Title case: the capitalisation rules nobody taught you
2 Oct 2026 · Text · 6 min read
Everyone thinks they know title case: capitalise the important words. Then someone asks whether "versus" gets a capital V, whether "to" in "How to Cook" stays lowercase, and whether it's "Follow-Up" or "Follow-up" — and suddenly nobody knows anything. The uncomfortable truth is that there is no single title case. There are several, they disagree with each other, and the differences live exactly in the small words you're unsure about.
This article lays out the actual rules: the part everyone agrees on, the small words that stay lowercase, and a comparison of the four big style guides so you can see precisely where they split. By the end you'll have a five-step procedure that settles any heading in seconds.
The part everyone agrees on
All major styles agree on the skeleton: capitalise the first and last word of a title no matter what they are, and capitalise all "major" words — nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs. So "The Quick Brown Fox" is uncontroversial, and so is capitalising "Is" and "Be": verbs are major words even when they're short. "What Is Love" and "To Be or Not to Be" keep their little verbs capitalised in every style guide that matters. If you remember nothing else, remember this: when in doubt about a verb, capitalise it.
The words that stay small
The lowercase list is where title case gets its look. Three categories stay down:
- Articles: a, an, the — always lowercase (unless first or last word).
- Coordinating conjunctions: and, but, or, nor, for, yet, so — "Pride and Prejudice", not "Pride And Prejudice".
- Short prepositions: of, in, on, at, to, by, for, with, about — "The Lord of the Rings", "Gone with the Wind".
That's the calm centre. The storms are at the edges: how short is short for a preposition, what counts as a preposition at all, and what happens after colons and inside hyphens. That's where the guides diverge.
Where the guides split
Four style guides dominate English publishing — AP (journalism), Chicago (books), APA (academic psychology and social sciences) and MLA (humanities). Here's where they disagree on the fiddly bits:
| Rule | AP | Chicago | APA | MLA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prepositions of 4+ letters ("between", "through") | Capitalise | Lowercase | Capitalise | Lowercase |
| Prepositions under 4 letters ("with", "from") | Lowercase | Lowercase | Lowercase | Lowercase |
| The infinitive "to" ("How to Cook") | Lowercase | Lowercase | Lowercase | Lowercase |
| Word after a colon | Lowercase | Capitalise if independent clause | Capitalise | Capitalise if independent clause |
| Second part of hyphenated compound | Capitalise if proper noun or 4+ letters | Capitalise unless minor word | Capitalise both | Capitalise both |
| "Versus" / "vs." | Lowercase "vs." | Lowercase | Lowercase | Lowercase |
Notice the pattern: AP and APA draw the line at four letters ("Through the Looking-Glass" in AP, "through" in Chicago), while Chicago and MLA lowercase prepositions regardless of length. So "A Walk Between Worlds" is correct in AP and wrong in Chicago — both defensible, neither universal. This is why arguing about title case without naming a style guide is pointless: you're citing different rulebooks.
Hyphenated compounds: the fiddliest corner
Hyphens deserve their reputation. The general principle across guides: treat each part of the compound on its own merits, then apply one extra rule. Chicago says capitalise the first element always, and capitalise subsequent elements unless they're minor words (articles, short prepositions, short conjunctions) — so "Follow-up", "Twenty-first Century", but "E-mail" keeps its shape and "Anti-inflammatory" capitalises both because neither part is minor. APA is simpler and stricter: capitalise both parts, always — "Follow-Up", "Up-To-Date". AP lands in the middle: capitalise the second part if it's a proper noun or four-plus letters.
The practical upshot: "state-of-the-art" becomes "State-of-the-Art" in APA/MLA, "State-of-the-art" in Chicago (the middle bits are minor), and AP agrees with Chicago here. When a converter or a colleague produces a different answer, it's almost always this rule doing it.
After colons, dashes and slashes
Subtitles are where headings most visibly wobble. Chicago and MLA capitalise the first word after a colon only if it begins an independent clause ("A Brief History: How We Got Here" — capital H, because "How we got here" stands alone). APA capitalises after a colon unconditionally. AP, the journalist's guide, keeps it lowercase ("A brief history: how we got here") on the theory that headlines are doing a different job. After an em dash, Chicago treats the dash like a colon; after a slash, each side is judged independently ("On/Off" keeps both).
Proper nouns and brand weirdness
Proper nouns keep their own capitalisation no matter what the rules say about their position: "A Visit to van Gogh" keeps the lowercase "van" because that's the name. Brand stylings — iPhone, eBay, macOS — are conventionally preserved even mid-title ("The iPhone Years"), though some publications normalise them ("The Iphone Years" looks wrong to everyone, which is why nobody does it). When a name and a rule collide, the name wins. Always.
A five-step procedure for any heading
- Pick a guide and stick to it for the whole document. Chicago for books, AP for news, APA for academic work, MLA for humanities essays. Consistency beats correctness.
- Capitalise the first and last words, whatever they are — even "the", even "an".
- Capitalise all major words: nouns, pronouns, verbs (yes, even "is" and "be"), adjectives, adverbs.
- Lowercase the minor words: articles, coordinating conjunctions, and prepositions — with your guide's length threshold for prepositions (four letters for AP/APA, all of them for Chicago/MLA).
- Handle the edges: hyphenated second elements, post-colon words, and proper nouns per your guide's table above.
Phrasal verbs: the trap inside the rule
Here's the question that breaks most people's intuition: "Follow Up Meeting" or "Follow up Meeting"? The answer hinges on grammar most of us never think about. In "follow up", the "up" is a particle in a phrasal verb — and particles function as adverbs, which are major words. So Chicago says "Follow Up", "Check In", "Log In", "Set Up". But in "growing up", the "up" is a preposition ("up the stairs" works; "up the meeting" doesn't), so it stays lowercase: "Growing up in Ohio". The test: if you can move the particle ("follow the meeting up"), it's an adverb — capitalise it. If it needs its object glued on ("up the stairs", not "the stairs up"), it's a preposition — lowercase it. This single distinction resolves the most common title-case argument in offices everywhere, and it's the reason automated converters sometimes capitalise a word you'd swear should be small: they're parsing grammar, not guessing.
The honest caveat
No procedure survives contact with every heading. "To be" as an infinitive phrase, phrasal verbs ("Follow Up" vs "Follow up" — Chicago capitalises "Up" because in a phrasal verb it's an adverb, a major word), and words that change part of speech ("over" as preposition vs "Over and Out") all require judgement, not just rules. Automated converters get you 95% of the way; the last 5% is knowing which guide you're following and reading the result with human eyes. And sentence case — capitalising only the first word — sidesteps the entire problem, which is why so many modern publications quietly switched to it.