Is February Capitalized in Spanish? | Lowercase Rules

In Spanish, month names stay lowercase unless they begin a sentence or belong to an official proper name.

You see “February” with a capital F in English, so it’s easy to carry that habit into Spanish and type “Febrero.” Then autocorrect tosses a red underline at you, and you wonder which side is right.

Here’s the clean rule: Spanish treats months as common nouns. That means febrero is normally written with a lowercase first letter. The times you’ll use an uppercase letter are the same moments you’d capitalize lots of other words: the start of a sentence, a heading that follows sentence case rules, or a proper name that happens to include a month.

This article shows the rule, the few real exceptions, and the quick checks that stop second-guessing in emails, essays, captions, and resumes.

Why Month Capitalization Feels Tricky

Most confusion comes from mixing systems. English capitalizes months by default. Spanish doesn’t. If you write in both languages, your hands may type the English pattern without thinking.

There’s another wrinkle: many Spanish date layouts put the month after a period or line break, and anything that starts a new sentence gets an uppercase letter. That can make it look like Spanish months are “sometimes” uppercase in a special way, when it’s just regular sentence capitalization doing its job.

Is February Capitalized in Spanish?

No special casing exists for February. In Spanish, you write febrero with a lowercase letter in normal running text: “Nos vemos en febrero.” The Real Academia Española says month names take a lowercase initial letter except when punctuation forces an uppercase, such as at the beginning of a text or after a period. RAE note on lowercase months spells that out in plain terms.

Fundéu, a well-known Spanish usage reference, gives the same direction and repeats that months, weekdays, and seasons go in lowercase in Spanish running text. Fundéu note on months in lowercase is an easy link to share when you need a source.

February In Spanish: When Uppercase Shows Up

Even with the main rule, you’ll still see an uppercase letter in real writing. The difference is why it appears. It’s not a “month rule.” It’s one of the standard capitalization triggers you already know.

Sentence Starts And After A Period

If febrero is the first word of a sentence, you capitalize it because the sentence starts there: “Febrero fue más frío de lo esperado.” Same deal after a full stop, a question mark, or an exclamation mark.

Proper Names That Include A Month

Months may appear inside proper names, and proper names use uppercase letters. Think of official holidays, historical labels, events, awards, or institutions where the name is fixed and treated as a title. The Centro Virtual Cervantes forum note says months stay lowercase except when they form part of a proper name, a festivity, or a historical date label. Cervantes note on months and proper names gives examples like Viernes Santo and Primavera de Praga.

Pay attention to whether the month is acting like a label inside a name. If it’s just telling you when something happens, it stays lowercase.

Titles And Headings In Different Styles

Spanish capitalization in titles depends on the style you’re following. In sentence-case headings, you capitalize only the first word and proper names, so “Viaje en febrero” uses lowercase. In title-case systems (more common in English publishing), you might see “Viaje en Febrero,” but that’s a formatting choice, not standard Spanish spelling for running text.

Quick Rule You Can Apply In Seconds

Ask one question: “Is this a name, or is it just a date?”

• If it’s just the month as a time marker, write lowercase: febrero.
• If it’s part of a fixed official name, keep the capitalization that name uses.
• If it starts a sentence, capitalize it like any other first word.

This single check catches almost every real-life case.

Common Situations Where People Slip

Seeing the patterns in context helps your brain stop flipping between English and Spanish rules.

Resumes And Cover Letters

Dates on resumes often sit on their own line: “Febrero 2024 – Mayo 2025.” On a standalone line, writers sometimes treat the line like a title and capitalize it. If you want strict Spanish spelling, you can still use lowercase: “febrero de 2024 – mayo de 2025.” Many hiring teams won’t care either way, yet consistent lowercase reads polished for Spanish-language documents.

School Essays And Reports

Students often write: “En Febrero se realizó la encuesta.” If the month is not the first word, lowercase is the clean choice: “En febrero se realizó la encuesta.” Save uppercase for a named event, like “Reunión de Febrero” only if that’s the official label used by the organization.

Social Captions And Posters

Design tools push you toward title-like styling. If the artwork uses all caps, that’s a visual choice. For body copy, stick to the spelling rule: “Oferta válida en febrero.” When your caption is full sentence text, lowercase keeps it natural.

Month Names In Dates: What Spanish Typically Uses

Spanish dates often follow a simple pattern: day + de + month + de + year, with the month in lowercase: “16 de febrero de 2026.” You’ll also see numeric formats like “16/02/2026,” which sidestep capitalization entirely.

