direct quote:

• William Shakespeare once said, "If music be the food of love, play on."

Periods and events (but not century numbers):

• My grandfather lived through the Great Depression.
• I wish I could have been a fly on the wall at the Constitutional Convention
• The Civil War took place in the nineteenth century.

Trademarks:

• I wish I could work at Google
• I really enjoy trucks made by Toyota
• I think I will buy a Dell computer

Abbreviations:

• If you go to New York, make sure to visit the UN building.
• I enjoy listening to NPR on my way home from work.

Do not abbreviate words that came from specific things, but are now used generally:

• I don't like catchup on my french fries.
• This milk has been pasteurized

The names of countries, nationalities, and specific languages:

• I speak both English and Chinese
• I love Mexican salsa.
• My parents are French.

The following video helps explain the rules of capitalization.