Catalan capitalizes the beginning of a sentence and the distinctive words in proper names, but it uses lowercase much more often than English. Book titles follow sentence case, and languages, demonyms, weekdays, months, seasons, offices, and academic subjects are normally lowercase. A capital never cancels an accent, diaeresis, cedilla, apostrophe, or middle dot.
This page follows current IEC practice. The principles are shared broadly with AVL usage; individual institutions may have official stylings that must be reproduced exactly. Unless otherwise labeled, the examples are neutral in register.
Sentence beginnings and proper names
Capitalize the first word of a sentence and personal, geographic, institutional, and other unique names. The logic is reference: a proper name identifies a particular entity, while a common noun names a class.
Demà l'Àngels viatjarà a Eivissa.
Tomorrow Àngels will travel to Ibiza.
Demà is capitalized because it begins the sentence. Àngels and Eivissa are proper names. The grave accent in À remains mandatory even though the letter is uppercase.
La reunió serà a la Universitat de Barcelona.
The meeting will be at the University of Barcelona.
The official institutional name capitalizes Universitat and Barcelona. The preposition de remains lowercase. When the noun is merely a common reference, it is lowercase:
La universitat publicarà l'informe al setembre.
The university will publish the report in September.
Here universitat is not presented as the full official name, and setembre is a month name, so both are lowercase.
Institutions and official bodies
Capitalize the distinctive components of official institutions, departments, and organized bodies according to their registered names. Articles, prepositions, and conjunctions inside the name normally remain lowercase unless they begin it. Do not extend that pattern mechanically to every official title: names of legal documents normally capitalize only the first word and any proper names (Llei orgànica de protecció de dades), while programs and plans follow their own official form.
| Proper institutional name | Common reference |
|---|---|
| Institut d'Estudis Catalans | l'institut |
| Generalitat de Catalunya | el govern català |
| Departament de Salut | el departament |
| Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona | la universitat |
Treballa al Departament de Salut, però avui no anirà al departament.
She works at the Department of Health, but today she won't go to the department.
The first occurrence is the official body; the second is a common shortened reference. Capitalization carries that difference.
L'Institut d'Estudis Catalans té la seu a Barcelona.
The Institute for Catalan Studies has its headquarters in Barcelona.
The apostrophe remains attached to Institut. Writing L' Institut would be wrong regardless of capitalization because an apostrophized article and its host form one unbroken written unit.
Official branding can create genuine exceptions. If an organization registers an unconventional lowercase or internal capital, reproduce it in contexts where exact branding matters (formal). In ordinary prose, follow the normative name found in an authoritative source rather than inventing English-style capitals.
Titles of works use sentence case
In Catalan titles of books, films, articles, songs, and chapters, normally capitalize only the first word and any proper names inside the title. English title case is not transferred.
Aquest vespre veurem El laberint del faune.
This evening we'll watch Pan's Labyrinth.
Only El begins the title. Laberint and faune remain lowercase because they are common nouns.
Estic llegint La plaça del Diamant, de Mercè Rodoreda.
I'm reading The Time of the Doves, by Mercè Rodoreda.
The title begins with capital La. Diamant is capitalized because it belongs to the place name plaça del Diamant within the title. The author's given name preserves è.
Article and newspaper names may have their own established official capitalization. Section headings and headlines also normally use sentence case, not a capital on every major word.
L'article es titula «Com aprenem una llengua nova».
The article is titled “How we learn a new language.”
After the opening title word Com, the common words remain lowercase. Catalan angle quotation marks do not change capitalization.
Languages, demonyms, weekdays, months, and seasons
Catalan writes language names and adjectives of nationality or origin in lowercase. The same applies to days, months, and seasons unless a word begins a sentence or forms part of a proper name.
| Category | Lowercase examples | Why |
|---|---|---|
| languages | català, anglès, àrab | common names of languages |
| demonyms | català, valencià, europeu | derived adjectives or nouns |
| weekdays | dilluns, dimecres | recurring calendar classes |
| months | gener, setembre | recurring calendar classes |
| seasons | primavera, tardor | common nouns |
La Júlia estudia català els dimarts des del mes de setembre.
