Uppercase and Lowercase Letters: When to Use?

O Useof theLettersCapital lettersandLowercase, although it seems a very simple topic - learned in the first years of school - requires some care.

Thus, in this article, we will deal with the rules, especially after the adhesion to the New Orthographic Agreement, which also promoted changes in this area.

Use of lowercase

occurrences	Examples
1. Days, Months, Seasons	These classes are held on Saturdays. Our work is reduced in the month of July. Usually travel in spring.
2. So-and-so and so-and-so	Nobody wants to say who did this. Since there are no volunteers, so-and-so and so-and-so will be appointed to collaborate in this work.
3. Forms of Treatment	Dr. João is not attending at the moment. He asked if his excellency needed anything.
4. Homeland Adjectives	As a good girl from Minas Gerais, I love eating cheese with guava paste. Cape Verdeans will be the last to adopt the new orthographic agreement.

capitalization

occurrences	Examples
1. Start of sentences	This is the subject of the agenda. It is the largest oil company in Brazil.
2. Proper nouns	Maria José was chosen the employee of the month. Zezé was chosen the employee of the month. The region with the greatest bio diversity in the world is the Amazon Forest. She looked beautiful in her Little Red Riding Hood costume. The Greek goddess of love is Aphrodite.
3. Parties and commemorative dates	The family always gathers at Christmas. Have you already planned the work on the Independence of Brazil?
4. Acronyms, Symbols and Abbreviations	ABNT - Brazilian Association of Technical Standards Al - aluminum You - Your Lordship
5. Names of institutions and offices	Data were taken from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. The problems of the Unified Health System are serious.

read Acronyms and Abbreviations.

Optional: lowercase or uppercase

There are situations in which the use of lowercase or uppercase initials is optional:

occurrences	Examples
1. book names	who has not read OlittlePrince? who has not read OLittlePrince? Bought OdiaryinAnneFrank. Bought OdiaryinAnneFrank.
2. names of saints	The patron saint of Brazil is Nossa Senhora Aparecida. The patroness of Brazil is Our Lady Aparecida.
3. Subject Names	We have to solve students' problems with math lessons. We have to solve students' problems with math classes.
4. Name of streets and public places	This place is close to Praça da Sé, on Rua Anita Garibaldi. This place is close to Praça da Sé, on Rua Anita Garibaldi.

And the cardinal points?

Cardinal points must be written with lowercase initials, but when they are used independently, they must be written with capital letters.

Examples:

• Southeastern Brazil is the richest region in the country.
• The Southeast is the richest region in Brazil.

read Orthography and New orthographic agreement.