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The rules of capitalization for Portuguese letters are substantially different than for English. If you need to write a text in Portuguese for any reason, if you want it to look professional, you’ll need to learn these rules. Of course, besides knowing how to capitalize Portuguese letters, there are many other skills you’ll need to develop to produce high-quality Portuguese texts; working with a tutor will help you with this.
In this post, we’ll go through the various rules for capitalizing Portuguese letters, and we'll show how they differ from English.
Titles
In English, all letters in titles are capitalized except articles and prepositions. In Portuguese, only the first letter of the first word is capitalized, unless the title contains words which would normally start with a capital letter in plain text.
Portuguese Letters: When Do You Capitalize?
Letras portuguesas: quando você capitaliza?
Proper Nouns (Names)
Proper nouns in Portuguese are capitalized in the same way as in English, that is, with a capital letter at the start of each word, except for prepositions such as de, which are not capitalized.
Robert, Peter, John
Roberto, Pedro, João
Abstract Nouns
In Portuguese, abstract nouns such as amor (love) and paz (peace) are often (but not always) capitalized, particularly when emphasis is required or they are central topics for the text in question. This does not usually happen in English (it can be found occasionally in classic literature).
One important concept for any democratic society is liberty.
Um conceito importante para qualquer sociedade democrática é a Liberdade.
Days of the Week and Months
In Portuguese, unlike in English, the days of the week and months are usually not capitalized.
Friday, Sunday, February, June Sexta-feira, domingo, fevereiro, junho
Seasons
Conversely, the seasons are usually capitalized in Portuguese, whereas in English they are not.
Spring, summer, autumn, winter
Primavera, Verão, Outono, Inverno
Nationalities
Nationalities are not capitalized in Portuguese. Nacionalidades não são capitalizadas em português.
Learn Portuguese Writing and Other Skills
Capitalization is a relatively simple matter once you’ve grasped the basic rules. To put it into practice, and to learn how to produce great Portuguese texts, you need to learn with a tutor. Our tutors are experienced in online teaching environments, can adapt to even the busiest schedule, and will create a lesson plan tailored to your needs.