Sentence Case Converter
Paste ALL CAPS text, a Title Case heading or a reference title and get it back in sentence case: lower case with a capital at the start. Common acronyms such as NASA and PDF and the pronoun "I" are restored, and you see how many characters changed. Free, no sign-up, and the text stays in your browser.
Turkish is the only language that cases the letter i differently: İ lowers to i, and i raises to İ.
How to Use the Sentence Case Converter
- Paste your text. The output appears as soon as there is something in the box; there is no button to press.
- Read the output. Everything is lower-cased, then the first letter of the text, of each new line and of each new sentence gets a capital. Standalone "I" and a list of common acronyms are put back.
- Check the three counts. Characters, Sentences and Characters Changed show how much the converter touched.
- Fix what it cannot know. Proper nouns and the first word of a subtitle need a manual capital, as the next section explains. Then press Copy to Clipboard.
When to Use Sentence Case
Sentence case capitalizes the first word and proper nouns, and nothing else. The situations where you need it are narrower than most people expect:
| Where | Style |
|---|---|
| APA 7 reference list: titles of articles, chapters, books, reports and web pages | Sentence case, even if the original used title case |
| APA 7 reference list: journal and other periodical names | Title case (a different rule) |
| APA 7 headings and the paper's title; titles mentioned in the text | Title case. Use the Title Case Converter |
| News headlines in AP style | Sentence case |
| A paragraph pasted in ALL CAPS, or typed with Caps Lock on | Sentence case repairs it |
APA says to capitalize only the first word of the title, the first word after punctuation that separates a title from its subtitle (a colon, for example), and proper nouns. APA gives the reason as readability: the rest of a reference entry is full of capitals, so a sentence-case title is easier to scan.
A Worked Example
Pasted
THE EFFECTS OF SLEEP ON MEMORY: A META-ANALYSIS OF NASA STUDIES
Converter output
The effects of sleep on memory: a meta-analysis of NASA studies
APA reference title
The effects of sleep on memory: A meta-analysis of NASA studies
The converter changed 46 of the 63 characters and found one sentence. The only edit left is the capital on "A" after the colon, which APA requires and the tool does not add. Another title, "Effects of Sleep Deprivation on Memory in Adults: A Systematic Review", has just seven letters changed, because title case already capitalizes most of what sentence case lowers; the capital after the colon is again yours to restore.
What the Converter Cannot Know
- Proper nouns. Every word is lower-cased first, so "London", "Freud" and "Alzheimer's" lose their capitals unless they are on the built-in acronym list. Retype them.
- Abbreviations in the middle of a line. A capital follows every full stop, question mark and exclamation mark, except after a lone initial or a common abbreviation such as "e.g.", "i.e." or "Dr.". A sentence that ends in another abbreviation ("etc.", say) will get a capital on the next word, which you may need to lower again.
- The acronym list is short and literal. It restores 40 items, among them USA, NASA, HTML, PDF, DNA, GDP, PhD, APA and MLA. Five of them (IT, ACT, SAT, STEM and UN) are also ordinary words, so they come back in capitals only when you typed them in capitals inside text that is not all capitals; in an ALL CAPS paragraph "IT" and "SAT" are lower-cased and need a manual fix if you meant the acronym.
- Acronyms outside the list such as WHO or BMI are lower-cased, and need a manual fix.
Which Tool Do You Need?
| If you want… | Use |
|---|---|
| An APA reference-list title, or ALL CAPS text repaired | This Sentence Case Converter |
| A heading capitalized by APA title-case rules | Title Case Converter |
| A multi-sentence paragraph, or upper, lower, camel or snake case | Case Converter |
| Capitalization errors found rather than rewritten | Capitalization Checker |
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is sentence case?
- Sentence case capitalizes only the first word of a sentence or title and any proper nouns; every other word is lower case. "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" is in sentence case. It is how ordinary prose is written and how APA writes reference titles.
- How do I convert ALL CAPS to normal text?
- Paste the text into the box. The converter lower-cases everything and capitalizes the first letter of the text, of each new line and of each sentence after a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark. Then restore names and acronyms.
- How do I put an APA reference title in sentence case?
- Paste the title, then capitalize the first word of any subtitle (the word after a colon) and the proper nouns. APA writes the titles of articles, books, reports and web pages in sentence case in the reference list, but keeps journal names in title case. Italicize book and report titles in the entry.
- When should I use sentence case instead of title case?
- Use sentence case for APA reference-list titles, AP-style news headlines and ordinary prose. Use title case for APA headings and the paper's title, for titles quoted in running text, and wherever another style guide asks for headline capitalization.
- Does the converter keep acronyms and proper nouns?
- Only the acronyms on its list of 40, such as USA, NASA, PDF and PhD, and the pronoun "I". It cannot recognise names of people or places, so check those by hand. Words that double as ordinary words, such as "it" and "sat", are capitalized only if you typed them in capitals.
- Is my text uploaded or stored?
- No. The conversion runs in your browser and nothing is sent anywhere. Closing the tab clears the text.