When Do You Capitalize a Word?

• JoEllen Nordstrom


• 26 Apr 2017

I am always checking my style and grammar books to ensure that I am capitalizing words correctly. It is not easy to remember all of the rules and regulations regarding capitalization.

A helpful way to remember when to capitalize (in most cases) is to use this phrase: Proper nouns and words derived from them are capitalized. Common nouns are not.

Here are some examples:

Weekdays, holidays, and months need capitalization:

• Monday
• Tuesday
• Labor Day
• An exception is the Fourth of July.  You would use the fourth of March.

Seasons, directions, and events do not require capitalization:

• summer
• north
• northwest
• my birthday
• my anniversary

Titles need capitalization when used with a name:

• Example –  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

But it is not capitalized in this example:

• The hearings for the secretary of state appointment begin today.

Capitalize the first, last, and all the main words of a title:

• The Long Hot Summer
• Frannie and Zooey
• The Red and the Black

Capitalize the first word after a colon if it begins an independent clause: This may depend on whether you are using MLA Style or APA Style.

• I found myself in an unusual position: My husband was not the man I thought he was.  (APA)
• I found myself in an unusual position: my husband was not the man I thought he was. (MLA)

When Do You Capitalize a Word?

Here are some other examples:

• God (when used as a name)
• god (when used as a description)
• Aunt Judie
• my aunt
• English, French
• history, mathematics, physical education
• The World Wide Web, Web, but website
• a home page
• World War II
• the war, a war
• a Republican, a Democrat, an Independent
• I went to the game with Father.
• His father was often at work on Saturdays.
• The South (as an area)
• the southern point
• a southern state

If you have a question about capitalizing a word, look in the style books in the index for “capitalization.”  Most style books provide exceptions.

You can also use a search engine on the Web to help you reference these types of questions. I have one site I like to use as well:

grammar book

But you can also go to the APA and MLA Websites for useful information.

APA style
mla

Originally posted 5/12/2009 and happily updated 11/14/2017. Thanks for reading!