Which is correct: west London or West London?
Should you capitalise west London or not?
It’s not surprising that English learners or even native speakers aren’t sure about the proper spelling of ‘west London’. People often ask: ‘How to spell west London attractions‘ and ‘How to spell I live in west London’.
It’s easy to get confused, as we see it spelled as ‘west London’ or ‘West London’ probably equally often, even by major media publishers or Wikipedia. But both can’t be correct at the same time, so which is correct, ‘west London’ or ‘West London’?
What’s the correct spelling: west London or West London?
Answer: west London is correct.
Why? We don’t capitalise west London as it’s not a proper noun (name). The word ‘west’ in this case is an adjective describing a part of town and we don’t capitalise adjectives.
When to capitalise the word ‘west’?
Answer: we capitalise words which describe specific regions or are a part of a proper noun (name).
Examples
- the West – when talking about a specific region of a country
- West Virginia – a state in the US
- West Midlands – a region in the UK
- Eastern Europe – a region in Europe
When not to capitalise the word ‘west’?
As we mentioned before, we don’t capitalise the word ‘west’ when:
- it is an adjective, e.g. west London
- we talk about a direction, e.g. go west
- it isn’t a name, e.g. in the south of France