Titles Styles - Capitalization for non-English

Hey all,

Just wanted to bring up something that I’ve noticed, which may not be on everyone’s radar. It’s about title capitalization rules. I know, I know, it sounds like a tiny detail, but it’s been bugging me, and I think it’s worth a chat.

See, I’m from Brazil, and as a Portuguese speaker, I’ve noticed that the Portuguese capitalization rules here aren’t quite aligned with what they should be. And before you say “but we’re following English rules, right?” - yes, that’s true for English titles, and it works great. But here’s the thing: Portuguese has the same grammatical rules for titles as English does (once you’ve done the translating bit, of course). I reckon that’s true for most languages, too. You can check out the English rules here: English Style Guide

But then I look at the Portuguese rules on the site, and they seem to be based on regular sentence rules, rather than title rules. It’s all a bit like a sentence that’s lost its final period. Check them out here: Portuguese Style Guide

So, I’m scratching my head and thinking: why is that? If these other languages share the same title grammar rules as English, why aren’t they using the same capitalization rules? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. And if there’s no big reason, maybe we could consider tweaking the rules for other languages to match?

Thanks for all inputs. :slight_smile:

Then the Guide Lines for Portuguese are wrong?
Actually most languages use “regular sentence rules” and have no title specific capitalization. (e.g. German)

Hi Ernstlx,

“Wrong” might be a strong term, but I do believe the guidelines for Portuguese are the same as English. You’re absolutely right that many languages use sentence capitalization for titles, but it’s also true that others, including Portuguese, typically follow title capitalization rules like English.

I’m curious to know why English appears to be the only language applying its specific title capitalization on this platform. The links I posted in my initial message elaborate on this. If you had the chance to review them, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Regarding German, I can’t speak with authority on that. However, for Portuguese, I feel it’s important to align our guidelines with common practice and use the same rule as English.

Best

A post was merged into an existing topic: Portuguese capitalization