Learning the use of capital letters in Spanish might seem trivial. One would think that the rules of capitalization are identical in all languages but, as a matter of fact, they are not. In the following article we will have a look at some differences between Spanish and English capitalization. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve been studying Spanish for three weeks or three years, we all need reminders sometimes, don’t we?
We write mayúscula (uppercase) at the beginning of the first word of the text and after full stop.
He hablado con Pedro. Me ha dicho, que…
We also use mayúscula after colon at the beginning of a letter.
Querída María:
Espero que Alfonso….
Proper names
Names of people, places or institutions are written in mayúscula.
Javier Castellano, Valencia, Ministerio de Empleo y Seguridad Social
If the proper name comes with an article, the latter is also written in mayúscula.
La Paz es la capital de Bolivia. Cada día leo El País.
Titles
Titles of nobility and abbreviations of introductory titles are always written in mayúscula.
Sra. Gómez, Dr. Jiménez, el Rey, el Papa
However, we use minúscula (lowercase) when the title comes before a name or refers to a group of people in general.
la señora Gómez, el rey Juan Carlos, los reyes en el siglo XVIII
When it comes to titles of books, movies, plays, paintings etc., only the first word is written in mayúscula.
Harry Potter y el misterio del príncipe – Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
La gata sobre el tejado de zinc caliente – Cat On a Hot Tin Roof
Historic events
In compound names of historic events we write each word in mayúscula.
la Guerra de la Independencia, la Revolución Francesa, la Guerra Fría
Months and days of the week
Unlike in English, both months and days of the week in Spanish use minúscula.
Hoy es lunes. – Today is Monday.
En mayo vamos de vacaciones. – We are going on holiday in May.
Languages and nationalities
Languages and nationalities are also written in minúscula.
Rob es inglés pero habla español muy bien. – Rob is English but speaks Spanish very well.
Religions
Names of religions in Spanish aren’t capitalized either.
Ahmed es musulmán pero su mujer es católica. – Ahmed is Muslim but his wife is Catholic.
Watch out! In words that start in ch or ll, we capitalize only the first letter.
Chad, Daniel Llobell
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