Capitalisation Quick Guide

Capital letter or lowercase? Most of the time you know without thinking — but now and then you second-guess yourself (is it Maths or maths? Mum or mum?). This is the quick card for those moments: the handful of rules that cover almost every capital you will ever need. For the full story, follow the links.

The rules that cover nearly everything

• First word of a sentence — always a capital. The bus was late. Simple, and the one nobody forgets. → Capitalising the First Word
• Proper nouns — the name of one specific person, place, brand, day or month: Priya, London, Nike, Monday, July. These always take a capital. → Names, Places, Organisations & Brands
• The pronoun I — always a capital, on its own: Sam and I went. (Only I, not me or my.)
• Titles of things (books, films, songs, games) — capitalise the main words: The Lord of the Rings, Stranger Things. The little joining words (the, of, and, a) stay lowercase unless they start the title.
• Titles before a name — President Lincoln, Doctor Okafor, Aunt Mabel — but lowercase when general: the president, my aunt.

When NOT to use a capital

This is where most over-capitalising happens — giving ordinary words a capital just because they feel important:

• School subjects — lowercase, unless it is a language: maths, science, history, but English, French (they are proper nouns).
• Seasons — lowercase: summer, winter (unlike days and months).
• Directions — lowercase for a direction (drive north), capital only for a named region (the North of England).
• Common nouns — do not capitalise a word just for emphasis: my school, not my School.

More on this in The Over-Capitalising Trap.

The quick test

Ask: is this the name of one specific thing, or a general word? Specific name → capital (Everton, Year 9, December). General word → lowercase (a team, a year, a month). That single question sorts most wobbles.

A couple that catch people out

• Family words — capital when used as a name (Can I go, Mum?), lowercase when general (my mum said no).
• After a colon — usually lowercase in British English (one thing: sleep), unless what follows is a full sentence or a title.

A few more that come up

• Nationalities and languages — always capitals: French, Spanish, a British passport.
• Acronyms and initials — capitals, no full stops needed: BBC, NASA, PE.
• Titles, which words — capitalise the important words in a title and leave the little joining words (the, a, of, and, to) lowercase, unless one starts the title: The Lord of the Rings, A Tale of Two Cities.
• Days, months, festivals — capitals (Monday, July, Diwali, Christmas), but seasons stay lowercase.

Where next

• Capitals — the young-learner hub — the bigger map this sits inside
• Capitalising the First Word — where every sentence starts
• The Two Rules Capitals Hang From — the core idea in one place
• Names, Places, Organisations & Brands — what earns a capital
• The Over-Capitalising Trap — when NOT to use a capital