Capitalization

Capital letters announce to the reader that a word has special importance.
You probably know many of the rules for capitalization, but this lesson will
acquaint you with all the rules and give you practice testing your knowledge.

Sentence Beginnings

Capitalize the first word of a sentence.

Proper Nouns

• Names of specific people, places, and things are considered proper nouns,
and all proper nouns should be capitalized.

People
• Proper names of people should be capitalized.
Don Jordan, Lin Ying, LaToya Jones

• Proper titles are capitalized if they are used to replace someone’s name.
Are we going shopping on Friday, Mom?
Please, Professor, don’t give us more homework.

• The pronoun I is considered a proper name and should be capitalized.

Juan and I will return soon.

Places
• Proper names of specific geographic features and proper place names
should be capitalized.
Mount Everest, Atlantic Ocean, Lake Superior, Banff National Park,
Tiananmen Square, Namib Desert

Do not capitalize places that are not proper names.

the lake, the desert, an ocean, a mountain

• Names of cities, counties, states, regions, countries, continents, and

planetsshould be capitalized.
Budapest, DeKalb County, Illinois, the South, Romania, North America, Venus

Prepositions are not capitalized in proper names unless they are the first
or last word of the name.
United States of America

• Directional words ending in -ern are not capitalized.

eastern, northern, southern, western

Things

1
• Proper names of institutions, businesses, and federal agencies should be
capitalized.
Central High School, First National Bank, University of Tennessee, Holiday
Inn, Environmental Protection Agency, Chicago Bulls

• Proper names of buildings and historical monuments should be

capitalized.
Statue of Liberty, Parthenon, Kennedy Center, Sistine Chapel

• Names of holidays should be capitalized.

Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, Flag Day, Black History Month

• Days and months are capitalized.

Monday, Tuesday, Saturday, January, March, December

Names of seasons are not capitalized.

spring, summer, fall, winter

• The first word, last word, and all important words in the titles of books,
poems, articles, chapters, academic papers, songs, journals, and magazines
should be capitalized. (Prepositions, conjunctions, and articles are not
capitalized unless they are the first or last word of the name.)
Journal of Education, Paradise Lost, The Grapes of Wrath, Working
Woman

• Specific historical events and eras or periods in history should be

capitalized; however, centuries should not be capitalized.
the Renaissance, the Roaring Twenties, the twenty-first century

• Nationalities and languages should generally be capitalized.

Swedish, English, Swiss cheese, French pastries

• Abbreviations for agencies, organizations, trade names, and radio and

television stations should be written in all-capital letters.
TVA, NASA, NFL, KCAZ, WFHB

Quotes
• The first word of a quoted sentence should be capitalized.
He replied, “Nothing is wrong.”

2
Exercise1

Correct all capitalization errors.

1. My brother dan is a dentist and lives in eastern new mexico.
2. The new york giants are going to win the nfl football championship.
3. Most people thought that forrestgumpwas a funny movie.
4. Of all the planets, mars is closest to earth.
5. The southern part of florida is where i live.
6. I called out in my psychology class, “please, professor, depress us by giving
another test.”
7. She is no longer speaking to her father or aunt julia.
8. On labor day, we might take a trip to the rocky mountains.
9. My high school, meridian senior high school, has been rated as one of the
top high schools in the state.
10. The internal revenue service, which is called the irs, is investigating my boss.

Exercise2

Correct all capitalization errors.

1. The industrial revolution occurred during the nineteenth century.
2. Ford and chevrolet are both american-made cars.
3. The band will be touring the south in february.
4. You can get discount tickets for Disney world and universal studios.
5. The student said, “the statistics in math 201 can be difficult.”
6. I wanted mother to plant live oak trees and carolina roses in our yard.
7. The woman graduated from western ohio university and went to work for
Nasa.
8. The sailing race followed a path across the eastern pacific ocean to hawaii.
9. A book from the public library, home farming for the whole family, had
information about building a chicken coop.
10. At the Fall river mall, children can participate in activities.