Capitalization Edge Cases: Titles, Brands, Sentences | Dutch Grammar

Once you know the basics — Dutch capitalizes sentence-initial words and proper nouns, and keeps the capital on language names and geographically-derived adjectives (Nederlands the language, de Nederlandse taal, de Franse keuken), but lowercases days and months (maandag, mei) — you still hit a set of edge cases that catch out even confident learners. What happens when a sentence starts with an apostrophe, as in 's Morgens? How do you capitalize a heading — English title-case, or not? What about a brand like iPhone at the start of a sentence, a historical period like de Tweede Wereldoorlog, or the reverent capitals in religious writing? This page collects those corners. It assumes the basic rules from capitalization and the IJ digraph and extends them into the situations where English habits actively mislead.

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The recurring theme is that Dutch capitalization is more restrained than English. Where English reaches for a capital — every major word in a title, brand styling, "the War" — Dutch usually doesn't. The edge cases below are mostly about resisting the English instinct to over-capitalize.

The 's-sentence-start rule: 's Morgens, 's Avonds

Dutch has a small set of fixed time expressions built from an archaic genitive des, contracted to 's: 's morgens (in the morning), 's avonds (in the evening), 's middags (in the afternoon), 's nachts (at night), plus 's zomers, 's winters, and the place name 's-Gravenhage (The Hague). The apostrophe-s is a clitic — it leans on the next word — and it is always lowercase, even at the start of a sentence.

So what happens when one of these opens a sentence? You cannot capitalize the 's (it's a contraction, not a real word), so Dutch capitalizes the next word instead — the first "real" word of the sentence:

's Avonds is het hier altijd lekker rustig.

'In the evening it's always nice and quiet here.' Sentence-initial 's stays lowercase; the NEXT word, Avonds, is capitalized.

's Morgens vroeg loop ik altijd even met de hond.

'Early in the morning I always take the dog out.' 's stays lowercase, Morgens takes the capital.

's Zomers gaan we meestal naar de Ardennen.

'In summer we usually go to the Ardennes.' Same rule: lowercase 's, capital Zomers.

Mid-sentence, of course, both stay lowercase — Ik werk meestal 's avonds — because nothing needs capitalizing there.

Ik werk het liefst 's avonds, als de kinderen slapen.

'I prefer to work in the evening, when the kids are asleep.' Mid-sentence: 's avonds is entirely lowercase.

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This is the rule English speakers have literally no analogue for: a sentence whose first letter is a lowercase apostrophe-s, with the capital landing on the second element. 's Avonds... looks like a typo to an English eye, but it is the correct, official form. The place name 's-Gravenhage works the same way.

Headings: sentence case, not English title case

English headlines capitalize Every Major Word ("The History of the Dutch Language"). Dutch does not. A Dutch heading, title, or chapter name uses sentence case: capitalize only the first word and any words that are proper nouns anyway. Everything else stays lowercase.

De geschiedenis van de Nederlandse taal

'The History of the Dutch Language' — Dutch capitalizes only De (first word) and Nederlandse (from the proper noun Nederland); geschiedenis, van, de, taal stay lowercase.

Hoe je in tien stappen leert koken

'How to Learn to Cook in Ten Steps' — only Hoe (first word) is capitalized; an English title would capitalize Learn, Cook, Ten, Steps too.

English title case	Dutch sentence case
A Short History of Time	Een korte geschiedenis van de tijd
The Lord of the Rings	In de ban van de ring
The Diary of a Young Girl	Het achterhuis

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For headings, the rule is: write a Dutch title as if it were a sentence. First word capitalized, proper nouns capitalized, nothing else. Applying English title case to a Dutch heading is one of the clearest "non-native" tells in written Dutch.

Brand and product names: iPhone keeps its lowercase i

Modern brand names often have deliberate internal capitalization — iPhone, eBay, iPad. Dutch respects the brand's own styling even mid-sentence, so the lowercase first letter stays lowercase where you'd normally expect a capital. The genuinely tricky case is a brand like this at the start of a sentence: official guidance is to keep the brand's own form (iPhone), not force a capital I.

Mijn nieuwe iPhone valt me een beetje tegen.

'My new iPhone is a bit of a disappointment.' iPhone keeps its lowercase i mid-sentence — you don't 'fix' it to Iphone.

iPhones zijn hier flink duurder dan in de VS.

'iPhones are quite a bit more expensive here than in the US.' At the sentence start, the brand styling is preserved; the capital P does the visual work.

