If you write headlines often enough, you start to develop an instinct for which words "look wrong" capitalized. A, and, the, of, in — those should be lowercase. House, built, red, quickly — those should be capitalized. Most native English writers can do this intuitively. But when you ask them why, the answers get fuzzy.
Here's a precise list of words that stay lowercase in title case under most major style guides — and a few situations where you'd capitalize them anyway.
The three articles
English has three articles: a, an, the. These are always lowercase in title case unless they appear as the first or last word of the title.
| Word | Example title |
|---|---|
| the | Of Mice and Men (mid-title the would be lowercase) |
| a | The Tale of a Lonely Boy |
| an | Story of an Hour |
Exceptions: When the article is the first word (The Lord of the Rings) or the last word (where this is rare but possible), it's capitalized like any other first/last word. When the article is part of a proper noun that's always capitalized (The New York Times when referring to the publication), it stays capitalized.
The seven coordinating conjunctions
Coordinating conjunctions connect parts of the same grammatical type — two nouns, two clauses, two adjectives. English has exactly seven of them, often remembered with the mnemonic FANBOYS: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so.
All seven stay lowercase in every major title-case style guide.
| Conjunction | Example |
|---|---|
| and | Of Mice and Men |
| but | Small but Mighty |
| or | Now or Never |
| nor | Neither Rich nor Famous |
| for | A Time for Everything |
| yet | Old yet New |
| so | Tired so I Slept |
Note on for: it can function as either a conjunction ("I tried, for I was tired") or a preposition ("for the children"). Either way, it's almost always lowercase in title case under every style guide.
Note on yet and so: these are sometimes used as adverbs rather than conjunctions ("I had not yet eaten"; "She drank so quickly"). When functioning as an adverb, capitalize them. Most style guides assume you'll handle this on a case-by-case basis.
Short prepositions (style-dependent)
This is the trickiest category because the rules differ by style. Here are the prepositions that most styles lowercase, with the four-letter cutoff that AP and similar styles use:
Three letters or fewer (lowercase in AP, NYTimes, APA, AMA)
- at (at the door)
- by (by the river)
- in (in the morning)
- of (of the night)
- on (on the table)
- to (to the moon)
- up (up the hill)
- as (as a child)
Four letters (lowercase in Chicago, MLA, Wikipedia, Bluebook; capitalized in AP, NYTimes, APA, AMA)
- from
- into
- like
- near
- onto
- over
- past
- upon
- with
Five letters or more (lowercase only in Chicago and MLA)
- about
- above
- across
- after
- against
- among
- around
- before
- between
- during
- through
- under
- without
If you're following AP, you lowercase only the top group. If you're following Chicago, you lowercase all three groups. APA gets specifically pedantic: capitalize any word of four or more letters even if it's a preposition. So APA users capitalize With but lowercase by.
Words that often look small but should be capitalized
A few words trip people up because they're short or feel insignificant, but they're actually major parts of speech:
Is and other forms of to be
It's a verb. Capitalize it. Inflation Is Cooling, not Inflation is Cooling. Same goes for am, are, was, were, be, been, being. They all get capitalized.
It
A pronoun. Capitalize it. It's Time to Go, not it's Time to Go.
If
A subordinating conjunction. Capitalize it. If You Believe, not if You Believe.
Than
Often functions as a conjunction, sometimes a preposition. Either way, most styles capitalize it. Better Than Yesterday.
Pronouns of all kinds
Capitalize them all. Me, my, he, she, they, we, us, them, this, that, these, those, which, who, whom, whose, what. All pronouns are capitalized in title case.
The "first word" rule beats every other rule
Even if a word is normally lowercase, if it's the first word of the title, it's capitalized. The Quick Brown Fox capitalizes The. And Then There Were None capitalizes And. In the Beginning capitalizes In.
Same for last word: Of Mice and Men capitalizes Men (a noun, so already major), but if the last word were normally lowercase, it would still be capitalized. The Tide Comes In capitalizes In because it's the last word.
The "after a colon" rule
Every major style guide capitalizes the first word after a colon, regardless of what type of word it is. The Truth: It's Not What You Think. Beyond Good and Evil: A Philosophy. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft.
This applies even if the word after the colon is normally a lowercase article or conjunction.
Brand names override the rules
If a brand spells its name a specific way, that spelling wins regardless of position in the title. The iPhone Is Here keeps iPhone's lowercase i even though it's after the first word. eBay's Quarterly Results keeps eBay's lowercase e even though it's the first word — though here it's debated.
Some style guides argue that for brand names starting a sentence with a deliberately lowercase first letter, you should rewrite the sentence to avoid the awkwardness ("eBay" starting a headline becomes "EBay" or you reword to "The auction site eBay…"). In practice, most modern brands accept that their lowercase first letter is preserved even at the start of a sentence.
The quick mental shortcut
When you're writing a headline, do this mental loop:
- Capitalize the first word and last word, no matter what.
- For every other word, ask: "Is this an article, conjunction, or short preposition?"
- If yes, lowercase. If no, capitalize.
- Handle proper nouns and brand names according to their canonical form.
That covers maybe 95% of the cases you'll encounter. The remaining 5% — hyphenated compounds, words after colons, ambiguous parts of speech — benefit from a quick check against your style guide or our case converter.