Should “Team” Be Capitalized? (Helpful Examples)

The English language has plenty of little quirks that one might be unsure about. Small notes on grammar that one should really take into account, and one should memorize. The question that this article will discuss is whether “team” should be capitalized.

Should “Team” Be Capitalized?

The word “team” should sometimes be capitalized, depending on whether the word “team” itself is part of the team name. For example, if a group is literally called “The Soccer Team”, then “Team” is part of a proper noun and should be capitalized as you do with noun names.

However, if “team” is not part of the name itself, and is merely a description of what the team is, then you don’t capitalize it. For example, in The Minnesota Timberwolves basketball team.

Do You Capitalize “Team” in an Email?

It really depends on what context the word “team” is being utilized in. If you use “team” when talking about the people that you work with, such as “Hello team” or “Good morning team”, then that’s not a use of “team” that warrants any capitalization.

However, if “team” is part of your workplace’s name, or of your specific department, or is basically part of any proper noun, then you would capitalize it in that context.

Capitalization is tricky and not always straightforward. But when you’re writing an email and referring to the fact that the people you work with are a team, or work as a team, you wouldn’t capitalize.

Here are a couple of email examples so you’ll be able to remember to not capitalize team:

• Good morning team!
• I’ve decompiled the remaining code, so today we can really sit down with the rest of the project.
• Cheers,
• J. Kirk

• Hello team!
• I’m going to send you all your weekly reviews. Spoiler alert: You all did great. Good job!
• I’ll see you later,
• M. Moore

When to Capitalize “Team”

“Team” as a word should be capitalized when it is part of a proper noun, which is a fancy way of saying that you only capitalize “team” when it’s part of a name. This is a quick and easy way to think about it, by simply checking the name.

When the word “team” is part of a name, and therefore part of a proper noun, then that’s the situation in which you always capitalize “team”. It’s as simple as it gets.

Here are a few example sentences that showcase situations in which “team” is capitalized:

1. This new band is called The American Team, and they play country rock music.
2. They call themselves the Electric Team and they go around doing random acts of electric repair.
3. Our name is going to be The Local Cricket Team and people will love our ironic act, you’ll see.
4. I believe that by simply addressing them by their name, Far-Away Team, you’ll accomplish more.
5. The company that makes these hard drives is called The Storage Team, they’re pretty good.
6. The Desk Team is creating all of the furniture that we’re going to need for this new shoot.
7. My wallet was designed by a bunch of italian craftsmen called The Art Team, it’s really fancy.

When to Not Capitalize “Team”

“Team” is a word that shouldn’t be capitalized in situations in which the word is not a part of a proper noun, or a name. So in basically all non-name uses of “team”, it’s not a word that you should capitalize, which makes it easy to remember.

The rules that apply to capitalizing “team” are really the rules that apply to most regular nouns in the English language, in which you don’t capitalize them unless they’re a proper noun.

Here are some example sentences showcasing when not to capitalize the word “team”:

1. He’s part of The Houston Rockets, they’re a sports team, they’re pretty good.
2. Our marketing team has been hard at work coming up with new ideas for this quarter.
3. The sales team sent us the numbers for this past quarter and they were better than expected.
4. His leadership team has been doing really nice things for the company.
5. The executive team is really good at what it does, though they’re not very personable people.
6. I think I’m going to file a complaint with the management team after today’s experience.
7. His team is always really nice to all of us, and they offer us drinks and pillows.

Which Is Used the Most?

According to the Google Ngram Viewer, “team” without capitalization is far more popular than “Team” with a capital “T”. This is a fact that makes sense, when you consider the fact that in the English language there are more regular nouns than proper nouns.

The information proves that since 1900, “team” has been more popular than “Team”, though the former had a major boost in use starting in the 1940s and peaking in the year 2012.

Final Thoughts

Though being confused by the rules of capitalization is reasonable, the way in which you’d capitalize “Team” is really the same way in which you’d capitalize any other word: when it’s a proper noun, you capitalize it. When it’s not a proper noun, you don’t capitalize it.