When to use CAPITAL LETTERS in English

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I'm Rebecca from engVid, and this lesson is about confusing capitals.

Now, usually when you learn the rules of English capitalization, certain words are always capitalized.

For example, the first word in a sentence, the word "I", the names of people and places,

Some words are always capitalized, but in this lesson I'm not going to review all of

the rules of capitalization, but I am going to show you about when to capitalize certain

words and when not to capitalize them, because sometimes the same words are capitalized in

one context, but not capitalized in another context.

But it's not hard to understand; it's actually very easy.

So I'm going to explain it to you right now.

Let's get started.

So, the first one is in the area of a subject or a course.

For example, if we're talking about a subject that you study, for example, algebra, then

you do not capitalize it.

For example, if you say: "I'm studying algebra this year."

So you're just talking about the subject, and therefore it's not capitalized.

But if you're talking about the subject as a course, as the name of a course, then you

do capitalize it.

For example: "This year I'm taking Algebra 101."

That's the name of that course, so you do capitalize it then.

Let's look at another example.

"She's studying psychology.

This year she's studying...

She's taking Psychology 201."

Or: "She's enrolled in the Psychology 201 class."

Another example: "I would like to study business in university."

The person is being very general, just talking about the subject.

But: "This year I'm taking a course called Global Business."

Now you're giving the name of the course, right?

So what's the rule here?

If we're just talking about the general subject, no capital; if we're talking about the course,

then yes, we do capitalize it.

There is one little exception: When we're talking about languages, and this is always true.

So if you're studying French or whether you're taking French 101, you're always going to

capitalize the name of a language.

And that's just because in English we always capitalize the name of a language; doesn't

matter which one.

Now, when it comes to places, let's look at how it works.

So, for example, if I say: "She works in a bank."

A bank, the bank, it's just the place, the building or whatever.

So then it's not capitalized.

But if I say: "She works at the Brookfield Bank", now I gave you the name of the bank,

so therefore it is capitalized.

Because, again, the name of something is capitalized; the name of a person, or a place.

So then it will be capitalized.

Or I say: "I went to the library."

"I often study at the library."

Just a library in general, not capitalized.

Or: "I often visit the Toronto Public Library."

Now I'm giving you the name of a specific library, right?

So, of course, it gets capitalized.

Or: "He goes to university."

He's in university, just a regular word so we don't capitalize it.

But: "He got admission to the University of Oxford."

Okay, now we're giving the name of the university, so you do have to capitalize it.

So I hope that's pretty clear so far.

So when we're giving the name of a course or we're giving a name of the particular place,

like a bank, a library, university, a school, a business-right?-then you're going to capitalize

it; and otherwise, in general, not.

Now let's look when we're talking about professions and titles.

So, the rule is like this: If you're just talking about...

Let's say: "I went to see the doctor."

Or: "I need to see a doctor."

So if before the profession you say the word "a" or "the"-okay?-then you don't capitalize

it because you're just talking about a doctor in general; you're not giving the name of

the doctor, you're not saying which doctor.

So, here we just say: "I need to see a doctor."

Or: "I have an appointment with Dr. Patel."

Now this is the name of the doctor, right?

So then we need to capitalize the "D" for "Doctor" and, of course, his or her name.

Next: "I would like to speak to the professor."

"The professor", again, general, so no capital, but here: "You need to make an appointment

to see Professor Brown."

So here, now we're talking about a specific professor, and so it is capitalized, the word

"Professor" and, of course, his or her name.

Now, also, when we're talking about any kind of position, okay?

For example, sales manager, human resources manager: "She's the sales manager.

She's the human resources manager.

She's the personnel manager."

"She's the production manager."

Or "he", all right?

Then you don't capitalize it.

Because you're just talking about that job in general.

But if you're...

In these kind of contexts most often you do capitalize it.

For example, if you write: "John Williams, Sales Manager."

Now let's suppose this is on a business card, then yes, you will capitalize "Sales Manager".

If this is at the end of your email, right?

"John Williams, Sales Manager", it's like a signature, then yes again, you do capitalize

Also if somebody's writing an address, okay?

"John Williams, Sales Manager, Microsoft", whatever.

Now, again, that title is capitalized.

So keep that in mind.

And regarding these other words up here, when there's a direct conversation going on and

if you write it down...

If you were to write it down, it would be capitalized.

What do I mean?

For example, if I said: "What do you think we should do, Doctor?"

Now, I'm talking to a particular doctor, right?

Probably let's say to this Dr. Patel, so then I would say: "What do you think we should

do", comma, capital "D", "Doctor?"

Or: "What do you suggest, Professor?"

And I'm talking to Professor Brown, so then in that case we would capitalize that word

"Professor" or that word "Doctor".

Or: "Thanks for all your help, Dad?"

Now, "Dad" is the name I'm giving.

And I'm calling him by that name, so therefore I would capitalize it.

But if I say here: "I went...

I went fishing with my dad."

So then you wouldn't capitalize it.

But if I say: "I went fishing with Dad", now it's the name-okay?-then we would capitalize

So I hope you understand that difference.

