# Capitalization



## Dymn

Today I'm asking which are your language's rules for capitalization (if you have capital letters):

Do you capitalize...?

English / Catalan
- People: Mark / Mark
- Places: Glasgow / Glasgow
- Compound places: Black Sea / mar Negra
- Organizations: European Union / Unió Europea
- Nationality: Frenchman / francès
- Language: English / anglès
- Days of the week: Saturday / dissabte
- Months: January / gener
- Cardinal points: North / nord
- All other nouns: onion / ceba
- Adjectives from places: German / alemany
- Pronoun 'I': I / jo
- Formal you: you / vostè

If you have any other rule that can't be understood by only translating the points above don't hesitate to explain it to us.


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## rur1920

Russian is exactly like Catalan as far as this list is concerned, save there is a meaningful difference in writing between Вы and вы (formal you). The first form expresses special formality, one in which people are not quite free in inter-acting, distinctly obeying some kinds of laws/rules (whether social rules or rules of official correspondence).


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## Rallino

*Turkish:
*
- People: Mark / Mark → Yes
- Places: Glasgow / Glasgow → Yes
- Compound places: Black Sea / mar Negra → Yes
- Organizations: European Union / Unió Europea → Yes
- Nationality: Frenchman / francès → Yes
- Language: English / anglès → Yes
- Days of the week: Saturday / dissabte → No*
- Months: January / gener → No*
- Cardinal points: North / nord → No
- All other nouns: onion / ceba → No
- Adjectives from places: German / alemany → Yes
- Pronoun 'I': I / jo → No
- Formal you: you / vostè → No


*Unless the date is fully written, with the day and the year. Then it's considered specific.
Ex: _25 *O*cak 2015, *P*azar. (lit.: 25 January 2015, Sunday)_


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## apmoy70

English / Greek
- People: Mark / Μάρκος [ˈmarkos] --> yes
- Places: Glasgow / Γλασκώβη [ɣlaˈskovi] --> yes
- Compound places: Black Sea / Μαύρη Θάλασσα [ˈmavɾi ˈθalasa] --> yes
- Organizations: European Union / Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση [evɾopa.iˈci ˈenosi] --> yes
- Nationality: Frenchman / Γάλλος [ˈɣalos] --> yes
- Language: English / αγγλικά [aŋgliˈka] --> no
- Days of the week: Saturday / Σάββατο [ˈsavato] --> yes
- Months: January / Ιανουάριος [i.anuˈari.os] --> yes
- Cardinal points: North / Βορράς [voˈɾas] --> yes
- All other nouns: onion / κρεμμύδι [kɾeˈmiði] --> no
- Adjectives from places: German / γερμανικός [ʝeɾmaniˈkos] (masc.), γερμανική [ʝeɾmaniˈci] (fem.), γερμανικό [ʝeɾmaniˈko] (neut.) --> no*
- Pronoun 'I': I / εγώ [eˈɣo] --> no
- Formal you: you / (ε)σείς [sis] or [eˈsis] --> no


*except for languages, i.e. η Αγγλική γλώσσα [i aŋgliˈci ˈɣlosa] --> _the English language_


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## ger4

English / Catalan / German
- People: Mark / Mark / Mark --> yes
- Places: Glasgow / Glasgow / Glasgow --> yes
- Compound places: Black Sea / mar Negra / Schwarzes Meer --> yes 
- Organizations: European Union / Unió Europea / Europäische Union --> yes 
- Nationality: Frenchman / francès / Franzose --> yes
- Language: English / anglès / Englisch --> yes 
- Days of the week: Saturday / dissabte / Sonnabend --> yes
- Months: January / gener / Januar --> yes
- Cardinal points: North / nord / Norden --> yes
- All other nouns: onion / ceba / Zwiebel --> yes *
- Adjectives from places: German / alemany / deutsch --> no
- Pronoun 'I': I / jo / ich --> no
- Formal you: you / vostè / Sie --> yes
---
* this seems to be a German peculiarity: nouns are generally capitalized


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## jamessteves

[*=left]The first word of every sentence.
[*=left]The first-person singular pronoun.
[*=left]The first, last, and important words in a title.


