Capitalization

An Overview of Capitalization

Many words that are capitalized in English are not capitalized in Portuguese. The main categories are:

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Not capitalized in Portuguese

a) Pronouns

• Pensa que eu sou simpático

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b) Days of the week

• os meus primos chegaram na segunda-feira

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c) Months of the year

• o meu aniversário é em novembro

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d) Names of languages

• tu falas português muito bem

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e) Adjectives of nationality

• nós somos canadianos

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f) Religions (general reference)

• ele é cristão

• o hinduísmo

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Capitalization is used in Portuguese

a) Beginning of a sentence

• Ela perguntou-me. Eu respondi.

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b) Holidays

• o Natal

• o Dia de Todos os Santos

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c) Proper nouns

• Terry, Maria, Ricardo

• Portugal, Brasil, Lisboa

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⚠️ Important notes

• Titles are less capitalized than in English:

  • o presidente da república

• Nationalities remain lowercase:

  • um estudante português

• Languages are lowercase:

  • falo inglês

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🔑 Key points

• Portuguese uses fewer capital letters than English

• Days, months, languages, nationalities → lowercase

• Proper nouns and sentence starts → uppercase