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

Capitalizing articles and prepositions in titles can be tricky sometimes, as there are rules to follow, and more often than not, these rules are dependent on the style guide used. Without oversimplifying our explanations, keep reading below to learn the rules:

Long answer short, yes, you have to capitalize “the” in a title if it’s the first word. Furthermore, following a specific writing style guide will then determine where else ─ if at all ─ you have to capitalize “the” in a title.

As a general rule in English grammar, it is mandatory to capitalize the first word of a title or sentence. When it comes to the article “the”, the rule of thumb is to capitalize it at the beginning of a title; however, further use varies based on writing style.

We have summarized some of the most known writing style guides that you should take into account when deciding how you want to capitalize the article “the” in a title.

Capitalization Rules According to Different Writing Style Guides:

APA

APA (American Psychological Association) is a writing style and format commonly used to cite in the social sciences, especially in academic documents. This writing style guide calls for capitalization of “the” at the beginning of the title only:

• The Art of Getting by.
• The Life of Pi.
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
• The Fault in Our Stars.
• All the Bright Places.
• All Quiet on the Western Front.
• Ghost in the Shell.
• Gone With the Wind.
• Love in the Time of Cholera.
• Night in the Garden of Good and Evil.
• The Remains of the Day.

This writing style guide also invalidates capitalizing words that are less than four letters long. In the example mentioned above, “Pi” is capitalized because it is a proper noun, and proper nouns carry one rule─always capitalize them.

The Chicago Manual of Style

The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS). This is a style guide widely used in the world of publishing. It was published in 1906 by the University of Chicago Press. Here, the rules are slightly more complex than the abovementioned. What you must keep in mind, however, is that you only capitalize “the” when it’s the first or last word in the title:

• The Art of Getting By.
• The Life of Pi.
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
• The Fault in Our Stars.
• All the Bright Places.
• All Quiet on the Western Front.
• Ghost in the Shell.
• Gone with the Wind.
• Love in the Time of Cholera.
• Night in the Garden of Good and Evil.
• The Remains of the Day.
• Oversimplifying the Myth of The.

AP

AP Title Case (Associated Press). This is the style used for press releases. Same as with The Chicago Manual of Style, you only capitalize “the” when it comes as the first or last word:

• The Art of Getting By.
• The Life of Pi.
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
• The Fault in Our Stars.
• All the Bright Places.
• All Quiet on the Western Front.
• Ghost in the Shell.
• Gone With the Wind.
• Love in the Time of Cholera.
• Night in the Garden of Good and Evil.
• The Remains of the Day.
• Oversimplifying the Myth of The.

The New York Times

The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage, or simply New York Times. It’s a writing style published by editors at the newspaper of the same name. Its writing guide states that the article “the” should only be capitalized if it goes as the first or last word of the title.

• The Art of Getting By.
• The Life of Pi.
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
• The Fault in Our Stars.
• All the Bright Places.
• All Quiet on the Western Front.
• Ghost in the Shell.
• Gone With the Wind.
• Love in the Time of Cholera.
• Night in the Garden of Good and Evil.
• The Remains of the Day.
• Oversimplifying the Myth of The.

Capitalizing “the” in a Title After a Colon:

When capitalizing “the” after a colon, most writing style guides follow the same principle; we only have to learn which group follows which:

APA demands capitalization only at the beginning of the title and as the first word after the colon. The rest of the writing style guides follow the same principle, plus capitalizing “the” if it’s the last word.

The Chicago Manual of Style, AP, The New York Times:

• How to Capitalize: Ending the Confusion.
• Story of My Life: The Tragedy.
• The Tales I Never Told: This Is the End.
• Running in the Wild: The Call for Danger.
• Oversimplifying: The Myth of The.
• The Run: On the Run.
• Olympics: The Lost Trophies.
• Windy Night: How He Lost the Dog.
• Winning the Battle: The Bees and Their Defeat.
• Making Things Up: The Lie.

APA

From the examples mentioned above, in APA, the following titles would change slightly due to the nature of the word:

Oversimplifying: The Myth of The. This is because, in APA, as stated above, the article “the” is strictly capitalized at the beginning only. So, this would be the result:

• Oversimplifying: The Myth of the.

Making Things Up: The Lie. Prepositions follow the same principle as “the”; therefore, capitalization only happens at the beginning, both in the title and after a colon:

• Making Things up: The Lie.

What Else Should I Capitalize in a Title?

“The” is the only article in the English language that you have to consider for capitalization when it comes to articles. Other articles (a, an) do not require capitalization regardless of their placement, unless they’re the first word or last word, or whether their function is no longer that of an article (e.g., “The A-Team”).

In addition to the explanations above, you can find more details as to how those specific writing style guides work by researching them separately.

Is Your Writing Formal or Casual?

This is important to ask as sometimes people may skip the formalities of style just for the sake of getting their message across. This is remarkably commonplace in social media, as we tend to get comfortable and “nonchalant” and forgo polishing our writing. In this case, we normally use sentence case or title case, which often happens unconsciously, and goes as follows:

Sentence Case

This simply means that we only capitalize the first word of the title as if it were a sentence. This is not exactly a style, rather, it’s more of the standardized capitalization of the English language, and it’s not recommended for anything else than extremely informal writing:

• How to capitalize: ending the confusion.
• Story of my life: the tragedy.
• The tales I never told: this is the end.
• Running in the wild: the call for danger.
• Oversimplifying: the myth of the.
• The run: on the run.
• Olympics: the lost trophies.
• Windy night: how he lost the dog.
• Winning the battle: the bees and their defeat.
• Making things up: the Lie.

First Letter

Here, we capitalize the first word of the title, regardless of whether it’s an article or preposition:

• How To Capitalize: Ending The Confusion.
• Story Of My Life: The Tragedy.
• The Tales I Never Told: This Is The End.
• Running In The Wild: The Call For Danger.
• Oversimplifying: The Myth Of The.
• The Run: On The Run.
• Olympics: The Lost Trophies.
• Windy Night: How He Lost The Dog.
• Winning The Battle: The Bees And Their Defeat.
• Making Things Up: The Lie.

It’s pertinent to remember that, in formal writing, polished writing goes hand in hand with our level of professionalism, and something as small as skipping the capitalization of an article while using a particular style can be noticeable, especially in professions in the world of journalism.

Conclusion

Knowing when to capitalize the article “the” in a title becomes somewhat effortless once you know which writing style to use. Remember that different types of writing require their own set of rules; and, even though it may seem hard to learn them all at first, constant practice is the key to mastery.