What are the rules of capitalization? Here are some examples.
RULES OF CAPITALIZATION – When do you capitalize a word? These are the rules with some examples as a guide.
In writing, there are certain words that need to be capitalized. Generally, you should capitalize the names of people, places, titles of works, nationalities, languages, institutions like companies, historical eras, days, months, holidays, initials, and acronyms. Sometimes, it is confusing to know when to do it, but we’ve got you covered with this guide!
The rules with examples:
| Rules | Examples |
| Capitalize the first word in a sentence and the first word of each line in a letter or an email. | This is my bag. |
| Capitalize the pronoun “I” anywhere in a sentence. | Before eating, I pray. |
| Capitalize proper nouns and names. | After his wrestling career, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson became a popular actor. |
| Capitalize the majority of titles. The first word in a title is always capitalized. Nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs are also capitalized. Articles are usually in lowercase, and conjunctions and prepositions are capitalized, but it depends on your style guide. | Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets A Song of Ice and Fire Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone |
| Capitalize job titles, positions, and honorifics. | The Philippines’ current head is President Bongbong Marcos. |
| Capitalize places. | My favorite place to visit is Bacolod City. |
| Capitalize countries, nationalities, and languages | I hope you enjoyed the Japanese foods we tried. |
| Capitalize institutions, such as companies, brands, businesses, and other organizations. | I work as a supervisor in Jollibee. |
| Capitalize specific periods and events. | During the World War 1, a lot of people died. |
| Capitalize days, months, and holidays. | The Easter Sunday fell on the 10th day of April. |
| Capitalize seasons in titles only. | Hermès’s Fall 2022 collection was even better than Prada’s Spring 2021 collection. |
| Capitalize acronyms. | According to the World Health Organization (WHO), cancer has no cure. |
| Capitalize family titles when they are used as proper nouns. | My Uncle Joe is already dead. |