In formal letters, a city and date line like “Helsinki, 16 de febrero de 2026” keeps lowercase. Uppercase only appears if your line begins with the month, which is rare in Spanish letters.

What About “De” And “Del” In Dates?

Many people capitalize every word in a date line because they’ve seen it in templates. In Spanish prose, the little words stay lowercase: de, del, y. So you’d write “1 de febrero de 2026,” not “1 De Febrero De 2026.” If you’re following an organization’s branded style sheet, match it across the whole document, but for general Spanish writing, lowercase particles look more natural.

What “Febrero” Means, And Why It’s Not A Name

If you want a quick reminder of what Spanish treats as a common noun, look at how dictionaries label it. The RAE dictionary entry for “febrero” lists it as a regular masculine noun, not a proper name. That’s the grammatical reason lowercase is the default in Spanish text.

Capitalization Triggers With Months At A Glance

Situation	Write It Like This	Why It Looks That Way
Normal sentence	Nos vemos en febrero.	Month used as a common noun
Start of a sentence	Febrero llegó con lluvia.	First word of the sentence
After a period	Fue duro. Febrero mejoró.	New sentence begins
Standalone date line	16 de febrero de 2026	Standard Spanish date style
Named holiday	Viernes Santo	Proper name rules apply
Historical label	Primavera de Praga	Fixed title uses uppercase
Institution or event name	Festival de Abril	Official name uses uppercase
Design title case	Concierto En Febrero	Stylistic choice

Abbreviations, Short Forms, And Calendar Apps

You may see “feb.” in calendars, invoices, or shipping updates. Abbreviations often follow house style, and many systems auto-capitalize at the start of a field. The trick is to separate interface behavior from writing rules. If your app prints “Feb” by default, it doesn’t mean Spanish changed its spelling rules.

When you handwrite or type an abbreviation inside Spanish text, keep it consistent with the surrounding style. If you’re writing a note, “feb.” in lowercase feels aligned with the full word febrero. If you’re matching a company template, follow the template across all months.

Spanish Vs. English: The One Comparison Worth Keeping

English treats months as proper nouns and capitalizes them by default. Spanish treats them as common nouns and uses lowercase by default. If you take away one mental switch, make it that.

A small habit helps: when you type a month in Spanish, pause for half a beat and ask, “Is this the first word?” If not, go lowercase. Your muscle memory adjusts faster than you’d think.

Edge Cases That Still Follow The Same Rule

Edge cases feel messy until you label what’s happening.

Quotes And Dialogue

If a quoted sentence starts with the month, uppercase comes from the sentence start: “Febrero siempre me sorprende”, dijo. If the month appears mid-sentence inside the quote, it stays lowercase.

Bullet Lists

Bullets act like mini sentences. If your bullet starts with the month, uppercase looks normal because the bullet begins there. If the month appears later in the bullet, lowercase still fits: “Revisión en febrero.”

Forms And Database Fields

Many forms auto-capitalize the first letter of a field. If your CRM shows “Febrero” as a single field value, that’s formatting, not a spelling correction. For prose, keep to Spanish orthography.

Common Errors And Clean Fixes

What You Wrote	Better In Spanish Prose	What Changed
En Febrero viajo a Madrid.	En febrero viajo a Madrid.	Lowercase in running text
Mi cumpleaños es en Febrero.	Mi cumpleaños es en febrero.	Lowercase in running text
16 De Febrero De 2026	16 de febrero de 2026	Lowercase particles and month
Oferta válida en Febrero 2026	Oferta válida en febrero de 2026	Standard date phrasing
Evento: Concierto en Febrero	Evento: Concierto en febrero	Lowercase in running text
Reunión de febrero (official label uses caps)	Reunión de Febrero	Proper name kept as branded

A Mini Checklist Before You Hit Send

If you write Spanish at work or school, this quick pass saves time.

• Month in the middle of a sentence: lowercase.
• Month starts the sentence, bullet, or standalone line: uppercase is fine.
• Month inside a fixed name: match the official capitalization of that name.
• Date style: “16 de febrero de 2026” reads natural in Spanish.
• Consistency beats mixing styles across the same document.

Practice With A Few Real Lines

Try rewriting these in your head before you scroll on. You’ll feel the rule lock in.

• “En Febrero presento el informe.”
• “Febrero es corto.”
• “16 De Febrero De 2026.”
• “Festival de Abril” (assume it’s the official event name).

The goal is simple: lowercase by default, uppercase only when the sentence or the name calls for it.