God or god

Atlantis · Jan 21, 2012

I have a couple of questions. When introducing a character who is a god for the first time which one of these is grammatically correct:

Nemesis, Greek Goddess of Vengeance

or

Nemesis, Greek goddess of vengeance

And after that introduction should goddess always be with a lower g?

And if I am writing about two goddesses should there be an apostrophe and if so where?

Also should there always be a new paragraph when someone talks? What if there is a description before the dialogue? Like this:

Ann shook her head. "No."

Or should it be:
Anne shook her head.
"No," she said.

I am doing last edits of my book and noticed the second example and it doesn't look right to me. I'm really not sure.

Thanks everyone.

Devil Ledbetter · Jan 21, 2012

Capitalize God/Goddess only when they are used as proper nouns. Lowercase when they are not proper nouns.

Her Royal Goddess Kathleen.
Kathleen is a goddess.

Goddesses doesn't need an apostrophe unless it's possessive: The goddess's castle. If it's plural possessive, it's the goddesses' castle.

Two goddesses is plural, so goddesses it is.

Ann shook her head. "No."

This is correct.

Alessandra Kelley · Jan 21, 2012

I agree with DL, except I would say the (singular) goddess' castle.

The Christian god is capitalised, God, 'cause it's his name. But Zeus is the Greek god of guests and Artemis is the Greek goddess of the hunt. I suppose if you used them like titles rather than description they would be capitalised: God of Guests, serving like an appelation.

Snick · Jan 22, 2012

The word "god" should be capitalized as any other title (Skipper, etc.) would be if it were use in the place of a name. And God and Goddess are capitalized for emphasis.
I believe that

Nemesis, Greek Goddess of Vengeance

is preferable.

Apostrophes are for possessives not for plurals.

In dialogue each new speaker gets a new paragraph. There are exceptions, but the exceptions are rare.

Rufus Coppertop · Jan 22, 2012

Sometimes titles are capitalized, sometimes they are not.

e.g. - The Lady Esme walked into the great hall and saw many other ladies with their lords and a number of kings and queens including the King of Thingo and the Queen of Whatsit.

The word 'god' or 'goddess' when used to describe a class of being need no more be capitalized than the words 'fairy', 'frog' or 'toddler'.

When we say, 'the Jews believe in God', we capitalize 'God'.

When we say 'the Jews as a monotheistic group, believe in only one god', we don't need to capitalize 'god'.

Bufty · Jan 22, 2012

Pre-empting a well trodden path in case the thread slips sideways - http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=230920&highlight=%27God+god%27

Maryn · Jan 22, 2012

[Maryn applauds Bufty.]

Bufty · Jan 22, 2012

Bufty curtseys - or bows -take your pick.

Devil Ledbetter · Jan 22, 2012

Bufty said:
Pre-empting a well trodden path in case the thread slips sideways - http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=230920&highlight='God+god'

Unfortunately, that's what happens when folks confuse grammar with theology.

brianjanuary · Jan 22, 2012

"Nemesis, Greek goddess of vegeance" is correct, because the word "goddess" here is used as a generic noun.

Ann shook her head. "No."

Anne shook her head. "No," she said.

Either of these is fine.

Brian January
http://amzn.com/B005WM0HN6
http://amzn.com/B006QCZF3S

Atlantis · Jan 22, 2012

Thanks everyone!

Chase · Jan 23, 2012

Devil Ledbetter said:
Unfortunately, that's what happens when folks confuse grammar with theology.

Excellent point, well put.

The same goes for the lord versus Lord thread in this section.

Too many want a capital letter to imbue some sort of grandness or honor instead of being the important clue in writing to help differentiate names and titles from other nouns.

Maryn · Jan 23, 2012

Chase said:
Too many want a capital letter to imbue some sort of grandness or honor instead of being the important clue in writing to help differentiate names and titles from other nouns.

Every time I see the word Realtor capitalized, I'm going to remember what Chase said.

