Submitted by rin on July 20, 2005


Is there a set rule to capitalizing certain words in any given title (such as a book)? For example:

“The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”

In that title, one doesn’t capitalize ‘the’ or ‘and’ (not counting the first). Which words should you NOT capitalize in a title? I once asked my English teacher, and she told me to capitalize the “little” words. o__o Can someone clarify that for me...?

For instance, a song:

“Here With You”

Would ‘with’ be capitalized or not? I consider that to be a relatively ‘small’ word...


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I'm sure we've discussed this before. If a word is a preposition, it is not capitalized, e.g. Here with You. A preposition is usually a small word that prefaces a noun and locates it spatially, temporally or logically, e.g. of, to, in, on, out, with, over etc.

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Unless the preposition is at the beginning or the end of the title. Then, of course, it is capitalized. Even though you are not supposed to begin or end sentences with prepositions.

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I don't know why, but song titles capitalize differently from book titles.

Song titles capitalize everything:
"My House By The Sea"

Book titles don't capitalize small words that don't convey the idea of the title:
"My House by the Sea"
i.e. articles, prepositions, anything not a subject, verb, object, adjective, etc.

Maybe it was too much for the music business to handle....

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Why do movie titles always capitalize? For instance a movie would be titled, "Here With You".

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I've heard that if a presposition is 7 letters or longer, you should capitalize it.

Imagine these book titles:

"The House alongside Lake Michigan"
"The Cave underneath Mount Shasta"

Looks strange, doesn't it?

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Capitalization in Eglish Courses

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