Upper and Lower Case Letters

What Are Upper and Lower Case Letters?

• Every letter in the English alphabet has two different forms: a big version and a small version.
• The big letters are called Upper Case (or Capital letters).
• The small letters are called Lower Case.
• They both make the same sound, even though they look different.

When to Use Upper Case Letters Upper-case letters are used for very specific reasons:

• Starting a Sentence: The first letter of the first word in every sentence must be a capital.
• Special Names (Proper Nouns): Names of people, pets, cities, and countries (Example: Ali, London, Mittens).
• The Word "I": When you talk about yourself, "I" is always capitalized.
• Days and Months: Monday, Tuesday, January, February.

When to Use Lower Case Letters Lowercase letters are used for almost everything else:

• Common Words: Words for things like chair, apple, dog, and house.
• Inside a Word: After the first capital letter, the rest of the letters in a word are usually small.
• General Talk: Any word that is not a special name or starting a sentence.

Comparing the Looks Some letters look like smaller versions of themselves, while others look completely different:

• Look Similar: C/c, O/o, P/p, S/s, V/v.
• Look Different: A/a, B/b, D/d, E/e, G/g, R/r.

Why Do We Learn This?

• It makes our writing much easier for other people to read.
• It helps us show which words are important, like someone's name.
• It is a basic rule of English that helps us write professional letters and stories.

Lesson Summary

• Upper case letters are "Big" and Lower case letters are "Small."
• Use Upper case for names and the start of a sentence.
• Most writing is done in Lower case letters.