There are many instances where English uses capital letters but Spanish uses lowercase. Here in this article, we will show you capitalization rules in Spanish. Let's find out in what cases capital letters or uppercase should be used and see the comparison between rules for capital letters in Spanish and English.
Capitalization rules in Spanish
Below are some most common cases where English uses capital letters but Spanish does not.
1. Calendar
Names of Spanish days of the week and months of the year use lower-case letters
For example:
Hoy es martes - Today is Tuesday
2. Composition titles
In formal written Spanish, only the first word and proper nouns in titles of movies, books, plays, etc should be capitalized.
For example:
La guerra de las galaxias - Star Wars
Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
However, in informal written Spanish, it's normal to see those composition titles are still capitalized as in English.
3. Personal titles
Introductory titles are not capitalized in Spanish. However, their common abbreviations are.
For example:
¿Conoces a la señora Wilson? - Do you know Mrs. Wilson?
¿Conoces a la Sra. Wilson? - Do you know Mrs. Wilson?
Sr. - abbreviation of señor
Dr. - doctor
D. - don
Srta. - señorita
See: Common Spanish abbreviations
4. Religions
In Spanish, names of religions as well as their adherents aren't capitalized.
For example:
Mi madre es católica - My mother is Catholic
Estudio el cristianismo - I'm studying Christianity
5. Ordinal numbers
In Spanish, when an ordinal number is used after a name, it isn't capitalized
Luis catorce - Luis the Fourteenth
Carlos octavo - Charles the Eighth
6. Place names
While the given name of lakes, rivers, mountains, and many other geographic features are capitalized, the place identifier is not.
For example:
No vimos el río Amazonas - We didn't see the Amazon River
Vivimos cerca de la montaña Rainier - We live near Mount Rainier
7. Nationality
Another capitalization rule in Spanish that you should keep in mind is that while names of cities and countries are capitalized in Spanish, words that derived from them are not.
For example:
Soy inglés - I'm English
Prefiero los cocos puertorriqueños - I prefer the Puerto Rican coconuts
8. Languages
In Spanish, names of languages aren't capitalized
For example:
Hablo inglés - I speak English
The above rules for capital letters in Spanish would be useful to see differences between the use of uppercase and lowercase in English and Spanish. Follow our site for instant translation.