Capitalization

Capitalization (American English) or capitalisation (British English) is writing a word with its first letter as a capital letter (uppercase letter) and the remaining letters in lower case, in writing systems with a case distinction. The term also may refer to the choice of the casing applied to text.

Conventional writing systems (

The full rules of capitalization in English are complicated. The rules have also changed over time, generally to capitalize fewer words. The conventions used in an 18th-century document will be unfamiliar to a modern reader; for instance, many common nouns were capitalized.

The systematic use of capitalized and uncapitalized words in running text is called "mixed case".

Parts of speech

Owing to the essentially arbitrary nature of orthographic classification and the existence of variant authorities and local house styles, questionable capitalization of words is not uncommon, even in respected newspapers and magazines. Most publishers require consistency, at least within the same document, in applying a specified standard: this is described as "house style".

Pronouns

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• In English, the
  Objective and possessive
  forms ("me", "my", and "mine") are not.
• Many
  European languages traditionally capitalize nouns and pronouns used to refer to God, including references to Jesus Christ (reverential capitals): hallowed be Thy name, look what He has done. Some English authors capitalize any word referring to God: the Lamb, the Almighty
  ; some capitalize "Thy Name". These practices have become much less common in English in the 20th and 21st centuries.
  • In
    'Abdu'l-Baha
    .
• Some languages capitalize a royal we (pluralis majestatis), e.g. it is capitalized in German.

2nd-person pronouns

Many languages distinguish between formal and informal 2nd-person pronouns.

• In German, the formal 2nd-person plural pronoun Sie is capitalized along with all its case-forms (Ihre, Ihres, etc.), but these words are not capitalized when used as 3rd-person feminine singular or plural pronouns. Until the recent German spelling reform(s), the traditional rules (which are still widely adhered to, although not taught in schools) also capitalized the informal 2nd-person singular pronoun Du (and its derivatives, such as Dein) when used in letters or similar texts, but this is no longer required.
• Italian also capitalizes its formal pronouns, Lei and Loro, and their cases (even within words, e.g. arrivederLa "goodbye", formal). This is occasionally also done for the Dutch U, though this is formally only required when referring to a deity and may be considered archaic.
• In Spanish, the abbreviations of the pronouns usted and ustedes, Ud., Uds., Vd., and Vds., are usually written with a capital.
• In Finnish and Estonian, the second-person plural pronoun can be used when formally addressing a single person, and in writing the pronoun is sometimes capitalized as Te to indicate special regard. In a more familiar tone, one can also capitalize the second-person singular pronoun Sinä (Sina in Estonian).^[1]
• Similarly, in Russian the formal second-person pronoun Вы, and its oblique cases Вас, Вам etc., are capitalized (usually in personal correspondence); also in Bulgarian.
• Slovenian, Croatian, Serbian
  capitalize the formal second-person pronoun Vi along with its oblique cases (Vas, Vam, Vami) and personal pronoun (Vaš etc.) in formal correspondence. Historically, the familiar second-person pronoun ti and its cases (tebe, tebi, teboj) were capitalized as well, but new orthography prohibits such use.
• In Danish, the plural second-person pronoun, I, is capitalized, but its other forms jer and jeres are not. This distinguishes it from the preposition i ("in"). The formal second-person pronoun is also capitalized in all its forms (De, Dem, Deres), distinguishing it from the otherwise identical third-person plural pronouns.
• In Norwegian, both second-person singular and plural have a capitalized alternative form (De, Dem, Deres in Bokmål; De, Dykk, Dykkar in Nynorsk) to express formality for both subject and object of a sentence, but is very rarely used in modern speech and writing.
• In formally written
  e-mails, all pronouns referring to the addressee are capitalized. This includes Ty ("thou") and all its related forms such as Twój and Ciebie. This principle extends to nouns
  used formally to address the addressee of a letter, such as Pan ("sir") and Pani ("madam").
• In Indonesian, capitalizing the formal second-person pronoun Anda along with all references to the addressee, such as "(kepada) Bapak/Ibu" ((to) Sir/Madam), is required in practice of Ejaan Yang Disempurnakan (Perfected Orthography).^[2] However, some people do not know of or choose not to adhere to this spelling rule. In contrast, Malay orthography used in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei does not require the capitalization of anda.
• In Tagalog and its standard form, Filipino, the formal second-person pronouns Kayo and Ninyo and their oblique form Inyo are customarily and reverentially capitalized as such, particularly in most digital and printed media related to religion and its references. Purists who consider this rule as nonstandard and inconsistent do not apply it when writing.
• In Tajik, capitalization is used to distinguish the second-person formal pronoun Шумо from the second-person plural pronoun шумо.
• In Swedish, since du-reformen, the second-person singular pronoun du may be capitalized as Du when addressed formally.

