Should I use capital letters for terms of direction? North, South East & West have caps, what about southwest?

When you mention a specific “region”

* up in the North

* the South shall rise again

* in the East

* in the West

Then these are capitalized.

When you talk about general directions

* go north on First Street

* located south of the river

* head east on the highway

* go west or southeast

* the southwest side of the city

These are not capitalized.

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
Should I use capital letters for terms of direction? North, South East & West have caps, what about southwest?

Capitalize Cardinal Directions

Are Cardinal Directions Capitalized

I think southwest should be in small letters, e.g. The town is southwest of Kuala Lumpur.

Unless you are referring to a region lying in the southwest of a country, eg. mountains in the Southwest corner of the Philipines. And if you are in the US of A, the Southwest is a region of the southwest United States generally including New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, California, and Nevada and sometimes Utah and Colorado.

The cardinal directions are capitalized if you are using the abbreviations for them: “The directions state we should travel N until mile marker 217, and then head NE.”

If you are referring to a specific area, then you capitalize: “The South lost the Civil War.”

If you are simply using the words in a sentence, and not to represent a specific area, you don’t need to capitalize: “We got lost, and ended up turning east when we should have turned south.”

It is the same for all compass directions:

“He applied for a job in the Southwest because he likes the sun.”

“The map says to turn SW after the crossroads.”

“I think we should have taken that road that went southwest back there.”

yes

& southwest