Title Case vs Sentence Case: Which to Use and When

Title Case capitalizes the main words of a title ("How to Bake the Perfect Loaf of Bread"), while Sentence case capitalizes only the first word and proper nouns ("How to bake the perfect loaf of bread"). Use Title Case for formal titles like books and articles, and Sentence case for most web headings, buttons and emails. The free Case Converter switches between them, and to code styles like camelCase, in one click.

What are the title case rules?

Most style guides capitalize:

• the first and last word,
• nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and pronouns,
• words of four or more letters (in some styles, such as APA).

And keep lowercase, unless first or last:

• articles: a, an, the,
• short conjunctions: and, but, or, nor, for,
• short prepositions: of, in, on, at, to, by, via, per.

Example: "A Guide to the Best Places to Eat in Lahore". The converter's Title Case follows these rules: it keeps short words like a, an, and, as, at, but, by, for, if, in, nor, of, on, or, per, the, to, via and vs lowercase unless they're the first or last word.

Style guides differ on details. APA capitalizes words of four letters or more; Chicago lowercases all prepositions. If you follow a specific guide, check the edge cases.

When should you use each?

Use	Recommended
Book, film and article titles	Title Case
Academic papers (APA, MLA)	Title Case for titles, as your guide says
Website headings and blog subheadings	Sentence case (or Title Case, consistently)
Buttons and menus ("Save changes")	Sentence case
Email subject lines	Sentence case
YouTube and video titles	Either; Title Case is common

The most important rule is consistency: pick one style for each type of heading and stick to it.

Why do many websites prefer sentence case?

It's easier to read, especially for longer headings, because the eye isn't stopped by a capital on every word. It also avoids debates about which words to capitalize. Many large product and government websites use sentence case for headings and buttons for this reason.

How do you use the Case Converter?

1. Open the Case Converter.
2. Type or paste your text.
3. Click a style: UPPERCASE, lowercase, Title Case, Sentence case, camelCase, PascalCase, snake_case, kebab-case, CONSTANT_CASE, aLtErNaTiNg or iNVERSE.
4. The text changes in place. Undo brings back the previous version, and Copy copies the result.

Your text stays in your browser.

What about camelCase, snake_case and kebab-case?

These are for code, file names and URLs, where spaces aren't allowed:

Style	Example	Common use
camelCase	userName	JavaScript and Java variables
PascalCase	UserName	class and component names
snake_case	user_name	Python variables, database columns
kebab-case	user-name	URLs, CSS classes, file names
CONSTANT_CASE	USER_NAME	constants and environment variables

For web addresses (slugs), use lowercase kebab-case: "/blog/title-case-vs-sentence-case".

Quick fixes

• Caps Lock accident: click Sentence case.
• ALL-CAPS heading from a PDF: click Title Case, then check names and acronyms (the converter can't know that "NASA" should stay capitals).
• Need a URL slug: click kebab-case, then remove words you don't need.

After converting, check the result for proper nouns, brand names and acronyms, which no automatic tool gets right every time.

Convert your text

Try the free Case Converter. Writing headings for a post? Check its length with the Word Counter and polish the wording with the Grammar & Writing Checker; our guide to common grammar mistakes covers capitalization slips too.