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## ger4

English / Catalan / Latvian
- People: Mark / Mark / Marks* --> yes
- Places: Glasgow / Glasgow / Glāzgova* --> yes
- Compound places: Black Sea / mar Negra / Melnā jūra** --> yes, but normally the first part only 
- Organizations: European Union / Unió Europea / Eiropas Savienība --> yes 
- Nationality: Frenchman / francès / francūzis --> no
- Language: English / anglès / angliski --> no 
- Days of the week: Saturday / dissabte / sestdiena --> no
- Months: January / gener / janvāris --> no
- Cardinal points: North / nord / ziemeļi --> no 
- All other nouns: onion / ceba / sīpols --> no
- Adjectives from places: German / alemany / vācu --> no
- Pronoun 'I': I / jo / es --> no
- Formal you: you / vostè / jūs --> no

* Foreign proper names are spelt according to Latvian spelling rules; -s, -is, -a or -e are added in the Nominative
** The adjective precedes the noun, as in English: melnā = black (definite form), jūra = sea

English / Catalan / Estonian
- People: Mark / Mark / Mark --> yes
- Places: Glasgow / Glasgow / Glasgow --> yes
- Compound places: Black Sea / mar Negra / Must meri --> yes, the first part of the compound  
- Organizations: European Union / Unió Europea / Euroopa Liit --> yes 
- Nationality: Frenchman / francès / prantslane --> no
- Language: English / anglès / inglise keel --> no 
- Days of the week: Saturday / dissabte / laupäev --> no 
- Months: January / gener / jaanuar --> no 
- Cardinal points: North / nord / pőhi --> no
- All other nouns: onion / ceba / sibul --> no
- Adjectives from places: German / alemany / sakslane --> no
- Pronoun 'I': I / jo / mina --> no
- Formal you: you / vostè / teie --> no


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## Delvo

In English, what I was originally taught about the four cardinal directions is that they are capitalized when they are used as nouns but not as adjectives. What I've actually seen in real use since then is that they're never capitalized as adjectives but randomly are or aren't as nouns, and somewhat more often aren't than are. Capitalization as nouns seems to be falling out of use and becoming a thing of the past. I don't capitalize them anymore just because I've observed that it's uncommon enough to have begun looking weird to me and a lot of others. It always had stood out as the only English example of capitalization depending on a word's role in a sentence. It felt like what German does.

A couple of categories that should be added to the list:

Nouns & adjectives that name specific groups of people that are not based on country/government, like "Science Fiction Book Club" and "Catholic"

Acronyms & initialisms: strings of just the first letter(s) of each of a series of words, like NASA (National Aeronautics & Space Administration) and GMO (genetically modified organism) WIMP (weakly-interacting massive particle)... In English, they're capitalized even if the words wouldn't be when the phrase is fully written out. If more than one letter of a component word is used, the second and later ones in the same word are often lowercase, and then the first letter of a subsequent component is capitalized again; for example, the magazine "Scientific American" becomes "SciAm". But sometimes those are just all capitalized. I can't think of an example right now and can't use "Scientific American" for it, because each individual case is done one way and not the other; "Scientific American" is not "SCIAM". Also, once an acronym or initialism is treated as a word of the common language or just a name on its own, as if it had never been an acronym or initialism, like "laser" (light amplified by stimulated emission of radiation), "sonar" (sound navigation and ranging), "radar" (radio navigation and ranging), and "Nabisco" (National Biscuit Company), its capitalization becomes like any other word or name.


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## Frank78

Holger2014 said:


> - Adjectives from places: German / alemany / deutsch --> no



No rule without an exception, if the adjective of a place name ends on -er it is capitalised, e.g. Leipziger Messe, Schweizer Schokolade.


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## Gavril

Diamant7 said:


> - Organizations: European Union / Unió Europea



I think we need to expand on the “organization” category, because there are some languages that capitalize “European Union” but not many other official organizations, such as national government assemblies (parliaments, etc.). For example:

Finnish
_Euroopan unioni _“EU”(formerly called _Euroopan liitto_)

but

_eduskunta_ (the Parliament of Finland)
_valtiopäivät_ (Swedish Parliament, literally “the national days”, a translation of Swedish _riksdagen_)  
_edustajainhuone_ (House of Representatives in the United States, translated from the English phrase)
 etc.

