Do you capitalize seasons? This lesson will help you understand if fall, winter, spring, and summer should have their first letters capitalized. It covers topics like the difference between proper nouns and common nouns, and how seasons are used in different contexts. Understanding these guidelines can help you write more accurately.
Do You Capitalize Seasons?
Proper Nouns vs. Common Nouns
A proper noun is a specific name given to a specific person, place, or thing. In contrast, a common noun refers to a person, place, or thing with no distinction. For example, a proper noun for a girl could be “Bindy” while the common noun would be “girl”.
People often mistake the seasons for proper nouns. This results in capitalization errors. Typically for a common noun, you would write “fall” instead of “Fall” or “summer” instead of “Summer”.
Seasons act like nouns and they are subject to the same grammar rules. You capitalize nouns when they are at the beginning of a sentence. Used in this fashion the word is not acting as a proper noun but instead following common noun protocol.
It may seem arbitrary to cast specific days of the week as proper nouns while types of seasons remain stuck in the general noun category. Despite the questioning of this logic, people steadfastly follow this grammar rule.
Seasons fall under the category of time periods. In the English language, time periods do not merit capitalization.
Titles & Personification
As noted above, the capitalization of seasons occurs when they hail as the first word in a sentence. Capitalization of seasons can also occur when the word is part of a proper noun. A book with the title, Eternal Winter, would see the word Winter capitalized because it the specific name of a book.
Winter and Summer have become popular appellations for parents during this century. People’s names are proper nouns. Always capitalize someone’s first name even if they share a name with a common noun. After all, it is a specific title given to a person.
You may treat a season as a proper noun if employing personification. In poetry or other literary works, you can capitalize a season if you treat the season as a humanoid character.
Examples of Season Use
Common Nouns
Looking at the grammatical rules for seasons it is easy to see how a season should typically present in lowercase format. These examples show how a season should appear when acting as a common noun.
- She loved the beautiful red hues that streaked the streets during fall.
- The heat is extremely high this summer.
- The stillness of the winter landscape caught his eye.
- In the spring I will paint the fence.
Proper Nouns & Sentence Creation
Capitalizing the first letter in a season occurs when it someone’s name, a specific title, or the start of a sentence. Below find examples of the seasons being capitalized.
- Summer and Tom quickly walked to Peter’s car.
- Have you read Frost in Winter?
- Fall seemed to come fast this year.
- Let’s go to Chicken Spring for dinner.
The Personification of the Seasons
Personifying a season can result in the beginning letter of the season being capitalized. Observe examples of season personification below.
- Fall’s whistle could be heard dancing on the treetops.
- In Winter’s hold, I could not escape.
- I cried as Spring’s tears burst forth.
- I hated how Summer’s breath waltzed down the beaten path.
Summary of rules:
Do you capitalize seasons? Only capitalize seasons at the beginning of a sentence, in a title, or when utilizing personification. All other times you must write seasons in lowercase letters.