Capitalization

An Overview of Capitalization in French

Many words that are capitalized in English are not capitalized in French. The main categories of words that are different in French are:

a) The pronoun je, e.g.:

• Elle pense que je suis beau.

b) Days of the week, e.g.:

• On arrive lundi matin.

c) Months of the year, e.g.:

• Mon frère est né en novembre.

d) Names of languages, e.g.:

• Laurie apprend le français.

e) Adjectives referring to nationalities, e.g.:

• Ma cousine est française.

f) Names of religions, e.g.:

• Il est chrétien.
• Le hindouisme.

There are cases where French does use a capital letter. The main instances are:

a) At the beginning of a sentence, e.g.:

• Elle travaille. Je me repose.

b) When referring to the speaker of a language (or a noun describing one's nationality), e.g.:

• Les Espagnols adorent la plage.

c) Holidays, e.g.:

• Noël, Pâques.

d) Proper names, e.g.:

• Terry, Luc, Marie, Richard, Sarah, la France, etc.