Capitalization Rules for Nouns in the German Language Made Simple

In most cases German capitalization rules are very similar to English. There are, however, some important differences which are worth noting for students of the German language the most important of which is that all nouns are capitalized. .

The 1996 reforms of the German language sought to standardize written German and thus introduced some changes to standard rules.

Below are some important rules that need to be observed when writing in the German Language.

Capitalization of Nouns

Unlike English all nouns in written German are capitalized.  In the 17th and 18th centuries all nouns were capitalised in English too but that was dispensed with several hundred years ago.

As in English, proper names are capitalized too.

Capitalization of Pronouns

"Ich" the first person singular pronoun for "I" in German is only capitalized when it appears at the beginning of a sentence otherwise it is in lower case.

Sie, the formal version of "you" is always capitalized. So too are the possessive pronouns Ihnen and Ihr. However, the reflexive pronoun "sich" is not capitalized.

Informal pronouns that were capitalized in the past are no longer capitalized. This rule applies to "du, dich and dir". It is now the accepted standard that these are not always capitalized but it is not always observed in informal correspondence.

Capitalization of Adjectives

Adjectives describing nationality, ethnicity and religion are not capitalized in German as they are in English. For example: "das deutsche Auto" and "ein deutsches Bier."

Exceptions to this rule include adjectives that are part of an official title, species name, holiday or common expression. For example: "Der Zweite Weltkrieg" und "der Heilige Abend"

Nominalized adjectives are usually capitalized like nouns. For example "Die Nächste, bitte!" meaning the next person.

Capitalization of Compound Words

Compound words are generally joined into one word but some that were together have now been separated. For example:

Radfahren      >>    Rad fahren to ride a bicycle
Eislaufen       >>      Eis laufen to ice skate


Useful Links
Capitalization of Words in German
German Capitalization and Punctuation