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Capital (or upper-case) letters are important in English,
and there are many situations when you should use
them. Let's begin our review of capitalization with five
basic situations that you probably already know:
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Use capitals for the first letter of the first
word of a statement or question:
His birthday was last week.
We decided to have a party for him.
Many people came to the party.
How old was he?
The party was a lot of fun, wasn't it?
How many people were at the party?
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| 2. |
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Use capitals for the first letter of a name:
His name is Saad Al-Khatani.
Her husband's name is Arthur, isn't it?
They enjoy Chopin's piano music.
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| 3. |
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Use capitals for the first letter of the names
of the days of the week:
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday, Friday, Saturday
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| 4. |
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Use capitals for the first letter of the
names of the months of the year:
January, February, March,
April, May, June,
July, August, September,
October, November, December
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| 5. |
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Use a capital letter for the first-person
singular pronoun:
I love ice cream!
Have I understood you correctly?
There's something I need to tell you.
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Special Note:
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In e-mail, some people use only capital letters:
HOW ABOUT HAVING LUNCH
ON TUESDAY?
In e-mail, some people use only small letters:
how about having lunch on tuesday?
It's faster to use only capital letters or only small
letters in typing, and if you're sending very
informal messages to friends, using only capital
letters or only small letters might be acceptable
(though it's not to me!). If you're sending messages
that are not informal or if your messages will be
read by strangers, however, follow the rules!
Using only capitals or only lower-case letters
makes your writing difficult to read. Also, using
only capital letters in e-mail is considered to be
the same as shouting!
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