Why is it important to use correct capitalization in sentences?

Punctuation and capitalisation have rules for correct use. Use minimal punctuation and capitalisation to make content more readable.

Minimal punctuation doesn’t mean removing all punctuation marks from a sentence. It means removing unnecessary punctuation.

Only use punctuation that makes the sentence grammatically correct and the meaning clear.

Too much punctuation makes text crowded and difficult to read. If a sentence has a lot of punctuation marks, it might be a sign that the sentence is too long or complex. Try to rewrite into shorter, clearer sentences.

To use minimal punctuation:

• Don’t add full stops to the ends of headings, page headers, footers or captions.
• Don’t use a semicolon at the end of each item in a bullet list.
• Unless each item is a full sentence or the last item in a list, don’t use a full stop for items in bullet lists.
• Don’t use full stops between letters in an acronym or initialism.
• Don’t use a full stop at the end of most abbreviations.

Minimal punctuation helps all users to understand content.

Screen readers work best with minimal punctuation

Some screen readers will announce punctuation marks. Some will change the modulation of the voice depending on the punctuation mark.

By default, screen readers that people who are blind or have low vision use, do not usually announce punctuation. They may pause briefly when they encounter a comma, full-stop, or semi-colon. They may also change inflection when they encounter a question mark.

Screen readers usually ignore most other punctuation unless verbosity is set high, or a person reads character by character.

Watch out for misplaced punctuation: it can change meaning

Use punctuation marks to:

• end sentences (full stops, exclamation marks and question marks)
• break up sentences and show the relationship between words and phrases (commas, colons, semicolons, dashes, forward slashes and ellipses)
• show possession and contractions (apostrophes)
• connect related words (hyphens and dashes).

Use the correct spacing around punctuation marks

Check the relevant topic in this manual for advice on how to treat each punctuation mark.

There are different rules for putting spaces around punctuation marks. For example, some punctuation marks have no spaces around them. Some have a space on either side.

Include a single space after a punctuation mark at the end of a sentence. Never use double spaces. Check each document for double and multiple spaces and delete them.

Capitalise the first word in a sentence and in headings

Capitalise the first word in a sentence. Use lower case for all other words, unless those words include proper nouns. This is called ‘sentence case’.

Use sentence case for:

• opening quoted speech within a sentence
• headings.

Do not use all capitals for headings, unless the visual design for the content meets WCAG 2.1 in all respects.

Use sentence case with italics for titles of works mentioned in the content. This applies even when the reference is included in a heading within the content.

Minimise capitals for common nouns and adjectives

Proper nouns generally have an initial capital letter for each word in the noun.

Common nouns and adjectives don’t use initial capitals, with few exceptions. For example, adjectives often have capitals when they refer to a national, religious or linguistic group.

Differences between proper and common names

This manual contains guidance for names and terms by topic. Always check a dictionary if in doubt.

Shortened forms

Use shortened forms only when this choice supports plain English.

Rules for capitalisation and punctuation differ from rules for terms spelt out in full. The rules depend on where the terms are in the sentence.

The spelt-out form might not need initial capitals, even if an acronym or initialism has them. Use normal capitalisation practices for proper and common nouns. If in doubt, check a dictionary.

If the shortened form represents a proper noun, start each word with a capital letter.

‘NSW’ is written out as ‘New South Wales’.

If the shortened form represents a common noun, do not begin each word of the full form with a capital letter.

‘EIS’ is written out as ‘environmental impact statement’.

‘TB’ is written out as ‘tuberculosis’.

Only use capitals when the style is standardised or specified in regulations, for symbols of units of measurement.

Follow the guidance on capitals for titles and government terms

Follow conventions for using capitals for titles, honours and forms of address. Use capitals when an official title precedes the name of the office holder. This includes titles for executives specified in legislation.

Unless advised in this manual, avoid using capitals in paragraph text for a particular position or role within an organisation. This practice goes against readability and does not support clarity.

You do not need to use capitals when the title is an organisational name given to an office holder. Deference for positions within an organisation might follow house style. Do not use house style outside of the organisational context. Detail any special use of capitals in a style sheet.

Preferences for capitals when the terms ‘traditional owner’, ‘elder’ and ‘custodian’ are used as titles should come directly from the relevant First Nations community.

Chief Defence Scientist Tanya Monro presented the award ...

The Senior Policy Adviser offered their view ...

Follow the rules of capitalisation for government terms, for example:

• government programs and agreements
• mentions of parliament
• references to states and territories.

Legal material has its own conventions for capitalisation. Content that has a legislative focus might use complementary sources to the guidance on citing legal material in this manual.

Legal documents often use initial capitals to show terms with a defined meaning (such as ‘Department’, ‘Schedule’, ‘Vendor’ and ‘Recipient’). In these cases, use the form of the name as it is written in the legislation.

