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{{official capitalization standard|language=English}}
=Capitalization Standard for English=

<ul><li style="list-style-type:none">'''Status:''' This page outlines the capitalization rules for the '''English''' language. It forms part of the [[MusicBrainz]] [[Capitalization Standard|CapitalizationStandard]]. This is an [[Official Style Guideline|OfficialStyleGuideline]] (simplified from the [http://www.musicbrainz.org/style.html#capguide-general original static page]).
</ul>


==In English==
==In English==


All words in a title should have their first letter capitalized and following letters lower case except as noted below:
All words in a title should have their first letter capitalized and following letters lower case except as noted below:
* (1) '''''Always'' capitalize the first and last word of a title'''. This rule should be followed even if the words would normally be lowercase according to the other rules. If a title is broken up by major punctuation (colon according to the [[Subtitle Style|SubTitleStyle]], question mark, exclamation mark, em-dash, parentheses, or quotes), capitalize each distinct piece of the title as if it were a distinct title. Therefore, for example, always capitalize the first and last words of each section.
* (1) '''''Always'' capitalize the first and last word of a title'''. This rule should be followed even if the words would normally be lowercase according to the other rules. If a title is broken up by major punctuation (colon according to [[Style/Titles#Subtitles|subtitle style]], question mark, exclamation mark, em-dash, or quotes), capitalize each distinct piece of the title as if it were a distinct title. Therefore, for example, always capitalize the first and last words of each section.
* (2) Between the first and last word of a title '''Capitalize all words except''':
* (2) Between the first and last word of a title '''Capitalize all words except''':
** (a) '''Articles''': ''a, an, the''
** (a) '''Articles''': ''a, an, the''
** (b) Coordinate '''conjunctions''': ''and, but, or, nor''
** (b) Coordinate '''conjunctions''': ''and, but, or, nor''
** (c) '''Short prepositions''' (three letters or less): ''as, at, by, for, in, of, on, to'' -- except when used as adverbs or as an inseparable part of a verb
** (c) '''Short prepositions''' (three letters or less): ''as, at, by, for, in, of, on, to, but, cum, mid, off, per, qua, re, up, via'' -- except when used as adverbs or as an inseparable part of a verb (as in [[recording:ac132066-3e1d-4d86-899e-0afa98affac3|"Plug In Baby"]] or [[recording:54029746-25ba-4f88-9885-387ac581e45f|"Shine On You Crazy Diamond"]]).
** (d) When used to form an '''infinitive: ''to'''''
** (d) When used to form an '''infinitive: ''to'''''

* (3) In compounds formed by hyphens, capitalize each part exactly as if they were a separate word.
* (3) In compounds formed by hyphens, capitalize each part exactly as if they were a separate word.
* (4) Capitalize contractions and slang consistent with the rules above to the extent that such clearly apply. For example, do not capitalize o' for "of", 'n' or n' for "and".
* (4) Capitalize contractions and slang consistent with the rules above to the extent that such clearly apply. For example, do not capitalize o' for "of", 'n' or n' for "and".


===Japanese releases===
However, for releases by [[Japanese Artists|JapaneseArtists]] that contain track names in English see the [[Capitalization Standard/Japanese Artists Exception|CapitalizationStandard/JapaneseArtistsException]].

==Rationale==

I've tried to come up with a simplified rule set that does not generally require in-depth understanding of English grammar, but produces reasonably correct results in almost all cases. The 3/4 letter preposition size limit is used by (I think) most U.S. publishers.

The trickiest part is (2c). Cutting the preposition size down limits the number of exceptional cases. The 3/4 letter split is a rough guideline. I have omitted prepositions like "up" and "out" because they are so infrequently used as prepositions that it's much simpler (and not terribly wrong) to always capitalize them; on the other hand, such 4-letter words as "from", "into", "onto", and "with" are common and almost always used as prepositions, so there is a rather good case for including them. I personally prefer to lowercase these four, but feel it would be easier (and not terribly wrong) to always uppercase them.)

To help determine if a short preposition (2c) is being used as an adverb, check if it's modifying a noun or not. For example, "Dog in Eternity": "in" creates the phrase "in Eternity", "Eternity" is a noun, so "in" is a preposition- vs "Logged In Eternally": "in" is part of the phrase "Logged In", "Logged" is not a noun, so "in" is an adverb.
* Actually in that example, "in" is part of the verb phrase "logged in", not an adverb. "Logged Eternally" would mean something entirely different. Otherwise you're right, though.

I've also omitted "so" from the list: while it is sometimes used as a conjunction, it is overwhelmingly used as an adverb, so the same rationale applies as with "up" and "out".

