Capital letters

English Language - Help - Speech - Writing

Definition

• Capital letters are used to show the importance of particular words.

• They are always used for proper nouns (people's names) ; at the start of sentences ; and for places and events of a public nature.

Examples

He entered the room, accompanied by the actress Christine Bowman.

John wrote a letter to the Bishop of Chester.

We will visit Sherwood Forest at Easter this year.

Use

• Capital letters are always placed at the beginning of a sentence.

• They are also used to indicate names and titles, as well as holidays and well-known public places.

• Don't use continuous capitals in titles and headings. It looks unsightly.

• Capitals are used to denote the names of particular or special things.

days of the week		Wednesday, Friday
places		East Anglia
rivers		the river Mersey
buildings		the Tate Gallery
institutions		the Catholic Church
firms		British Aerospace
organisations		the National Trust
months of the year		April, September

• However, when such terms are used as adjectives or in a general sense, no capital is required:

the King James Bible
but
a biblical reference

Manchester University
but
a university education

the present Government
but
governments since 1967

• Capitals are used when describing intellectual movements or periods of history:

Freudian		Platonism
Cartesian		the Middle Ages
the Reformation		The Enlightenment

• They are also used in the titles of books, plays, films, newspapers, magazines, songs, and works of art in general.

• The normal convention is to capitalise the first word and any nouns or important terms. Smaller words such as 'and', 'of', and 'the' are left uncapitalised:

A View from the Bridge

The Mayor of Casterbridge

North by Northwest

The Marriage of Figaro

• Notice the difference between the same term used in a general and a particular sense:

The children's Uncle Fred is seventy

Their uncle is the oldest in the family.

Exercises ->

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