Júlia studies Catalan on Tuesdays starting in September.
English capitalizes Catalan, Tuesday, and September; Catalan does not. Júlia remains a proper name and keeps its accent.
A la primavera vindran uns amics valencians.
Some Valencian friends will come in the spring.
Primavera and valencians are common nouns or adjectives. Their lowercase spelling does not express lesser importance.
Proper names and derived families
A derived adjective or demonym usually becomes a common word and loses the capital of its source proper name. This morphological relationship explains why visually related forms can differ in case.
| Proper base | Derived common form |
|---|---|
| Catalunya | català, catalana, catalans, catalanes |
| Barcelona | barceloní, barcelonina |
| Europa | europeu, europea |
| València | valencià, valenciana |
Una investigadora europea treballa a Catalunya amb un equip català.
A European researcher works in Catalonia with a Catalan team.
Europa and Catalunya are proper names; europea and català are derived common adjectives. Morphology preserves the lexical family, but syntax determines capitalization.
Offices, professions, and academic subjects
Titles of office, professions, and fields of study are normally lowercase when used descriptively, even beside a person's name.
La presidenta parlarà amb el doctor Puig sobre història medieval.
The president will speak with Dr. Puig about medieval history.
Presidenta, doctor, and història medieval are common descriptions. Puig is a surname and is capitalized. Conventional abbreviations such as Dr. begin with a capital because that is the established abbreviated form.
La professora Serra imparteix lingüística a la universitat.
Professor Serra teaches linguistics at the university.
Professora is a title used as a common noun, lingüística is a field, and universitat is a generic institution reference.
Accents and special signs survive capitalization
Uppercase Catalan retains every diacritic and internal sign: À, È, É, Í, Ï, Ò, Ó, Ú, Ü, Ç, apostrophes, hyphens, and L·L. Typography never licenses ANGELS for ÀNGELS or a period in place of the middle dot. The accent rules apply to capitals exactly as they apply to lowercase letters.
ÀREA D'EDUCACIÓ I COL·LABORACIÓ
EDUCATION AND COLLABORATION DEPARTMENT
The capitals preserve À, Ó, the apostrophe, and the middle dot. A word processor may make these signs harder to type, but there is no normative exception.
Editing exercise
Edit the capitalization in this natural announcement; preserve all accents and punctuation:
❌ Dilluns, la Professora Serra presentarà El Futur Del Català a la Universitat.
Editing exercise — several common words and title words have unnecessary capitals.
✅ Dilluns, la professora Serra presentarà El futur del català a la universitat.
On Monday, Professor Serra will present The Future of Catalan at the university.
Dilluns is capitalized only because it begins the sentence. Professora and the generic universitat are lowercase; the title uses sentence case.
Common Mistakes
1. Importing English title case.
❌ He llegit El Temps De Les Cireres.
Incorrect — Catalan titles do not capitalize every major word.
✅ He llegit El temps de les cireres.
I've read The Time of the Cherries.
2. Capitalizing languages and demonyms.
❌ Parla Català amb uns amics Valencians.
Incorrect — language names and demonyms are lowercase.
✅ Parla català amb uns amics valencians.
She speaks Catalan with some Valencian friends.
3. Capitalizing days and months.
❌ La reunió serà un Dimecres de Setembre.
Incorrect — weekdays and months are common nouns.
✅ La reunió serà un dimecres de setembre.
The meeting will be on a Wednesday in September.
4. Omitting diacritics from capitals.
❌ ANGELS VIU A EVORA.
Incorrect — uppercase does not remove grave accents.
✅ ÀNGELS VIU A ÉVORA.
ÀNGELS LIVES IN ÉVORA.
5. Capitalizing a common institutional reference.
❌ La Universitat publicarà l'informe.
Incorrect if universitat is only a generic reference rather than the official name.
✅ La universitat publicarà l'informe.
The university will publish the report.
Key Takeaways
Capitalize sentence beginnings and true proper names. Keep languages, demonyms, weekdays, months, seasons, professions, offices, subjects, and generic institutional references lowercase. Use sentence case in titles. Most importantly, retain every accent and sign on uppercase letters: capitalization changes case, not orthography.
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