Nouns

• The various languages and dialects in the
  nouns are capitalized. This was also practiced in other Germanic languages
  (mainly due to German influence):
  • In German and Luxembourgish, all nouns (and verbs being used as nouns) are capitalized.[3]
  • Danish, before the spelling reform of 1948
  • Swedish, during the 17th and 18th centuries^[4]
  • English, during the 17th and 18th centuries
    United States Constitution
    )
  • Some
    regional languages, such as Saterland Frisian
• In nearly all European languages, single-word
  publication titles (as in Robert the Bruce
  ).
  • Where place names are merely preceded by the
    definite article, this is usually in lower case (as in the Philippines
    ).
    • Sometimes, the article is integral to the name, and thus is capitalized (as in Den Haag, Le Havre). However, in French this does not occur for contractions du and au (as in Je viens du Havre, "I come from Le Havre"). In other European languages, it is much more common for the article to be treated as integral to the name, but it may not be capitalized (die Schweiz, les Pays-Bas, yr Almaen, etc.).
  • A few English names are written with two lowercase "f"s: ffrench, ffoulkes, etc. This originated as a variant script for capital F.
  • A few individuals have chosen not to use capitals in their names, such as
    Amsterdam Schiphol Airport
    .
  • Most brand names and trademarks are capitalized (e.g., Coca-Cola, Pepsi), although some have chosen to deviate from standard rules (e.g., easyJet, id Software, eBay, iPod) to be distinctive. When capitals occur within a word, it is sometimes referred to as camel case.
  • Some speakers of Eastern Slavic languages associate capitalization with respect and decapitalize proper nouns to show disrespect.
• In English, the names of days of the week, months and languages are capitalized, as are demonyms like Englishman, Arab. In other languages, practice varies, but almost all languages other than German and Luxembourgish (which capitalize all nouns) do not.^[8]
• In English-language addresses, the noun following the proper name of a street is capitalized, whether or not it is abbreviated: Main Street, Fleming Ave., Montgomery Blvd. This capitalization is often absent in older citations and in combined usages: Fourth and Main streets. In French, street names are capitalized when they are proper names; the noun itself (rue, place) is normally not capitalized: rue de Rivoli, place de la Concorde.^{[citation needed]}
• In Italian the name of a particular concept or object is capitalized when the writer wants to emphasize its importance and significance.^[9]
• Capitalization is always used for most names of
  Homo sapiens sapiens
  .
• Controversially, some authors capitalize common names of some animal and plant species. As a general rule, names are not capitalized, unless they are part of an official list of names, in which case they have become proper nouns and are capitalized. This is most common for birds^[10] and fishes. Names referring to more than one species (e.g., horse or cat) are always in lower case. Botanists generally do not capitalize the common names of plants, though individual words in plant names may be capitalized for another reason: (Italian stone pine). See the discussion of official common names under common name for an explanation.
• Common nouns may be capitalized when used as names for the entire class of such things, e.g. what a piece of work is Man. Other Romance languages such as French often capitalize such nouns as l'État (the state) and l'Église (the church) when not referring to specific ones.
• Names by which gods are known are capitalized, including
  Roman gods. There may be some confusion because Judaism, Christianity, and Islam rarely refer to the Deity by a specific name, but simply as God (see Writing divine names
  ). Other names for the God of these three Abrahamic faiths, such as Elohim, Yahweh, and Lord, are also capitalized.
• While
  UNHCR
  ).
• In
  life stance orthography, in order to distinguish life stances from general -isms. For instance, Humanism is distinguished from humanism.^[11]
• In legal English, defined terms that refer to a specific entity, such as "Tenant" and "Lessor", are often capitalized. More specifically, in legal documents, terms which are formally defined elsewhere in the document or a related document (often in a schedule of definitions) are capitalized to indicate that that is the case, and may be several words long, e.g. "the Second Subsidiary Claimant", "the Agreed Conditional Release Date".
  • In contracts, particularly important clauses are often typeset as all-caps
• Most English honorifics and titles of persons, e.g. Sir, Dr Watson, Mrs Jones, His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh. This does not apply where the words are not titles; e.g. Watson is a doctor, Philip is a duke.
• In very formal British English the King is referred to as The King.
• The governing body of English solicitors is correctly referred to as The Law Society. (In general any organisation may choose a name starting with a capitalized "The".)

