President with capital P

[Sweetpumpkin]

Hello,

I'm working on VOA these days and something constantly confuses me. President, here, means all "President of US". Please see the below:

1) president + name(Bush or Obama, etc)
It seems that "President" is used with the names. But... p, not capital letter, is possible?

During the campaign, Mccain tried to distance himself from fellow republican, president George Bush.

But he says the love affair with Senator Obama abroad is more of a rejection of President Bush.

2) The + president
I think in this case, president is not take capital p. However, there's "the President of the United States of America". What do you think? Is it possble to use both ways?

The president, who spent several years in Indonesia as a child, made a few references to the Koran, Islam's holy book.

I want them aspiring to be the President of the United States of America."

In informal writing, I don't think it's a problem. But in formal one... what do you think?

Thanks,
sweetpumpkin

[Mister Micawber]

This is correct:

During the campaign, McCain tried to distance himself from fellow Republican, President George Bush.

The President, who spent several years in Indonesia as a child, made a few references to the Koran, Islam's holy book. -- Here because it refers to the President of the US.
_________________
Native English teacher at Mister Micawber's

[Alan]

Hi Sweetpumkin,

Whenever a title such as 'president' .captain' 'councillor' and so on is used in a general sense, the first letter would not normally be a capital letter. When the title is used with a particular person holding that title or reference is made to one known person with that title, you would use a capital letter as in: A captain in the army has a responsibility to look after his soldiers and that's exactly what Captain Smith did on that day. The Captain showed great bravery.

Alan
_________________
English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Present Simple

[Expatcat]

I also remember a similar rule about words like mother, father, or grandma, etc.

My mother wants me to do the dishes.

I did the dishes because Mother told me to do so.

I seem to remember the rule as something like this: If you can exchange the word (mother, in this case) with a proper noun, then it should be capitalized.

My Susan wants me to do the dishes. That doesn't work so "mother" would use lower case.

I did the dishes because Susan told me to do so. That does work so a capital is necessary.

[Alan]

Hi,

Don't quite follow this - I would say 'my Mother' because you are referring to the person you would address as 'Mother'.

Alan
_________________
English as a Foreign Language
You can read my EFL story Progressive Forms

[Expatcat]

You made me curious Alan!

I googled around and found this:

[Mister Micawber]

I don't know about your substitution rule, Expat, but my AmE uses capitalization as you suggest:

My mother wants me to do the dishes.
I did the dishes because Mother told me to do so.
_________________
Native English teacher at Mister Micawber's

[Tom]

Hi Alan

Would you say that mother/Mother is one of those AmE vs BrE issues?

Just to make sure that I understand you correctly, the following would be capitalized in British English?

If I call my mother Ma, I should not capitalize M in the following sentence.

[Sweetpumpkin]

Hi, I've come back to this thread to ask something.

40 years later, King's life is celebrated with many of his dreams realized, including the election of Barack Obama as the nation's first African-American President.

Here again, President goes with the capital P. Is it because it indicates a specific person, in other words.. Barack Obama? What do you think?

Thanks,
sweetpumpkin

[Alan]

Hi SP,

I would suggest that the reference here is to a particular post holder and warrants a capital letter.

Alan
_________________
English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Passive Voice

[Sweetpumpkin]

[Alan]

Hi SP,

I wouldn't worry too much about it!

Alan
_________________
English as a Foreign Language
You can read my EFL story Prepositions