Tip 9: Don’t use ALL CAPS for words, headings or whole sentences

Sometimes people write a word, a heading or even a whole sentence in all capital letters in order to add emphasis. However, proper capitalization can be useful for distinguishing between common and proper words, such as the word polish (for example, a special wax for your shoes) and Polish (the nationality). These would be translated differently into French – as cirage or polonais – depending on the intended meaning. But if the word is written in all caps as POLISH, then it is no longer possible for an automatic translation tool to use the initial letter as a clue to the word’s intended meaning.

A previous tip recommended that you avoid using acronyms where possible. Acronyms are also written in all caps and could sometimes be confused with words (for example, AIDS/aids, CAT/cat).