Using capital letters in English

The use of uppercase letters in English words and set expressions are listed. Examples are given.

Let’s consider the cases when you have to use the uppercase letters in English.

1. The first letter of an English sentence is capitalized in writing

The dog is barking.
Come here!
How old was he?

2. The word “I” in the English language is always capitalized

I am eight years old.
Tom and I are good friends.

3. The first name and the last name of a person

Alice, Tom, James, Kim, Snow White

4. The name of a certain place, site, city, country or continent

National Museum, Bronx Zoo, London, Sacramento
Europe / Africa / Australia / Oceania

5. The names of festivals, holidays, days of the week, months of the year are also capitalized

New Year’s Day, Christmas, Labor Day, Mother’s Day, Sunday, Monday, Friday, January, May, July, October

6. Greetings in a letters are also capitalized

Dear Sally, Dear friends,
Dear Ana and Jorge,

Dear Chairman Thompson:
Dear Ms. Sharpe:
Dear Grievance Committee:

To whom it may concern:

7. The letter ending must also be capitalized

Love,
Joe

Fondly,
Samir

Your friend,
Sheila

Write soon!
Anita

Sincerely,
Joseph McAllister

Sincerely yours,
Sheila M. O’Day

8. The family members name

Where’s Mother?
Hello, Uncle.
I’m writing to Grandma.

Aunt Sara is in the hospital!
Grandpa Jones lives in New York City.
How’s Cousin Grace?

Note: if a family member name is preceded by a possessive pronoun or other qualifying words then they are put in lowercase letters:

Where’s your mother?
I talked to my uncle.
Our aunt Sara is in the hospital.
Where does his grandfather live?

Eimi became a mother last week!
Meryem has a lot of cousins.
Who’s the father of this child?
The mother of the bride is crying.

9. Words that describe a deity start with a capital letter

God / Allah / Yahweh / Elohim
Vishnu / Zeus / Minerva /
Quetzalcóatl / Moloch / Marduk /
Ptah / Isis / Bacchus / Mithra

As well as the names for religions and faiths:

the Orthodox / Buddhism / Hinduism / Islam /
Christianity / Judaism / Taoism /
Zoroastrianism / Shinto / Sikhism /
the Roman Catholic Church / the Amish /
the Ismaili Muslims / Shiites /
the Tian Tai Sect / Theravada Buddhism

Religious texts

the Bible / the Zend-Avesta /
the Torah / the Koran / the Tao-Te-Ching /
the Book of Mormon / the Upanishads

10. Personal, religious, state, royal, academic, professional statuses and titles

Mr. Jonathan Tso / Ms. Cecilia Tso / Mrs. Tso
Father O’Brien / Fr. O’Brien / Deacon Patrick
Queen Elizabeth II / Emperor Akihito / Prince Hans-Adam II
Prime Minister John Howard / Senator John McCain / President Eduard Shevardnadze
Professor Harvey / Dr. Wilson / Admiral Nguyen

Note:

In e-mail correspondence some people are using only uppercase or lowercase letters. For example:

For many people it’s just a faster way to use their keyboard. But remember that such a way of writing could be right only for informal letters, such as letters to your friends.

When writing a formal letter you should follow certain rules. Moreover the use of all uppercase or all lowercase letters makes the text hard to read. Many people would capitalize the text, which in their natural conversation they would like speak out very loudly, emotionally, maybe even yell off.