Ze bestelt bijna alles via bol.com.

'She orders almost everything through bol.com.' The brand bol.com is lowercase by design and stays that way.

A practical hedge many writers use: reword so the brand isn't the very first word, sidestepping the awkward lowercase start. But preserving the brand form is the correct, modern convention.

Historical periods and events: de Gouden Eeuw

Names of specific historical periods, eras, and major events are treated as proper names and take capitals on the significant words. This is one place Dutch does capitalize — because these are names, not descriptions.

Dutch	English
de Gouden Eeuw	the Golden Age (Dutch 17th c.)
de Tweede Wereldoorlog	the Second World War
de Eerste Wereldoorlog	the First World War
de Middeleeuwen	the Middle Ages
de Verlichting	the Enlightenment

Veel van deze schilderijen komen uit de Gouden Eeuw.

'Many of these paintings date from the Golden Age.' de Gouden Eeuw — both Gouden and Eeuw capitalized as a period name.

Mijn opa heeft de Tweede Wereldoorlog nog meegemaakt.

'My grandpa lived through the Second World War.' de Tweede Wereldoorlog: Tweede and Wereldoorlog capitalized; the article de stays lowercase.

Note the contrast: the article de stays lowercase, and a general reference to a century (de zeventiende eeuw, "the seventeenth century") is not capitalized — only the named era de Gouden Eeuw is. The capital marks "this is a proper name," not just "this is old."

Dat huis is gebouwd in de zeventiende eeuw.

'That house was built in the seventeenth century.' de zeventiende eeuw — lowercase, because it's a plain century, not a named era.

Religious capitals: God, U, Hem

In religious writing, Dutch capitalizes God and other names of the divine, and — in reverent texts — capitalizes pronouns referring to God: U, Hem, Hij, Zijn. This mirrors the older English convention (He, Thee) but is still actively used in Dutch religious and liturgical contexts.

Wij danken U voor deze maaltijd.

'We thank You for this meal.' U capitalized as a reverent reference to God in a table prayer.

Zij vertrouwde haar hele leven op God en op Zijn genade.

'She trusted God and His grace all her life.' God and the pronoun Zijn ('His') are capitalized in the religious register.

Outside religious contexts, god is lowercase when generic (de Griekse goden, "the Greek gods"), and the reverent pronoun capitals do not apply.

In de Griekse mythologie hadden de goden voortdurend ruzie.

'In Greek mythology the gods were constantly quarrelling.' goden — lowercase, generic plural, not the monotheistic God.

Common Mistakes

❌ 'S Avonds (capital S after the apostrophe)

Incorrect — the apostrophe-s stays lowercase; the capital goes on the next word.

✅ 's Avonds

'In the evening' — lowercase 's, capital on Avonds.

❌ De Geschiedenis Van De Nederlandse Taal (English title case)

Incorrect — Dutch headings use sentence case: only the first word and proper nouns.

✅ De geschiedenis van de Nederlandse taal

'The History of the Dutch Language' — sentence case.

❌ Iphone valt me tegen (forcing a capital I on the brand)

Incorrect — preserve the brand's own styling: iPhone, even at a sentence start.

✅ iPhone / Mijn iPhone valt me tegen

'iPhone' — keep the lowercase i.

❌ de tweede wereldoorlog (all lowercase)

Incorrect — named historical events are proper names: capitalize the significant words.

✅ de Tweede Wereldoorlog

'the Second World War' — Tweede and Wereldoorlog capitalized, article de lowercase.

❌ Capitalizing every century: de Zeventiende Eeuw

Incorrect — a plain century isn't a named era; only de Gouden Eeuw and the like take capitals.

✅ de zeventiende eeuw, but de Gouden Eeuw

'the seventeenth century' (lowercase) vs 'the Golden Age' (named era, capitalized).

Key Takeaways

A sentence starting with 's keeps the apostrophe-s lowercase and capitalizes the next word: 's Morgens, 's Avonds, 's Zomers.
Dutch headings use sentence case — first word plus proper nouns only — never English title case.
Brand names keep their own styling even mid-sentence and at the sentence start: iPhone, eBay, bol.com.
Named historical eras and events are proper names and take capitals on the significant words (de Gouden Eeuw, de Tweede Wereldoorlog), but the article de stays lowercase and a plain century (de zeventiende eeuw) does not.
In the religious register, God and reverent pronouns (U, Hem, Zijn) are capitalized; generic goden and ordinary pronouns are not.

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