Is All Capitalized in a Title?

If you are wondering about title capitalization, you might be curious, is all capitalized in a title, header, and subheader? Learn more in this article!

It can be a significant challenge to switch from title case to sentence case throughout your work. If you take a look at titles of books, you may notice that short words are usually not capitalized. Because “all” is a relatively short word, you may feel like this should not be capitalized either; however, this is not the case. You should capitalize “all” when using title case throughout your work.

All can be a noun, pronoun, adjective, or adverb depending on how it is used. All of these parts of speech are categorized in title case, so all should be categorized as well.

Learn more about how you can figure out which words need to be capitalized in title case based on style guides!

When Are Short Words Capitalized in Title Case?

When you are following title case for a subtitle, titles, and subheaders, you probably instinctively leave shorter words not capitalized. On the other hand, there are situations where they need to be capitalized.

First, if a short word is a major word, then it always needs to be capitalized. A major word is anything that is four letters or longer. Furthermore, there are some words that are less than four letters long that still need to be capitalized. Major words include all nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and pronouns. In addition, major words also include linking words. Major words always need to be capitalized. 

On the other hand, there are minor words that sometimes need to be capitalized as well. Minor words include articles, short prepositions, subordinating conjunctions, and coordinating conjunctions. Minor words that are three letters long or fewer should not be capitalized in title case.

Keep in mind that some words that are three letters long or less can still be major words depending on their parts of speech. 

Minor Words Should Be Capitalized in Title Case – Sometimes

There are still some situations where minor words need to be capitalized in title case. A few examples of situations where minor words need to be capitalized include: 

• If you have a minor word that is the first word of the title or last word of a title, then it needs to be capitalized in title case.
• If a minor word follows end punctuation such as a period, question mark, or exclamation point, then it needs to be capitalized.
• If a minor word follows a colon or em dash, such as above, then it needs to be capitalized.
• If a minor word is a part of a hyphenated compound, then all words in the compound need to be capitalized, even if one of them is a minor word.

If you are able to keep these conditions in mind, then you should be able to figure out when minor words should and should not be capitalized.

Is All Capitalized When Following Title Case?

Yes, all should be capitalized when the following title case in the English language. There are no situations where all could ever be seen as a minor word. Even though the part of speech can change depending on how the term is being used, it still needs to be capitalized.

It is true that “all” is only three letters long, but it still needs to be capitalized because it is considered a major work. Depending on how you are using this term, it could be used as a noun, adjective, verb, or adverb.

All of these are considered major parts of speech, so “all” needs to be capitalized in title case whether you are following AP style (the Associated Press), APA Style (the American Psychological Association), or MLA Style. 

How Can You Get Better at Title Case?

Whether you are working on an essay for school or are an experienced writer, it can be a challenge to keep up with the nuances of title case. Therefore, you might be wondering how you can get better at this. A few tips include:

• When you are working on your writing assignments, you may want to have the title case rules out next to you. That way, you can refer to them as you work.
• You may want to use an automated grammar tool, such as Grammarly, that can check behind you as you write.
• It can be helpful to get another set of eyes on your work. That way, they can make suggestions for your title, headers, and subheaders regarding title case.

As long as you practice this regularly, you should get better at differentiating Major words and minor words in title case.

Final Word on Is All Capitalized in a Title?

If you have questions about title case, remember that you can learn the rules of the AP Stylebook better if you practice regularly. When it comes to the word “all” in title case, this is a term that should always be capitalized. Even though it is only three letters long, it is a major word because of its part of speech. 

Major words include nouns, pronouns, proper nouns, adjectives, and adverbs. All of these parts of speech should be capitalized in title case. Finally, if a word is four letters long or longer, and needs to be capitalized in title case.

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