Adjectives

• In English, adjectives derived from proper nouns (except the names of characters in fictional works) usually retain their capitalization: e.g. a Christian church, Canadian whisky, a Shakespearean sonnet, but not a quixotic mission nor malapropism. Where the original capital is no longer at the beginning of the word, usage varies: anti-Christian, and either Presocratic, pre-Socratic, Pre-Socratic or presocratic. Never preSocratic – a hyphen must precede a capital in a compound word.
• Such adjectives do not receive capitals in French (socratique, présocratique), Spanish (socrático, presocrático), Swedish (sokratisk, försokratisk), Polish (sokratejski, presokratejski) nor partly in German (sokratisch, präsokratisch, but Ohm'sches Gesetz ("Ohm's Law")). In German, if the adjective becomes a noun by using an article or numeral in front of it (das/die Bunte (the colorful thing(s)), eine Schöne (a beautiful one)), it is capitalized like any other noun, as are nouns formed from proper nouns (der Urgoethe). The same applies to verbs (das Laufen (the (practice of) running), das Spazierengehen (the (practice of) going for a walk)).
• Adjectives referring to nationality or ethnicity are not capitalized in many European languages such as German, French or Czech, even though nouns are: ein kanadisches Schiff, un navire canadien, kanadská loď, a Canadian ship; ein Kanadier, un Canadien, Kanaďan, a Canadian. Both nouns and adjectives are capitalized in English when referring to nationality or ethnicity.

Places and geographic terms

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The capitalization of geographic terms in English text generally depends on whether the author perceives the term as a

• In general, the first letter is capitalized for well-defined regions, e.g.
  Lower California, Tennessee Valley^[12]
• This general rule also applies to zones of the Earth's surface (North Temperate Zone, the Equator)^[13]
• In other cases, do not capitalize the points of the compass (north China, southeast London) or other adjectives (western Arizona, central New Mexico, upper Yangtze, lower Rio Grande)
• Capitalize generic geographic terms that are part of a place name (Atlantic Ocean, Mt.
  Muztagata
  , River Severn)
• Otherwise, do not capitalize a generic term that follows a capitalized generic term (Yangtze River valley)
• Use lower case for plurals of generic terms (Gobi and
  Taklamakan deserts)^{[citation needed]}; but "the Dakotas
  "
• Only capitalize "the" if it is part of the (short-form) formal place name (The Hague vs. the Netherlands, the Sudan, and the Philippines)

Upper case:

When a term is used as a name and then subsequently a shorter term is used, then that shorter term may be used generically. If that is the case do not capitalize. ("The Tatra National Park is a tourist destination in Poland. Watch out for bears when visiting the national park.")^[14][15]

By context

• In all modern European languages, the first word in a sentence is capitalized, as is the first word in any quoted sentence. (For example, in English: Nana said, "There are ripe watermelons in the garden!")
  • The first word of a sentence is not capitalized in most modern editions of ancient Greek and, to a lesser extent, Latin texts. The distinction between lower and upper case was not introduced before the Middle Ages; in antiquity only the capital forms of letters were used.
  • For some items, many style guides recommend that initial capitalization be avoided by not putting the item at the beginning of a sentence, or by writing it in lowercase even at the beginning of a sentence. Such scientific terms have their own rules about capitalization which take precedence over the standard initial capitalization rule. For example,
    milli and mega
    , for example 2 MA (megamperes) is a billion times 2 mA (milliamperes). Increasingly nowadays, some trademarks and company names start with a lowercase letter, and similar considerations apply.
  • When the first letters of a word have been omitted and replaced by an apostrophe, the first letter in a sentence is usually left uncapitalized in English and certain other languages, as " 'tis a shame ..." In Dutch, the second word is capitalized instead in this situation: "'t Was leuk" vs. "Het was leuk" (both meaning "It was fun").
• Traditionally, the first words of a line of verse are capitalized in English, e.g.:
  Meanwhile, the winged Heralds, by command
  Of sovereign power, with awful ceremony
  And trumpet's sound, throughout the host proclaim
  A solemn council forthwith to be held
  At Pandemonium, the high capital
  Of Satan and his peers. [...] (Milton, Paradise Lost I:752–756)
  • Modernist poets often ignore or defy this convention.
• In the U.S., headlines and titles of works typically use title case, in which certain words (such as nouns, adjectives and verbs) are capitalized and others (such as prepositions and conjunctions) are not. In the U.K., titles of works use title case, but headlines generally use sentence case (or all caps in tabloid newspapers).

