Capital letters

The rule in one minute

Use a capital letter for three things:

1. The first word of every sentence.
2. The pronoun I, every time.
3. Proper nouns, which are the names of particular people, places and things.

Common nouns, the names of general types, stay lowercase. River is a common noun. The Klang River names one river, so Klang and River both take capitals. A teacher is common, but Mr Rahman is a name.

These are also proper nouns: days (Tuesday), months (November), languages (English, Tamil), nationalities (Malaysian) and titles used with a name (President Lincoln).

The test is simple. Does the word name one particular thing, or a general kind of thing? Particular things get a capital.

Why these small errors cost marks

Capital letters are very basic, so mistakes stand out. In ESL writing, correctness is marked directly. In First Language writing, careless errors weaken the accuracy of expression.

A missing capital at the start of a sentence is one of the first things any marker sees. Because it repeats, one careless habit can appear many times in one script. The rules are short, so this is easy to fix.

Wrong and right

• Wrong: we visited penang during the holidays. Right: We visited Penang during the holidays. This fixes the sentence start and the place name.
• Wrong: My favourite subjects are History and geography. Right: My favourite subjects are history and geography. Ordinary school subjects are common nouns.
• Wrong: she speaks malay, english and mandarin. Right: She speaks Malay, English and Mandarin. Languages take capitals.
• Wrong: We are meeting on friday in march. Right: We are meeting on Friday in March. Days and months are proper nouns.
• Wrong: i asked Uncle to help. Right: I asked Uncle to help. I is always a capital. Uncle is capitalised here because it is used as a name.

Spot the mistake

Correct the capital letters in each sentence, then check below.

1. last summer, my Family travelled to japan.
2. the teacher, mrs lee, teaches Biology and physics.
3. my birthday is in october, on a saturday.
4. we learned about the amazon river in Geography.

Answers: (1) Last summer, my family travelled to Japan. Fix the sentence start and the country. Summer and family stay lowercase. (2) The teacher, Mrs Lee, teaches biology and physics. A name needs capitals, but school subjects do not. (3) My birthday is in October, on a Saturday. (4) We learned about the Amazon River in geography. The river is named, but the subject is not.

Make it a habit

Check in two directions. First, look at the first letter of every sentence. A lowercase start is the most common slip when you are rushing.

Second, look for extra capitals. Many students capitalise words that feel important, such as School or Government. These are general words and should be lowercase. My school is a type of place, but St Andrew’s School is a name.

Learn the fixed groups that always take capitals: days, months, languages and nationalities.

Where students get stuck, and how we help

Students usually stumble on words that feel important, such as Government or Society, and on school subjects. In our English as a Second Language lessons, a teacher marks the capitals in your own writing and explains each decision with the particular-or-general test.

Lessons start from RM70/hr. You can book a paid one-hour trial to try it.

Next step

Practise in the practice area and use the proofreading guide on your next essay. Then read about colons and semicolons and quotation punctuation. In the exam, finish with the last-ten-minutes checking routine.

Next, visit our original practice tasks to use the rule in your own writing. Our IGCSE English tuition page explains how lessons run. When you are ready, the paid one-hour trial is the first step.