Capitalization For beginners

In this lesson you will learn about capitalization, like starting sentences and names with capital letters. Practice with simple examples and beginner exercises.

Capitalization Rules in English

What Is Capitalization?

Capital letters are used at the beginning of certain words to make sentences easier to read. In this lesson, we will examine the rules of capitalization in English.

Capitalization: Types

There are many cases in which words must be capitalized. Here are two of them:

At the beginning of the sentence

Proper nouns

Now, let us discuss each separately:

Beginning of the Sentence

The first letter of the first word of every sentence must be written in uppercase. When a period (.), question mark (?), or exclamation mark (!) comes at the end of one sentence, another starts after it. So, the first letter after the punctuation must be capitalized. Look at the examples below:

Example

The girl is there. She is looking at me. Can you see her?

As you can see, the type of the sentence does not matter.

Our families don't like each other.

Proper Nouns

Proper nouns are words that refer to specific people or things. Proper nouns are used to refer to people, animals, places, etc. The position of the proper noun in the sentence is not important; its first letter must always be in uppercase. Look:

Example

I saw Molly by the river.

As you can see, only the first letter of the name is capitalized.

I thought you were at Barney's.

'Barney' is the name of a place.

Warning!

Remember not to capitalize all the letters of a word. Compare:

Example

Can you see Mary? ✓

Can you see MARY? ❌

Quiz:


1.

Which of the following sentences is correctly capitalized?

A

can you help me with this?

B

The dog is barking loudly.

C

He Was Tired After The Trip.

D

THE teacher asked a question.

2.

Which sentence is correctly capitalized?

A

I visited New york last summer.

B

She met charlie at the store.

C

They went to Paris for vacation.

D

the movie was filmed in London.

3.

Which sentence contains an error in capitalization?

A

I will call Sarah tomorrow.

B

The car broke down on Main Street.

C

We visited tokyo last year.

D

She loves reading books.

4.

Sort the words to form a correct sentence.

year
in
.
visited
paris
eiffel
we
tower
the
last
5.

Read the story and choose all the words that must be capitalized.
"last summer, I went to new york city with my family. we visited the empire state building. it was the best trip ever! I even met my favorite actor while walking in times square."

last

summer

new york city

family

we

empire state building

it

trip

actor

times square

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