Which capitalization of a title is correct?

• A. A Tale of two Cities
• B. A tale Of Two Cities
• C. a Tale of Two Cities
• D. A Tale of Two Cities

Answer: (D)

In this title, the rules of title case say to capitalize the first and last words and to capitalize major words, while keeping short prepositions and articles in lowercase. A is the first word, so it’s capitalized. Tale is a noun, so it’s capitalized as a major word. of is a short preposition, so it stays lowercase. Two is a number acting as a descriptive word, which is treated as a major word and thus capitalized. Cities is a noun, so it’s capitalized. This combination follows the title-case pattern, so it is the correct form.

If a version were to capitalize the short preposition or fail to capitalize a major word, or lowercase a number word, it would not follow the standard title-case rules.