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).

  1. Single words
    For individual words, use lowercase letters unless a capitalization rule applies. See the points below.
    ✅ dog, cat, bird

  2. 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.

  3. Proper nouns
    Use a capital letter for names of specific people, places, organizations, and things.
    ✅ Anna, London, Google, Holmwoods Workspace
    ❌ anna, london, google

  4. Days, months, and holidays
    These words always begin with a capital letter (unlike in Dutch!).
    ✅ Monday, June, Christmas
    ❌ monday, june, christmas

  5. Languages, nationalities, and religions
    In English, these always begin with a capital letter (unlike in Dutch!).
    ✅ Dutch, English, French, Christianity
    ❌ dutch, english, french, christianity

  6. The pronoun “I”
    The word “I” is always capitalized, wherever it appears in the sentence.
    ✅ My friend and I went to school.