Style/Language/English

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, 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.
• (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
  • (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".

However, for releases by Japanese Artists that contain track names in English see Style/Language/Japanese.

Also, note that 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.

Explanations and Exceptions

Examples for Exceptions in (2)(c)

• "Plug In Baby"
• "Turn On Tune In"
• "Dream On Dreamer"
• "Shine On You Crazy Diamond"

Parts of titles inside parentheses but continuing the main title

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

• "Have You Ever Been (to Electric Ladyland)"
• "What Went Wrong (in Your Head)"
• "(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea"

Exceptions:

• "(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.
• "1983... (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)". Anything after the ... is a new sentence, so the "A" should be capitalised. Compare with "Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter" by Iron Maiden, where the sentence continues after the ellipsis.
• "Ramp! (The Logical Song)". Everything after the ! is also a new sentence.
• "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.