Capitalizing "The" in the names of locations and characters

Yes.

OK, how about this instance: in my story, there is a group formally named "The Committee for the Support of the Tuberculosis Sanitarium for Children of the Hebrew Faith." Though I'm not sure what should be capitalized in that title, my question here is, should by characters' nick name for it be "The Committee," or "the Committee?"

TellMeAStory said:

OK, how about this instance: in my story, there is a group formally named "The Committee for the Support of the Tuberculosis Sanitarium for Children of the Hebrew Faith." Though I'm not sure what should be capitalized in that title, my question here is, should by characters' nick name for it be "The Committee," or "the Committee?"

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Flip a coin. People will say you're wrong either way.

I would say no, you wouldn't cap the The, but it's really a house style thing.

With newspapers, for example, in a lot of house styles the only UK one that gets a capital T for The is The Times. Everything else gets lower-case, like the Independent, the Daily Mail, etc.

In your Committee example, you'd tend to cap it as you have it there, in title case. The exact rationale for what gets capped and what doesn't comes down to which words are part of (IIRC) 'closed' classes. So there are only a finite number of articles (a, an, the) and we won't be adding any more to them, so it's a closed class and doesn't get capped. Whereas the nouns are getting added to all the time, and get capital letters.

So . . . both The Kingster and The Torgonater say it's a style thing. I agree.

--the wild grammar chaser

It's not about style. If "the" is actually part of a title, you capitalize it. If it isn't, you don't. It's really just this simple.

Ask yourself the question, 'What does the entity call itself?'

Is it, 'The National Rifle Association'; or is it the, 'National Rifle Association'?

Is it, 'The American Cancer Society'; or is it the, 'American Cancer Society'?




NOTE: In each of the above examples the definite article is omitted from the official title; so, .......

Craftsman said:

Ask yourself the question, 'What does the entity call itself?'

Is it, 'The National Rifle Association'; or is it the, 'National Rifle Association'?

Is it, 'The American Cancer Society'; or is it the, 'American Cancer Society'?



NOTE: In each of the above examples the definite article is omitted from the official title; so, .......

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While those do not have "The" in the name, there are other groups that have "The" as part of their formal name. In fact, in Connecticut, and probably some other places, one form of a formal corporate name is "The ZYX Company" without explicitly stating that it is a corporation by adding "Inc.", "Corp.", or whatever after the rest of the name.

Another vote for "it's a style thing". There seems to be no hard and fast rule which always applies. It largely seems to be at the whim of the person or organisation. Some quick googling:

The Queen is "The Queen" on her own website, but "the Queen" on the BBC's website.

Dwyane Johnson is "The Rock" pretty much everywhere. Ditto The Undertaker. Neo is The One, but U2's Edge is variously "Edge", "the Edge" or "The Edge".

The Pope is "the Pope" on the Vatican's website (and most other places it seems).

In the UK, places with "the" in the title are generally not capitalised. We talk about the Fens, the Broads, the Downs.

As far as I am aware, the United States of America is usually not "The United States of America" and the President is not "The President". At least, not on the President's own website.

Government Departments (in the UK) do not have capitalised "The"s.

As a general rule, when someone capitalises the "The" in their title it is either because they are really very important or they would like everyone to think that they are. It can come across as a bit pompous and self-important. It's the sort of thing that a tin-pot dictator would do when he gives himself a high-falutin' job title.

So as a general default I would not capitalise "the" in a job title or place unless I wanted to give the impression that the person or place is very important ... or that they would you to think they are.

To answer the OP's question - I can't be certain without seeing the entire piece, but I'd probably agree with your critter. It would look weird to me too.

Mind, it is a style thing and others will have different opinions.

Fiender said:

Is it considered correct to have "The" capitalized when it comes to the names of either locations, or a character's name/title? Like if your region is just called "The Wastes", or if your character is called "The Rock".

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It depends on which style your editor follows. I use Chicago, so in this instance the correct answer is lowercase "the" in both examples.

TellMeAStory said:

Though I'm not sure what should be capitalized in that title, my question here is, should by characters' nick name for it be "The Committee," or "the Committee?"

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And in this one as well. Even though the "The" is part of the organization's official name, you still would not capitalize it in running text.


Hope that helps!

Nika