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What Are Capitalization Rules​? A Simple Grammar Guide

Mastering capitalization is one of the best ways to make your writing look polished and confident. In this article, you can find easy guidelines that help you stop second-guessing and focus on the fun part — writing! ✍🏼

Read on to learn more about:

  • What are capitalization rules​;
  • The 10 rules of capitalization​;
  • English capitalization rules​;
  • Heading capitalization rules​; and
  • Title capitalization rules​.

What are you waiting for? Let's dive in ✨.

Capitalization rules are part of basic grammar guidelines that tell us when to use capital letters in writing (or uppercase in typing). So if you're wondering "What are capitalization rules​?​", read on to better understand English capitalization rules​.

Why does it matter?
Proper capitalization of letters makes your text clear, polished, and professional. It's important for readers to easily follow where sentences start and which words refer to actual names.

Generally speaking, English capitalization rules​ require the first letter of particular words to be capitalized. This applies to the first word of a sentence, the pronoun "I", and proper nouns like names, but also to other cases.

🙋 Need a hand in capitalizing words? Check out our lowercase to uppercase converter and uppercase to lowercase converter.

Here are 10 rules of capitalization​ for the English language:

  1. Capitalize the first word of a sentence — e.g., This article teaches you how to properly capitalize.
  2. Capitalize proper nouns, e.g., names — including family titles only if used as direct addresses, e.g., Mom, John.
  3. Capitalize days, months, and holidays — e.g., Tuesday, Christmas, but not seasons (e.g., fall).
  4. Always capitalize the pronoun "I" — e.g., The book I read last week was amazing.
  5. Capitalize the first word in a direct quote — e.g., I asked “How many times?”.
  6. Capitalize titles of books, movies, and works of art — e.g., The Great Gatsby.
  7. Capitalize titles and headings — e.g., What Are Capitalization Rules.
  8. Capitalize specific periods and events — e.g., World War II.
  9. Capitalize places — e.g., New York, United Kingdom.
  10. Capitalize job titles (when used before the name with no comma), positions, and organizations — e.g., World Health Organization, President Lincoln.

Capitalizing your titles and headings the right way is a small detail that makes a big difference in how your writing is perceived. After all, titles should be not only catchy but also grammatically correct!

Capitalization rules for titles​​ can be summarized to simply sticking to Title Case. Title case means that you capitalize the first and last words and all major words in between, e.g., How to Capitalize Properly. Minor words, such as "to", "in", "of", and "and" are not capitalized.

When it comes to heading capitalization rules​, make sure to use Sentence Case to maintain a natural flow in your text. This means you basically just need to follow the 10 rules mentioned above ☝🏼.

Using these simple guidelines not only makes your content look neat but also makes it more pleasant and easier to read — helping you avoid confusion with capitalization rules once and for all!

Capitalization rules explain when to use capital letters in writing. The most important English capitalization rules​ to remember are:

  • Capitalization of the first word of a sentence;
  • Proper nouns;
  • The pronoun "I";
  • Titles; and
  • Days and months.

Here are 10 basic rules of capitalization in English:

  1. Capitalize the first word of a sentence.
  2. Capitalize proper nouns, e.g., names.
  3. Capitalize days, months, and holidays.
  4. Always capitalize the pronoun "I".
  5. Capitalize the first word in a direct quote.
  6. Capitalize titles of books, movies, and works of art.
  7. Capitalize titles and headings.
  8. Capitalize specific periods and events.
  9. Capitalize places.
  10. Capitalize job titles, positions, and organizations.

Heading capitalization rules​ follow general capitalization guidelines, so Sentence case. This means writing text like a normal sentence — only the first word and any proper nouns are capitalized.

Capitalization rules for titles​ tell you how to capitalize words in titles or main article names. You should use Title Case for main titles, which means capitalizing the first and last words and all major words in between. However, you exclude short, minor words like a, an, the, and, but, or, of, in, unless they start or end the title.

This article was written by Julia Kopczyńska and reviewed by Steven Wooding.