Russian capitalization is governed by one big, liberating principle: Russian capitalizes far less than English. Whole categories of words that English speakers reflexively capitalize — days of the week, months, nationalities, languages, religions — are lowercase in Russian. This means most capitalization "rules" for English speakers are really un-learning rules: you have to actively suppress an instinct. Get that suppression in place and Russian capitalization becomes simpler than English, not harder. This page lays out what Russian capitalizes, what it pointedly does not, and the two genuinely Russian quirks (the lowercase "I" and the courteous capital Вы).
What Russian DOES capitalize
The capitalized categories are a short list, and most overlap with English, so they cause no trouble.
- The first word of a sentence. As in English.
- Proper names — people, cities, countries, rivers, planets, brand names: Ива́н (Ivan), Москва́ (Moscow), Росси́я (Russia), Во́лга (the Volga), Земля́ (Earth, as a planet).
- The first word of titles and names of organizations, books, films, holidays — but, crucially, only the first word (see the dedicated section below).
Ива́н живёт в Москве́.
Ivan lives in Moscow. — Both the personal name (Ива́н) and the city (Москве́, the prepositional form of Москва́) are capitalized, exactly as in English.
Росси́я — больша́я страна́.
Russia is a big country. — The country name Росси́я is capitalized; страна́ ('country') is an ordinary common noun and stays lowercase.
So far this matches English instincts. The trouble lies entirely in the next section — the categories where the two languages diverge.
What Russian does NOT capitalize (but English does)
This is the heart of the page and the source of almost every transfer error. English capitalizes a cluster of categories that Russian treats as ordinary common words. Memorize this list as a "do not capitalize" set, because your English reflex will fire on every one of them.
| Category | English (capitalized) | Russian (lowercase) |
|---|---|---|
| Days of the week | Monday | понеде́льник |
| Months | January | янва́рь |
| Nationality (noun) | an American | америка́нец |
| Nationality (adjective) | Russian (cuisine) | ру́сский |
| Languages | English, French | англи́йский, францу́зский |
| Religions / adherents | Christianity, a Buddhist | христиа́нство, будди́ст |
Days and months
Days of the week and months of the year are plain common nouns in Russian. They are never capitalized mid-sentence — only at the start of a sentence, like any word.
В понеде́льник у меня́ экза́мен.
On Monday I have an exam. — понеде́льник ('Monday') is lowercase; capitalizing it is a classic English-transfer mistake.
Мой день рожде́ния в январе́.
My birthday is in January. — январе́ (the prepositional form of янва́рь, 'January') stays lowercase.
Nationalities and languages
This is the most frequent error of all, because nationalities and languages come up constantly. Both the noun for a nationality (an Englishman, a Russian) and the adjective (English, Russian) are lowercase. The name of a language — formed from that adjective plus язы́к "language," or used alone — is likewise lowercase.
Я англича́нин.
I'm English / an Englishman. — англича́нин is a common noun: lowercase. (For a woman: я англича́нка.)
Она́ говори́т по-ру́сски и по-англи́йски.
She speaks Russian and English. — The language adverbs по-ру́сски / по-англи́йски are lowercase.
Я изуча́ю ру́сский язы́к.
I'm studying (the) Russian language. — ру́сский язы́к — both words lowercase. In English you'd capitalize 'Russian'; in Russian you do not.
Religions and their adherents
Names of religions (христиа́нство "Christianity," исла́м "Islam," будди́зм "Buddhism") and the people who follow them (христиани́н "a Christian," мусульма́нин "a Muslim," будди́ст "a Buddhist") are common nouns and stay lowercase. (Names of specific sacred figures and texts — Бог "God" in monotheistic reference, Би́блия "the Bible" — follow proper-noun rules and are capitalized, but that is a narrower convention.)
Он будди́ст, а она́ христиа́нка.
He's a Buddhist and she's a Christian. — Both будди́ст and христиа́нка are lowercase common nouns.
The pronoun я ("I") is lowercase mid-sentence
English is almost unique in capitalizing the first-person pronoun I everywhere. Russian does not. The pronoun я ("I") is written lowercase whenever it is not the first word of a sentence — exactly like ты ("you"), он ("he"), or any other pronoun.
Сего́дня я о́чень уста́л.
Today I'm very tired. — я ('I') is lowercase mid-sentence; only Сего́дня ('today') is capitalized, because it begins the sentence.
Я ду́маю, что я прав.
I think that I'm right. — The first Я is capitalized only because it starts the sentence; the second я, mid-sentence, is lowercase.
