Should the names of seasons be capitalized?

Although you should capitalize all proper nouns, how do you know which words fall into that category when they don’t describe specific places or people? Things like school subjects, days of the week, months of the year, and seasons all have different rules regarding capitalization. Learn if you should capitalize the different seasons when you write.

Do you need to capitalize seasons in your writing?

Unlike months of the year and days of the week, seasons are generic common nouns instead of proper nouns. A common noun is a regular noun that does not describe a specific person, place, or thing. This means that generally, you shouldn’t capitalize seasons when you write. So, when you write out the seasons, you would put something like:

There are four seasons in the year—winter, summer, spring, and fall.

Instead of:

There are four seasons in the year—Winter, Summer, Spring, and Fall.

You also shouldn’t capitalize similar words and adjectives that describe the seasons, like wintertime, springtime, and summertime.

“However, like every other common word use, there are exceptions to this grammatical rule.”

Exceptions to the grammar rules

However, like every other common word use, there are exceptions to this grammatical rule. There are a few instances where you’ll want to capitalize seasons in your writing. You should capitalize the seasons when:

They’re referring to a proper noun, like the name of a person or place.
You’re using them as the first word of a sentence.
You’re personifying the season in your sentence.

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Examples of when you should capitalize them

If you’re not speaking about seasons in a general manner, you may need to capitalize them. Some examples of these instances are:

Alex and Summer went to the winter festival together.
In this example, you may have noticed that Summer is capitalized but winter is not. This is because Summer is the name of a person/proper noun. However, winter is describing a festival that probably takes places during that season of the year.

Fall is my favorite time of the year.
The Fall in this sentence is still being used to describe the general season. However, it’s capitalized in this example because it’s the first word in the sentence. The context here should clearly tell the reader that Fall is referring to the season instead of a specific person or place.

Oh, how I love you, Summer. I enjoy sitting in your sun’s rays, and I have fun feeling the heat on my skin.
In this quick poetic example, Summer is capitalized even though it’s referring to the season. It’s capitalized in this example because it’s simultaneously being addressed as a person or being personified in the first sentence. However, the rest of the poem gives the reader more context that even though the poet is writing, as if they’re speaking directly to a person, they’re talking about the season.

Those are examples of three exceptions to the rule. In almost every other instance, you’ll be using seasons as a noun or adjective. In those cases, you shouldn’t capitalize the seasons when you write. You can also confuse the reader when you use this grammatical error. They may not be sure if you’re referring to a specific person. Ensure that you’re following the tips and rules and know how to properly break the rules, when you want to do so, so that you’re always producing clear and contextual writing.

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