 This pattern seems related to that of Swedish, since they do not capitalize the names of parliaments either (_riksdagen_, _representanthus_, etc.). However, the other Scandinavian languages and Icelandic do capitalize these names (Norwegian _Stortinget_, Danish _Folketinget_, Icelandic _Al__þingi_).


 One other thing to note: in the Finnish phrase _Euroopan unioni_, only the *first* word of the phrase is capitalized, since the second word by itself is not a proper noun. The same pattern applies for phrases like this in all the Scandinavian languages, except Danish:

Swedish _Europeiska unionen_
Norwegian _Den __eu__ropeiske __un__ionen_
 Danish _Den Europæiske Union_

The Icelandic term for the EU is written as a single word, _Evrópusambandið, _but the pattern of phrase capitalization can be seen in  names like _*D*__ó__miníska__* l*__ýðveldið_ “the Dominican Republic”.


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## ger4

Gavril said:


> Finnish:
> _*E*uroopan *u*nioni _“EU”(formerly called _Euroopan *l*iitto_)
> _*e*duskunta_ (the Parliament of Finland)
> _*e*dustajainhuone_ (House of Representatives in the United States, translated from the English phrase)


Estonian:
_*E*uroopa *L*iit_ (European Union)   
_*R*iigikogu_ (the Parliament of Estonia)
_*E*sindajatekoda_ (House of Representatives in the US)


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## Walshie79

Delvo said:


> In English, what I was originally taught about the four cardinal directions is that they are capitalized when they are used as nouns but not as adjectives. What I've actually seen in real use since then is that they're never capitalized as adjectives but randomly are or aren't as nouns, and somewhat more often aren't than are. Capitalization as nouns seems to be falling out of use and becoming a thing of the past. I don't capitalize them anymore just because I've observed that it's uncommon enough to have begun looking weird to me and a lot of others. It always had stood out as the only English example of capitalization depending on a word's role in a sentence. It felt like what German does.
> 
> A couple of categories that should be added to the list:
> 
> Nouns & adjectives that name specific groups of people that are not based on country/government, like "Science Fiction Book Club" and "Catholic"
> 
> Acronyms & initialisms: strings of just the first letter(s) of each of a series of words, like NASA (National Aeronautics & Space Administration) and GMO (genetically modified organism) WIMP (weakly-interacting massive particle)... In English, they're capitalized even if the words wouldn't be when the phrase is fully written out. If more than one letter of a component word is used, the second and later ones in the same word are often lowercase, and then the first letter of a subsequent component is capitalized again; for example, the magazine "Scientific American" becomes "SciAm". But sometimes those are just all capitalized. I can't think of an example right now and can't use "Scientific American" for it, because each individual case is done one way and not the other; "Scientific American" is not "SCIAM". Also, once an acronym or initialism is treated as a word of the common language or just a name on its own, as if it had never been an acronym or initialism, like "laser" (light amplified by stimulated emission of radiation), "sonar" (sound navigation and ranging), "radar" (radio navigation and ranging), and "Nabisco" (National Biscuit Company), its capitalization becomes like any other word or name.



That one about the cardinal directions must be an American thing, I've never heard of it. "In the north" etc is perfectly standard here, though actually you do see "The North" on road signs- probably because there it's acting as a place name, which requires a capital. It also tends to be capitalised when added to place names that require the capital, e.g. "North London", but not "north of London".

It always struck me as strange how nationalities and languages aren't capitalised in many languages (anglais, allemand etc) where the countries' names are.


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## Gavril

Walshie79 said:


> That one about the cardinal directions must be an American thing, I've never heard of it. "In the north" etc is perfectly standard here, though actually you do see "The North" on road signs- probably because there it's acting as a place name, which requires a capital. It also tends to be capitalised when added to place names that require the capital, e.g. "North London", but not "north of London".



I'm American, and I don't capitalize _north_/_south_/etc. when there is no following noun, except when referring to certain historical regions (for example, _the South_ = the southeastern states of the US).


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## AutumnOwl

Walshie79 said:


> It always struck me as strange how nationalities and languages aren't capitalised in many languages (anglais, allemand etc) where the countries' names are.


