Capital letters: when to use them

Seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter are lower case in British English, unless they start a sentence or are part of a name ("the Summer Olympics").

School subjects: maths, history and biology are lower case, but languages keep their capital: English, French. A course title is a name: "I'm taking Introduction to Economics."

Job titles used generally: "She is a doctor" and "the manager of the bank". Use a capital when the title comes before a name ("Doctor Rao") and, in many British publications, for a specific official post such as the Prime Minister.

Compass points: "the north of England" is a direction, so lower case. Use a capital when it is part of a name: Northern Ireland, South Africa.

There are two common styles. Sentence case capitalises only the first word and proper nouns: "The effects of tourism on small islands". It is widely used by British newspapers, websites and many academic publishers.

Title case capitalises the main words and leaves short words such as a, of and the in lower case: "The Effects of Tourism on Small Islands". It is common for book titles. Either is correct if you are consistent.

British usage writes titles such as Mr, Mrs, Ms and Dr without a full stop. American usage adds one: Mr. and Dr.

• Wrong: My favourite season is Winter.

  Right: My favourite season is winter.

  Seasons are lower case in British English.

• Wrong: i think the plan will work.

  Right: I think the plan will work.

  The pronoun I is always a capital.

• Wrong: She speaks english and urdu.

  Right: She speaks English and Urdu.

  Languages always take a capital letter.

• Wrong: My Father is a Doctor in a Hospital.

  Right: My father is a doctor in a hospital.

  These are common nouns, so they are lower case.

In IELTS and PTE writing, capital letter errors count as spelling and punctuation mistakes. Common slips are lower case days, months and nationalities, and random capitals on ordinary nouns such as Government or Education. In the IELTS Listening and Reading tests, answers are generally accepted in either capitals or lower case, but clear, correct spelling still matters. Writing your Listening answers in capitals is a common habit that avoids these mistakes.

Try each one, then open it to check your answer.

1. 1. Correct this: "we will meet on tuesday in march."

   We will meet on Tuesday in March.

   Sentence start, days and months take capitals.

2. 2. Capital or not? "I love (A/a)utumn in (K/k)ashmir."

   autumn, Kashmir

   Seasons are lower case; place names take a capital.

3. 3. Capital or not? "My aunt is a (P/p)rofessor."

   professor

   A job title used generally is lower case.

4. 4. Capital or not? "I study (M/m)aths and (F/f)rench."

   maths, French

   School subjects are lower case unless they are languages.

5. 5. Write in British style: "Mrs. Ahmed"

   Mrs Ahmed

   British English writes Mr, Mrs and Dr without a full stop.

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