Capitalization

and
Punctuation
Rules
❑We use capital letters and punctuation marks to
help the reader better understand what is written.

❑ Punctuation marks are special symbols used to

organize your writings into understandable
sentences. They help in clarifying the meaning of
the written texts.
Capitalization
Rules of Capitalization
1) Use a capital letter to begin a sentence.
Ex.
• The book is red. It’s on the table.
• My name is Sarah.

2) Proper nouns begin with capital letters.

Ex. Mrs. Jackson asked Emma to help her.
3) We use a capital letter for the personal pronoun
(I); in other words, the pronoun I is always
capitalized no matter where it falls in a sentence.
Ex.
• What can I say?
• My cousin and I had to run to catch the train.

4) We use a capital letter for days of the week,

months of the year, holidays.
Ex. - Monday, Friday...
- April, May...
- Easter, Christmas...
5) A capital letter begins the first, last, and any
important word in the title of a book, magazine,
song, movie, poem, or other work.
Ex.
• Our class read the last chapter of War and Peace.
• She saw Snow White when she was five years
old.
• She listens to Michael Jackson’s Earth Song.

Note: Do not capitalize articles and little

words within titles such as: a, an, the,
but, if, and, or, and prepositions.
6) We use a capital letter for places [cities, states,
countries], Geographical areas [mountains, oceans,
rivers] and monuments.
• Eiffel Tower is the most famous monument in
France.
• The Great Pyramid of Giza is the
largest Egyptian pyramid.
• Hawaii is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

7) We use a capital letter for organizations.

• World Health Organization (WHO)
• Doctors Without Borders
8) We use a capital letter for the first letter of
nationalities, religions, races of people, and
languages.

• We often eat Italian food.

• I want to master many languages, such
as Spanish, Korean, Chinese, and Russian.
• Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism,
Buddhism.
9) Capitalize a person's title when it precedes the
name. Do not capitalize when the title is acting
as a description following the name.

• This is Dr. Simon.

• I got it from Mr. Tom.
• King Henry VIII
• Hello, Mr. President.
• Ms. Jackson, the chairperson of the company,
will address us at noon.
10) Capitalize the first words of greetings and
closings of letters. Sometimes family relationship
titles are used in place of names. Remember to
capitalize them.
If the greeting or closing is more than one word,
only capitalize the first.
Dear Sally, ... / Love, Jeff
Dear Sis, ... / Your sister, Lisa
My dear Lara, ... / Love always, Josephine
11) Capitalize the first word of a quoted sentence.

• He said, “Treat her as you would your own

daughter.”
• “Look out!” she screamed. “You almost ran into
my child.”
 Exercises
- Correctly write each sentence using proper capitalization:

1) i was born in shanghai, china, but grew up in the united

states.
2) mrs. ohana gave me the bible.
3) my family will have a summer vacation in hawaii.
4) I didn’t want to cook tonight, so I just ordered italian
food for dinner.
Choose the sentence that has the correct capitalization:

1) Which is correct?
a) When we were in Washington, we saw President Obama.
b) When we were in Washington, we saw president Obama.

2) Which is correct?
a) He was examined by dr. Jones.
b) He was examined by Dr. Jones.