To me it's the opposite that's strange, the name of the countries are proper names, the same as a person's name, while languages and nationalities are not proper names but something like characteristics (similar to: being shy, being English, speaking fast, speaking German). 

An other thing I find strange is how the English language capitalise titles (the Queen, the Duke, the Prime Minister, Mr., Miss etc), here in Sweden no titles are capitalised unless they are the first word in a sentence.


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## Gavril

It might be relevant that in many European languages, there is no distinction between the adjective meaning "of country X" and the noun meaning "person from country X".

In languages that do make this distinction, it is common for the noun to be capitalized while the adjective is lower-case:

Icelandic _*E*nglendingur_ "person from England" versus _*e*nskur_ "English"
Slovene _*A*nglež_ versus _*a*ngleški_

In some cases, the distinction is made through capitalization alone: French _*A*nglais_(_e_) "person from England", _*a*nglais_ "English"


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## ger4

It's quite confusing: 
- Polish (apparently similarly to Slovene) capitalizes _Anglik_ ('Englishman') and _Angielka_ ('Englishwoman') but not _angielski_ ('English' as an adjective) 
- Latvian capitalizes neither _anglis _('Englishman'), _angliete_ ('Englishwoman') nor _angliski _('English' as an adjective) 
- German capitalizes _Engländer_ ('Englishman'), _Engländerin_ ('Englishwoman') and _Englisch_ in a phrase like '_er spricht Englisch_' ('he speaks English')... 
- ...but not when used as an ordinary adjective as in _eine typisch englische Landschaft_ ('a typical English landscape')


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## Feainn

*Italian:*
- People: Mark / Mark --> yes
- Places: Glasgow / Glasgow --> yes
- Compound places: Black Sea / Mar Nero or mar Nero --> yes
- Organizations: European Union / Unione Europea --> yes
- Nationality: Frenchman / francese --> no
- Language: English / inglese --> no
- Days of the week: Saturday / sabato --> no
- Months: January / gennaio --> no
- Cardinal points: North / nord --> no
   YES when it refers to a geaographical area: il Nord (Northern Italy) --> yes
- All other nouns: onion / cipolla ​--> no
- Adjectives from places: German / tedesco --> no
  YES with derivatives of a geographical place used to indicate a given area: il Bellunese (the area around Belluno) --> yes
- Pronoun 'I': I / io --> no
- Formal you: you / Lei --> yes

We also use it with
- Adresses (optional): Via Verdi (but "via Verdi" is fine, as well)
- Names of clestial bodies: Venere, Urano
- Names of countries: Italy
- Official names of museums, theaters ecc. : la Fenice, Palazzo Madama

Capitalization may also change the meaning of some terms:

stato (state, condition) - Stato (nation)
chiesa (church, the very building) - Chiesa (the clergy and the devotees; parish)
borsa (bag) - Borsa (Stock Exchange)
camera (room) - Camera (_polit._ Chamber/House)
paese (village) - Paese (nation)


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## Peripes

Diamant7 said:


> Do you capitalize...?
> 
> English / Catalan
> - People: Mark / Mark *Yes*
> - Places: Glasgow / Glasgow *Yes*
> - Compound places: Black Sea / mar Negra *Yes* (only the proper name, not the common name e.g.: el mar Negro, la bahía de Paracas)
> - Organizations: European Union / Unió Europea *Yes*
> - Nationality: Frenchman / francès *No*
> - Language: English / anglès *No*
> - Days of the week: Saturday / dissabte *No*
> - Months: January / gener *No* (we only capitalize if its part of the name of an historic event or holiday e.g.: Primero de Mayo, Viernes Santo)
> - Cardinal points: North / nord *No*
> - All other nouns: onion / ceba *No*
> - Adjectives from places: German / alemany *No*
> - Pronoun 'I': I / jo *No*
> - Formal you: you / vostè *No*
> 
> If you have any other rule that can't be understood by only translating the points above don't hesitate to explain it to us.



We preserve capitalization if it's a title in a foreign language. We also capitalize historic periods (e.g.: la Antigüedad, la Edad Media), geoglogic eras, toponyms, most acronyms and abbreviations.


