Punctuation Cheat Sheet: Capitalizing
Capital Rules
* Every sentence begins with its very first word opening with a capital (where it is not preceded by a comma, semicolon or dash) begins with a capital letter:
How much wood could a wood-chuck chuck?
Show me the way to Amarillo.
* Capitalise days and months – well, they are all names:
Tuesday, 24th September
* But, don't capitalise seasons: spring, summer, fall, autumn, winter!
* Names, Languages, countries, nationalities, and ethnic groups are (as are any other names); historical periods and festivals or religious days:
Paul, Sarah and Bill all lived in New Jersey
Judge Dredd would have kicked Doctor Shipman's ass
England and English
Bengal and Bengalese
Litopia and Litopese
Roman times and Ancient Greece
Ash Wednesday and Fireworks Night are randomly picked!
* Lessons, subjects and the such like are not (unless they are languages):
My courses include: history, science, English, drama, and French
* When a connection is expressed to a place:
The fells in the Lake District are great
English humour is the most sarcastic
* However, when part of a phrase, they aren't (because, they are a description not a name):
Pass me the russian doll
Get my swiss banker
* When a word forms part of the one of the above types and is regarded as some kind of ethnicity, it does:
White Americans often ignore Black Americans
* Funny bits of names (da, de, du, van, von), as with the unimportant parts of titles (and, but, of, the) are lower case:
Leonardo da Vinci (yes, the book is wrong)
The Lord of the Rings
* Capitalise your religious terms, books and divinities, but not your reference to a pagan god(!):
Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, The Last Supper, Buddhism, everybody's God, Zeus is a Greek god (and therefore pagan).
* When quoting someone, ensure you capitalise them correctly (but, only if you use the entire quote):
It was Gandhi who said, 'Oh, God,' when he was shot.
Hitler said he would stamp out 'a tendency towards politeness' – well, he might have done!
* Branding requires capitals unless it is used for doing something (verbs):
Get me the Hoover.
Sony, Sellotape, Kleenex, Burger King, Dell, Dyson, Nokia, Biro
I'm going to do some hoovering
* Roman Numerals (when they aren't numbering pages or acting as a point):
Edward III
(c) BBC MCMCXCIV
iv) furry animals
* Always capitalise your pronoun I
* When deriving a certain sarcastic point, capitals may be used in place of quotations (though, never use this in a serious context):
I didn't agree, but they were convinced that J. K. Rowling was a Literary Genius.
'Well, if Tony Blair isn't a Serial Criminal, I don't know who is!'
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