Capitalize My Title (2024)

FAQs

What to capitalize if the title is a question? ›

Capitalize the first and the last word of titles and subtitles. Capitalize nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs (including phrasal verbs such as “play with”), adverbs, and subordinate conjunctions (major words). Lowercase articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions, and prepositions of four letters or fewer.

According to most style guides, nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs are capitalized in titles of books, articles, and songs. You'd also capitalize the first word and (according to most guides) the last word of a title, regardless of what part of speech they are.

And since “my” is a pronoun, it should always be capitalized in a title. In fact, every noun should be capitalized in your title. The only major style guide that allows for any deviation is the AP style guide.

If all else fails and you don't have a reference guide to help, a good rule to follow is to capitalize all words in a title. Exceptions include the following: a, an, and, as, at, but, by, for, in, nor, of, on, or, the, and up.

Titles are usually in the form of a phrase, but can also be in the form of a question. Use correct grammar and capitalization with all first words and last words capitalized, including the first word of a subtitle.

Any punctuation or italics which are required for independent reasons should be used normally; this includes a question mark at the end if the title is a question.

In title case, the first letter of each word in the title should be capitalized except for certain small words like “a,” “the,” and “of.” Example: Title case I read The Catcher in the Rye yesterday.

To capitalize is to put something in capital letters, particularly the first letters, Like This. To capitalize also means to take advantage of a situation. The first word of every sentence is capitalized, and to capitalize is to write in capital (or upper-case) letters.

Don't capitalize articles (a, an, the)

Articles are considered minor words, which means they are lowercased. For example, in the title Snakes on a Plane, the word a is lowercased. Remember, though, that these words would be capitalized if they are the first word of a title as in The Hunger Games.

Capitalize the first and final word of the title. Capitalize nouns, pronouns, verbs, helping verbs, adjectives and adverbs within the title. Capitalize the first word that follows a colon when using title case. Do not capitalize articles located between the first and final words, such as "the," "a" and "an."

Does me have to be capitalized? ›

When writing titles such as “Take Me to the River,” the two-letter word “me” is capitalized because it is a pronoun. In the same title, the two-letter word “to” is not because it is a less significant preposition and is of less than five characters long.

When used as a salutation to close an email or letter, then the first letter of the phrase is capitalized as such: Thank you, This is also true if you shorten the phrase to “Thanks” or lengthen it to “Thank you very much.”

All major style guides, such as The Chicago Manual of Style or APA style, agree that you should always capitalize the following word types: Nouns (table, woman, book) Pronouns (you, my, hers)

For example, you'd capitalize Uncle Ben and Grandpa Ed will be at the picnic, but you wouldn't capitalize them in a sentence like My uncle and my grandpa will be at the picnic. Similar to the rules for professional titles, you should capitalize the names of family titles when they're used in place of proper names.

They aren't complete sentences, so you don't usually capitalize the first letter. The rules are vague, though. Some books say to capitalize the first letter if the questions are “nearly a sentence” or have “sentence-like status”, so you have to use your own judgment.

You should always capitalize the first letter of the word directly after a question mark. A question mark denotes the end of a direct question. This means that the next word is the start of a new sentence, so a capital letter is necessary.

If a direct question contained in a sentence is long or has internal punctuation, set the question off with a comma and begin it with a capital letter: The question posed to the MLA editors was, How should a question contained in a sentence be punctuated?

English uses capitals for nouns when they're proper nouns (and at the beginning of a sentence), and 'question' and 'answer' are, generally speaking, not proper nouns, so they should not be capitalized.