Comments on: The royal family's Twitter feed: One is confused

The British monarchy, a fairly tech-literate crowd, decides to embrace Twitter. However, though it claims not be to following anyone, evidence suggests the contrary.

[tismeinaz]

Well, maybe that is the same three that twitter states I am being followed by even though I am not posting anything and have denied all requests to be followed and no one is listed when I look to see who it is.

[Nos1959]

As a Briton living in the USA & a regular reader of CNET, I am not impressed that you have not capitalised the proper nouns & titles such as The Royal Family & the Duke. I certainly would not consider using non-captalised words relating to the President of the USA or any other dignitary.

These are basic rules of grammar, plus it is also protocol. So, kindly correct these mistakes.

[ronan001]

hahaha, you brits, who cares if you are not impressed, and the royal family are not words that require capitialisation in American english. It could refer to any royal family, the brits are not the only country with a monarchy.

[amaress]

@ronan001

English should be capitalized though. And They Royal Family should be capitalized, since it's referring to THE Royal Family, not a royal family. Like The President, not a president.

Get over it. Things get to be capitalized.

[richto]

Yes, the world knows that Americans have not quite grasped the finer points of English Grammer.

However even in your bastardised version of the English language, proper names and titles should be capitalised.

[ArisKatsaris]

The more one demands the capitalization of one's title, the more one inevitably leads to the decapitation of one's person.

[Nos1959]

@ronan001 Oh dear me, you've got to learn a lot about life haven't you. I suggest you go back to school and learn English in a correct manner & how to converse with others with a modicum of courtesy.

My American wife, who has been in publishing & editing for over twenty years, concurs that this usage is certainly not correct.

I will now bow out of this thread with no further comments from myself.

[baggyguy1218]

This is funny. The colum is about Tweets from the British Royal Family, yet the comments are about Capitalization and Grammer. The British are Pompus and Eragant, Americans are Fat and Stupid. You can swap those statements and it would still be true. But atleast we are not Eastern European, those people are screwed.

Also, the single word "duke" does not need to be capitalized. If the word "duke" is used in a title such as "the Duke of Edinburgh" it would be capitalized.

[DamonDMEC]

It's "grammar" folks, not "grammer".

[gjl229]

@baggyguy1218: At least you can spell "fat" properly. The longer words, though, seem to elude you.

A generic duke is not capitalized. A generic president is not capitalized. The president of a university is capitalized only if the individual's name or institution immediately follows; otherwise, it's lower case. The sole exceptions in limited American reporting style are the President (but only of the US) and the Pope. I've only learned of one of those but I don't get out much.

In older British usage, the Duke of Edinburgh often received the capitalization, once specifically identified, whether the rest of his title is present or not. He's also referred to, properly, as "His Grace" or "Your Grace", with capitals. The latest AP stylebook I have indicates that the lower case is used even when the title refers to a specific duke.

But please remember that we're not speaking of grammar here but instead of style.

Style admits to many variations. A style appropriate for a newspaper may not be appropriate for an invitation, a social announcement, or a letter. Grammar tends to have rules to support clarity of communication. Styles are simply conventions we seem to like for a particular purpose and at a particular moment. They're often followed simply for the sake of consistency among writers at a specific periodical or within some other group. They change with the wind.

The Duke of Edinburgh may not care if you refer to him as "Your Grace" when you come calling at his home. On the other hand, I suspect he does not answer his own doorbell.