Captain or captain?

mara_jade3 · Nov 24, 2007

Okay, I have another question. In my novel I have two captains of two pirate ships. Now, I capitalized Captain whenever it was used, but my friend who is like a grammar queen made some of them lowercased and I am confused now. Which is right? Thanks!

FennelGiraffe · Nov 24, 2007

This is a bit oversimplified, but it covers the most common uses.

Capitalize when you use it together with the name:

"Yadda yadda yadda," said Captain Weathersby.

Don't capitalize when you use the, a, my, his, some, etc. with it:

"Yadda yadda yadda," said the captain.
"You know your captain has to make that decision."

Capitalize when you use it alone as if it were a name:

"You know Captain has to make that decision."

mara_jade3 · Nov 24, 2007

Thanks, Fennel! You helped a lot.

I was having a huge issue trying to understand it. Now to go through and make sure I didn't change any during my rewrite. I'm subitting it next week to a publisher who wanted the entire manuscript and I didn't want to seem dumb. lol Thanks so much!

Carmy · Nov 25, 2007

Thanks Fennel. I always had to check the capitalization thing but you made it very clear.

eodmatt · Nov 25, 2007

Yes thanks, that is something I have agonised over in the past, but never got to grips with. You have set me straight!

HeronW · Dec 27, 2007

Since Captain is a title, like Prince or Doctor, and the character is talked about or to, either directly or not, wouldn't Captain be all caps in this case? Ex:

Captain Smith was saved by Pocahontas.
vs
No ship ever sailed well without a captain.

In the second, there's no name or specific person mentioned so lower case would be appropriate.

Captain or captain?

mara_jade3

Broken Pixie

FennelGiraffe

It's green they say

mara_jade3

Broken Pixie

Carmy

eodmatt

HeronW

Down Under Fan