GetUnderlined: Your Grammar Guide!

Capitalization!

One of the biggest things I’ve noticed that people do when writing is this: They either don’t capitalize enough, or they capitalize the wrong words. (I’ve read pieces with both these mistakes. Several times.) You may be asking yourself, ‘How am I supposed to know when to capitalize what?’. Well, never fear; Grammar Guide is here!

Here are the basic rules of capitalization:

#1. Use a capital letter at the beginning of every sentence.

What to write: The dog saw the butterfly and chased it.

What not to write: the dog saw the butterfly and chased it.

#2. Please, please, please, capitalize your letter ‘I’s, even if they’re not at the beginning of a sentence!

What to write: The sun was shining brightly as I swam in the pool.

What not to write: The sun was shining brightly as i swam in the pool.

This goes with our next rule:

#3. Always capitalize proper nouns!

What to write: Mom, Dad, and I like to eat at Olive Garden.

What not to write: Mom, dad, and i like to eat at olive garden.

#4. Don’t capitalize improper nouns!

This gets a little confusing, but here’s an example:

Let’s say you’re writing about your parents. If you are writing, ‘Mom and Dad are in the basement,’ you will keep the capital letters because you call your parents Mom and Dad.

If you’re writing, ‘Your mom and dad like seafood,’ you will not use capital letters because you are talking about someone else’s mom and dad.

In other words, you capitalize proper nouns because they’re titles, but you don’t capitalize common nouns because they are not names.