So, regarding subjects and courses, places and names of places, and professions and titles.

So these are some areas where sometimes capitals can be confused until now, but now you understand

Next we're going to be looking at another area, which is the titles of books, and movies,

and reports, and all kinds of interesting things.

So, I'll be right back with that.

Okay, so now let's look at something a little bit more detailed, but not hard; you can understand

And that is: What to do when we're writing the names of books, movies, shows, songs,

reports, or articles.

Now, what happens here is there are a few different major style guides, like the MLA,

the AP, and others, and they do vary; some of the rules are different, so what's most

important is if you're at a university, or a school, or a business, or something like

that, it's very important to know what style you are expected to follow.

Especially in university, they're going to tell you exactly which rules to follow when

it comes to handing in your assignment and putting the title for your report, or your

assignment, or your article, or whatever.

So in that case please follow whatever they tell you, and not necessarily what I'm telling

But in general, this is...

What I'm going to tell you here is something called "Title Case Capitalization", which

is the general rule that is followed most of the time and that you will see most of

the time when you look at books, or names of movies, and shows, and songs, and things

like that. Okay?

So, let's learn what it is.

It's really not very hard.

It seems a little hard in the beginning, especially for people whose languages don't have any

capitals at all.

There are many languages where there are no capital letters, and therefore English capitalization

sometimes seems like a bit of a challenge and kind of crazy, and therefore sometimes

people go in two different directions; sometimes they capitalize too much and sometimes they

capitalize too little, but there is a logic to it and you can understand.

So let's see the logic of this.

So, when we're talking about these kind of areas, what's important is that we usually

capitalize nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs in these kind of formats.

And we do not capitalize articles, or prepositions, or conjunctions.

And, of course, by articles I mean, like: "a", "and", "the"; prepositions: "in", "at",

"on", things like that; and conjunctions: "but", "with".

Okay? So... Sorry. "But", "and". Okay?

So these are usually not capitalized; those are usually capitalized.

An exception is if any of these are the first word or the last word.

So let's look now at some examples so you can actually understand how this works.

Let's look at the name of a famous movie, okay?

So what was capitalized there?

The "S" and the "W".

Two words, one is an adjective, one is a noun.

"Star Wars", so those two letters were capitalized.

But let's look at the name of another famous movie: "Return of the Jedi".

So, here, look what happened.

The first letter is always capitalized.

That doesn't matter what.

So, that one is capitalized; "of" is not capitalized, because it's one on the other side; "the",

no; and "Jedi", yes.

So you'll see that: "Return" and "Jedi" are capitalized, and the other smaller words - the

prepositions, the articles, things like that, no.

Next, let's look at the name of a famous show.

Two famous shows.

"Designated Survivor". Okay?

So here the "D" and the "S" are capital.

That stars one of our favourite Canadians, Kiefer Sutherland.

Hope you've caught that show.

And here's another show: "Life in Pieces".

So, now here, what do we see?

The "L" is capitalized, again, it's the first letter; "in", preposition, not capitalized;

and "Pieces", yes capitalized because it's the last word.

Usually the last word in title case capitalization is capitalized.

Next, let's look at the titles of a couple of books.

"The Alchemist". Okay?

Now, here, even though it's an article, remember if it comes first, then it's going to be capital.

So here it's capitalized and "Alchemist" is capitalized.

And here's the title of another famous book, an older book: "Catcher in the Rye".

So here the first "C" is capitalized; "in", "the"-okay?-preposition, article, not capitalized;

"Rye", last word, yes capitalized.

Are you with me?

Let's look at the name of a report.

And let's say the report I wrote is about "Capitalization Rules", or an assignment-okay?-that

I wrote about capitalization rules.

So, here, first word, capitalization, yes; and the "R", yes.

But in this one: "Rules of Capitalization", the first word "R", yes; "of", no; and "Capitalization",

Are you beginning to see the pattern and how it works?

I think if you look at this side you will see, and the same here.

Let's look at a name of an article.

"The Ideal Job".

Again, "The" is capitalized because it's the first word.

The "T"; "Ideal", it's an adjective, it's capitalized; "Job" is a noun, it's capitalized.

But let's look at another way of giving this same title: "How to Get the Ideal Job".

So, the first word: "How", yes; "to", no; "Get", verb, yes; "the", article, no; "Ideal",

adjective, yes; "Job", noun, yes.

So, I hope you're beginning to see a lot of patterns here that will help you to see: "Okay,

that's what's going on.

Okay, I didn't understand why some of those words were capitalized and some of them weren't."

But now you do.

You're so much smarter now than when you started watching this a few minutes ago.

So, of course, I hope you'll be able to use this in your own writing.

And, of course, if you're doing an exam like the IELTS or the TOEFL, or any other exam,

or if you're submitting reports at work, if you're submitting reports...

Assignments in university, or any of these situations, that from now on you will know...

Also, by the way, if you're writing a cover letter or your resume, again, these kind of

rules can be very, very important, so now you'll know how to go about it a little bit

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Thanks very much for watching.

Bye for now, and all the best with your English. Bye.