When to use capital letters in German
Did you ever wonder why we write so many words with capital letters in German? After reading this article, you will know the five cases you must write with capital letters.
Capital letters in German
During language development, the idea of writing some words with capital letters arose because people wanted to devote attention to certain words. In English, for instance, one writes country names, nationalities, religions, or days with a capital letter.
Today, the following 5 cases demand us to write the words in capital letters.
Recommended study materials on the topic:
Worksheet: Comparison with adjectives (incl. answers)
B-Grammar: Practice German grammar (incl. answers)
German self-study book for A1-B1 (incl. answers)
1. Capitalization at the beginning of the sentence
As in English and most languages with capital and lowercase letters, you need to write the first letter of a word in capital letters if it is the first word of a sentence.
2. Capital letters of proper names
Proper names are words that have a direct association with a thing. This could be named Jochen, Maik, or Melanie; places such as “Kap der Guten Hoffnung“ or “Berlin,” streets “Magdeburger Straße” books, brands, or movies.
3. Capitalization of nouns
In German, we write all nouns with capital letters. Nouns are these words that describe a “thing” or a “person” as “das Auto” or “die Frau”. In case you are insecure if a word is a noun, you can always check if it has some article, for instance, ein, eine, der, die, das, den, dem, meine, seinen, keine, viele, etc.
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4. Capital letters for nominalization
As in most languages, you can also form an adjective or a verb into a noun in German. An adjective becomes a noun when we use signal words such as “wenig, viel, etwas…” as they indicate that a noun should follow. For instance, the adjective “neu” would become “viel Neues.” Besides, you can form every verb into a noun using the infinitive form and add “das”: laufen – das Laufen; singen – das Singen.
5. German formal pronouns
Today, when writing in German, one only uses capital letters for the polite form of “Sie” (Sie (akk.); Ihnen (dat.); Ihrer / Ihres (gen.), which we usually use when we speak with foreigners, officials, and elderly people. Once, this was also used for addressing “du” in letters, but it was changed by the “Spelling reform” and is therefore not used today.
Conclusion about capital letters in German
Now, after reading this article, you might have found out that the rules of when to write a word with capital letters are not so complicated. Germans do indeed pay attention to this aspect of their language, and this is why your new knowledge will help you improve your German skills.
Bis bald!
Steffie
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