The digital edition gives a brief overview of the main rules of punctuation. It gives the user the main points and provides links to detailed guidance in the manual.

The sixth edition had comprehensive information about punctuation dealt with under two main sections: spelling and word punctuation and sentence punctuation.

The Content Guide covered punctuation symbols as individual topics, but did not give an overview.

The digital edition is consistent with the Content Guide, which used ‘sentence case’ and ‘title case’ as terms for capitalisation style. This is a departure from the sixth edition in terminology for capitalisation styles.

The sixth edition used ‘maximal capitalisation’, not ‘title case’. The sixth edition used ‘minimal capitalisation’ for ‘sentence case’, which refers to the style for publication titles and headings in the digital edition.

The digital edition uses ‘minimal capitalisation’ to refer to a principle, rather than a capitalisation style. Minimal capitalisation is the principle of writing with the minimum amount of capitalisation required to make the context understood. It is paired with the principle or convention of minimal punctuation.

Consistent with the sixth edition, an ‘initial capital’ means that the first letter of a word is capitalised. It is a descriptive phrase, not a capitalisation style. The Content Guide did not use this phrase.

Australian House of Representatives (1965) Debates, HR18:5.

Dixon JC and Bolitho B (2005–2019) Course notes and exercises: editing and proofreading for the workplace, Centre for Continuing Education, Australian National University, Canberra.

Murphy EM with Cadman H (2014) Effective writing: plain English at work, 2nd edn, Lacuna, Westgate.

Seely J (2001) Oxford everyday grammar, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Selk A (2018) ‘One space or two spaces after a full stop? Scientists have finally found the answer’, Independent, accessed 5 March 2020.

Stilman A (2004) Grammatically correct, Writer’s Digest Books, Ohio.

Stone A and Ford R (2017) ‘Chasing after a century of punctuation’, Procedia Computer Science, 118:15–21, doi:0.1016/j.procs.2017.11.144.

Truss L (2003) Eats, shoots and leaves: the zero tolerance approach to punctuation, Profile Books, London.

This page was updated Monday 6 September 2021.

There are only a few rules of capitalization. They’re easy to remember. In English, capital letters are most commonly used at the start of a sentence, for the pronoun I, and for proper nouns.

1. Capitalize the first word in every sentence

You should always capitalize the first letter of the first word in a sentence, no matter what the word is. Take, for example, the following sentences: The weather was beautiful. It was sunny all day. Even though the and it aren’t proper nouns, they’re capitalized here because they’re the first words in their sentences. There is one rare possible exception to this rule: a brand name that begins with a lowercase letter like eBay or iPad. Even these normally lowercase words are usually capitalized at the start of sentences, but a style guide may make an exception for them.

2. Capitalize the pronoun I

Pronouns are words that replace nouns. I, you, and me are all examples of pronouns. While you and me are usually lowercase, the pronoun I should always be capitalized, regardless of where it appears in a sentence.

For example, in A Beautiful Mind, Sylvia Nasar writes, “What I got back was an envelope on which my address was written in different-colored crayons.” Here, the pronoun I is correctly capitalized even though it isn’t at the beginning of the sentence.

Capitalize proper nouns

A proper noun is the special noun or name used for a specific person, place, company, or other thing. Proper nouns should always be capitalized.

3. Names of people

People’s names are proper nouns, and therefore should be capitalized. The first letter of someone’s first, middle, and last name is always capitalized, as in John William Smith. Take note that some non-English surnames may begin with lowercase letters, such as Vincent van Gogh or Leonardo da Vinci.

4. Names of places

Other proper nouns include countries, cities, and sometimes regions, such as Bulgaria, Paris, and the American South. Geographic features that have names should also be capitalized, as in Mt. Kilimanjaro and the Pacific Ocean.

Landmarks and monuments also start their proper names with capital letters, such as the Empire State Building and the Golden Gate Bridge. Street names are always capitalized, too (e.g., Main Street). Although rare, some place names might have a preposition in them that is not capitalized, such as the Tower of Pisa or Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.

5. Names of companies and trademarks

The names of companies and organizations should also be capitalized, such as Nike and Stanford University. There are some exceptions: sometimes a company may choose not to use a capital letter at the beginning of its name or product as a stylistic choice. Examples include eBay and the iPhone.

6. Capitalize honorary and professional titles 

Titles like Mr., Mrs., and Dr., should be capitalized. When addressing someone with their professional title, you should use a capital letter at the beginning. For example, you’d address a letter to the president as Dear President Obama. Similarly, you should capitalize job titles when they come before a person’s name, as in General Manager Sheila Davis will be at the meeting. Also use a capital letter when you’re directly addressing a person by their title without using their name, as in We need the paper, Senator.  On the other hand, titles are not capitalized if used generally as in Rebecca is the president of the company, or We talked with the queen, Elizabeth II.

