Начальная заглавная буква и правила капитализации в разных языках.

Writing a word using an uppercase letter for only the first letter of the word

Capitalization (American English) or capitalisation (British English) is writing a word with its first letter as a capital letter (uppercase letter) and the remaining letters in lower case, in writing systems with a case distinction. The term also may refer to the choice of the casing applied to text. Conventional writing systems (orthographies) for different languages have different conventions for capitalization, for example, the capitalization of titles. Conventions also vary, to a lesser extent, between different style guides. In addition to the Latin script, capitalization also affects the Armenian, Cyrillic, Georgian and Greek alphabets. The full rules of capitalization in English are complicated. The rules have also changed over time, generally to capitalize fewer words. The conventions used in an 18th century document will be unfamiliar to a modern reader; for instance, many common nouns were capitalized. The systematic use of capitalized and uncapitalized words in running text is called "mixed case".

Owing to the essentially arbitrary nature of orthographic classification and the existence of variant authorities and local house styles, questionable capitalization of words is not uncommon, even in respected newspapers and magazines. Most publishers require consistency, at least within the same document, in applying a specified standard: this is described as "house style".

In English, the subjective form of the singular first person pronoun, "I", is capitalized, along with all its contractions such as I'll and I'm. Objective and possessive forms ("me", "my", and "mine") are not. Many European languages traditionally capitalize nouns and pronouns used to refer to God, including references to Jesus Christ (reverential capitals): hallowed be Thy name, look what He has done. Some English authors capitalize any word referring to God: the Lamb, the Almighty; some capitalize "Thy Name". These practices have become much less common in English in the 20th and 21st centuries. In Baháʼí literature, singular and plural object, subject, and possessive forms get capitalization if referring to a Rasul, the Twelve Imams, or 'Abdu'l Baha. Some languages capitalize a royal we (pluralis majestatis), e. g. it is capitalized in German.

Many languages distinguish between formal and informal 2nd person pronouns. In German, the formal 2nd person plural pronoun Sie is capitalized along with all its case forms (Ihre, Ihres, etc. ), but these words are not capitalized when used as 3rd person feminine singular or plural pronouns. Until the recent German spelling reform(s), the traditional rules (which are still widely adhered to, although not taught in schools) also capitalized the informal 2nd person singular pronoun Du (and its derivatives, such as Dein) when used in letters or similar texts, but this is no longer required. Italian also capitalizes its formal pronouns, Lei and Loro, and their cases (even within words, e. g. arrivederLa "goodbye", formal). This is occasionally also done for the Dutch U, though this is formally only required when referring to a deity and may be considered archaic. In Spanish, the abbreviations of the pronouns usted and ustedes, Ud., Uds., Vd., and Vds., are usually written with a capital. In Finnish and Estonian, the second person plural pronoun can be used when formally addressing a single person, and in writing the pronoun is sometimes capitalized as Te to indicate special regard. In a more familiar tone, one can also capitalize the second person singular pronoun Sinä (Sina in Estonian). Similarly, in Russian the formal second person pronoun Вы, and its oblique cases Вас, Вам etc., are capitalized (usually in personal correspondence); also in Bulgarian. Slovenian, Croatian, Serbian capitalize the formal second person pronoun Vi along with its oblique cases (Vas, Vam, Vami) and personal pronoun (Vaš etc.) in formal correspondence. Historically, the familiar second person pronoun ti and its cases (tebe, tebi, teboj) were capitalized as well, but new orthography prohibits such use. In Danish, the plural second person pronoun, I, is capitalized, but its other forms jer and jeres are not. This distinguishes it from the preposition i ("in"). The formal second person pronoun is also capitalized in all its forms (De, Dem, Deres), distinguishing it from the otherwise identical third person plural pronouns. In Norwegian, both second person singular and plural have a capitalized alternative form (De, Dem, Deres in Bokmål; De, Dykk, Dykkar in Nynorsk) to express formality for both subject and object of a sentence, but is very rarely used in modern speech and writing. In formally written Polish, Czech, Slovak and Latvian, most notably in letters and e mails, all pronouns referring to the addressee are capitalized. This includes Ty ("thou") and all its related forms such as Twój and Ciebie. This principle extends to nouns used formally to address the addressee of a letter, such as Pan ("sir") and Pani ("madam"). In Indonesian, capitalizing the formal second person pronoun Anda along with all references to the addressee, such as "(kepada) Bapak/Ibu" ((to) Sir/Madam), is required in practice of Ejaan Yang Disempurnakan (Perfected Orthography). However, some people do not know of or choose not to adhere to this spelling rule. In contrast, Malay orthography used in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei does not require the capitalization of anda. In Tagalog and its standard form, Filipino, the formal second person pronouns Kayo and Ninyo and their oblique form Inyo are customarily and reverentially capitalized as such, particularly in most digital and printed media related to religion and its references. Purists who consider this rule as nonstandard and inconsistent do not apply it when writing. In Tajik, capitalization is used to distinguish the second person formal pronoun Шумо from the second person plural pronoun шумо. In Swedish, since du reformen, the second person singular pronoun du may be capitalized as Du when addressed formally.

In English, adjectives derived from proper nouns (except the names of characters in fictional works) usually retain their capitalization: e. g. a Christian church, Canadian whisky, a Shakespearean sonnet, but not a quixotic mission nor malapropism. Where the original capital is no longer at the beginning of the word, usage varies: anti Christian, and either Presocratic, pre Socratic, Pre Socratic or presocratic. Never preSocratica hyphen must precede a capital in a compound word. Such adjectives do not receive capitals in French (socratique, présocratique), Spanish (socrático, presocrático), Swedish (sokratisk, försokratisk), Polish (sokratejski, presokratejski) nor partly in German (sokratisch, präsokratisch, but Ohm'sches Gesetz ("Ohm's Law")). In German, if the adjective becomes a noun by using an article or numeral in front of it (das/die Bunte (the colorful thing(s)), eine Schöne (a beautiful one)), it is capitalized like any other noun, as are nouns formed from proper nouns (der Urgoethe). The same applies to verbs (das Laufen (the (practice of) running), das Spazierengehen (the (practice of) going for a walk)). Adjectives referring to nationality or ethnicity are not capitalized in many European languages such as German, French or Czech, even though nouns are: ein kanadisches Schiff, un navire canadien, kanadská loď, a Canadian ship; ein Kanadier, un Canadien, Kanaďan, a Canadian. Both nouns and adjectives are capitalized in English when referring to nationality or ethnicity.