Do You Capitalize “Are” In A Title? Learn The Rules

Capitalization can be tricky if you are looking at it from the wrong perspective. Learning all the rules is the hard part, but once you do it, it is done! It is crucial to capitalize words in business, in an email, in a letter, even when chatting with friends. But most notably in a title.

When you have “are” somewhere in a title, the first letter must be capitalized. You must do it based on two simple things: if it is a helping verb in your title, because grammar establishes it as so, and if it follows the rules of the style guide you are using.

The moment children start school, rules begin. The rules for the classroom, for lunch period, for the playground, for just about everything. As they get older and go from elementary school through middle school and high school, more rules keep coming. Some are relatively straightforward such as keeping your phone in your backpack, to some a little bit more complicated such as what words to capitalize when writing.

Capitalization In English

Capitalization is writing a word with its first letter as a capital letter and the rest as lowercase. Every language that follows the Greek alphabet has its own rules when it comes to writing. There might even be many similarities when discussing punctuation or capitalization between different languages, but to understand why capitalization is needed, we need to review its origins.

Old English is the earliest recorded version of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland, from c. 450 CE until c. 1150. During that time, we started seeing the first parts of speech and how gender played a role when communicating. In contrast with New English (AKA Modern English), Old English didn’t have any silent letters.

With the arrival of the Middle English period, starting around 1150 CE to about 1450, Gutenberg’s printing press came to help form the basis for Modern English. This added more variations of the language, but at the same time, it simplified it. Some examples of literature from this period is the Canterbury Tales by John Wycliffe and Geoffrey Chaucer. Capitalization was seen in manuscripts more from randomness than planning, and it was more for artistic reasoning than basic grammar.

With Modern English (Early Modern Period roughly 1450-1800) and Late Modern English (1800 to the present) came a lot of regularization of the morphology, which meant more simplification. Some of the changes were the use of the word “who” (for either who/whom), which became the go-to-choice between the two. The revival of the English subjunctive. The elimination of shall, among others.

Additionally, significant changes came with phonology. The Great Vowel Shift brought a series of differences in the overall pronunciation of the English language. The pronunciation of long vowels and some consonants changed, especially those that became silent. English spelling started being standardized, and with the influence of continental printing practices in 1660, printing was in favor of the capitalization of nouns. From then on, capitalization became necessary.

What Are The Rules?

Capitalization in the English language has a few rules that need to be followed. The following list gives you a summary of them.

• First-person singular. The pronoun “I” must always be capitalized.
• First word. The first letter in that first word in a sentence has to be a capital letter. This is also known as the “Sentence Case.”
• Capitalize most abbreviations and acronyms.
• Months of the year, days of the week, and holidays.
• Countries, languages, nationalities, and religions.
• All proper nouns, including brands, trademarks, and companies.
• Places and monuments.
• Capitalize most words in titles as long as they are allowed under the style you choose for writing.

What Is The Style I Choose For Writing?

The rules for capitalization for books, magazines, articles, newspapers, speeches, etc., can vary according to a “style guide.” A Style Guide is a set of standards for the writing and design of documents. These are common for a general and specific use, and depending on what people need to write, a particular style guide is selected.

There are over twenty guides, but the most common ones are The Associated Press Stylebook, The Chicago Manual of Style, and MLA Handbook. Although not all guides agree on what an “important word” or a “more inferior word” is, these three guides have in common that they agree on the capitalization of verbs and helping verbs in a title. Whether you are writing a dissertation in college or a business proposal, they all follow the same rules regarding capitalizing the word “are.”

But what if you are writing a paper for a history class in high school? Is it imperative to evaluate the style guides that will fit the essay? Is it necessary to choose one? Not really. However, it is important to follow the basic rules of capitalization.

When using a computer, in Office programs such as Word or PowerPoint, there’s an option inside these were the choices for capitalization are available at the click of the mouse:

• Sentence case. Only the first word in the sentence is capitalized.
• Capitalize each word, also known as Title Case. All words are capitalized, except for some words that do not abide by the rules—usually fewer than three letters (of, and, the).
• All caps. All letters with no exception are capital. Careful with this one.

Capitalizing In The Middle Of A Sentence?

Caps seem loud! Using them in the middle of a sentence is bringing attention to that word. If you use it in a text, it can appear as anger, and with instant messaging (IM), it can look like you are shouting. For example:

• Are you really saying YOU ARE NOT GOING?
• I said NO! Now leave me alone.

Besides the feeling that you are yelling, it also makes your message harder to read. If only capital letters are used in a text, the sense of what is being read can be lost. Some studies conducted as early as 1914 suggest that using only capital letters takes more time and effort to read than lowercase ones.

Examples

No informative article would be complete without having examples. In the following list, we will show examples of correct capitalization when it comes to the word “are.”

1. Are we done yet, or do I need to call your manager?
2. The title chosen for this year’s winter essay was “Fairies That Change Their Wings: Are They Powerful?”
3. She said her name was Are. It was such a confusing conversation for me. I thought she was just playing.
4. If I ever get the opportunity to name a country, I would name it Are, just to be funny.
5. John said that the monument built after the famous king was going to be named, Are we there yet?
6. “Maria, Pedro, And Emely Are All Going To The Park” was the title of the children’s book written by Scarlet Coobrom.

Final Thoughts

When capitalizing, as long as it is necessary, we just need to follow the simple rules of capitalization. Always capitalize, in a title, the first letter of every word, the first letter at the start of a sentence, acronyms, and proper nouns; to name a few,

For the most part, we should always capitalize the word “are” in a title, as long as the writing style guide we chose allows it. Written language is more formal and complex than spoken language, and since it is permanent, we might as well make it look pretty. Capitalize those words—especially those in a title.