Translation guide
In Japanese, the concept of 'capital letters' does not exist in the same way as in English because Japanese uses multiple scripts (kanji, hiragana, katakana) without case. This guide explains how to refer to uppercase letters in English contexts, how to describe capitalization, and how to express the idea of 'capital letter' when discussing English or other Latin-script languages.
The learner wants to say 'capital letter' or 'uppercase letter' when talking about English or other Latin-script writing.
The standard word for 'capital letter' or 'uppercase letter'. It literally means 'large character'. Used for Latin letters, but can also refer to large versions of Japanese characters in some contexts.
英語では、文の最初の文字は大文字にします。
In English, the first letter of a sentence is capitalized.
パスワードには大文字と小文字を含めてください。
Please include uppercase and lowercase letters in the password.
More explicitly 'uppercase alphabet', used when you need to specify you're talking about Latin letters.
このフォームは大文字のアルファベットで記入してください。
Please fill out this form in capital letters.
Loanword from English 'capital letter'. Sometimes used in English teaching contexts or by people who are familiar with English terminology, but 大文字 is much more common.
この単語はキャピタルレターで始まります。
This word starts with a capital letter.
The learner wants to say 'write in capitals', 'capitalize', or 'use uppercase'.
The most natural way to say 'write in capital letters'. The particle で indicates the means or manner.
名前は大文字で書いてください。
Please write your name in capital letters.
Means 'to make into capital letters' or 'to capitalize'. Often used when talking about changing case, like in word processing.
このテキストを大文字にしてください。
Please make this text uppercase.
ワードで文字を大文字にするには、Shiftキーを押しながら入力します。
To capitalize letters in Word, you type while holding down the Shift key.
The learner wants to express that something is written in all capital letters for emphasis, like 'STOP' or 'HELP'.
Literally 'all capital letters'. Used to describe text that is entirely in uppercase.
そのメールはすべて大文字で書かれていて、怒っているように見えた。
The email was written in all caps and seemed angry.
Similar to すべて大文字, slightly more casual.
注意書きが全部大文字で書いてあった。
The warning was written in all caps.
Japanese does not have uppercase and lowercase letters. When writing Japanese, you don't need to worry about capitalization. However, when writing in romaji (Romanized Japanese), capitalization rules similar to English are sometimes applied, but this is not standard in native Japanese text.
大文字 (おおもじ) means 'uppercase letters' and 小文字 (こもじ) means 'lowercase letters'. They are often used together when discussing case sensitivity.
パスワードは大文字と小文字を区別します。
The password distinguishes between uppercase and lowercase letters.