Helpdesk
Correct Use of Capital Letters
In the online exercises, we assess the correct use of capital letters.
In the vocabulary exercises, capitalization errors are marked wrong because in English the rules differ from Dutch, for example with days, months, holidays, languages, nationalities, and religions (see points 4 and 5).
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Single words
For individual words, use lowercase letters unless a capitalization rule applies. See the points below.
✅ dog, cat, bird -
Capital letters at the beginning of a sentence
Always use a capital letter for the first word of a sentence.
✅ The cat is sleeping.
❌ the cat is sleeping. -
Proper nouns
Use a capital letter for names of specific people, places, organizations, and things.
✅ Anna, London, Google, Holmwoods Workspace
❌ anna, london, google -
Days, months, and holidays
These words always begin with a capital letter (unlike in Dutch!).
✅ Monday, June, Christmas
❌ monday, june, christmas -
Languages, nationalities, and religions
In English, these always begin with a capital letter (unlike in Dutch!).
✅ Dutch, English, French, Christianity
❌ dutch, english, french, christianity -
The pronoun “I”
The word “I” is always capitalized, wherever it appears in the sentence.
✅ My friend and I went to school.