Ff is equivalent to English F (whereas Welsh F corresponds to English V).^[33] Presentation forms, however, can use doubled capitals, such as the logo of the National Library of Wales

(Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru). The position in Hungarian is similar to the latter.

• An exception is the
  IJ. Both letters are capitalized even though they are printed separately when using a computer, as in IJsselmeer. In the past the digraph was written as Y
  , and this still survives in some surnames.
• A converse exception exists in the
  Nj) have mixed-case forms even when written as ligatures.^[34] With typewriters and computers
  , these "title-case" forms have become less common than 2-character equivalents; nevertheless they can be represented as single title-case characters in Unicode (Dž, Lj, Nj).
• In Czech the digraph ch (usually considered as a single letter) can be capitalized in two ways: Ch or CH. In general only the first part is capitalized (Ch), unless the whole text is written in capital letters (then it is written CH). In acronyms both parts are usually capitalized, such as VŠCHT for Vysoká škola chemicko-technologická (University of Chemistry and Technology). However, the practice is not unified when writing initial letters of personal names (first name and surname), for example Jan Chudoba can be abbreviated both J. Ch. or J. CH.^[35]

Initial mutation

In languages where

mute

in this form.

Other languages may capitalize the initial letter of the orthographic word, even if it is not present in the base, as with definite nouns in Maltese that start with certain consonant clusters. For example, l-Istati Uniti (the United States) capitalize the epenthetic I, even though the base form of the word — without the definite article — is stati.

Case-sensitive English words

In English, there are a few capitonyms, which are words whose meaning (and sometimes pronunciation) varies with capitalization. For example, the month August versus the adjective august. Or the verb polish versus the adjective Polish.

See also

• Camel case
• Capitalization of Internet
• Capitalization in English
• Letter case
• Orthography
• Reverential capitalization
• Capitalization conspiracy

Notes

1. ^ Example: the Dutch name Verkerk, which is made up of the prefix Ver- and the noun kerk (church).
2. definite article de); and the noun Kerk. The prefix Ver- is a contraction of the separable affixes, that has "bonded" with the noun. However, the surname Ver Huell
   is an example of a case where the prefix Ver has not yet become part of the name.
3. ^ Examples: Alexander von Humboldt, von Humboldt. Humboldt (German); Giovanni da Verrazzano, da Verrazzano, Verrazzano (Italian); Vasco da Gama, da Gama, Gama (Portuguese)
4. ^ as in the married names of women
5. ^ Examples: Cornelis de Witt, J. de Witt, Maria de Witt-van Berckel. But: the brothers De Witt. However, in Alexander Willem Maurits Carel Ver Huell Ver, though a separate affix, is not written with a lowercase letter, as Ver is not a preposition or a definite article as the exception requires.
6. ^ Examples: Van der Duyn van Maasdam; Van Nispen tot Pannerden.
7. ^ Example: k Heb er niets meer van gehoord.
8. ^ Examples: names like 't Hoen and 'sGravesande.
9. ^ An alternate technical term that overlaps with separable affix.
10. ^ Actually, this follows the French usage for the so-called Nobiliary particle, Cf. also^[23]
11. ^ Examples: Martin Van Buren, not Martin van Buren; Ron DeSantis, not Ron De Santis; Leonardo DiCaprio, not Leonardo di Caprio; Karen Vanmeer not Karen Van Meer (fictional character played by Hedy Lamarr, who should have spelled her pseudonym "La Marr", like her model Barbara La Marr).

