When to use Capital Letters in a Sentence

When to use Capital Letters in a sentence?

Capital letters must be used in the following positions:

1. The first word of every sentence: e.g.,

  • If you can dream it, you can do it.
  • Don’t tell people your plans.
  • Use your time wisely.
  • Impossible is for the unwilling.
  • Stay foolish to stay sane. Never show arrogance to others.

2. The first word of every line in the verse: e.g.,

When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say’st,
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”

3. The first word of a direct quotation: e.g.,

  • Andy Grove said, “Only the paranoid survive.”
  • Pablo Picasso once said, “Everything you can imagine is real.”
  • Abraham Lincoln said, “Whatever you are, be a good one.”
  • Buddha said, “Desire is the cause of suffering.”
  • Ashoka cited, “All men are my children.”

4. All names of Deity. And often He, His, Him, She, Her when Deity is referred without being named: e.g.,

  • Kali’s nakedness shows that She has cast away illusion; in Her, the entire truth about life and death is revealed.
  • Lord Shiva is just born out of reverberation and He is all and everything; He is the universe.

5. All proper substantives and adjectives: e.g.,

  • Her sister Coco speaks Bengali fluently.
  • The Bengalee have a great sense of humour.

6. Names of days, months, and holidays: e.g.,

  • This year Durga Puja in India will begin on Saturday, October 1.
  • He will visit us on Monday, 25th of December, on the eve of Christmas.

7. Any leading word and proper noun: e.g.,

  • The major reason why the Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain was that it had an abundant supply of what economists call the three factors of production.
  • The Twelfth Five-Year Plan of the Government of India has been decided to achieve a growth rate of 9% but the National Development Council (NDC) on 27 December 2012 approved a growth rate of 8% for the Twelfth Plan.
  • A Bench comprising the Chief Justice and two other judges marked the misconduct between Prime Minister Mr Nodi and Chief Minister Ms Bonerjee on Tuesday.

8. The pronoun I, and the interjection O: e.g.,

  • O dear, how foolish I am!
  • O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
  • You, she and I are going to watch the movie tonight.

9. In personification: e.g.,

One short sleep past, we wake eternally
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.