# Why do we have capital letters?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-have-capital-letters/118047>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 9, 2002, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-have-capital-letters/118047 "2002-07-09T07:59:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mudcrutch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2bfe46/32.png) [@mudcrutch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mudcrutch)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2002, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-have-capital-letters/118047/1 "2002-07-09T07:59:08Z")

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Is there any reason we use capital letters? I can’t think of any.

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**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2002, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-have-capital-letters/118047/2 "2002-07-09T09:31:12Z")

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Clarity. It helps to mark logically significant places in a block of text - e.g. the beginning of a sentence - and to mark important words. As most of us read text by “skipping” our focus from point to point rather than by dragging it along in a steady line, this helps us to pick out some important reference points, and makes reading easier and quicker.

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**Author:** ![Milton\_De\_La\_Warre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e480ec/32.png) [@Milton\_De\_La\_Warre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Milton_De_La_Warre)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2002, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-have-capital-letters/118047/3 "2002-07-09T11:48:22Z")

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I believe they first came into play during the middle ages for the purposes UDS mentions. I don’t recall any lower-case Roman letters (letters from classical Roman times), but I believe they came in with Carolingian script and the flowering of the monastic movement.

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**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2002, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-have-capital-letters/118047/4 "2002-07-09T11:57:38Z")

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Yes, capital letters came first, as a glance at any Roman monument will testify. Lower-case letters evolved later, as writing with pens on paper (or similar) became more common and there was a need for a script that could be written more quickly but still clearly.

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**Author:** ![Milton\_De\_La\_Warre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e480ec/32.png) [@Milton\_De\_La\_Warre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Milton_De_La_Warre)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2002, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-have-capital-letters/118047/5 "2002-07-09T14:49:43Z")

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…and inagine if we posted in all caps…