Which is correct? 1 He was a large man, they called him 'The Big Cheese'. 2 He was a large man, they called him the 'Big Cheese'. 3 He was a large man, they called him The Big Cheese. 4 He was a large man, they called him the Big Cheese. I have the same problem with place names. 1 They stayed at 'The Grand Hotel'. 2They stayed at the 'Grand Hotel'. 3 They stayed at The Grand Hotel. 4 They stayed at the Grand Hotel. Thank you
For the purposes of the question, in both examples #3 is correct. In the first example, you have two complete sentences separated by a comma. That is a comma splice and is incorrect.
sorry, wrey, but i beg to differ... "The Big Cheese" needs to be in " "... it's not a business name, like the hotel, but is being given as what someone is "called"... thus it's being quoted and must be punctuated accordingly... and, unless zaffy is following uk usage, the marks must be " " and the end period must go inside them... if the second sentence was worded similarly, the hotel name would be in quotes, as well: i do agree about the comma splice, however... hugs, m
Just to reinforce the points above. Wreybies is absolutely correct about the comma splice. Maia is correct in her explanation of how to write the names. My only addition to all this would be that your second sentence would be correct as #4 since you are describing a business. You would not use quotes and I see no reason why "the" would be capitalized unless it was the first word in the sentence. The reason for this is that the word "the" is not part of the name. It is not called "The Grand Hotel," it is simply known as "Grand Hotel." When described in a sentence you add "the" as a determiner the same as if you were describing anything else. The reason the name of the hotel is capitalized is because it's a specific name of something rather than something general such as "bank" or "grocery store." It's a proper noun. "They stayed at the Grand Hotel." "Breakfast and dinner are included in the Grand Hotel room rate." "Our stay at the Grand Hotel was terrific." Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. Caleb
...that's correct... and is exactly what i implied in my post, though i didn't bother to spell it out... to go further, 'grand hotel' would have no marks, if it was used thusly: We stayed at a grand hotel, in Bologna.
Always fun to have constructive discussion on spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Makes me dust off those parts of my brain where I store the names for all this stuff. Cheers, Caleb
