Capitalization Worksheets, Lessons, and Tests | Language Arts ... - Free Printable

Let’s go through each sentence in Part One and find the words that should be capitalized. Remember: we capitalize names of people, titles before names, ship names, oceans, seas, days, months, and the first word of a sentence or quote.

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Part One: Identifying Capitalization Errors

1. captain chris set sail with his crew on the atlantic ocean.
→ “Captain” (title before name), “Chris” (name), “Atlantic Ocean” (proper noun)
✔ Should be: Captain Chris, Atlantic Ocean

2. the crew manned the ship, which was called the s.s. scurvy dog.
→ “S.S. Scurvy Dog” is the ship’s name — all parts should be capitalized. Also, start sentence with capital.
✔ Should be: The, S.S. Scurvy Dog

3. captain chris called loudly for first mate murphy.
→ “Captain Chris”, “First Mate Murphy” — both are titles + names
✔ Should be: Captain Chris, First Mate Murphy

4. first mate murphy swung from a rope and landed on the deck in front of the captain.
→ “First Mate Murphy” — title + name
✔ Should be: First Mate Murphy

5. first mate murphy said, "argh, how may i be of service to ye?"
→ “First Mate Murphy” — title + name; also, “I” is always capitalized; first word of quote should be capitalized if it’s a full sentence.
✔ Should be: First Mate Murphy, Argh, I

6. captain chris gave the orders and the crew set sail for the barbary coast.
→ “Captain Chris”, “Barbary Coast” (place name)
✔ Should be: Captain Chris, Barbary Coast

7. the wind carried the s.s. scurvy dog across the mighty ocean and through the mediterranean sea.
→ Start sentence with capital; “S.S. Scurvy Dog”; “Mediterranean Sea”
✔ Should be: The, S.S. Scurvy Dog, Mediterranean Sea

8. the pirate crew sang a shanty called, "the pirate's life is the life to live."
→ Start sentence with capital; title of song should have major words capitalized
✔ Should be: The, "The Pirate's Life Is the Life to Live"

9. captain chris stomped his peg leg to the beat while first mate murphy clapped his hooks together.
→ “Captain Chris”, “First Mate Murphy”
✔ Should be: Captain Chris, First Mate Murphy

10. the captain raised his cutlass and said, "argh! that was a right rowdy tune, you pack of scallywags!"
→ Start sentence with capital; “Argh!” starts the quote — capitalize it; “That” after exclamation mark? Actually, since it’s one sentence broken by punctuation, “that” stays lowercase unless it’s a new sentence. But “Argh!” is an interjection — so next word can be lowercase. However, some style guides say to capitalize after ! if it starts a new thought. Let’s keep it simple: only capitalize “Argh” and start of sentence.
✔ Should be: The, Argh

Wait — actually, in dialogue, if the quote is a complete sentence starting after a comma, the first word is capitalized. Here, it’s:
said, "argh! that..." → “argh” should be “Argh”, and “that” is part of the same sentence, so lowercase is okay. But let’s check standard rules: In quotes, if it’s a full sentence, capitalize the first word. “Argh! That...” might be better as two sentences. But original has no period after “argh”. So perhaps just capitalize “Argh”.

Actually, looking at common usage: “He said, ‘Hello!’” — hello is capitalized. So yes:
✔ Should be: The, Argh

But wait — “that” is not capitalized because it continues the same sentence? Hmm. Let’s look again:
Original: "argh! that was..." — this is one sentence with an interjection. Standard rule: Capitalize the first word of the quote. So “Argh” is correct. “that” remains lowercase because it’s not starting a new sentence. So only “Argh” needs fixing here besides the start of the sentence.

So: The, Argh

11. first mate murphy began distributing hams to the men while captain chris addressed the crew.
→ “First Mate Murphy”, “Captain Chris”
✔ Should be: First Mate Murphy, Captain Chris

12. the captain said, "today, wednesday, june 1st, be the most important day of yer' filthy lives!"
→ Start sentence with capital; “Today”, “Wednesday”, “June” — days and months are capitalized
✔ Should be: The, Today, Wednesday, June

13. silence spread over the pack of armed, unshaven men as they listened to their captain.
→ Only issue: start of sentence
✔ Should be: Silence

14. the beared captain chris continued, "today, we will share these cookies we baked with the elderly."
→ “The” (start sentence); “Captain Chris”; “Today” (first word of quote)
✔ Should be: The, Captain Chris, Today

Note: “beared” is misspelled — should be “bearded” — but the task is about capitalization, so we ignore spelling.

