Capital letters in formal Dutch: institutions, functions and historical names

Formal Dutch does not reward extra capitals used for politeness. Write de minister, de gemeente, and de raad van bestuur with lowercase letters, but preserve capitals in actual proper names such as de Tweede Kamer, de Hoge Raad, and de Belastingdienst. The central question is not “Is this important?” but “Is this wording a name or a generic description?”

A proper name identifies a particular institution, event, or geographic area as a name. Its significant words take capitals. A generic description tells you what kind of body, role, event, or location something is. Generic words stay lowercase even when the context makes one particular referent obvious.

Do not confuse a unique referent with a proper name. De raad van bestuur van Orbis points to one specific board, but raad van bestuur is still a generic kind of body. The company name Orbis keeps its capital; the description does not acquire one.

Dutch treats established names of unique public bodies and organisations as proper names. The ordinary article before the name remains lowercase inside a sentence: de Tweede Kamer, not De Tweede Kamer, unless it begins the sentence.

Small connecting words inside a multiword name usually remain lowercase: Raad van State, Hof van Justitie van de Europese Unie. Copy the institution's established spelling instead of capitalising every word as in an English heading.

A kind of institution, committee, department, or governing body is a common noun. It stays lowercase even if only one such body is relevant in the document. Adding a place or organisation name afterwards does not automatically turn the description into a proper name.

Full ministry names are a house-style edge case. The official spelling permits Ministerie van Financiën when the whole phrase is treated as the formal name, while many Dutch public bodies themselves write ministerie van Financiën. Follow the name giver's spelling consistently. The plain generic word remains lowercase: een ministerie, het ministerie waar ik werk.

A function identifies the kind of role a person has; it is not the person's proper name. In ordinary running text, write function titles with lowercase letters, including before a person's name and even when only one person currently holds the office.

A capital is still required at the beginning of a sentence. Special honorific styling also exists, but it is not the default for reports, forms, emails, or exam prose. Do not import English job-title capitalisation into Dutch.

Established names of historical events are proper names: de Tweede Wereldoorlog, de Oktoberrevolutie, de Februaristaking, de Vrede van Münster. Generic time periods and loose descriptions remain lowercase: de middeleeuwen, de oudheid, de oorlog van enkele jaren eerder.

The same name-versus-description test applies: an event can be historically important without every descriptive phrase becoming a proper name. When in doubt about whether a conventional event name exists, consult the official spelling list or a reliable language-advice entry.

Words for directions and ordinary parts of an area are lowercase: het noorden, naar het westen, in het zuiden van het land. When the direction forms part of a geographic proper name, it takes a capital and is normally joined to the other name with a hyphen.

A standalone direction can itself become the name of a recognised political or cultural region, as in het Westen. That is a meaning change, not a rule to capitalise every occurrence of westen.

• Circle every capital that is not at the beginning of a sentence.
• Ask whether the exact wording is a proper name or only a description.
• Lowercase functions and generic bodies, even when they seem important.
• Preserve the adopted spelling of an actual institution name; keep small connecting words small.
• For locations, distinguish an ordinary direction from a geographic name and add the required hyphen.

• Do not write de Gemeente or de Minister merely to show respect.
• Do not lowercase established names such as de Tweede Kamer or de Hoge Raad.
• Do not capitalise a generic board because one specific board is meant: de raad van bestuur van Orbis.
• Do not copy English title case into a Dutch institutional name.
• Do not confuse Noord-Holland with het noorden van Holland.

Review the general capital-letter rules, countries and nationalities, and dates. The written alphabet page covers letter names and spelling aloud.