Spanish capitalizes much less than English does. English speakers are used to capitalizing days of the week, months, nationalities, languages, religious adjectives, and more. Spanish treats most of these as ordinary common nouns or adjectives and writes them in lowercase. Getting this right is one of the fastest ways to make your Spanish writing look native.
The big list of things NOT capitalized
Here are categories that are lowercase in Spanish but uppercase in English. Each one surprises English speakers the first time they see it.
Languages
Names of languages are written in lowercase.
Nationalities and demonyms
Words for the people of a country or region are lowercase, whether they act as nouns or adjectives.
Soy chileno.
I am Chilean.
Es una tradición mexicana.
It is a Mexican tradition.
Days of the week
Days are common nouns in Spanish and stay lowercase.
Months
Months also stay lowercase.
Mi cumpleaños es en enero.
My birthday is in January.
Seasons
Seasons are lowercase too: primavera, verano, otoño, invierno.
Religious adherents
Words for members of a religion are lowercase.
Ella es católica y él es budista.
She is Catholic and he is Buddhist.
Titles before a name
Titles like señor, señora, doctor, profesor are lowercase when written out in full, even directly before a person's name.
Ayer hablé con el señor López.
Yesterday I spoke with Mr. López.
La doctora Martínez me atendió.
Dr. Martínez saw me.
However, when these titles are abbreviated, they are capitalized: Sr. López, Sra. Martínez, Dr. García.
| Title | Full (lowercase) | Abbreviated (uppercase) |
|---|---|---|
| Mister | señor | Sr. |
| Missus | señora | Sra. |
| Miss | señorita | Srta. |
| Doctor | doctor / doctora | Dr. / Dra. |
| Professor | profesor | Prof. |
What IS capitalized
Spanish does capitalize the same things as English for some categories. Here is the short list.
Proper names
Personal names, family names, and place names are always capitalized.
María vive en Buenos Aires, Argentina.
María lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The first word of a sentence
Just like English. Remember that after ¿ or ¡ the next letter is still capitalized if it is the start of the sentence.
Acronyms and initialisms
ONU (UN), EE. UU. (USA), OTAN (NATO).
Names of institutions, holidays, and works
Names of specific institutions, official holidays, and unique works are capitalized — but only the first word and any proper names within.
La Real Academia Española publica el diccionario.
The Royal Spanish Academy publishes the dictionary.
Titles of books, movies, and songs
Spanish uses sentence case for titles: capitalize only the first word and any proper nouns inside. This is very different from English title case, where most words are capitalized.
| English style | Spanish style |
|---|---|
| One Hundred Years of Solitude | Cien años de soledad |
| The House of the Spirits | La casa de los espíritus |
| Love in the Time of Cholera | El amor en los tiempos del cólera |
Estoy leyendo Cien años de soledad.
I'm reading One Hundred Years of Solitude.
Personal pronouns
Spanish does not capitalize yo (I) the way English capitalizes I. The pronoun yo is always lowercase unless it starts a sentence.
The formal "you" — usted — is also lowercase, although its abbreviation Ud. or Vd. is capitalized.
Related Topics
- Gender for People and ProfessionsA1 — How gender works for people: natural gender and professions
- Spelling Rules OverviewA1 — An introduction to Spanish spelling rules and the letters that cause the most confusion