Capitalization Rules 10 SP1

✨ Capitalization Rules: Proper Nouns

A proper noun is a special name for a person, place, organization, or specific thing.
We always capitalize proper nouns to show that they are unique and important.

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🟢 Rule: Capitalize Proper Nouns

Proper nouns are different from common nouns.

• Common nouns are general names (like city, girl, school).
• Proper nouns are specific names (like Colombo, Namitha, St. Joseph’s School).

👉 Always capitalize the first letter of a proper noun.

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🧑 Names of People

• ✅ Correct: Namitha is my friend.
• ❌ Wrong: namitha is my friend.

Other examples:

• Harry Potter
• Lionel Messi
• Taylor Swift

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🌍 Names of Places

• ✅ Correct: Colombo is the capital of Sri Lanka.
• ❌ Wrong: colombo is the capital of Sri Lanka.

Other examples:

• London
• New York
• Mount Everest
• Pacific Ocean

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🏫 Names of Organizations

• ✅ Correct: Microsoft Copilot helps students learn.
• ❌ Wrong: microsoft copilot helps students learn.

Other examples:

• United Nations
• NASA
• World Health Organization (WHO)
• Google

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📚 Names of Specific Things

Proper nouns can also be names of books, movies, holidays, or brands.

• ✅ Correct: I love reading Charlotte’s Web.
• ✅ Correct: We watched Frozen last night.
• ✅ Correct: Christmas is my favorite holiday.
• ✅ Correct: Nike shoes are popular.

❌ Wrong: charlotte’s web, frozen, christmas, nike

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🧩 Practice Sentences

Can you spot the proper nouns?

1. We visited paris last summer.
   ➡️ Fix: We visited Paris last summer.
2. My teacher’s name is mrs. Silva.
   ➡️ Fix: My teacher’s name is Mrs. Silva.
3. He works at google.
   ➡️ Fix: He works at Google.
4. We climbed mount everest.
   ➡️ Fix: We climbed Mount Everest.

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🔄 American vs. British English Differences

The capitalization rules for proper nouns are the same in both American and British English.
The difference is only in spelling or word choice, not capitalization.

Examples:

• American English:
  • Favorite holiday is Christmas.
  • Color is my favorite subject.
• British English:
  • Favourite holiday is Christmas.
  • Colour is my favourite subject.

👉 Notice: favorite/favourite and color/colour are spelled differently, but both start with a capital letter when they are proper nouns or at the beginning of a sentence.

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🎯 Summary

• Proper nouns = special names.
• Always capitalize names of people, places, organizations, and specific things.
• Common nouns (like city, boy, school) are lowercase unless they start a sentence.
• American and British English follow the same capitalization rules, only spelling differs.