Macmillan Holdings, LLC. Grammar Girl, Grammar Girl's, QDnow, and Quick and Dirty Tips are all trademarks of Macmillan Holdings, LLC. Today's topic is “the the,” not as in the British '80s band, but as in what to do when a sentence calls for a the in front of a name or title that starts with a the, like The New York Times. Omorose Panya grammar Hmn. I don't encounter this problem often. I would leave one "the" out in most cases, but leave it in when it is crutial. As for the upper/lowercase "the," I always use lowercase unless it is at the beginning of the sentence. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/grammar-double-the.aspx?commentid=18564#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/grammar-double-the.aspx?commentid=18564#Comments Fri, 21 Aug 2009 08:49:14 GMT Karen grammar And then there is the that that .... always trimming, always seeking a better way! Thanks for the tips GG. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/grammar-double-the.aspx?commentid=13861#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/grammar-double-the.aspx?commentid=13861#Comments Sat, 13 Sep 2008 00:41:55 GMT Robert Grant grammar The hilarious Jasper Fforde covers the last word in 'the the' and 'had had' in his Thursday Next series - you should read them. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/grammar-double-the.aspx?commentid=9975#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/grammar-double-the.aspx?commentid=9975#Comments Sun, 11 Nov 2007 20:55:41 GMT JD grammar Here in the UK, the name of some newspapers take a capped up 'The', while others dont; The Times but the Daily Mail, for example. I am assuming it is because in the first instance, 'The' is part of the name of the paper, in the second, it isn't – although because the second takes a definite article, it is difficult to tell the difference. I work as a sub-editor (copy editor) and have to keep a list of the publications that take a capped-up 'The' and those that don't. As we also italicise publication names, this is also affected. For example, we would italicise all of 'The Times' but only italicise the 'Daily Mail' part of 'The Daily Mail'. Mental, I know, but that's commonly accepted style. http://engineroomblog.blogspot.com http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/grammar-double-the.aspx?commentid=3571#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/grammar-double-the.aspx?commentid=3571#Comments Fri, 14 Sep 2007 13:59:52 GMT Grammar Girl grammar Parallelism occurs when you use similar construction for clauses or phrases. The example you wrote -- He wanted to play with his brother, sister, and cat -- is written with parallel construction because all the words in the list are formatted the same way. They are all nouns. It would also have parallel construction if you wrote it as follows: He wanted to play with his brother, his sister, and his cat. Again, the parallelism comes from each part being formatted the same way. They all contain a possessive pronoun followed by a noun. It would lack parallel construction if you wrote it as follows: He wanted to play with his brother, sister, and his cat. This sentence does not use parallel construction because one list item is a noun and the others are possessive pronouns with nouns. ----- http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/grammar-double-the.aspx?commentid=60#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/grammar-double-the.aspx?commentid=60#Comments Tue, 28 Aug 2007 01:17:16 GMT Grammar Girl grammar It seems to me that it would be OK to say, "I put the pictures up on MySpace." I believe it is only possible to post pictures to your own page at MySpace, so (if that is true) then it is implied that you're talking about your own space on MySpace. ----- http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/grammar-double-the.aspx?commentid=58#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/grammar-double-the.aspx?commentid=58#Comments Tue, 28 Aug 2007 00:54:35 GMT Patricio grammar Thanks!!! You are a Grammar Angel! ----- ------- http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/grammar-double-the.aspx?commentid=61#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/grammar-double-the.aspx?commentid=61#Comments Mon, 27 Aug 2007 15:52:09 GMT Allison grammar Similar to the the/the problem is the "My myspace" problem. Each time I say this outloud or hear it said, there is an obligatory cringe by both parties, if only to acknowledge how silly it sounds. Should it be shortened to simply "I put the pictures up on my space" or "I put the pictures up on myspace" and have it understood that you are talking about myspace? At least we aren't grappling with saying "I put the pictures on my myspace space." Thank you! ----- http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/grammar-double-the.aspx?commentid=57#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/grammar-double-the.aspx?commentid=57#Comments Mon, 27 Aug 2007 08:32:10 GMT Patricio grammar Grammar Girl, I am confused about how to keep parallelism in a list. For example, let’s consider the following sentence: “He wanted to play with his brother, sister and cat”. It seems that to maintain the parallelism it is necessary to add some “with his”s. “He wanted to play with his brother, with his sister and with his cat”. This last sentence sounds wordy. Could you explain me how should I write this kind of sentences? Regards, PR ----- http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/grammar-double-the.aspx?commentid=55#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/grammar-double-the.aspx?commentid=55#Comments Mon, 27 Aug 2007 08:05:36 GMT Carlos grammar Although I thought this article was about the band "The The" but you clarified that quickly. However, it's kind of funny to bring up the nuance, what if you were talking about the newest "the the" album? I've actually seen music journalists start and article like this... The The The album Infacted has... :-) ----- http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/grammar-double-the.aspx?commentid=53#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/grammar-double-the.aspx?commentid=53#Comments Mon, 27 Aug 2007 03:24:47 GMT Fri, 21 Aug 2009 08:49:14 GMT http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/grammar-double-the.aspx feedback@quickanddirtytips.com (Managing Editor) feedback@quickanddirtytips.com (Webmaster) en-us