B1 · Fine points and style · about 4 minutes
Capital letters
das Lesen, etwas Gutes, beim Essen
German capitalises every noun — and the hard part is deciding what counts as one.
Do you know this already?
“New to me”: the explanation first, then practice. “Test myself”: 2 short questions – get at least two right and you go straight to the harder exercises.
Understand
RememberAn article in front means a capital behind.
- Signal words
- das
- beim
- zum
- im
- etwas
- nichts
- viel
- wenig
- alles
The form
The patterns at a glance
Each row first says when or what the pattern is used for, then gives an example in German.
question marker
| all nouns | der Tisch, die Arbeit |
| verb used as a noun | das Lesen, beim Essen |
| adjective used as a noun | etwas Neues, das Beste |
| polite Sie, Ihr | Können Sie mir Ihre Karte geben? |
| lower case: ich, du, all adjectives | ich, deutsch, gut |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is aboutThe word that calls for it
Every noun takes a capital letter.
Der Hund schläft.The dog is asleep.
An article or a preposition with an article turns a verb into a noun.
Beim Kochen höre ich Musik.I listen to music while cooking.
After etwas, nichts, viel and wenig an adjective is capitalised.
Es gibt nichts Neues.There is nothing new.
ich is written small; Sie and Ihr are capitalised.
Ich danke Ihnen für Ihre Mühe.Thank you for your trouble.
Example sentences
Das Warten hat sich gelohnt.The wait was worth it.
Wir haben viel Interessantes gehört.We heard a lot of interesting things.
Zum Mitnehmen, bitte.To take away, please.
8 more example sentences
Ich spreche Deutsch und lese ein deutsches Buch.I speak German and am reading a German book.
Beim Warten habe ich gelesen.I read while I was waiting.
Das Rauchen ist verboten.Smoking is prohibited.
Wir wünschen alles Gute.We wish you all the best.
Im Großen und Ganzen ging es gut.On the whole it went well.
Er kann gut German.He is good at English.
Vielen Dank für Ihre Nachricht.Many thanks for your message.
Das ist das Schönste daran.That is the nicest part of it.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
The fused beim contains an article, and an article turns whatever follows into a noun. The contraction hides that: bei dem Kochen makes the article visible and the capital obvious. The same applies to zum, im, ans, vom — every one of them announces a noun, and every one of them conceals the article that says so.
Quick check
A warm-up: 2 questions, answered straight away. They do not count towards your progress.
Practise
One lesson, one clear goal: you pass with 80% right on the first try. Your answers are checked in the browser; none of them leaves your device.
Now write it yourself4 sentences on this topic, typed and checked instantly.
Your progress
What your lesson on this topic shows:
The lesson decides this, not a button: passed at 80% on the first try, mastered when you pass it again on another day.
Next on the path: 85 · Infinitives with zu, and withoutBack to the learning path
The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
German writes every noun with a capital letter, which is unusual among European languages and, once accepted, is simple: der Tisch, das Haus, die Freiheit. The difficulty is not the rule but its edges, because German turns other words into nouns constantly.
Four signals mean a word has become a noun and takes a capital. An article in front of it: das Lesen, beim Essen, im Freien. A quantity word: etwas Neues, nichts Besonderes, viel Gutes. An adjective describing it: lautes Sprechen. And a preposition with an article fused into it: zum Mitnehmen, beim Warten.
Everything else stays small, including all adjectives and all pronouns — ich is written small, unlike English "I". The one polite exception is Sie and Ihr, which keep their capitals in every form.
A closer look
The one that trips up everybody: language names
A language is a noun and is capitalised: Ich lerne Deutsch, Sie spricht Spanisch. The same word as an adjective is written small: ein deutsches Buch, die spanische Küche. After a preposition it stays a noun — auf Deutsch — while an adverb describing how something is done is small: Der Brief ist deutsch geschrieben.
The reliable test is to ask whether an article could stand in front. Das Deutsch dieser Übersetzung ist gut takes an article, so it is a noun, and so is the language in Sie spricht gut Deutsch. Only a genuine "how" stays small. Both spellings are correct in their own sentence.
Exceptions and special cases2
Exception
When a noun has become part of a fixed phrase
then it is sometimes written small.
Du hast recht.You are right.
Why? The word has stopped being felt as a noun: recht haben is allowed beside Recht haben, and mir ist angst is small — although Angst haben keeps its capital.
Exception
When a colour or a time is used adverbially
then it stays small.
Wir treffen uns abends, aber: heute AbendWe meet in the evenings, but: this evening
Why? It answers "how" or "when" rather than naming a thing.
Worth knowing2
Worth knowing
du is small, and was not always
Before the 1996 spelling reform Du, Dein, Euch were capitalised in letters. The reform made them small and a later adjustment allowed the capital again in direct address, so both are now correct in a letter. In every other context du is small.
Worth knowing
The capital carries meaning
A handful of pairs differ only by the capital: das Weiße (the white part) against weiße (white, adjective). The clearest is der Gefangene, a prisoner, against gefangene Tiere, captured animals — same word, and only the capital says which is meant.
The verbs on this page, in every form: haben · hören · lesen · geben · sprechen · treffen · schlafen