I am hard pressed to explain "as" and "by" except by grammar rules: both are used as conjunctions (lc), prepositions (lc), and adverbs (ulc); although lc uses predominate, they are not overwhelming.

Not capitalizing "to" in infinitives, which is common but not universal practice, puts it overwhelmingly in the lc camp.

The bottom line here is that we have a list of 15 words (I may have missed a couple more, what are they?) that are not capitalized in most or all cases. We could probably illustrate that list in a second file, as well as build up a deeper list of exceptions and special cases. If we have more examples, we may be able to better formulate the rules.

==Explanations and Exceptions==

The following addenda are still part of this guideline.

===Examples for Exceptions in (2)(c)===

* "Plug In Baby" by Muse [http://musicbrainz.org/track/ac132066-3e1d-4d86-899e-0afa98affac3.html track link]
* "Turn On Tune In" by Threshold [http://musicbrainz.org/track/aeb23acf-07f1-4f22-89a6-055b41d7e750.htmln track link]
* "Dream On Dreamer" by The Brand New Heavies [http://musicbrainz.org/track/26465bc4-cad8-4507-a4ed-c7fea15d3606.html track link]

===What about parts of titles that are put in parentheses but continue the main title?===

<ul><li style="list-style-type:none">Those are capitalized as if the parentheses do not exist. Mostly. Examples:
* "Have You Ever Been (to Electric Ladyland)" by Jimi Hendrix [http://www.musicbrainz.org/track/7f9b462a-8ac5-472d-a5aa-716b3b3d169c.html track link]
* "What Went Wrong (in Your Head)" by Supergrass [http://musicbrainz.org/track/55016579-15a3-42ab-8b72-976219226dc1.html track link]
* "(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea" by Elvis Costello [http://www.musicbrainz.org/track/65ad64de-ed6b-4cb3-8ffb-6a9e20ca7018.html track link]
Counter examples:
* "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" by Blue Öyster Cult [http://www.musicbrainz.org/track/963bda54-eed7-47ba-b637-d6110d43db88.html track link] ("(Don't Fear)" could be considered optional, so "The" should be capitalised as though it were at the start of the sentence)
* "1983... (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)" by Jimi Hendrix [http://www.musicbrainz.org/track/15575d47-6958-4af8-9ecc-6ae5b8249475.html track link] (Anything after the ... is a new sentence, so the "A" should be capitalised).
<ul><li style="list-style-type:none">- probably a bad example because it contradicts "Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter" by Iron Maiden ([http://musicbrainz.org/track/af7fafda-500d-456f-9550-8e036256c571.html track link]) - the reason for the caps above is that it does not continue the sentence. -- [[User:Shepard|Shepard]] 15:32, 09 July 2006 (UTC)
</ul>
* "Ramp! (The Logical Song)" by Scooter [http://musicbrainz.org/album/a76f77de-f702-40eb-b095-ed9dbcd19ecc.html link to single] (Same reason as above: everything after the ! is a new sentence).
* "Fly Me to the Moon (In Other Words)" titled like that in the version sung by Julie London [http://musicbrainz.org/track/9ec59d6b-de0a-42b6-98bc-797b4ea2ec17.html track link] (This is not a continued sentence but two unrelated parts which occur at different places in the lyrics).

</ul>

==Discussion==

The comments in this section are opinions of single users or open questions and as this not official.

===What about when the first letter of a title is dropped via an apostrophe?===

<ul><li style="list-style-type:none">e.g. " 'Cross the Breeze" --[http://musicbrainz.org/track/34bf79db-eeca-4f23-ad11-b6be2203c2f4.html http://musicbrainz.org/track/34bf79db-eeca-4f23-ad11-b6be2203c2f4.html]. It looks somehow wrong capitalized, but that seems to fit with the current rules. --[[User:Gecks|Gecks]]
<ul><li style="list-style-type:none">Yeah, some comments from others on this would be nice.. I also often see "'Em". Unsure about this. --[[User:Shepard|Shepard]]
<ul><li style="list-style-type:none">The rule seems to be that by default, all words are capitalised unless they belong to a small group of exceptions. By this logic, shortened words that would normally be capitalised should be capitalised, even if they look wrong. But then that raises another potential problem: What if after shortening, a word falls into the exceptional category? eg. "Though" -> "tho'" --[[User:MichelleW|MichelleW]]
<ul><li style="list-style-type:none">An attempt was made on the style ml to clarify the question (starting from a practical case, 'Round About Midnight). This never went to RFV, but it seem latest opinions were: "capitalize" the first letter. -- [[User:dmppanda|dmppanda]] 19:47, 02 February 2007 (UTC)
</ul>
</ul>
</ul>
</ul>

