Title Case Rules in English — Which Words to Capitalize in Headings
English title case is surprisingly nuanced. Articles, prepositions, and conjunctions generally stay lowercase. Here are the rules and common exceptions.
Title case seems simple until you actually try to apply it consistently. Which words get capitalized? What about short verbs like "is" or "be"? What happens with prepositions? The rules differ depending on which style guide you follow, and most people mix up the systems without realizing it.
The three most common style guides
AP Style (Associated Press) is used by most news publications and PR content. It capitalizes all words except articles (a, an, the), short prepositions (at, by, for, in, of, on, to, up), and coordinating conjunctions (and, but, for, nor, or, so, yet). It always capitalizes the first and last word, regardless of what they are.
Chicago Styleis used by books, academic publishing, and many online publishers. It's similar to AP but capitalizes more words. Prepositions of four or more letters (Over, With, From) get capitalized. Verbs always get capitalized regardless of length, so "Is" and "Be" are capitalized.
APA Style is used in academic papers. For titles of works, it follows similar rules to Chicago. For reference list entries, it uses sentence case (only the first word and proper nouns are capitalized).
Words that are always lowercase
Across all major style guides, the following are lowercase unless they're the first or last word of the title:
- Articles: a, an, the
- Coordinating conjunctions: and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet
- Short prepositions: at, by, for, in, of, on, to, up, via (under five letters)
Common mistakes
The most frequent error is not capitalizing short verbs. "How to Be a Better Writer" is correct. "How to be a Better Writer" is not, because "be" is a verb and verbs get capitalized in title case regardless of length.
Another mistake: not capitalizing words after a colon. "Writing: A Complete Guide" requires "A" to be capitalized even though it's an article, because it's the first word after the colon.
When to use sentence case instead
Most UI text, subheadings in blog posts, and product labels now use sentence case rather than title case. Sentence case (only the first word capitalized) reads more naturally on screen and fits modern design conventions. If you're writing for a tech product or content platform, check what style your brand guide specifies.
Convert text to any case format with the Case Converter tool.