Capital letters

We use capital (big) letters at the beginning of the following kinds of words:

• the names of days, months and public holidays (but not usually seasons)

  • Sunday
  • Tuesday
  • March
  • September
  • Easter
  • Christmas
  • (but normally summer, autumn)

• the names of people, institutions and places, including stars and planets

  • John
  • the Foreign Office
  • the United States
  • The Super Cinema
  • the Pole Star
  • Mary
  • North Africa
  • The Ritz Hotel
  • the Far East
  • Mars
  • the Smiths
  • Canada
  • Oxford University (Compare He teaches at a university.)
  • (but normally the earth, the sun, the moon)

  Words derived from people’s names have capitals if they refer to the people.

  • Shakespearean drama (but to pasteurise): this refers to a chemical process, not directly to the scientist Pasteur

• people’s titles

  • Mr Smith
  • Colonel Webb
  • Professor Blake
  • the Managing Director
  • Dr Jones
  • the Prime Minister is attending the summit (Compare How is the Swedish prime minister elected?)

• nouns and adjectives referring to nationalities and regions, languages, ethnic groups and religions

  • He’s Russian.
  • Catalan cooking
  • I speak German.
  • She’s Jewish.
  • Japanese history
  • He’s a Sikh.

• the names of newspapers and magazines

  • International Herald Tribune
  • New Scientist

  The article the in such names is usually, but not always, capitalised.

  • I read it in The/the Guardian.

• the first word (and often other important words) in the titles of books, films and plays

  • The Spy who Loved Me
  • Gone with the Wind
  • A Midsummer Night’s Dream

note

For the use of capitals with East, North, etc, (see here).