15. the men cheered and hooted with great fury and first mate murphy discharged a cannon.
→ Start sentence with capital; “First Mate Murphy”
✔ Should be: The, First Mate Murphy

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Now, let’s list the corrected versions for clarity (but the task says to circle the words — so we’ll list which words to circle):

Words to Circle in Each Sentence:

1. captain → Captain, chris → Chris, atlantic → Atlantic, ocean → Ocean
2. the → The, s.s. → S.S., scurvy → Scurvy, dog → Dog
3. captain → Captain, chris → Chris, first → First, mate → Mate, murphy → Murphy
4. first → First, mate → Mate, murphy → Murphy
5. first → First, mate → Mate, murphy → Murphy, argh → Argh, i → I
6. captain → Captain, chris → Chris, barbary → Barbary, coast → Coast
7. the → The, s.s. → S.S., scurvy → Scurvy, dog → Dog, mediterranean → Mediterranean, sea → Sea
8. the → The, the → The (in quote), pirate's → Pirate's, life → Life, is → Is, the → The, life → Life, to → To, live → Live *(Note: Some style guides don’t capitalize articles/prepositions in titles, but for elementary level, often all main words are capped. Since it’s a shanty title, we’ll cap all significant words.)*
Actually, for simplicity at this level, let’s follow: capitalize first and last word, and all nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs. So: “The Pirate’s Life Is the Life to Live” — “the” and “to” might stay lowercase? But many worksheets expect all words except small ones like “a”, “an”, “the”, “in”, etc. to be capitalized in titles. To avoid confusion, since the instruction is basic, let’s assume they want: “The Pirate’s Life Is the Life to Live” — so circle: the (first), pirate’s, life, is, life, live. Wait — original says: "the pirate's life is the life to live." — so words to capitalize: The (start of quote), Pirate’s, Life, Is, Life, Live. And the first “the” in sentence.

This is getting messy. For school level, usually: capitalize first word of sentence, first word of quote, and proper nouns/titles. For song titles, often all major words. Let’s go with:
Circle: the (sentence start), the (quote start), pirate’s, life, is, life, live — but “is” and “to” are sometimes not capitalized. Actually, let’s check common practice: In MLA, you capitalize all words except articles, prepositions, conjunctions under 4 letters. So “the”, “to” would be lowercase. But for kids, teachers often say “capitalize every word in a title”. Given the context, I think for this worksheet, they expect:
In sentence 8: circle “the” (first word), and in the quote: “The”, “Pirate’s”, “Life”, “Is”, “Life”, “Live” — assuming they teach to capitalize all words in titles.

To be safe, let’s note:
For sentence 8: circle “the” (start of sentence), and in the quote: “the” → “The”, “pirate's” → “Pirate's”, “life” → “Life”, “is” → “Is”, “life” → “Life”, “live” → “Live” — and leave “to” lowercase? But original has “to” — probably not circled. This is ambiguous. Perhaps the worksheet expects only proper nouns and start of sentences/quotes. Looking back at other sentences, they didn’t ask for title case except for ship names. Sentence 8 is a shanty title — likely should be treated like a book/movie title. So let’s do:
Circle: the (sentence), and in quote: the → The, pirate's → Pirate's, life → Life, is → Is, life → Life, live → Live. (“to” is a preposition, often not capped, but for simplicity, maybe include it? No, let’s stick to standard: capitalize first, last, and all nouns/verbs/adjs/advs. “is” is verb, “life” noun, “pirate’s” possessive noun, “live” verb. “to” is preposition — lowercase. So circle: The (quote start), Pirate’s, Life, Is, Life, Live. And the first “the” in sentence.

But to match the level, I’ll assume they want all words in the title capitalized except very small words. Since “to” is short, leave it. So words to circle in 8:
- the (first word of sentence)
- the (first word of quote) → The
- pirate's → Pirate's
- life → Life
- is → Is
- life → Life
- live → Live

“to” remains lowercase.

9. captain → Captain, chris → Chris, first → First, mate → Mate, murphy → Murphy
10. the → The, argh → Argh
11. first → First, mate → Mate, murphy → Murphy, captain → Captain, chris → Chris
12. the → The, today → Today, wednesday → Wednesday, june → June
13. silence → Silence
14. the → The, captain → Captain, chris → Chris, today → Today
15. the → The, first → First, mate → Mate, murphy → Murphy

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Now for Part Two: We need to write sentences with proper capitalization.

1. Write a properly capitalized sentence that includes the name of a body of water.
Example: The Pacific Ocean is very large.

2. Write a properly capitalized sentence that includes a pirate's name.
Example: Captain Blackbeard sailed the seven seas.

3. Write a properly capitalized sentence about a SPECIFIC day of the month.
Example: On July 4th, we celebrate Independence Day.

4. Write a properly capitalized sentence that includes the name of a boat.
Example: The Titanic sank in 1912.

5. Write a properly capitalized sentence that includes the title of a book or nautical battle.
Example: I read the book *Treasure Island* last summer.
Or: The Battle of Trafalgar was fought in 1805.

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Final Answer:

Part One: Words to Capitalize (circle these):

1. Captain, Chris, Atlantic, Ocean
2. The, S.S., Scurvy, Dog
3. Captain, Chris, First, Mate, Murphy
4. First, Mate, Murphy
5. First, Mate, Murphy, Argh, I
6. Captain, Chris, Barbary, Coast
7. The, S.S., Scurvy, Dog, Mediterranean, Sea
8. The, The, Pirate's, Life, Is, Life, Live [Note: "to" not capitalized]
9. Captain, Chris, First, Mate, Murphy
10. The, Argh
11. First, Mate, Murphy, Captain, Chris
12. The, Today, Wednesday, June
13. Silence
14. The, Captain, Chris, Today
15. The, First, Mate, Murphy

Part Two: Sample Sentences:

1. The Nile River flows through Egypt.
2. Long John Silver was a famous pirate in literature.
3. My birthday is on December 25th.
4. The Mayflower carried Pilgrims to America.
5. The novel *Moby Dick* is about a whale hunt.