Capitalization

Reviewed conventions, examples, and the sources behind them.

The checks below catch specific patterns in your text. They support your review; passing them does not verify every part of a convention.

Capitalize only what convention requires

Genius staff guidance

Conventional capitalization

Beyond the start of every line and of a parenthetical, capitals belong to proper nouns, religious titles (God, Him), acronyms (TBH), geographical regions (West Coast), and the title casing of works (The Life of Pablo); outside those, words stay lowercase.

Exceptions and context

The linter checks the line starts, the parenthetical openings, title-cased runs of lyric, and the standalone lowercase i; whether a word is a proper noun is the transcriber's call.

What LyricLint checks

A line starting in lowercase
Flagged example
```
[Verse]
the night is young
```
Conventional capitalization suggests an uppercase line start, but stylization and continuation can be valid; review the preview in context.
Accepted by this check
```
[Verse]
The night is young
```
See trigger and fix
A line capitalized like a title
Flagged example
```
[Verse]
This Is The Way We Live
Every Single Word Starts Uppercase
```
Lyrics use conventional sentence capitalization rather than capitalizing every word. Review this manually because names, acronyms, and intentional styling can look similar.
Accepted by this check
```
[Verse]
This is the way we live
Every single word starts normally
```
See trigger and fix
A lowercase ad-lib in parentheses
Flagged example
```
[Verse]
(yeah)
```
This is a short recognized ad-lib inside parentheses. The suggestion is contextual and requires preview.
Accepted by this check
```
[Verse]
(Yeah)
```
See trigger and fix
A lowercase “i” for the pronoun
Flagged example
```
[Verse]
you and i
```
Capitalize the standalone pronoun and its initial letter in contractions such as “I’m,” “I’ve,” “I’d,” and “I’ll.”
Accepted by this check
```
[Verse]
you and I
```
See trigger and fix

Write brands conventionally, not stylized

Genius staff guidance

A brand name takes its conventional form over its own stylization — Chanel, not CHANEL; Adidas, not adidas; Macy's, not macy★s — with no trademark marks and no decorative characters, unless the name is an acronym normally written in capitals (GEICO, IMAX); CamelCase stays where the name itself carries it (YouTube, iPhone, eBay), as does a symbol that is genuinely part of the name (H&M, su:m37°), and a brand that has become a generic word may be lowercased (band-aid, popsicle, jet ski).

Incorrect

New GLOCK in my jeans

Correct

New Glock in my jeans

What LyricLint checks

A symbol standing in for a word
Flagged example
```
[Verse]
You & me
```
Genius writes this symbol as “and” in lyric text, while preserving it inside brand names. The surrounding spaces make this look like a word rather than a compact brand, but the replacement still needs review.
Accepted by this check
```
[Verse]
You and me
```
See trigger and fix

Earth is capital only as the planet

Genius staff guidance

Conventional capitalization

Earth takes a capital only when it names the planet; as the material — dirt, soil — it stays lowercase.

Capitalize regions, not directions

Genius staff guidance

Conventional capitalization

North, south, east, and west take capitals where they designate a definite region or belong to a name — the Deep South, the Eastern Seaboard — and stay lowercase as mere directions, like westerly winds or a northern winter.

Check a transcription in the workbench