✨ Capitalization Rules: Books, Movies, and Works
When we write the titles of books, movies, songs, plays, or other works, we must capitalize the important words. This makes the title look neat and shows respect for the work.
🟢 Rule: Capitalize Important Words in Titles
In English, we capitalize:
- The first word of the title
- The last word of the title
- All important words in between (like nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs)
We usually do not capitalize short words like and, of, in, on, the, a, an unless they are the first or last word in the title.
📚 Examples of Book Titles
- ✅ Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
- ✅ Charlotte’s Web
- ✅ The Hobbit
- ✅ Diary of a Wimpy Kid
- ✅ The Cat in the Hat
❌ Wrong: harry potter and the chamber of secrets
❌ Wrong: the hobbit
🎬 Examples of Movie Titles
- ✅ The Lion King
- ✅ Frozen
- ✅ Finding Nemo
- ✅ Spider-Man: No Way Home
- ✅ Inside Out
❌ Wrong: the lion king
❌ Wrong: finding nemo
🎵 Examples of Songs and Plays
- ✅ Let It Go (song from Frozen)
- ✅ Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
- ✅ Romeo and Juliet (play by Shakespeare)
- ✅ The Sound of Music
❌ Wrong: romeo and juliet
❌ Wrong: twinkle, twinkle, little star
🧩 Practice Sentences
Fix the capitalization mistakes:
- wrong: we watched the lion king yesterday.
fix: We watched The Lion King yesterday. - wrong: my favorite book is charlotte’s web.
fix: My favorite book is Charlotte’s Web. - wrong: she sang let it go from frozen.
fix: She sang Let It Go from Frozen. - wrong: we read diary of a wimpy kid in class.
fix: We read Diary of a Wimpy Kid in class.
🔄 American vs. British English Differences
The capitalization rules for titles are the same in both American and British English.
The difference is only in spelling or word choice, not in capitalization.
Examples:
- American English:
- ✅ The Color Purple (book title)
- ✅ Favorite Stories for Children
- British English:
- ✅ The Colour Purple (book title)
- ✅ Favourite Stories for Children
👉 Notice: color/colour and favorite/favourite are spelled differently, but both are capitalized the same way.
🎯 Summary
- Always capitalize the first word, last word, and important words in titles.
- Do not capitalize short words like and, of, in, the unless they are at the beginning or end.
- American and British English follow the same capitalization rules, but spelling may differ.