Depending on your mother tongue, capitalisation can be tricky, but not as complicated as you might think.
What is capitalisation?
The process of making a letter an uppercase letter is called capitalisation.
Uppercase letters are capital letters—the bigger, taller versions of letters (like C), as opposed to the smaller versions, which are called lowercase letters (like c).
Uppercase means the same thing as capital. Uppercase letters can also be called capitals.
Some uppercase letters are just larger, taller versions of their lowercase counterparts (like uppercase W and lowercase w or uppercase C and lowercase c), but in many cases the two versions of the letter take different forms altogether, such as uppercase A and lowercase a or uppercase B and lowercase b.
In English, uppercase letters are used at the beginning of words for a few different reasons:
1) The first letter of an English sentence
How are you doing today?
We have been learning a lot of new things lately.
2) The word “I” is always capitalised
I met him at the railway station.
Julia and I attended the same university.
He believes that I am the kindest teacher at the school.
3) Names and other proper nouns
A proper noun is the name of a particular person, place, organisation, or thing.
a) People's names
Kate and Jake met at Laura’s house.
My favourite author is Jane Austen.
You should also capitalise words like mum and grandpa when they are used as a form of address.
My mum doesn't like horror films.
I'll tell Mum how clever you are! --> here we use 'Mum' to address the mother
b) The name of places, cities, countries and continents
Hyde Park, London, England, Europe
c) Personal, religious, royal, academic, professional statuses and titles
Mr. John Smith / Ms. Kate Smith / Mrs. Laura Smith Father Patrick Queen Elizabeth II President Joe Biden / Prime Minister Boris Johnson Professor Davies / Dr. Brown
4) The names of festivals, holidays
Halloween, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Mother's Day
5) Days of the week, months of the year
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday
January, February, March
6) Nationalities, and Languages
English, British, American, Spanish, Japanese
7) Greetings and endings in a letter
Dear Anna,
To whom it may concern,
Love,
Yours sincerely,
8) Abbreviation
Abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or phrase.
NASA, UFO, OK, USA, UK
Happy Learning! :)
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