“Proper adjectives” also describe people, places and things, but they are based on names and therefore need to be capitalized, like the names. For example, Spain is the name of a country and starts with a capital letter. The adjective based on Spain (Spanish) must also start with a capital letter.

Like all adjectives, a proper adjective describes (modifies) a noun. What makes proper adjectives unique is that they are formed from proper nouns. That means they must be capitalized. Many proper adjectives are formed using the names of countries (or other specific places), religions or people’s names.

A proper adjective is a grammatical part of speech that derives itself from a proper noun. For instance, “China” is a proper noun; it is the name of a country.

Over time, proper adjectives can lose their capitalization if the adjective itself begins to overshadow the thing or person it originally referred to. For instance, we don’t capitalize the V in venetian blinds. Here are four more exceptions that you’ll find interesting.

Examples

Most adjectives used in writing and speech are common adjectives. Common adjectives are not capitalized. This is because they are everyday words, not derived from proper nouns. Proper adjectives are derived from proper nouns.

Adjectives, writes the author, professional stickler Mark Forsyth, “absolutely have to be in this order: opinion-size-age-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose Noun.

The word Bible itself can be used as a normal noun (the fisherman’s bible, or a bible for cooks), but biblical clearly refers to the proper-noun usage of Bible, and yet it is not given a capital initial.

In general, you should capitalize the first word, all nouns, all verbs (even short ones, like is), all adjectives, and all proper nouns. That means you should lowercase articles, conjunctions, and prepositions—however, some style guides say to capitalize conjunctions and prepositions that are longer than five letters.