Capital letters and full stops

Every sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop (or a question mark or exclamation mark). Inside a sentence, capital letters are only for special words: the names of people and places, days of the week, months, and the word ⟦I⟧.

Key facts

  • A sentence starts with a capital letter: ⟦The bus is late.⟧
  • A sentence ends with a full stop: ⟦We like to read.⟧
  • Names of people and places have capital letters: ⟦Amira⟧, ⟦Cape Town⟧, ⟦Egypt⟧.
  • Days and months have capital letters: ⟦Monday⟧, ⟦March⟧ (but not seasons: ⟦summer⟧).
  • The word ⟦I⟧ is always a capital letter: ⟦Leo and I went home.⟧
  • Two ideas are usually two sentences, each with its own capital letter and full stop.

Worked examples

Example 1

Write with capital letters and a full stop: ⟦my cat sleeps all day⟧

  1. The first word, ⟦my⟧, gets a capital letter: ⟦My⟧.
  2. No other word is a name, so the rest stays small.
  3. End with a full stop: ⟦My cat sleeps all day.⟧

Answer: ⟦My cat sleeps all day.⟧

Example 2

Write with capital letters and a full stop: ⟦on friday thandi and i went to durban⟧

  1. The sentence starts with ⟦on⟧: ⟦On⟧.
  2. ⟦Friday⟧ is a day, ⟦Thandi⟧ is a person and ⟦Durban⟧ is a place: all capitals.
  3. ⟦I⟧ is always a capital letter.
  4. ⟦On Friday Thandi and I went to Durban.⟧

Answer: ⟦On Friday Thandi and I went to Durban.⟧

Example 3

This is two sentences. Write them correctly: ⟦it was cold we wore our coats⟧

  1. Idea one: ⟦it was cold⟧. Idea two: ⟦we wore our coats⟧.
  2. Put a full stop after the first idea, and a capital letter at the start of the second.
  3. ⟦It was cold. We wore our coats.⟧

Answer: ⟦It was cold. We wore our coats.⟧