Names start with capital letters — Language, 4–6
A capital letter can signal a person’s, place’s or animal’s special name. It helps a reader notice that this word is a name.
A special name gets a big first letter
Milo, Lisbon and Tuesday are special names, so their first letters are written as capitals: M, L and T. A small word such as cat names any cat, but Milo points to one particular name. The capital is a small sign that tells your eyes, “This word is special here.”
Why mark a special name?
When all words look alike, a reader may miss which word names one particular person or place. Capital letters give that clue quickly, especially in a long sentence. The rule grew from a reading problem: writers wanted important names to stand out, not because the people or places were necessarily more important.
Finding the names in a sentence
Read: “Rui took Luna to Porto.” Start at the left and look for the capitals. Rui is a person’s name, Luna is the dog’s name and Porto is a place. Words such as took and to stay small because they are not names here. The capitals help you spot the three special words.
Not every big letter names a person
You may think every capital means a person, because many names you know do. But a capital can mark a place, a day or the first word of a sentence too. In “On Monday, Ana ran,” On is big because it begins the sentence, while Monday and Ana are special names for other reasons.
Where capitals help outside school
Look at a bus sign, a birthday card, a name tag or a map. Capital letters can help you notice the name of a street, person, town or pet among other words. When you write someone’s name, starting it with a capital makes it easier for that person to recognise their name.
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