5 ms·

Ok, big noob question I never understood how to capitalize headlines correctly. Can someone eli5 ?:D

rvense 3y ago
In English, the most common convention is to capitalize every word, or every word except small ones like articles and prepositions (the, of, for).
- justincormack 3y ago
  In US English. Not in the UK.
- closewith 3y ago
  That's region-specific. Certainly not a feature of the language.
  - throwaway22045 3y ago
    It's a feature of the language dialect.
slhck 3y ago
Generally, capitalize longer words. But this really depends on the style book you choose to follow (MLA, APA, CMOS). See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Title_case https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Title_case
dabber 3y ago
> I never understood how to capitalize headlines correctly. Can someone eli5 ?:D On HN, copy/paste is usually a safe bet (with a few exceptions): https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html If you mean in general, Wikipedia sums it up pretty well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Title_case https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Title_case
- codetrotter 3y ago
  > On HN, copy/paste is usually a safe bet Also note that HN automatically applies the capitalization rules to submitted headlines. So you don’t really need to do any changes to the capitalization yourself when you submit. And for understanding how the rules work, I agree that Wikipedia article is good.
tlamponi 3y ago
See also this nice title-case converter web app: https://titlecaseconverter.com/ https://titlecaseconverter.com/
mFixman 3y ago
Like a big chunk of the language, English capitalisation is nonsensical and descriptivist. Different organisations have different rules just like different audiences have different expectations, and there is no single way to capitalise words in titles. I'm with the parent comment on this one: for this particular headline it makes sense to lowercase "teams", since the HN audience will tend to correlate the uppercase version with the incorrect meaning of the headline.

In English, the most common convention is to capitalize every word, or every word except small ones like articles and prepositions (the, of, for).

justincormack 3y ago
In US English. Not in the UK.
closewith 3y ago
That's region-specific. Certainly not a feature of the language.
- throwaway22045 3y ago
  It's a feature of the language dialect.

slhck 3y ago

Generally, capitalize longer words. But this really depends on the style book you choose to follow (MLA, APA, CMOS). See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Title_case https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Title_case

dabber 3y ago

> I never understood how to capitalize headlines correctly. Can someone eli5 ?:D On HN, copy/paste is usually a safe bet (with a few exceptions): https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html If you mean in general, Wikipedia sums it up pretty well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Title_case https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Title_case

codetrotter 3y ago
> On HN, copy/paste is usually a safe bet Also note that HN automatically applies the capitalization rules to submitted headlines. So you don’t really need to do any changes to the capitalization yourself when you submit. And for understanding how the rules work, I agree that Wikipedia article is good.

tlamponi 3y ago

See also this nice title-case converter web app: https://titlecaseconverter.com/ https://titlecaseconverter.com/

mFixman 3y ago

Like a big chunk of the language, English capitalisation is nonsensical and descriptivist. Different organisations have different rules just like different audiences have different expectations, and there is no single way to capitalise words in titles. I'm with the parent comment on this one: for this particular headline it makes sense to lowercase "teams", since the HN audience will tend to correlate the uppercase version with the incorrect meaning of the headline.