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Let's have a look at why capital letters are important in English and how we should use them in our writing.
Capitalisation Definition
Letter capitalisation is the way in which we replace lowercase letters with capital (uppercase) letters in a standardised way.
Uppercase and Lowercase Letters
Capital letters look like this: “A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y and Z”. These are also referred to as 'uppercase letters'.
While lower case letters look like this: “a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y and z”
Capitalisation Rules
There are several rules for how we place capital letters in writing, for example, the following must always be capitalised:
- The first letter of a sentence
- The first letter of a name or title
- The pronoun 'I'
- The first letter of a proper noun
- The first letter of speech
Let's look at when we should use capital letters in more detail along with some examples.
The first letter of a sentence:
You should always use a capital letter when beginning a new piece of writing or starting a new sentence.
The following introduction to JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit (1937) shows the interaction between new sentences, full stops and capital letters. Each sentence ends with a full stop and the new sentence starts with a capital letter.
In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.
The first letter of a name or title:
A person's name has capital letters for the first letters. This would include their surname and titles such as Mr, Mrs, Sir or Madam.
In the example below, even though the capitalised word 'Gollum' is in the middle of a sentence, it must be capitalised as it is the name of a person and therefore a proper noun.
'What have I got in my pocket?' he said aloud. He was talking to himself but Gollum thought it was a riddle and he was frightfully upset.
(JRR Tolkien, The Hobbit, 1937 )
The pronoun 'I' :
Unlike other personal pronouns like 'he', 'we', 'they', 'she' or 'it', the pronoun 'I' is always capitalised.
In this quote from Samwise Gamgee, we can see that the pronoun 'I' is capitalised:
I made a promise, Mr Frodo. A promise.
(JRR Tolkien, The Lord of The Rings, 1955)
The first letter of a proper noun:
Proper nouns are names given to describe specific, people, things, or places.
The first letter of proper nouns is always capitalised. Some examples of proper nouns could be the names of countries, cities, nationalities, languages, religions, political parties, time periods, days, months or events.
The cities and regions in Middle Earth, such as 'Gondor' and 'Rohan', are capitalised.
Similarly, the names of different species in Middle Earth, such as 'Hobbit', 'Orc', or 'Ents', are capitalised as they are also proper nouns.
The first letter of speech:
When a person or character speaks, the first letter of the first word in the direct speech must be capitalised. For example:
‘How bright your garden looks!’ said Gandalf. ‘Yes,’ said Bilbo. ‘I am very fond indeed of it, and of all the dear old Shire; but I think I need a holiday.’
(JRR Tolkien, The Lord of The Rings, 1955)
In the above quote, we can see that the first letter in each speech bracket is a capital letter.
Capitalisation rules for titles:
Most words in a title require capitalisation such as the first word, nouns, verbs and adjectives. Unless they are used as the first word in the title, conjunctions, articles, and prepositions are not capitalised.
The titles of JRR Tolkien's novels, set around Middle Earth, are The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and The Silmarillion.
In abbreviations:
Typically, acronyms (abbreviations formed from the first letters of other words that can be put together to form a new word) are written in capital letters so that they can be distinguished from ordinary words.
The word 'saga' and the abbreviation 'SAGA' (Sexual And Gender Acceptance) can be differentiated due to their different capitalisation.
Similarly, initialisms will capitalise the first letters of the words involved. Unlike acronyms, initialisms cannot be pronounced as words.
FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation)
People's titles are also often abbreviated. If a title is abbreviated, the first letter will be capitalised.
- 'Doctor' becomes 'Dr' and 'Mister' becomes 'Mr'.
- 'Bachelor of Science' becomes 'B.S' and 'Doctor of Philosophy' becomes 'PhD'.
All-caps for emphasis:
When a writer wishes to emphasise certain words, they may occasionally use all caps. However, this isn't a recommended format within formal writing as it may be perceived as childish, aggressive (like shouting), or excessive.
Warning signs use capital letters to draw attention to the central message, whether it is “WARNING” or “DO NOT ENTER”.
Why is Letter Capitalization Important?
Capital letters are important signposts for readers. The purpose of capital letters include:
- Making it clear when a sentence starts.
- Identifying important keywords in titles.