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## Delvo

Delvo said:


> In English, what I was originally taught about the four cardinal directions is that they are capitalized when they are used as nouns but not as adjectives. What I've actually seen in real use since then is that they're never capitalized as adjectives but randomly are or aren't as nouns, and somewhat more often aren't than are. Capitalization as nouns seems to be falling out of use and becoming a thing of the past. I don't capitalize them anymore just because I've observed that it's uncommon enough to have begun looking weird to me and a lot of others. It always had stood out as the only English example of capitalization depending on a word's role in a sentence. It felt like what German does.





Walshie79 said:


> That one about the cardinal directions must be an American thing, I've never heard of it. "In the north" etc is perfectly standard here, though actually you do see "The North" on road signs- probably because there it's acting as a place name, which requires a capital.


Since we wrote these two posts, a new realization has occurred to me. Although I'm still sure that I was told that the cardinal directions must be capitalized when they're nouns, I have no memory of the context in which that was said. So it's actually most likely that it was in reference to the American Civil War, in which the Union (United States of America) was also "the North" and the Confederacy (Confederate States of America) was also "the South". The person who said the capitalization there was because they were "nouns" simply didn't think of other examples outside that context, and I took her word choice exactly instead of applying it exclusively to the context she had in mind. What either she should have said, or I should have figured out she meant, was that they were capitalized because they were names for specific political entities, not because they were nouns.

So I spent years thinking the capitalization rule for cardinal directions was different from what it really was, because of one miscommunication... no wonder I kept seeing the rule getting broken so often!


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## bibax

Holger2014 said:


> It's quite confusing:
> - Polish (apparently similarly to Slovene) capitalizes _Anglik_ ('Englishman') and _Angielka_ ('Englishwoman') but not _angielski_ ('English' as an adjective)
> ...


Czech capitalizes *A*ngličan (Englishman) but not anglický (adj.), angličtina (language);

Month, week days, ...: leden (january), sobota (saturday), sever (north) but *S*ever proti *J*ihu ("North against South");

Czech capitalizes only the first word of the compound names (it's a general rule):

*E*vropská unie ("European union");
*S*pojené státy americké ("United american states");
*Č*erné moře ("Black sea"), *M*oře klidu ("Sea of quiet/calmness", a lunar sea), *M*oře *L*aptěvů ("Sea of [the] Laptevs");

The compound names composed of compound names:

*Č*ína = China;

*K*omunistická strana *Č*íny = Communist Party of China;

*Ú*střední výbor *K*omunistické strany *Č*íny =  Central Committee of the Communist Party of China;

*S*tálý výbor politbyra *Ú*středního výboru *K*omunistické strany *Č*íny =

= Politburo Standing Committee [of the Central Committee] of the Communist Party of China (something is missing in the English name )
=  中国共产党中央政治局常务委员会
= Zhōngguó Gòngchǎndǎng Zhōngyāng Zhèngzhìjú Chángwù Wěiyuánhuì;


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## franknagy

Rallino said:


> *Hungarian:
> *
> - People: Mark / Mark → Yes
> - Places: Glasgow / Glasgow → Yes
> - Compound places: Black Sea / Fekete-tenger → Partly (Capital-hyphen-not capital)
> - Organizations:Európai Unió → Yes
> - Nationality: francia → No
> - Language: francia → No
> - Days of the week: Saturday / szombat → No
> - Months: January / jauár → No
> - Cardinal points: North / észak→ No
> - All other nouns: onion / hagyma → No
> - Adjectives from places: londoni  → No
> - Pronoun 'I': I / jo → No
> - Formal you: you / Ön, maga → Yes No


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## apmoy70

apmoy70 said:


> ...
> *except for languages, i.e. η Αγγλική γλώσσα [i aŋgliˈci ˈɣlosa] --> _the English language_


Apologies for quoting myself but it's the exact opposite, the adjective is not capitalized when it's used as an adjective, while it's indeed capitalized when it's nominalized (then it's taken as an ethnonym):
*«Η αγγλική γλώσσα»* [i aŋgliˈci ˈɣlosa] (all fem.) --> _*The*_ [feminine definite article in nominative sing.] _*e*__nglish language_
but
*«Αγγλική»* [aŋgliˈci] (fem.) --> _*E*nglish_ (_language_ is omitted).


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