President and articles again

Question

Someone has mentioned presidents and articles before... Here are my sentences:

1) George Bush is president of the USA.

2) George Bush was elected/became president (of the USA).

3) I saw the president of the USA yesterday.

4) I saw president Bush yesterday.

5) George Bush, president of the USA, spoke about it himself.

Are the above sentences correct? Please note that I've only used "the" in the third sentence.

What if I replace George Bush with Elizabteh II, president with Queen and USA with UK? The rules should be the same, shouldn't they?

Clive · Accepted Answer

Hi,

Someone has mentioned presidents and articles before... Here are my sentences:

1) George Bush is president of the USA.

2) George Bush was elected/became president (of the USA).

3) I saw the president of the USA yesterday.

4) I saw president Bush yesterday.

5) George Bush, president of the USA, spoke about it himself.

Are the above sentences correct? Please note that I've only used "the" in the third sentence.

Yes, these are fine. However, we usually think of 'President of the USA' as a title, so we would use a capital 'P'. However, in #3 lower case is OK if you are thinking 'I saw the president of the USA but not the president of IBM'.

We've discussed this before, as you probably know, and it can be a little confusing.

Best wishes, Clive

BarbaraPA · Answer

This is another example of something that is "style" and not grammar. Different organizations can have different ways of capitalizing titles. I tend to follow the Chicago Manual of Style, which would have #4 with a capital P.  But another style guide may be different. Just be utterly, completely consistent in your use.

Pastsimple · Answer

Thank you for your answers.

If I spell president with capital P in #3, will the definite article remain there? I'd still use it but I'm not a native speaker and this is a trickier part of the English language

BarbaraPA · Answer

Yes, you'd keep the article.  I think your English is very good, so maybe you're at the point now where a style guide would work for you. The Chicago Manual of Style is pretty hard to use, I think. There are others - like Gregg - that are a little friendlier.

Pastsimple · Answer

Thanks for your answer and for the compliment. Well, I do have to ask natives from time to time - especially questions about articles and prepositions, the trickiest features of English (in my opinion). What are the full titles of books you'd recommend, please? Is books OK here without the definite article? I've just deleted it <img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' alt='Emotion: smile'/>

BarbaraPA · Answer

Here's one: The Gregg Reference Manual : A Manual of Style, Grammar, Usage, and Formatting

Ooh! See this Web site: http://www.mhhe.com/ps/buscomm/grm/index.html

And here's an online style guide that I haven't really looked at, but did look at what this person had to say about capitalizing titles.

(And he or she said this: job titles and descriptions Consistency is key. Capitalize official job titles when used immediately before a name as part of a name: Finance Department Director Virginia Schwieterman, Accounting Manager Billie Burke, Budget Planner Mary Munchkin, Computer Technician George Bailey, Media Specialist Tim Wright. Lowercase titles when used alone or when set off descriptively from a name by commas, often after a name; when applicable, capitalize only the names of departments, divisions and other groups: Virginia Schwieterman, Finance Department director; Billie Burke, manager of the Accounting Division; Billie Burke, accounting manager; Mary Munchkin, budget planner; George Bailey, computer technician; Tim Wright, media specialist. )

President and articles again

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