Our vote is for this article that has all the details on when you need to capitalize president.

7. Capitalize familial relationships 

Words that indicate family relationships should also be capitalized when used as titles in front of a person’s name. However, if you’re just talking about relationships with no names involved, the titles shouldn’t be capitalized. For example, you’d capitalize Uncle Ben and Grandpa Ed will be at the picnic, but you wouldn’t capitalize them in a sentence like My uncle and my grandpa will be at the picnic. Similar to the rules for professional titles, you should capitalize the names of family titles when they’re used in place of proper names. For instance, in Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë writes, “She is at the lodge, Aunt.”

8. Capitalize major words in a title

The titles of books, songs, newspapers, and works of art should all be capitalized. Examples include Moby Dick, “Jailhouse Rock,” New York Times, and The Last Supper. If you need help knowing specifically which words get capitalized in titles of creative works, check out our helpful guide to title capitalization.

9. Capitalize days, months, and (sometimes) seasons

The names of days and months should be capitalized, such as January, September, Wednesday, and Sunday.

A season should be capitalized when it’s being used as part of a proper noun as in Winter Olympics. In poetry and other literature, personification is giving an animal, inanimate object, or abstract notion the qualities and attributes of a human. When a season is used this way, it should be capitalized. (Take, for example, how Charles Mair uses summer in a poem: “We will muse on Summer’s ploys.”)

10. Capitalize holidays

The names of holidays, such as Christmas, Halloween, and Hanukkah, are capitalized because they are considered proper nouns. You would not, however, capitalize a season: Christmas season. But if you add day to a holiday, you would capitalize this word: New Year’s Day and Christmas Day. Similarly, you would capitalize the word eve in holidays such as Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.

11. Capitalize time periods

Historical eras should be capitalized. For instance, use Middle Ages, Dark Ages, and the Renaissance. You’d also capitalize prehistoric eras such as Stone Age and Bronze Age.

The names of countries are proper nouns, which means they are capitalized, of course. Languages and nationalities are capitalized as well. A person who is from Kenya, is a Kenyan and likely speaks Swahili. A Chilean is a person from Chile, where the official language is Spanish.

13. Capitalize acronyms

Acronyms should be capitalized. NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), POTUS (President of the United States), and DOB (Date Of Birth) are all capitalized. Some acronyms have been incorporated as recognizable words that should not be capitalized (laser, or “light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation”); when in doubt, it’s best to consult a dictionary.

Of course, in informal conversations (like texting), acronyms (lol, brb, idk, etc.) aren’t always capitalized. Not all rules apply to very casual writing styles.

Capitalize after certain punctuation

Of course, you already know to capitalize at the start of each sentence. There are other interesting sentence structures that require capitalization.

14. After the first word in a quote containing a complete sentence

When a quote is added to a sentence, it is introduced with quotation marks and a capital letter:

• When my father asked where I was going, I said, “Some of my friends are going to the movies.”

When the attribution is in the middle of the sentence, capitalization rules are also important:

• “The library is closed,” he said, “but you can return your books in the drop box.”

In this case, the first word (the) is capitalized. Because the sentence continues after the attribution, the word but is not capitalized.

You don’t always have to use the word but, did you know? Learn some alternatives.

Similarly, a colon may introduce a quote that comes after an independent clause. For example,

• “Bob seemed to like that idea: ‘Yeah, let’s do that!'”

In this sentence, the words before the colon could stand alone as a complete sentence. The colon emphasizes the coming quote.

If a quote contains a single word, a phrase, or an incomplete sentence, the first word typically isn’t capitalized unless it is a proper noun. For example:

• He said that my approach to solving math problems was “unique.”
• When asked, the mayor said the city “was prepared for all possible outcomes.” 

Check out our guide to quotation marks to learn more about these tricky punctuation marks.

15. (Sometimes) after a colon and rarely after a semicolon

If what follows the colon is a complete sentence, some style guides do recommend capitalizing the word that follows the colon.

• It snowed all morning: The roads were impassable by 8 am.

Capitalization after a semicolon is not required and would be grammatically incorrect. When an explanation takes the form of a second independent clause that follows a main independent clause, you can join the two clauses into a single sentence with a semicolon. Here is an example:

• Jenny had an idea; she would pick up a cake on her way to her friend’s house.

However, you would capitalize proper nouns or the pronoun I if they follow a semicolon as in Marcy got a bag of candy; I got a bag of rocks. 

Colons and semicolons are notoriously tough punctuation marks to use, but you can master them by using our detailed explanations of how to use colons and semicolons.