Spanish capitalization rules: when to use uppercase and lowercase

Spanish capitalization rules

What gets a capital letter in Spanish?

Capitalize the first word of a text or sentence, the first word after a full stop, and the first word of a new sentence after a closing question or exclamation mark.

Capitalize proper names of people, places, institutions, festivities, and named historical events. A generic word inside a geographical expression often stays lowercase: el océano Pacífico.

Use lowercase for common categories that English often capitalizes: lunes, agosto, español, argentina, católico, presidente.

Four rules that solve most capitalization doubts

Start sentences and complete quoted sentences with a capital letter. After a colon, lowercase is the default; capitals are reserved for defined cases such as a complete quotation or an independent notice.

Capitalize the distinctive part of a proper name; keep generic common nouns lowercase when the official name does not include them.

Keep days, months, seasons, languages, nationalities, religions, and ordinary titles or offices lowercase.

In titles of books, films, songs, and articles, capitalize the first word and proper names only. Never remove an accent because the vowel is uppercase.

32 Spanish capitalization examples

The examples move from sentence boundaries to proper names, lowercase categories, titles, abbreviations, and accented capitals.

Study capitalization by the reason behind it

A short label—sentence boundary, proper name, lowercase category, or title and form—makes each choice easier to retrieve.

How do I check a real Spanish sentence?

Mark sentence boundaries first: the beginning, a full stop, a complete quotation, or a new sentence after ? or !. After a colon, expect lowercase unless a specific convention starts a complete quotation, a letter body after its salutation, or an independent notice.

Circle names that uniquely identify a person, place, institution, holiday, or event. Then separate any generic common word that remains lowercase.

Check for English transfer. Days, months, seasons, languages, nationalities, religions, and ordinary job titles are usually lowercase in Spanish.

Hola Cards is a Spanish flashcard app from holacards.org for iOS and Android. It is free to download, requires no account, has no ads, and works offline. The interface is available in English, Russian, and Portuguese; cards support translations in 28 languages and 18 practice and game modes. You can import these 32 fixed examples into a custom group and practise them with Spanish audio, writing, pronunciation, and review modes. Hola Cards does not correct capitalization or complete sentences automatically.

Connect capitalization with punctuation, accent marks, adjective agreement, countries and nationalities, and Spanish writing practice.

Spanish punctuation rules / Words that change meaning with accents / Spanish adjective agreement / Countries and nationalities / Spanish writing practice app

A five-minute capitalization drill

1. Underline the first word of every sentence.
2. Box the full proper names and leave generic category words outside the box.
3. Change English-style capitals in days, months, languages, nationalities, and jobs to lowercase.
4. Rewrite two English-style titles using Spanish sentence-style capitalization.
5. Read the corrected examples aloud, then type them without removing accents from capital vowels.

Primary language references

The rules were checked against RAE–ASALE orthography guidance and Instituto Cervantes guidance on uppercase letters.

• RAE–ASALE: use of capital letters
• Instituto Cervantes: use of uppercase letters

**Spanish capitalization: 32 examples**

Mañana empieza el curso. - The course starts tomorrow.
Llegamos tarde. El museo estaba cerrado. - We arrived late. The museum was closed.
¿Dónde está Ana? Vive cerca. - Where is Ana? She lives nearby.
¡Qué sorpresa! No lo sabía. - What a surprise! I did not know.
El guía dijo: «Mañana salimos temprano». - The guide said, “Tomorrow we leave early.”
Trae tres cosas: lápiz, papel y agua. - Bring three things: a pencil, paper, and water.
Primero, abre el libro. Después, escucha el audio. - First, open the book. Then listen to the audio.
AVISO: Esta puerta permanecerá cerrada. - NOTICE: This door will remain closed.
Ana Torres vive en México. - Ana Torres lives in Mexico.
Visitamos el Museo del Prado. - We visited the Prado Museum.
Estudia en la Universidad de Salamanca. - She studies at the University of Salamanca.
Navegaron por el océano Pacífico. - They sailed across the Pacific Ocean.
Cruzamos la cordillera de los Andes. - We crossed the Andes mountain range.
Celebramos el Día de Muertos. - We celebrate the Day of the Dead.
La Revolución francesa comenzó en 1789. - The French Revolution began in 1789.
La Organización Mundial de la Salud publicó el informe. - The World Health Organization published the report.
Nos vemos el lunes 14 de agosto. - See you on Monday, August 14.
Prefiero viajar en primavera. - I prefer to travel in spring.
Hablo español y portugués. - I speak Spanish and Portuguese.
Lucía es argentina y Mateo es chileno. - Lucía is Argentinian and Mateo is Chilean.
La familia es católica. - The family is Catholic.
La presidenta García abrió la reunión. - President García opened the meeting.
El profesor López enseña historia. - Professor López teaches history.
Viajamos hacia el sur de España. - We travelled towards the south of Spain.
Estoy leyendo Cien años de soledad. - I am reading One Hundred Years of Solitude.
Vimos El laberinto del fauno. - We watched Pan's Labyrinth.
El artículo se titula «Cómo aprender vocabulario». - The article is titled “How to Learn Vocabulary.”
La sección se llama Preguntas frecuentes. - The section is called Frequently Asked Questions.
La Sra. Pérez llegará a las diez. - Ms. Pérez will arrive at ten.
La ONU tiene su sede en Nueva York. - The UN has its headquarters in New York.
Ángela nació en África. - Ángela was born in Africa.
Úrsula escribió «Érase una vez». - Úrsula wrote “Once upon a time.”