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Anonymous Posted 14 years ago
Grammar
A debate is raging- someone help!
Hi all,
I'm in the middle of an odd debate. Neither of us are sure which side we're on, so decided to hand it over to someone else!
Please bear with me on this one:
When a band's name begins with "the," would it not be grammatically correct to add another "the" before a mention? Stylistic flow aside.
For example:
The The Smiths' new album
or
The Smiths' new album.
I understand that the first one sounds ridiculous. What I'm looking for here is some clarity, grammatically-speaking, on whether or not, from an educated perspective, it could be correct. (Note the "could")
If a band name does not begin with "the," you would always add one when referring to the band as above. Thus, our debate rages.
Please someone save us from our angst!
I'm in the middle of an odd debate. Neither of us are sure which side we're on, so decided to hand it over to someone else!
Please bear with me on this one:
When a band's name begins with "the," would it not be grammatically correct to add another "the" before a mention? Stylistic flow aside.
For example:
The The Smiths' new album
or
The Smiths' new album.
I understand that the first one sounds ridiculous. What I'm looking for here is some clarity, grammatically-speaking, on whether or not, from an educated perspective, it could be correct. (Note the "could")
If a band name does not begin with "the," you would always add one when referring to the band as above. Thus, our debate rages.
Please someone save us from our angst!
Top answer
Hi, I suppose you could argue that it is correct grammar to say I love the The Smiths or even I love the The United States of America. But by convention we don't say such things, because they sound ridiculous. When I start my own band, I'm just going to call it ' The '.
- Hi, I suppose you could argue that it is correct grammar to say I love the The Smiths or even I love the The United States of America.
- But by convention we don't say such things, because they sound ridiculous.
- When I start my own band, I'm just going to call it ' The '.
- Or maybe 'The The '.
- Clive
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3 Answers
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Hi,
I suppose you could argue that it is correct grammar to say
I love the The Smiths
or even
I love the The United States of America.
But by con
I suppose you could argue that it is correct grammar to say
I love the The Smiths
or even
I love the The United States of America.
But by con
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Thanks Clive!
You've almost quoted my side of this ridiculous debate, and made me feel fantastic! I just read your response out to a very disgruntled group of writers!
You've almost quoted my side of this ridiculous debate, and made me feel fantastic! I just read your response out to a very disgruntled group of writers!
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By long tradition, "the" is not capitalized when a name is run in, even if it is always said in conjunction with the name or is indeed part of it. I read the Wall Street Journal. John, Paul, George and Ringo made up the Beatles. I live in the United States of America. And even though the Ukraine has dropped the "the", it was never capitalized. The reason is it looks stupid, and where do you
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