===What about the word 'yet'?===

<ul><li style="list-style-type:none">A coordinate conjunction not listed is "yet" and it's also left uppercase by the "guess case" function. Should it not be lowercase? --[[Christopher Price|ChristopherPrice]]
</ul>


For releases by Japanese artists that contain track names in English, follow the indications on the [[Style/Language/Japanese|Japanese guidelines]].
===How do we capitalize titles starting with dots?===


===Extra title information===
<ul><li style="list-style-type:none">Example: "...and Justice for All" by Metallica (and this is how I would do it, the "and" is not the beginning of the title). --[[User:Shepard|Shepard]]
<ul><li style="list-style-type:none">But by the rules above, "Anything after the ... is a new sentence", and "and" is the first word of a title. (I don't really have an opinion on this, though.) --[[User:MichelleW|MichelleW]] I always thought that a 3dot elipsis meant something was missing, and that to say that something was missing at the end of a sentence required a 4dot elipsis. So I'd say "...and Justice for All" or ".... And Justice for All" --[[Hickling]]
<ul><li style="list-style-type:none">There is no such thing (in normal English, at least) as a four dot ellipsis. The thing you remember is (1) a full-stop at the end of the sentence, followed by (2) an ellipsis (three points). So you'll only see four consecutive points if something is missing after the previous sentence is finished. If there are four points at the end, there is ''no'' space between the first and the sentece (because there's no space before the full-stop, in general). Whether or not there are spaces between the others, that's a style issue. Also, whether or not there is a space between an ellipsis and the surrounding text, I see this as related; since we don't use spaces inside an ellipsis, I suggest we keep it connected to the preceeding text (or following, if there's nothing before, as in this example). Otherwise, we'd get to ugly things like: "A nine words-long sentence followed by an ellipsis. ..."
<ul><li style="list-style-type:none">I would imagine that the style used by the artist would determine if it is capitalized or not. Inaddition, I believe the statement "Anything after ... is a new sentence" to be incorrect, one must look at the source. If the word that followed the ellipse in its original contect is the beginning of a sentence then it should be capitalized, but if it was in the middle of a sentence then it should not be capitalized. By the way "ellipsis" is a plural form of "ellipse", and is incorrectly used in the two comments above.--[[Rooster22]]
<ul><li style="list-style-type:none">An ellipse is an oval. An ellipsis is a mark or series of marks indicating an omission, and ellipses is the plural of ellipsis. --[[User:Nikki|Nikki]]
<ul><li style="list-style-type:none">Yes, thanks for correcting me, it was correct the way that ellipsis was used above. Just checked and ellipses is the plural of ellipse and ellipsis.--[[Rooster22]]
</ul>
</ul>
</ul>
</ul>
</ul>
</ul>


There are often portions of a title that are considered "extra", such as the name of a remix. Those follow their own rules regarding capitalization. Please see [[Style/Titles#Extra_title_information|the guidelines for extra title information]].
==='via'===


===Parts of titles inside parentheses===
Capitalise or not? My gut says no, but my gut says a lot of things... --[[User:Gecks|Gecks]]
<ul><li style="list-style-type:none">My dictionary says it's a preposition. It's only three letters long. Therefore, the guidelines appear to agree with your gut :) --[[User:MichelleW|MichelleW]]
</ul>


Those are mostly capitalized as if the parentheses do not exist, with a few exceptions as shown below.
===Prepositions / adverbs===


* [[recording:7f9b462a-8ac5-472d-a5aa-716b3b3d169c|“Have You Ever Been (to Electric Ladyland)”]]
The rules around "prepositions as adverbs" is still very confusing - and it doesn't help that the example used in the rationale is actually a phrasal verb. :) But seriously, I don't believe that a preposition can be used as an adverb. Now, one can be used to start an adverbial phrase, but it seems silly to make the adjective/adverb distinction here. For example: "He Left in a Car" vs. "He Left In a Hurry". Is this really what you want? --[[User:dkg|dkg]]
* [[recording:55016579-15a3-42ab-8b72-976219226dc1|“What Went Wrong (in Your Head)”]]
<ul><li style="list-style-type:none">A preposition *can* be used as an adverb (and commonly is), but it usually "looks wrong" if capitalised in the middle of a title. Along these lines is the apparent contradiction in the way GUESS CASE treats "In" and "Out". Changing "In" to "in" makes sense to me, but GC but doesn't change "Out" to "out". Unless I've missed something (quite likely), "in" and "out" are equal and opposite, so their cases should be covered by the same rules. "Turn on, Tune in, Cop Out" (by Freak Power) - as suggested by the Guess Case button - is an example of the contradiction. --[[Arty Smokes|ArtySmokes]]
* [[recording:65ad64de-ed6b-4cb3-8ffb-6a9e20ca7018|“(I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea”]]
<ul><li style="list-style-type:none">Here "Out" is the last word though and therefore never lowercased. -- [[User:Shepard|Shepard]] 04:42, 21 June 2007 (UTC) Ah, yes. I said I was missing something. :) I'll see if I can find an example where "out" is capitalised (possibly incorrectly) in the middle of a title. Meanwhile I need to fix the Freak Power track, as I think it currently has "in" lowercased. -- [[Arty Smokes|ArtySmokes]]
</ul>
</ul>


