What Is Title Case? | Explanation & Worksheet

Title case is a capitalisation style or convention used for writing the titles of published works.

A capitalisation style defines which words or letters should be written in uppercase and which ones should be written in lowercase. In title case, the first letter of each word in the title should be capitalised except for certain small words like “a”, “the”, and “of”.

Title case is used for capitalising the words in a title, subtitle, or heading. It’s commonly used in newspaper headlines, as well as the titles of books, movies, and video games. Due to this, title case is also known as “headline style”.

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What to capitalise in title case

With title case, you always capitalise the first word and (usually) the last word of a title. How you render the rest of the words depends on whether they are considered major or minor words.

The following parts of speech are considered minor words and are typically not capitalised:

• Prepositions with fewer than four letters (“in”, “for”, “of”)
• Articles (“the”, “a or an”)
• Coordinating conjunctions (“and”, “but”, “or”)

All other words are considered major words and are capitalised:

• Nouns (“pen”, “flower”, “ocean”)
• Pronouns (“I”, “her”, “these”)
• Verbs (“forget”, “build”, “do”)
• Adverbs (“now”, “slowly”, “here”)
• Adjectives (“adorable”, “fresh”, “sarcastic”)

However, minor words are capitalised when they are the first word of the title.

It is important to keep in mind that different style guides, like APA Style, MLA, or Chicago Style, have slightly different rules regarding capitalisation. More specifically, they differ in how they render:

• Prepositions
• Coordinating conjunctions
• Subordinating conjunctions
• The last word in a title

Prepositions

Some style guides like MLA use lowercase for all prepositions, regardless of their length. Others, like APA and AP, only use lowercase for prepositions up to three letters.

Coordinating conjunctions

There are seven coordinating conjunctions in English. They can be remembered using the mnemonic device FANBOYS: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so.

Most major style guides use lowercase for all seven coordinating conjunctions. One exception is Chicago style, which uses lowercase for all except “yet” and “so”.

Subordinating conjunctions

In APA, “as” and “if” are written in lowercase, while in Chicago “as” is written in lowercase and “if” is capitalizsd. AMA and MLA capitalise both.

Last word

In some styles, the last word is always capitalised, regardless of whether it is a major or minor word. Other style guides have no such rule and the last word is in lowercase.

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Title case vs sentence case

Title case and sentence case are two common capitalisation styles that differ in how they capitalise words.

• In title case, the initial letter of every major word is in uppercase, while minor words are in lowercase. Title case is most frequently used for headings and titles of books, movies, and other works of art.
• In sentence case only the first word of a sentence is capitalised, along with any proper nouns (names of people, places, etc.).The rest of the words in the sentence are in lowercase, regardless of their grammatical role. This style is mostly used in standard writing, but it is also commonly used in headlines, headings, and subheadings.

While sentence case is consistent across styles, some style guides differ in their rules for using title case.

Title case converter

If you are in doubt about whether your headline is capitalised correctly, there are a few free online tools you can use to help you check your work, including:

Titlecaseconverter.com

This converter allows you to choose one or multiple style guides for your output text (including AP, APA, and Chicago). It can also highlight and explain changes. Once you have entered your text, you simply click the “convert” button.

Convertcase.net

To use this online converter, you can either type or copy-paste your text on the left, and it will be automatically transformed into title case on the right. You can download the output as a .txt file or select “copy to clipboard”.

Titlecase.com

This is a simple converter that transforms your text into title case as well as AP-style title case. Similar to the others, it allows you to type or copy-paste your text, and once you press “convert” the output appears below.

Worksheet: Title case

With the worksheet below, you can test your understanding of how title case works. Fill in one of the two options in each sentence.

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Frequently asked questions about title case

What is capitalisation in grammar?

Capitalisation is the practice of using uppercase or capital letters in writing to indicate the beginning of a sentence or to emphasise certain words or types of words within a sentence.

For example, capitalising place names, family names, and days of the week are all standard in English. Different capitalisation styles, like title case and sentence case, apply different rules when it comes to which letters to capitalise.

What do you capitalise in a title?

Which words you capitalise depends on the capitalisation style you use. Title case and sentence case are two common capitalisation styles that follow different rules:

• In title case, the initial letter of every major word (such as a verb) is capitalised, while minor words (such as coordinating conjunctions) are typically in lowercase. Title case is most frequently used for headings and the titles of published works.
• In sentence case, only the first word of a sentence is capitalised, along with any proper nouns (names of specific people, places, etc.).

However, these rules may vary. Follow the advice outlined in your style guide.