Always capitalize names of places and regions. 🌍
Here are some examples:
Rocky Mountains, Hudson River, West Coast, North Texas
Tip: Names of places are proper nouns.
There are four compass directions: north, south, east, and west.
They help you get around the world.
If someone asks you for directions, knowing the compass directions comes in really handy.
You can tell them something like:
Drive north two more blocks. They live on the east side of the street.
If you go north, you'll end up at the North Pole. It's cold there. 🌨
The sun always rises in the east and sets in the west, wherever you are on the planet.
Usually we don't capitalize directions:
Birds fly south in the winter.
Capitalize directions only if they are included in a name.
North Pole
Tip: if you add "the" before a direction, it turns into the name of a location!
Birds fly to the South in the winter.
This sentence is showing a location, the South. The South is a region.
Capitalize region names, like "the North".
Do not capitalize “the” in front of geographic names unless it is the first word of the sentence.
Incorrect: ❎
We went to The Grand Canyon.
Correct: ✅
We went to the Grand Canyon.
Names of continents, countries, and languages are capitalized.
North America, Europe, Asia
English, Spanish, French
Tip: we don't capitalize:
french fries
French in french fries is not capitalized because french is a type of cut of a potato! It doesn't mean the country France.
French would be capitalized if talking about the language, or something by that country.
I am studying French in school.
I enjoy French food.
We do capitalize Buffalo wings, because Buffalo is the city where they were invented.
Have you had Buffalo wings? They're fried chicken wings covered in spicy sauce.
Is the geographic name capitalized correctly?
I wanted mexican food for dinner.
No.
Mexican should be capitalized.
I wanted Mexican food for dinner.
Let’s try another one. 💪
Is this geographic name capitalized correctly? 👇
We went fishing on the Great Salt Lake.
Yes! The Great Salt Lake is the complete name of the lake and capitalized correctly.
Let’s try one more! 😃
Is this geographic name capitalized correctly?
Go North 5 miles and take a right.
No, north is a direction in this sentence, not a location! It's not, "the North".
Go north 5 miles and take a right. ✅
Great job learning to capitalize names of places, regions, and directions! 😺
Now, complete the practice to master these rules for yourself.