Admiral Gonzeles told his men to search for a gun. A soldier asked if the admiral had any further instructions.
Should the second time admiral is used be capitalized or not?
Thanks
Frank
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Similar question - aready answered under 'Capitalization": english.stackexchange.com/questions/209631/…– SankaraneCommented May 30, 2015 at 23:34
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1 Answer
It should not be capitalized.
Capitalize titles when they are used before names, unless the title is followed by a comma. Do not capitalize the title if it is used after a name or instead of a name.
Consider the two examples:
1) Admiral Gonzeles told his men to search for a gun.
2) A soldier asked if Admiral Gonzeles had any further instructions.
Both of them are correct. In example 2, "Admiral" is capitalized because it is used before a name. But, if you combine those two sentences like you did, you should not capitalize the word "admiral" because it is used instead of the name.
Corroborating sources:
GrammarBook.com: Capitalization Rules, Rule 4
Capital Community College Foundation: Capitalizing People's Titles and the Names of Political Entities
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1This is generally very sound advice, and I would happily upvote your answer if you linked to a reference work (or even better, two reference works) that reach the same conclusion and use essentially the same reasoning that you do. For the most part, EL&U strongly prefers answers that include support from authoritative sources. Thanks! Commented May 30, 2015 at 21:25
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My answer comes straight from a very good English learning source.I will be happy to provide the source. :)– 4-KCommented May 31, 2015 at 14:02
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1+1. Nice job of supporting your answer. The first URL didn't work because the final letter in it (p) had been inadvertently lopped off, so I added that, and (for readers' benefit) I identified the source links in English words rather than with just the raw URLs. But I think that this is now a very solid answer to the original poster's question. Commented May 31, 2015 at 17:23