{"id":15176,"date":"2021-08-27T09:42:03","date_gmt":"2021-08-27T13:42:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/?p=15176"},"modified":"2021-08-27T09:42:03","modified_gmt":"2021-08-27T13:42:03","slug":"uppercases-in-spanish-a-practical-guide-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/uppercases-in-spanish-a-practical-guide-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Uppercases in Spanish: A practical guide (Part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-15177\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/keyboard-886462_960_720-350x197.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"670\" height=\"377\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/keyboard-886462_960_720-350x197.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/keyboard-886462_960_720-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/keyboard-886462_960_720.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 670px) 100vw, 670px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>One of the most controversial subjects regarding Spanish grammar has to be the proper usage of capital letters in texts.<\/p>\n<p>Luckily, there is a decent amount of manuals in Spanish\u2014like the <em>Diccionario panhisp\u00e1nico de dudas<\/em> and the Real Academia Espa\u00f1ola\u2019s <em>Ortograf\u00eda de la lengua espa\u00f1ola<\/em>\u2014compiling the many guidelines we should follow regarding this sometimes difficult issue.<\/p>\n<p>Nonetheless, I personally think it is better to compare the way the Spanish language uses uppercase letters with that of the English language if we really want to grasp it.<\/p>\n<p>In this first part, let\u2019s find out how Spanish deals with this subject.<\/p>\n<p>First and foremost, we should establish the two most important rules regarding capital letters in Spanish as well as in English: an uppercase should appear at the start of any sentence or right after a period (.), and every essential component of proper names\u2014be it from people or things\u2014must begin with a capital letter.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><u>L<\/u><\/strong>as may\u00fasculas son f\u00e1ciles de usar. <strong><u>N<\/u><\/strong>o les temas. (Uppercases are easy to use. Don\u2019t be afraid of them.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Mi primer nombre es <strong><u>S<\/u><\/strong>ara, mi apellido es <strong><u>T<\/u><\/strong> Vivo en <strong><u>N<\/u><\/strong>ueva<strong> <u>Y<\/u><\/strong>ork. (My first name is Sara, my last name is Torres. I live in New York.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>From there, we can more easily determine those orthographic instances where uppercases must also be used: right after any ellipsis, exclamation points or question points having closed a sentence.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>No entend\u00ed lo que dijo\u2026 <strong><u>H<\/u><\/strong>ablemos de otra cosa. (I didn\u2019t understand what you said\u2026 Let\u2019s change the subject.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u00bfSigues all\u00ed? <strong><u>N<\/u><\/strong>o puedo verte. (Are you still there? I cannot see you.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u00a1Qu\u00e9 buena noticia! <strong><u>T<\/u><\/strong>odos te felicitamos. (Great news! Congratulations from all of us.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Then, it should be easy to distinguish all those basic non-orthographic instances where capital letters should appear, like proper names of people, animals, anthropomorphized things, or abstract names being personified; the essential elements of nicknames\u2014but neither articles nor prepositions comprised within nicknames\u2014; and proper names of geographical places\u2014but not the common names that are part of that designation.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Te presento a <strong><u>J<\/u><\/strong>oanna, mi compa\u00f1era de trabajo. (Let me introduce Joanna, my work colleague, to you.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Claro que tengo tres mascotas: <strong><u>R<\/u><\/strong>ey, mi perro; <strong><u>G<\/u><\/strong>arritas, mi gato; y <strong><u>M<\/u><\/strong>ordedora, mi tortuga. (Of course I do have three pets: King, my dog; Paws, my cat; and Nibbler, my turtle.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Puede parecer extra\u00f1o, pero le puse \u00ab<strong><u>G<\/u><\/strong>uerrero del <strong><u>C<\/u><\/strong>amino\u00bb a mi auto. (It may seem strange, but I give my car the nickname \u201cRoad Warrior\u201d.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Los pueblos antiguos cre\u00edan generalmente en muchos dioses a la vez, como <strong><u>Z<\/u><\/strong>eus, <strong><u>P<\/u><\/strong>oseid\u00f3n, <strong><u>A<\/u><\/strong>res, <strong><u>A<\/u><\/strong>tenea\u2026 (Ancient people generally believed in many gods at once, like Zeus, Poseidon, Ares, Athena\u2026)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>La masa de agua m\u00e1s extensa del planeta <strong><u>T<\/u><\/strong>ierra es el oc\u00e9ano <strong><u>P<\/u><\/strong>ac\u00edfico. (The largest mass of water on planet Earth is the Pacific Ocean.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>You may notice on the previous examples how <em>del<\/em> in \u201cGuerrero del Camino\u201d and <em>oce\u00e1no<\/em> in \u201coc\u00e9ano Pac\u00edfico\u201d remain in lowercase\u2014the first of many differences between uppercase use in Spanish and English.<\/p>\n<p>You should always be on the lookout for any prepositions or common names not being part of the proper names of places, as those kind of words shouldn\u2019t be written in uppercase\u2014unless there is a period or some other punctuation mark forcing you to use a capital letter right next to it.<\/p>\n<p>On the next part, we will delve even more on the way Spanish differentiates from English regarding capital letters. Till next time!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"350\" height=\"197\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/keyboard-886462_960_720-350x197.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/keyboard-886462_960_720-350x197.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/keyboard-886462_960_720-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/keyboard-886462_960_720.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><p>One of the most controversial subjects regarding Spanish grammar has to be the proper usage of capital letters in texts. Luckily, there is a decent amount of manuals in Spanish\u2014like the Diccionario panhisp\u00e1nico de dudas and the Real Academia Espa\u00f1ola\u2019s Ortograf\u00eda de la lengua espa\u00f1ola\u2014compiling the many guidelines we should follow regarding this sometimes difficult&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/uppercases-in-spanish-a-practical-guide-part-1\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":157,"featured_media":15177,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[358365],"class_list":["post-15176","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grammar","tag-grammar"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/157"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15176"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15178,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15176\/revisions\/15178"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}