3) Which is correct?
a) My favourite movie is "The Lord Of The Rings".
b) My favourite movie is "The Lord of the Rings".
Top Rules in Punctuation
(1) Period/ Full stop (.)
• The primary use of a period/ full stop is to end
a sentence.
Example:
1. Business English is very important for your
professional growth.
(1) Period / Full stop (.)
• Its second important use is for abbreviations.
Examples:
1. Mr. Jose was happy to see his wife.
2. Mr. H. Potter opened his front door.
3. Abbreviations: etc. / i.e. / e.g.
 (2) COMMA (,)
• Use commas to separate independent clauses
in a sentence
Example:
1. The game was over, but the crowd refused
to leave.
2. Yesterday was her brother’s birthday, so she
took him out to dinner.
 (2) COMMA
• Use commas after introductory words, phrases,
or clauses that come before the main clause
Examples:
1. While I was eating, the cat scratched at the
door.
2. If you are ill, you ought to see a doctor.
 (2) COMMA
• Use a pair of commas to separate an aside
from the main body of the sentence.
Example:
1. John and Laura, our friends from next door,
are coming for dinner tonight.
 (2) COMMA
• Use commas to set off all geographical names,
items in dates (except the month and day),
addresses (except the street number and name),
and titles in names.
1. Birmingham, Alabama, got its name from
Birmingham, England.
2. July 22, 2011, was a memorable day in his life.
 (2) COMMA
• Use a comma to shift between the main
discourse and a quotation.
Example:
1. John said without emotion, “I’ll see you
tomorrow.”
2. “I was able,” she answered, “to complete the
assignment.”
 (3) Question Mark (?)
• We use a question mark (?) after an interrogative
sentence in English.
• Examples:
1. What can you do for the company?
2. Where are you from?
(4) Exclamation Point (!)
• We often use an exclamation mark (!) to show strong
emotion or give a command.
Example:
1. Ouch!
2. Fire! Fire!
3. Stop!
4. Yeah!
5. Sit down!
6. What a lovely view you have here!
7. That’s fantastic!
 (5) Quotation marks (“”)

• are used to quote another person’s words

exactly, whether they be spoken, or written
Examples:
1. John said, “We are going shopping.”
2. “It is a historic moment,” he told journalists.
(5) Quotation marks (“”)

• used to denote irony or sarcasm, or to note

something unusual about it
Example:
1. The great march of “progress” has left
millions impoverished and hungry.
 (6) Colon (:)
• A colon has three primary uses. One way to
use it is when introducing something, such as a
quote, a related idea, an example, a series, a
list, or an explanation.
Example:
1. She took four classes last semester: history,
biology, arts, and economics.
 (6) Colon (:)
• used to separate chapter and verse from the
Quran or the Bible, to separate hours,
minutes, and seconds
Example:
1. John 1:21
2. [20: 23] = Surat Taha [verse 23]
3. 09:25:12
 (7) Semicolon (;)
• Use a semicolon to join related independent
clauses in compound sentences
Example:
1. I have a meeting tomorrow morning; I can’t go
out tonight.
2. Jane overslept by three hours; she was going to
be late for work again.
 (7) Semicolon (;)
• Another less common use for semicolons is
within a list that uses commas.
Example:
1. Last summer, we travelled to London,
England; Paris, France; Rome, Italy; and
Athens, Greece.
 (8) Apostrophe ( ’)
• to form possessives of nouns
Example:
1. The boy’s hat
2. Three day’s journey
 (8) Apostrophe ( ’)
• to show the omission of letters
Example:
1. He’ll go = He will go
2. could’ve = could have
 (8) Apostrophe ( ’)
• to form plurals
Example:
1. Mind your p’s and q’s.
2. All that’s left to do is dot the i’s and cross the
t’s.
 (9) Parentheses ( )
• Parentheses are used to supply extra,
nonessential details or information. Parentheses
can often be replaced with commas and the
sentence would retain its same meaning.
Example:
1. Kate (who is Mark’s sister) likes to go for
walks.
 (10) Hyphen [-]
• Not to be confused with a dash, a hyphen is
used in compound words when two or more
words are connected. Here are some
examples of hyphenated words:
• Step-by-step
• Mother-in-law
• Ex-husband
 (10) Hyphen (-)

• Use a hyphen to join two or more words serving

as a single adjective before a noun
Ex.: chocolate-covered peanuts

• Use a hyphen with compound numbers

Ex.: Forty-five / Sixty-two
 (10) Hyphen (-)

• Use a hyphen with the prefixes ex- (meaning

former), self-, all-; with the suffix -elect;
between a prefix and a capitalized word; and
with figures or letters
Example: ex-husband / T-shirt
 (11) dash (_)
• Use the dash to emphasize a point or to set off an
explanatory comment; but don’t overuse dashes, or they
will lose their impact; typically represented on a
computer by two hyphens with no spaces before, after,
or between the hyphens
Example:
1. To some of you, my proposals may seem radical _ even
revolutionary.
2. Her answer was clear — Yes!
 (11) dash (–)
• used for an appositive phrase that already
includes commas
Example:
1. The boys – Jim, John, and Jeff – left the party
early.