Titles capitalize only the first word — no title case
English uses title case: in a book or film title, most words are capitalized (War and Peace, The Brothers Karamazov). Russian does not. In titles of books, films, articles, organizations, and the like, only the first word is capitalized (plus any proper nouns inside it); every other ordinary word is lowercase.
«Война́ и мир» — рома́н Толсто́го.
War and Peace is a novel by Tolstoy. — Only Война́ ('War,' the first word) is capitalized; и ('and') and мир ('peace') stay lowercase. English title case ('War And Peace') would be wrong in Russian.
Он чита́ет «Преступле́ние и наказа́ние».
He's reading Crime and Punishment. — Only Преступле́ние (first word) is capitalized; и and наказа́ние are lowercase.
Note also the title punctuation: Russian wraps titles in guillemets « » rather than italics or English quotation marks — see punctuation-and-quotation.
Names of organizations and institutions follow the same first-word-only logic, with internal proper nouns also capitalized:
Моско́вский госуда́рственный университе́т
Moscow State University — Only Моско́вский (first word) is capitalized; госуда́рственный ('state') and университе́т ('university') are lowercase, unlike the English convention of capitalizing each major word.
The courteous capital Вы (in letters)
There is one place where Russian adds a capital that English does not: the polite/formal second-person pronoun вы can be written with a capital Вы as a mark of respect when addressing a specific individual, primarily in letters, emails, and formal written correspondence. This is a courtesy convention, not a grammatical rule.
Уважа́емый господи́н Петро́в, благодарю́ Вас за письмо́.
Dear Mr. Petrov, thank You for your letter. — In a formal letter to one person, Вас (the accusative of Вы) is capitalized as a courtesy.
Two important limits:
- Capitalize Вы only when addressing one specific person politely in writing. When вы is genuinely plural (addressing several people), it stays lowercase even in a letter.
- In ordinary running text, dialogue, signage, and most digital writing, вы is lowercase. The capital is reserved for the respectful-correspondence register and is increasingly optional even there.
Здра́вствуйте! Как вы пожива́ете?
Hello! How are you (doing)? — In ordinary conversation written down, polite вы is lowercase; the capital is a letter-writing courtesy only.
Source-language comparison
For English speakers, the entire challenge of Russian capitalization is subtraction. English is a heavy capitalizer: it capitalizes "I," every day and month, every nationality and language, and most words in a title. Russian strips almost all of that away. The practical effect is that nearly every Russian capitalization "error" by an English speaker is an over-capitalization — Shift-keying a word that should be lowercase. The two languages agree on sentence-initial capitals and proper names; they disagree on essentially everything else, and they disagree in a single consistent direction (Russian lowercases what English capitalizes). The only place Russian adds a capital English lacks is the courteous Вы in letters.
Common Mistakes
❌ В Понеде́льник у меня́ уро́к.
Incorrect — Понеде́льник should be lowercase; days of the week are not capitalized in Russian.
✅ В понеде́льник у меня́ уро́к.
On Monday I have a lesson.
❌ Я изуча́ю Ру́сский язы́к.
Incorrect — Ру́сский (the language adjective) must be lowercase.
✅ Я изуча́ю ру́сский язы́к.
I'm studying the Russian language.
❌ Сего́дня Я рабо́таю до́ма.
Incorrect — я ('I') is lowercase mid-sentence; only the sentence-initial Сего́дня is capitalized.
✅ Сего́дня я рабо́таю до́ма.
Today I'm working from home.
❌ «Война́ И Мир»
Incorrect — Russian does not use title case; only the first word is capitalized.
✅ «Война́ и мир»
War and Peace — only the first word is capitalized.
❌ Он Америка́нец.
Incorrect (mid-sentence) — америка́нец ('an American') is a common noun and stays lowercase.
✅ Он америка́нец.
He's an American.
Key Takeaways
- Russian capitalizes far less than English — the main skill is suppressing the English instinct.
- Lowercase in Russian (capitalized in English): days (понеде́льник), months (янва́рь), nationalities (америка́нец, ру́сский), languages (англи́йский), religions and adherents (будди́ст).
- Capitalized: the first word of a sentence and proper names (Ива́н, Москва́, Росси́я).
- Titles capitalize only the first word — there is no title case (Война́ и мир, not "War And Peace").
- The pronoun я ("I") is lowercase mid-sentence, unlike English "I."
- The polite Вы is capitalized as a courtesy only when addressing one person in a formal letter; everywhere else it is lowercase.
Now practice Russian
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