There are many instances where English uses capital letters but Spanish uses lowercase. Here in this article, we will show you capitalization rules in Spanish. Let's find out in what cases capital letters or uppercase should be used and see the comparison between rules for capital letters in Spanish and English.
Below are some most common cases where English uses capital letters but Spanish does not.
Hoy es martes - Today is Tuesday
In formal written Spanish, only the first word and proper nouns in titles of movies, books, plays, etc should be capitalized.
La guerra de las galaxias - Star Wars
Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
However, in informal written Spanish, it's normal to see those composition titles are still capitalized as in English.
Introductory titles are not capitalized in Spanish. However, their common abbreviations are.
¿Conoces a la señora Wilson? - Do you know Mrs. Wilson?
¿Conoces a la Sra. Wilson? - Do you know Mrs. Wilson?
Sr. - abbreviation of señor
In Spanish, names of religions as well as their adherents aren't capitalized.
Mi madre es católica - My mother is Catholic
Estudio el cristianismo - I'm studying Christianity
In Spanish, when an ordinal number is used after a name, it isn't capitalized
Luis catorce - Luis the Fourteenth
Carlos octavo - Charles the Eighth
While the given name of lakes, rivers, mountains, and many other geographic features are capitalized, the place identifier is not.
No vimos el río Amazonas - We didn't see the Amazon River
Vivimos cerca de la montaña Rainier - We live near Mount Rainier
Another capitalization rule in Spanish that you should keep in mind is that while names of cities and countries are capitalized in Spanish, words that derived from them are not.
Soy inglés - I'm English
Prefiero los cocos puertorriqueños - I prefer the Puerto Rican coconuts
In Spanish, names of languages aren't capitalized
Hablo inglés - I speak English
The above rules for capital letters in Spanish would be useful to see differences between the use of uppercase and lowercase in English and Spanish. Follow our site for instant translation.