Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Capitalization of a noun that has be made definite



If someone were writing a paper on a particular train station, for brevity, it is easier to refer to it as "the station." Should station in that phrase be capitalized?



It is unrelated to Capitalization: when does a phrase become a proper noun? and Definite article with proper nouns, titles followed by a common noun, but apologies if this is a duplicate.


Answer




Let's take Penn Station as an example. Penn Station is the place's name; thus, it will be capitalized as a proper noun.



Penn Station is just one of many stations, though, and whether I refer to it as "a station in Manhattan" or "the station closest to that restaurant", station is still a common noun and would not need to be capitalized. The fact that it contextually refers to a specific station does not change that.


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