It makes me nuts. Yeah, they had to take a course or pass a test or something to get a license, but so do those in a bunch of other professions, yet nobody suggests that every time you use the word doctor or lawyer it ought to be capitalized.

/rant

Maryn, off in her own little world

Snick · Jan 23, 2012

Maryn said:
Every time I see the word Realtor capitalized, I'm going to remember what Chase said.

It makes me nuts. Yeah, they had to take a course or pass a test or something to get a license, but so do those in a bunch of other professions, yet nobody suggests that every time you use the word doctor or lawyer it ought to be capitalized.

/rant

Maryn, off in her own little world

Realtor bothers me also, but it is a title, and it is either a trademark of copyrighted. I didn't like the term even when I was a real estate agent who belonged to the National Association of Realtors.

Chase · Jan 23, 2012

Maryn said:
. . . yet nobody suggests that every time you use the word doctor or lawyer it ought to be capitalized.

Your rant is my rant, realtor included. For thirteen years I served as the director of education for a small hospital across from our campus school of nursing.

Even though I taught English at the college, my "direction" about capitalization was studiously ignored at the hospital.

Several doctors with god complexes decreed the word doctor when applied to physicians would go on being capitalized at all times, as in "The Doctors will make rounds at eleven o'clock," to differentiate from the lesser PhDs on campus.

The hospital president then insisted the word describing him would also be capitalized, as in "the President called for the meeting to order."

Not to be outdone, a group of registered nurses decided they would be Nurses, but LPNs would be nurses, lower case, and nurses' aids would be known as "aids" in print, lest they get uppity.

It was a constant source of fun in classes.

Devil Ledbetter · Jan 23, 2012

Maryn said:
Every time I see the word Realtor capitalized, I'm going to remember what Chase said.

It makes me nuts. Yeah, they had to take a course or pass a test or something to get a license, but so do those in a bunch of other professions, yet nobody suggests that every time you use the word doctor or lawyer it ought to be capitalized.

/rant

Maryn, off in her own little world

As long as they don't pronounce it "real-IT-or" or use the evil counterpart "Real-IT-ee" I don't care whether it capped.

The one that always yanks me out of the story to think about trademark lawyers is Dumpster. I swear I will never use it for any reason.

Chase · Jan 23, 2012

Snick said:
Realtor bothers me also, but it is a title, and it is either a trademark of copyrighted. I didn't like the term even when I was a real estate agent who belonged to the National Association of Realtors.

And well you should have been bothered, Snick.

I’m bothered by some, like me, who are deaf yet insist they’re Deaf with a capital D on the shaky but emotional premise that we’re a culture. Aren’t the blind a culture? Or amputees? What about those sinister left-handed people? Where does oh-so-speshool, better-than-thou capitalization end?

Similar to realtors, I belonged to the American Beekeeping Federation, which issued diplomas telling us we were Beekeepers. Sorry, honey, we can be just as buzzed when referred to as beekeepers.

Love the reel-a-tore, Devil. I see it all the time in speech now that my girlfriend is selling her house. Or is that Girlfriend?

Snick · Jan 23, 2012

Chase said:
And well you should have been bothered, Snick.

I’m bothered by some, like me, who are deaf yet insist they’re Deaf with a capital D on the shaky but emotional premise that we’re a culture. Aren’t the blind a culture? Or amputees? What about those sinister left-handed people? Where does oh-so-speshool, better-than-thou capitalization end?

Similar to realtors, I belonged to the American Beekeeping Federation, which issued diplomas telling us we were Beekeepers. Sorry, honey, we can be just as buzzed when referred to as beekeepers.

Love the reel-a-tore, Devil. I see it all the time in speech now that my girlfriend is selling her house. Or is that Girlfriend?

It's also a matter of Kleenex of kleenex. Realtor, like Kleenex and unlike beekeeper and doctor, is a made up term, so whoever made the term up has some rights over the word. I prefer "real estate agent", and I think that the term is more useful. i am also on a personal campaign against physicians callling themselves "doctors". Doctor is simply Latin for "teacher", and there are few physicians who are teachers.

