I know, I know, but I'm curious. Okay, so in titles, the rule is that you capitalize every word unless it is a preposition (unless it's at the beginning or end of the title, as then you'd obviously capitalize it), some obvious ones being and, to, and the. Then there are other ones that we often don't know are prepositions, such as with and about. Correct: I'm Talking about a Trip with My Dog Incorrect: I'm Talking About a Trip With My Dog Here's a list of all prepositions: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_prepositions However, and this is where my confusion comes in, some prepositions can be capitalized if they are used adjectivally or adverbially, but they are not capitalized if they're neither of those. So, how do you tell, first of all, if a preposition can be used either way and, second of all, if it's being used adjectivally or adverbially or not? Here's an article from Grammar Girl regarding title capitalization, and it uses "up" as an example, one of the prepositions that can be capitalized or not depending on its context: http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/capitalizing-titles If you don't want to read it, you can just click play on the player. Also, I'll quote the paragraph containing the example, as well as highlight the example. @Makaze, I know you've helped me in this area before, like when I asked about the different between which and what, so I am tagging you.
See, but the correct example looks incredibly ugly. It's like people who use the correct plural form of beer. I saying "I drank like five beer." just makes you sound stupid. Unless I'm being marked on it, or trying to look professional, I generally stick to the three letter rule with capitalization
Doesn't look that weird to me, personally (e.g., "What Is Food?"). But yeah, I know. I'm mostly asking in regards to naming music tracks I have and the like, and because of the way I am, I like to make sure things are super correct in my titles or title-like materials. Don't really understand your beer example, though. Everyone knows that the plural of beer is beers.
Adjectives modify nouns. Adverbs modify adjectives, verbs, and other adverbs (but if you're using adverbs to modify other adverbs then your writing has waaaay more problems than just capitalization). That should help a bit with your confusion, but honestly there's no one concrete rule on how to capitalize prepositions in the English language -- it depends on which stylistic manual you're adhering to. I don't have access to the Chicago Manual of Style atm so I can't cross reference what the article you linked is speaking about but: http://grammar.about.com/od/grammarfaq/f/capitalstitle.htm Basically just pick whatever you prefer and go along with that. Unless you're publishing academic or literary material it doesn't matter. I prefer sentence case for titles on the internet anyway.
I prefer to go with the Chicago way, personally. Also, is this the right one? So in the examples above, how is "Squiggly Looked Up a Word," up being capitalized, an adjective / adverb, whereas "Squiggly Walked up the Mountain," up not being capitalized, isn't? In the first one, what is, as you put it, being modified? Anyway, so that explains how to determine if you capitalize a preposition or not when it can go either way, but how do you determine if it can be used adjectivally or adverbially or not? For example, the word "and" is never capitalized in a title, unless it's at the beginning or end, which I guess means it can't be used adjectivally or adverbially? And yeah, but you know how I am. xD But I also want to educate myself for the titles I use for things like my documents and the like.
See this is where I'd like to reference the Chicago Manual of Style because I don't think the example given on that website is correct. The author is saying that adverbial prepositional phrases should be capitalized, but "up the mountain" is an adverbial phrase -- it describes where the subject walked (a verb). Moreover, I can't find any other website on Chicago headline-style capitalization that distinguishes adverbial and adjectival phrases -- about.com seems to have the direct quote "prepositions, regardless of length, are lowercased unless they are the first or last word of the title." There may very well be more to it than that in the manual but I don't have a copy nor do I know it well (I use MLA in academics).
Regarding the "up vs. Up," I know I asked that to my former GED instructor a long time ago, and she did have an answer for me, but I don't remember what it was. I can ask her again this week and post it here for opinions. Yeah, the high school here uses MLA, though as an assignment one day in Senior English, our teacher had us do an essay twice, once in MLA format and once in APA format.
It's good to practice the two because they're most common (though I personally loathe APA). I study English so MLA is my standard and it's what most people are accustomed to. In academics, it's usually dictated by your field. For non-academic writing I don't adhere to anything because I don't care that much. If you're interested in applying standards of style to your every day writing / typing and you don't want to be bogged down by all the **** in style manuals, or just want to understand grammar better, I highly recommend The Elements of Style.
I can't enlighten on this any more than others have, but... Looked Up is adverbial because it does not literally mean that they looked upward. It extends the verb to create the action 'looking [subject] up'. Contrast 'looking [subject] down'. The verb in 'walked up the mountain' isn't changed — walking up is not different action from walking down. The direction is different but the action is the same. In other words, adverbial prepositions modify verbs to create different actions altogether.
So, basically, on the prepositions that can go either way, if it's literal, lowercase it as any other preposition ("I'm Walking up Ladders Today," "Look up to the Sky", "He Looked down and Fell," etc."), but if it's not literal, then you capitalize it ("Look Up How to Spell Capitalization," "Boy, It's Hot Up in Here," "It's Time to Sit Down and Relax, etc.) Literal Examples: Walking up Ladders Is Fun Look up to the Sky Don't Look down or You'll Fall Non-Literal Examples: Look Up How to Spell the Word Hippopotamus It's Hot Up Here It's Time to Sit Down and Relax However, then there are those prepositions that are always in lowercase (unless they're at the beginning or end, of course) no matter what, which I guess means that their only meaning is literal, correct? For example, the, with, about, above, below, after, before would always be in lowercase. Feel free to correct me on any of my examples above, because I'm probably wrong at least in a few places. Anyway, to try something more complex, what about a word like "over"? I'm pretty sure that can be used either way, because in two different episodes of the revival of Figure It Out, there were two secrets that both had the worth over in it, and Figure It Out always provided prepositions automatically because they'd pretty much be impossible to guess words, and one episode had a secret with over provided automatically and one episode had a secret with over not provided automatically. Visiting the prepositions page on Wikipedia I linked to, which prepositions would always be in lowercase no matter what, or if it's easier because there are most likely fewer, which words would go either way?
"It's Hot Up Here" seems wrong. 'It's [adjective] Up In' seems more plausible. "It's Time to Sit Down and Relax" is questionable but sit down is considered a separate term... Ask someone more knowledgeable than me.
