| Style | Result | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| AP Style | The Cat in the Hat | Lowercase articles, short conjunctions, and short prepositions under 5 letters |
| APA Style | The Cat in the Hat | Lowercase all short words under 4 letters except first/last |
| MLA Style | The Cat in the Hat | Same as AP but capitalize all hyphenated parts |
| Chicago | The Cat in the Hat | Lowercase all prepositions regardless of length |
| Sentence Case | The cat in the hat | Capitalize first word only |
| ALL CAPS | THE CAT IN THE HAT | Every letter capitalized |
| all lowercase | the cat in the hat | No words capitalized |
In AP Style: "The Cat in the Hat". Articles, short conjunctions, and short prepositions (under 5 letters) are lowercase unless they are the first or last word.
In Chicago Style: "The Cat in the Hat". All prepositions are lowercase regardless of length, unless they are the first or last word.
In APA Style: "The Cat in the Hat". All short words under 4 letters are lowercase unless they are the first or last word.
In MLA Style: "The Cat in the Hat". Same as AP Style, but all hyphenated parts are capitalized.
The first and last words of a title are always capitalized in every major style guide (AP, APA, MLA, Chicago). Additionally, nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs are always capitalized. Articles, conjunctions, and prepositions are typically lowercase unless they are the first or last word.
AP Style lowercases articles, short conjunctions, and short prepositions under 5 letters. APA Style is more aggressive: it lowercases ALL short words under 4 letters. Both always capitalize the first and last word.
Yes. In every major style guide — AP, APA, MLA, and Chicago — the first and last words of a title are always capitalized, regardless of what part of speech they are.
The word the cat in the hat appears in titles, headlines, and headings across many contexts. Whether you should capitalize it depends entirely on which style guide you are following. The four major standards — AP (Associated Press), APA (American Psychological Association), MLA (Modern Language Association), and Chicago Manual of Style — each have different rules.
In AP Style, the most widely used standard for journalism and web content, articles (a, an, the), short conjunctions (and, but, or, for, nor), and short prepositions under five letters (on, at, to, from, by, in, with, of, up) are lowercase in the middle of a title. The first and last words are always capitalized regardless of what part of speech they are.
APA Style is more aggressive: it lowercases all short words under four letters. Chicago Style lowercases all prepositions regardless of length. MLA Style follows AP rules but also capitalizes all parts of hyphenated words. Sentence case only capitalizes the first word, while ALL CAPS and all lowercase are used for specific design or stylistic purposes.
When writing headlines, blog titles, or academic papers, consistency matters most. Pick one style guide and apply it uniformly. If you are writing for a news website or blog, AP Style is usually the safest choice. For academic papers, follow your instructor or publisher required style.