What is a special name for a place?
Read these two words.
“city”
“Chicago”
The first one could be any city on earth. The second one is one city. You know which place is meant.
A name that belongs to one place is a special name. Special names for places begin with a capital letter.
Any place or one place
| Any place | One particular place |
|---|---|
| city | Chicago |
| state | Texas |
| country | Mexico |
| school | Hillside School |
| street | Bell Street |
| lake | Blue Lake |
Every word on the left stays small. Every name on the right takes a capital.
The same rule you already know
This is the rule for people’s names, used again for places. A word that could point at anything stays small. A word that points at one thing gets a capital.
“girl” stays small and “Ava” takes a capital. “city” stays small and “Chicago” takes a capital. Same idea, new group of words.
A mistake to watch for
Words like school and library feel important. So they collect capitals they have not earned.
“I walk to School.” is wrong.
“I walk to school.” is right.
Nothing in that sentence says which school, so the word is still just a word for any school.
Your turn
Say capital or no capital.
- “texas”
- “country”
- “chicago”
- “lake”
Check your answers
- Capital. “Texas” is one particular state.
- No capital. It could be any country.
- Capital. “Chicago” is one particular city.
- No capital. It could be any lake.
Remember
- A special name for a place points at one particular place.
- Special names for places begin with a capital letter.
- Words that could name any place stay small.