- Signalling respect towards people's names and titles.
- To signal proper nouns
The incorrect usage of capital letters will make a formal or non-fiction piece of writing stand out, and not in a good way! Poor orthography (spelling, punctuation and letter capitalisation) can indicate that little effort and attention has been put into the work, thus undermining its credibility.
What Confusions Can There Be With Letter Capitalisation?
One mistake that people make in their writing is placing capital letters where they don't belong. In this section, we will clarify how you can avoid this.
Capital letters and colons
One common mistake is to put a capital letter after a colon, however, this is incorrect.
Correct: 'The witch's recipe had some peculiar ingredients: liver, bile and sharks to name a few'
Incorrect: 'The witch's recipe had some peculiar ingredients: Liver, bile and sharks to name a few”.
Latin abbreviations
There is often a great deal of confusion when it comes to capitalising Latin abbreviations. Some Latin abbreviations, such as the following, are not capitalised:
- 'e.g.' is the abbreviation of exempli gratia ('for example')
- 'i.e.' is the abbreviation of id est ('that is')
- 'etc.' is the abbreviation of et cetera ('and others')
- 'a.m.' is the abbreviation of ante meridiem ('before midday')
However, others are capitalised as the Latinate meaning has been overwritten, such as in the following cases:
- 'PS' is an abbreviation of post scriptum, meaning 'after what has been written', but is now commonly understood as the abbreviation of 'postscript'.
- 'RIP' is an abbreviation of requiescat in pace, meaning 'may he/she/it/they rest in peace', but is now commonly understood as the abbreviation of 'rest in peace'.
Why might someone ignore capitalisation rules?
The rules around letter capitalisation have been actively disregarded by several fiction writers to emphasize various points or communicate alternative meanings.
Why do you think an author might disregard capitalisation in their text?
Mark Z. Danielewski's debut novel House of Leaves (2000) places capital letters in a seemingly sporadic manner in a series of written letters between characters in the appendices. These capital letters reveal an ulterior message encoded in the writing, which allows another layer to be added to the narration.
EE Cummings often disregarded conventions around capitalisation and other grammatical formations, in order to utterly deconstruct the traditional forms of poetry and make his own unique. The following poem, for example:
N
OthI
n
g can
s
UrPas
s
the m
y
SteR
y
of
s
tilLnes
s ”
(Posthumous poem 42, 1963)
By deconstructing word boundaries and transgressing capitalisation rules, the poem presents hurdles that force the reader to focus more on the words and explore the mystery for themselves.
The writer bell hooks (or Gloria Jean Watkins) disregarded the grammatical rules around capital letters in her pen-name. The purpose of this was to draw greater emphasis and attention to the work, rather than herself.
Letter Capitalization - Key Takeaways
- Letter capitalisation is the way in which lowercase letters are replaced with uppercase letters in a conventionalised way.
- Capital letters are used in the first letter of a sentence, a name/title, a proper noun, quoted speech. They are also used in titles, acronyms, abbreviations, and for emphasis.
- Capital letters shouldn't be placed after colons.
- Poor use of capitalisation can undermine a piece of writing.
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Frequently Asked Questions about Capitalisation
What does it mean to capitalise a letter?
Letter capitalisation is the way in which lowercase letters are replaced with uppercase letters in a conventionalised way.
What is capitalization and examples?
Capitalisation is the use of capital letters. We use capital letters at the start of sentences, in proper nouns and names (e.g. Jack), for the first letter of direct speech (e.g. "Hello"), for most words in titles (e.g. The Lord of the Rings), in abbreviations (e.g. TTYL) and for emphasis (e.g. WHAT?).
Why is letter capitalisation important?
Good use of capitalisation signposts things to the reader (e.g. sentence beginnings, speech beginnings, abbreviations, names and proper nouns), however, bad use of capitalisation undermines a piece of writing.
Do you capitalise the first letter of a proper noun?
The first letter of proper nouns is always capitalised. Some examples of proper nouns could be the names of countries, cities, nationalities, languages, religions, political parties, time periods, days, months or events.
Can we write Mr. in capital letters?
Titles such as Mr, Mrs, Sir, and Madam all begin with a capital letter. This is because they are part of a person's name.
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