Articles in Captions

Ant_222   Wed Nov 30, 2005 8:30 pm GMT
Hello everybody.

I have a problem in translating the name of a cartoon movie to English.

It can be "[ A/The] Hendgehog in [a/the] fog."

[...] encloses optional caharacters.

That is, there are two nouns in the caption, and I don't know with which articles they should be used.
César   Wed Nov 30, 2005 8:54 pm GMT
I would say "A hedgehog in the fog" or "The hedgehog in the fog."
Ant_222   Wed Nov 30, 2005 9:03 pm GMT
Thank you. Is it true that in captions articulation is not as strict as in normal text?
Uriel   Fri Dec 02, 2005 5:04 am GMT
Often articles and other minor words are left uncapitalized, while the major words are capitalized:

The Wind in the Willows

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

This seems to make it easier to read, actually, because your eye glides over the less important words (which the brain would naturally fill in anyway) and catches on the more significant ones. "The Wind In The Willows" doesn't visually flow as well as "The Wind in the Willows".

Note that initial words DO get capitalized, no matter how significant they are.
Ant_222   Fri Dec 02, 2005 4:02 pm GMT
Uriel, thanks for the explanation of capitalization, but I, in my initial question, was wonderring about how articles are used in captions.

Why "A Tale of Two Cities"? Why isn't it "The Tale of Two Cities" or "A Tale of the Two Cities"?
Why "A Perfect World" and not "The Perfect World"?

That is what I am interested in.
Ant_222   Fri Dec 02, 2005 4:04 pm GMT
'wonderring' -> 'wondering'