What Words Should You Capitalize in French?

The rules for capitalization are quite different in French and English. Many words that are capitalized in English cannot be capitalized in French. Put another way, French words are not capitalized as often as in English, even for titles of published works. The tables below list various terms and phrases that you would capitalize in English but which are lowercase in French together with explanations for the differences in capitalization rules in the two languages as needed.

Words Capitalized in English but Not in French

The first-person singular pronoun "I" is always uppercase in English but not always in French. The days of the week, geographic terms, languages, nationalities, and even religions are nearly always uppercase in English but rarely in French. The table lists English words or phrases that are capitalized on the left with the French translations, which are not uppercase, on the right. 

Religions
The names of most religions, their adjectives, and their adherents (proper nouns) are not capitalized in French, with a few exceptions, as listed below.

*Exceptions: a Hindu > un Hindou

a Buddhist > un Bouddhiste
Islam > l'Islam

Titles: The Exceptions

Titles in front of a proper noun are not capitalized in French, whereas they are in English. For example, in English, you would say President Emmanuel Macron or President Macron because "President" is a title proceeding a proper noun. In French, however, the title is not capitalized, such as with le président Macron or le professeur Legrand. But there are exceptions even to this rule.

Titles and occupations that replace a person's name are capitalized in French, such as le President or Madame la Directrice (madam director). By contrast, these terms are lowercase in English because only official titles that directly precede a proper noun are capitalized in English, never standalone titles. At the other end of the French capitalization spectrum are French family names in official documents, which are often in all caps, such as Pierre RICHARD or Victor HUGO. The reason seems to be to avoid bureaucratic mistakes.