''Exceptions:''
==='And' in brackets===
* [[recording:963bda54-eed7-47ba-b637-d6110d43db88|“(Don’t Fear) The Reaper”]]. “(Don’t Fear)” could be considered optional, so “The” should be capitalised as though it were at the start of the sentence.
* [[recording:15575d47-6958-4af8-9ecc-6ae5b8249475|“1983… (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)”]]. Anything after the “…” is a new sentence, so the “A” should be capitalised. Compare with [[recording:af7fafda-500d-456f-9550-8e036256c571|“Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter”]] by Iron Maiden, where the sentence continues after the ellipsis.
* [[Release:a76f77de-f702-40eb-b095-ed9dbcd19ecc|“Ramp! (The Logical Song)”]]. Everything after the ! is also a new sentence.
* [[recording:9ec59d6b-de0a-42b6-98bc-797b4ea2ec17|“Fly Me to the Moon (In Other Words)”]]. This is not a continued sentence, but two unrelated parts which occur at different places in the lyrics.


===Special cases===
"It's the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine)" is correct, but the Guess Case button currently changes the 'A' of "and" to a capital. If the brackets came before the main title, or "And" followed an ellipsis, the capital 'A' would seem fine, but I doubt there are many/any examples of a track where "And" appears as a separate sentence in brackets after the main title. Could the GC function be altered accordingly? -- [[Arty Smokes|ArtySmokes]]
<ul><li style="list-style-type:none">As per the 1), a title split up in multiple parts by major punctuation (eg bracket), then it's a separate title and needs to have a capital letter for the each part. It's only when the brackets are splitting part of the same sentence that you keep a leading 'and' in lower case. Since you can have a sentence that starts with "And" I suppose it's impossible for a script to decide, though I guess it's at least more likely that a bracket with an 'and' after it, then it's the same sentence, so you're probably right! -- [[User:Gecks|Gecks]]
</ul>


Both parts of “O’Clock” should be capitalised (e.g. [[recording:ffb332f4-37a9-440e-b902-f190203b2bdc|“Nine O’Clock”]]).
----Original Author: [[Tom Hull|TomHull]]


{{StyleBox}}
[[Category:To Be Reviewed]] [[Category:Style]]
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Latest revision as of 01:24, 9 February 2023

Status: This is an official style guideline.

In English

All words in a title should have their first letter capitalized and following letters lower case except as noted below:

  • (1) Always capitalize the first and last word of a title. This rule should be followed even if the words would normally be lowercase according to the other rules. If a title is broken up by major punctuation (colon according to subtitle style, question mark, exclamation mark, em-dash, or quotes), capitalize each distinct piece of the title as if it were a distinct title. Therefore, for example, always capitalize the first and last words of each section.
  • (2) Between the first and last word of a title Capitalize all words except:
    • (a) Articles: a, an, the
    • (b) Coordinate conjunctions: and, but, or, nor
    • (c) Short prepositions (three letters or less): as, at, by, for, in, of, on, to, but, cum, mid, off, per, qua, re, up, via -- except when used as adverbs or as an inseparable part of a verb (as in "Plug In Baby" or "Shine On You Crazy Diamond").
    • (d) When used to form an infinitive: to
  • (3) In compounds formed by hyphens, capitalize each part exactly as if they were a separate word.
  • (4) Capitalize contractions and slang consistent with the rules above to the extent that such clearly apply. For example, do not capitalize o' for "of", 'n' or n' for "and".

Japanese releases

For releases by Japanese artists that contain track names in English, follow the indications on the Japanese guidelines.

Extra title information

There are often portions of a title that are considered "extra", such as the name of a remix. Those follow their own rules regarding capitalization. Please see the guidelines for extra title information.

Parts of titles inside parentheses

Those are mostly capitalized as if the parentheses do not exist, with a few exceptions as shown below.

Exceptions:

Special cases

Both parts of “O’Clock” should be capitalised (e.g. “Nine O’Clock”).

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