Capital letters and apostrophes

Capital letters and apostrophes

Do you know how to use capital letters and apostrophes correctly? Test what you know with interactive exercises and read the explanation to help you.

Look at these examples to see how capital letters and apostrophes are used.

India celebrates Independence Day on 15 August.
Adam speaks English, Arabic and some Persian.
It's really cold today! They say it'll snow tonight.
Jane's staying at her parents' house this week.

Try this exercise to test your grammar.

Grammar test 1

Capital letters and apostrophers: Grammar test 1

Grammar explanation

Capitalisation

There are lots of times when you need to use capital letters – for example, to start a sentence or for the pronoun I. Here are some other important rules for using them.

Days, months and holidays

We capitalise days of the week, months and festivals, but not seasons.

His birthday party is on Thursday.
Schools are closed at Christmas.
It rains a lot in April and May, but the summer is very dry.

Names of people and places

We capitalise the names of people and places, including streets, planets, continents and countries.

Bea Jankowski has lived on Church Street in Manchester for 20 years.
The Earth is the third planet from the Sun.
Russia is in both Europe and Asia.

Words that come from the names of places – for example languages, nationalities and adjectives that refer to people or things from a country, region or city – are capitalised. We also capitalise nouns and adjectives that come from the names of religions.

Some Canadians speak French.
Londoners eat a lot of Indian food.
Most Muslims fast during the day for Ramadan.

Titles and names of institutions

The names of organisations and usually the important words in book and film titles are capitalised. When a person's job title goes before their name, capitalise both. If the title is separate from their name, capitalise only their name.

Salome Zourabichvili, the president of Georgia, is visiting President Alvi tomorrow.
The chief executive officer lives in New York.
We are reading
War and Peace with Ms Ioana, our teacher.

Apostrophes

We use an apostrophe to show a contraction or possession.

Contractions

We use an apostrophe to show where there are missing letters in contractions.

It's raining. (It's = It is)
Don't worry, it won't rain. (Don't = Do not; won't = will not)
She can't drive because she's broken her leg. (can't = cannot; she's = she has)
I'd like a coffee, please. (I'd = I would)
You'll be fine. (You'll = You will)

** Note that it's is a contraction of it is or it has. its is a possessive form of the pronoun it.

The dog is chasing its tail.
Are you sure it's OK for me to ring you so early?
It's rained a lot this week.

Possession

We also use an apostrophe with the letter s after a noun (normally a person, animal or group) to show that the noun owns someone or something.

My cat's favourite toy is a small, red ball.
Sadiq's parents live in Liverpool.

South Korea's economy is growing. 

Singular or plural

We use 's when the possessor is singular.

Marie's mother is going to Hong Kong.

We also use 's when the possessor is a plural noun that does not end in s.

The People's Republic of China
My cousin writes children's books.

When a plural noun ends in s, we put the apostrophe after the s (s').

This is a picture of my parents' house.
Our friend's new car is red. She just got it yesterday.
Our friends' new car is red. They just got it yesterday.

When a singular noun ends in s, we generally use 's.

James's brother-in-law is German.
He has a collection of Dickens's novels.

Do this exercise to test your grammar again.

Grammar test 2

Capital letters and apostrophers: Grammar test 2

Language level

Average: 4.1 (63 votes)
Hello Peter. So I understand that the sentence is correct but ambiguous, right? Thank you.

Submitted by My Linh on Tue, 13/04/2021 - 00:57

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I was born on 9 January and I live in Viet Nam. My city is really beautiful and modern with a lot of speacial places or good you. If you have a chance to travel abrouiet Nam. My city is really beautiful and modern with a lot of speacial places or good you. If you have a chance to travel abroad, it will be a wonderful place you can explore.

Submitted by wasan0909 on Sat, 27/03/2021 - 16:13

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well, it was late and I did not want to wake up in Saudi, where the summer is very hot, camels they have been to America, Ireland, and the south coast yes, I would like some more please we do not need a taxi, I suggest she side: "all woman are powerful" it was taken from the book 'Oliver Twist' if you ever miss me, do not hesitate to call me the trip was nice, there was a lot of trees

Submitted by HEMAM on Sun, 17/01/2021 - 10:20

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Hello In the first test Adila is staying at her ___ house while they are on holiday. why parents' and not parent's It's a collective noun and we use apostrophe before the letter -s or not.!!
Profile picture for user Kirk Moore

Submitted by Kirk Moore on Sun, 17/01/2021 - 14:22

In reply to by HEMAM

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Hello Hemam,

'parent' is not a collective noun -- it refers to just one person.

All the best,

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Submitted by Nabi on Mon, 11/01/2021 - 18:29

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Hello sir Here the weeks don't show any possession than why we use (')? Thanks
Profile picture for user Peter M.

Submitted by Peter M. on Tue, 12/01/2021 - 08:27

In reply to by Nabi

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Hello Nabi,

We think of the work belonging to the day, I suppose. It is a rather odd use when you think about it but it's quite common:

Two weeks' work

A hundred dollars' worth

 

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Submitted by soniariverofdez on Mon, 28/12/2020 - 16:54

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Why "Holi" (holiday?) is with Capital in the Grammar test 1 ?

Hello soniariverofdez,

'Holi' is the name of a holiday of Indian origin. The names of holidays are capitalised.

All the best,

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team