References

1. ^ "Teitittely: oletteko kokeillut tätä?". Institute for the Languages of Finland. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
2. ^ General Guide to Perfected Spelling of the Indonesian Language, Section: Capital Letters (in Indonesian) from Indonesian Wikisource.
3. OCLC 881681594
   . Retrieved 30 September 2018.
4. ^ Daniel Solling (June 2009). "Små bokstäver ökade avståndet till tyskarna" (in Swedish). Språktidningen. Retrieved 28 June 2016.
5. ^ Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, p.65
6. ^ See E. E. Cummings: Name and capitalization for further discussion.
7. ^ Friedman, Norman (1992). "Not "e. e. cummings"". Spring. 1: 114–121. Archived from the original on 2005-12-12. Retrieved December 13, 2005.
8. Meta-wiki
9. ^ See the entry Maiuscolo in the Italian Wikipedia for descriptions of various rules of capitalization in Italian and for references.
10. ^ Worldbirdnames.org Archived September 28, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
11. ^ Doerr, Edd (November–December 2002). "Humanism unmodified". The Humanist. 62 (6). American Humanist Association: 1–2.
12. ^ Economist Style Guide, Capitalization – Places and for administrative areas (West Virginia, East Sussex).
13. ISBN 978-0-9779665-0-9
    .
14. ^ Government of Canada, Public Works and Government Services Canada (8 October 2009). "capitalization: names of institutions". www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca.
15. ^ "PLACE-NAMES - National Geographic Style Manual". sites.google.com.
16. ^ "Title Capitalization Tool - Capitalize My Title - Title Case Tool". Capitalize My Title. Retrieved 2022-06-15.
17. ^ Butterick, Matthew. "All Caps". Practical Typography.
18. ^ Ilene Strizver (2011). "ALL CAPS: To set or not to set?". Fonts.com. Monotype Imaging. Retrieved 21 June 2011.; Cohen, Noam (4 February 2008). "Is Obama a Mac and Clinton a PC?". The New York Times. Retrieved 29 January 2011. Jason Santa Maria, creative director of Happy Cog Studios, which designs Web sites, detected a basic breach of netiquette. "Hillary's text is all caps, like shouting," he said.
19. ISBN 978-0-9624891-5-0
    .
20. ^ Nielsen, Jakob. "Weblog Usability: The Top Ten Design Mistakes". Nielsen Norman Group. Retrieved 29 July 2015.
21. ^ Butterick, Matthew. "Small caps". Practical Typography. Retrieved 29 July 2015.
22. ^ Butterick, Matthew. "Letterspacing". Practical Typography. Retrieved 29 July 2015.
23. ^
    Chicago Manual of Style
    (15th ed.). U. of Chicago Press. 2003. p. 314.
24. ^ "Persoonsnamen". Woordenlijst.org (in Dutch). Nederlandse Taalunie. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
25. ^ "Capital letter at the beginning of a sentence". Woordenlijst.org (in Dutch). Nederlandse Taalunie. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
26. ^ Oxford Manual of Style, R. M. Ritter ed., Oxford University Press, 2002
27. Chicago Manual of Style
    (15th ed.). U. of Chicago Press. 2003. p. 313.
28. ^ ^{a b c} "Writer's Block - Writing Tips - Capitalization in Titles". Writersblock.ca. Archived from the original on October 9, 2012. Retrieved 2012-10-28. Archived.
29. ^ "Capitalization, Titles". Chicagomanualofstyle.org. Retrieved 2012-10-28.
30. ^ Nordquist, Richard. "Capitalization Conventions for Title Case". ThoughtCo.
31. ^ "The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th Edition". The Chicago Manual of Style Online. Archived from the original on 2009-01-05. Retrieved 2019-01-01.
32. ^ 'Accentuation des majuscules' Questions de langue : Académie française
33. ISBN 0-00-433402-7
34. Croato-Serbian language
    )
35. ^ "Z dopisů jazykové poradně". Naše řeč. 83 (4): 223–224. 2000.

Further reading

• Council of Science Editors, Style Manual Committee. Scientific Style and format: the CSE manual for authors, editors, and publishers, 7th ed. Reston (VA): The Council; 2006. Section 9.7.3, P. 120.

External links

Look up capitalization in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Capitalization Rules

1. Check Capitalization rules
2. if you want convertcase in to Capitalization Rules then you can above rules.
3. Definition of capitalization
4. Validate Capitalization Rules in Spanish Capitalización Mayúsculas
5. Online Capitalization Case Converter