1. Shannonpeel

    Shannonpeel New Member

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    Capital letters where...

    Discussion in 'Word Mechanics' started by Shannonpeel, Mar 5, 2013.

    Grammar was never my thing and I have a question you may be able to help me with... Which is the right way:

    He was the King's Uncle Prince Christophson

    He was the king's uncle prince Christophson

    I'm partial to the first sentence but just need some grammar loving experts to give me the low down.
     
  2. TracyH

    TracyH New Member

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    I'm not sure, but wouldn't uncle only be capitalized if it were part of his name or title?

    Although I agree that all Caps is more visually appealing. :p
     
  3. GingerCoffee

    GingerCoffee Web Surfer Girl Contributor

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    Definitely you only cap family titles that are directly used in place of the person's name.

    My uncle ....
    She talked to Uncle and he....


    So, he was the king's uncle, Prince Chris.

    And you need the comma.
     
  4. GingerCoffee

    GingerCoffee Web Surfer Girl Contributor

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    double post
     
  5. GingerCoffee

    GingerCoffee Web Surfer Girl Contributor

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    Of course you can capitalize certain titles like, 'President', means the president of the US. Lord and King are sometimes capitalized in this way. I had a better link on caps I can't find but this one looks just as good.
     
  6. Shannonpeel

    Shannonpeel New Member

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    thx....
     
  7. thirdwind

    thirdwind Member Contest Administrator Reviewer Contributor

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    Yes, a comma is needed. So it should be

    "King" is capitalized because I'm assuming that you're using the title to refer to a specific person as a substitute for his real name.
     
  8. Shannonpeel

    Shannonpeel New Member

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    cool thx.... what did we ever do before google?
     
  9. Shannonpeel

    Shannonpeel New Member

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    dumb moment.....
     
  10. GingerCoffee

    GingerCoffee Web Surfer Girl Contributor

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    That makes sense, the King. But when is it just the king? Not arguing, just truly curious.
     
  11. GingerCoffee

    GingerCoffee Web Surfer Girl Contributor

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    It's definitely full of flaws. Those little green lines help reconsider sentences, but don't rely on the corrections or even the green underlines to be correctly noting errors. The algorithm is far from perfected.
     
  12. Cogito

    Cogito Former Mod, Retired Supporter Contributor

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    He was the King's uncle, Prince Christophson.

    However, king might not be capitalized if you have a gaggle of them around. For example, if you have the kings of a dozen tiny kingdoms meeting for a peace conference, king can act as a common noun.
     
  13. David K. Thomasson

    David K. Thomasson Senior Member

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    content removed by author
     
  14. thirdwind

    thirdwind Member Contest Administrator Reviewer Contributor

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    Like Cog said, if there are many kings around, you might use "king" instead of "King" depending on the context. You also use the lowercase version if you're using the term in a generic way. For example,

     
  15. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    as a nit-picky editor, i'd only approve of it as cog shows, but with no capital on 'king' since it's not accompanied by his name...
     

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