Use Girlfriend; it shows rspect. It wasn't that long ago when nearly all nouns were capitalized.

Chase · Jan 23, 2012

Snick said:
Use Girlfriend; it shows rspect. It wasn't that long ago when nearly all nouns were capitalized.

Right about the last; I studied Old English for a grad degree. Our cognate language, German, still capitalizes all nouns.

All words are made up at one point or another, but I also agree with you that physician, dentist, veterinarian, et al, are more descriptive than general "doctor."

I trust your advice about "Girlfriend" is tongue-in-cheek, because my entire point is neither lower case nor upper case beginning a word has anything to do with respect.

Snick · Jan 24, 2012

Chase said:
Right about the last; I studied Old English for a grad degree. Our cognate language, German, still capitalizes all nouns.

I don't speak German, but I understand that they have stopped using caps as much.

All words are made up at one point or another, but I also agree with you that physician, dentist, veterinarian, et al, are more descriptive than general "doctor."

Yea, if one calls doctors "Doctor", then the

I trust your advice about "Girlfriend" is tongue-in-cheek, because my entire point is neither lower case nor upper case beginning a word has anything to do with respect.

It was partly 'tongue-incheek'. I believe that using a capital can be a sign of trespect. I think that it is a matter of individual attitude.

lordzapharos · Jan 24, 2012

Snick said:
I don't speak German, but I understand that they have stopped using caps as much.

Being a speaker of German and having lived in Germany, I can assure you that this is false. All nouns are capitalized, even in most German slang. Pronouns, however, are never capitalized.

The only tradition that has recently changed is the usage of the umlaut -- ä ü ö -- and the sharp s, ß. These have been informally replaced by their English approximations -- ae, ue, oe, and ss, respectively. The formal dialects, however, remain unchanged.

lwallace · Jan 24, 2012

Capitalizations

The most common error seems to be the use of unnecessary capitalizations for common noun. The only time a professional title, e.g, doctor, lieutenant, professor, should be capitalized is when the title is used with the person's name (Lieutenant Jones) or entirely as a name of address: "Would you look at this patient's ekg, Doctor?"

Otherwise, lower case in all other instances.

Probably as a concession to Christianity, God should be capitalized in all instances that refer to Christianity. Of course, that is a matter of preference that may be dictated by one's own theology or the absence thereof. Be consistent. With the indefinite article "a," the lower case "god" would be called for. When "god" is used in other instances that are not generic, as in the case of Mars, the God of War, I think a case could be made for writing it either way, e.g., Mars, the God of War or Mars, the god of war. Again, be consistent.

Chase · Jan 24, 2012

Good Lord(zapharos), I'm shocked--shocked I tell you!--at your lack of understand about "the last word." It doesn't have to be correct or even something about which you're pretty sure.

It doesn't even have to make sense (witness the middle inanity).

It merely needs to be an in-your-face opinion, of which everyone has one and feels compelled to show.

heza · Jan 24, 2012

lwallace said:
Probably as a concession to Christianity, God should be capitalized in all instances that refer to Christianity. Of course, that is a matter of preference that may be dictated by one's own theology or the absence thereof. Be consistent. With the indefinite article "a," the lower case "god" would be called for. When "god" is used in other instances that are not generic, as in the case of Mars, the God of War, I think a case could be made for writing it either way, e.g., Mars, the God of War or Mars, the god of war. Again, be consistent.

It's not a concession to Christianity. "God," when referring to the Christian god, is capitalized because "God" is a title used in place of the god's name. It has nothing to do with theology... and many titles, all of which are normally capitalized, are also used.

But, yes, in all things, at least be consistent.

Prawn · Jan 25, 2012

I am sure that those above have presented a perfect grammatical explanation, but this is a choice which also might be considered in terms of the characterization:

"I don't believe in your god. Apollo is the only true God."

God or god

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