ANSWER: Capitalization in the "Weasley Twins," or is it "Weasley twins"?

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

immortalje asked:

In the example "the Weasley twins", should "twins" be capitalized?

With examples from Harry Potter and The Venture Brothers.



In the use "the Weasley twins," 'twins' describes the boys. Although it refers to a specific pair, it's not an official title.

"Fine," Snape said. "Perhaps we should call in the entire school for their opinions on this deeply important subject? I'm sure the Weasley twins would be delighted to weigh in."

If Fred and George decided to form a superhero team called "The Weasley Twins," then a capital letter would be in order; the capitalization would then be referring to their superhero team. Like so:

Wonder Twin powers, activate!

If you were a pair of brothers who called yourself "Team Venture," the capitalization might look like this:

What's your slowy?! You've gone soft on me, Henry Allen So-Called-Venture! You used to be all 'Go Team Venture!' but now ... now you're all 'Go Team ... b- Boobies!'

There is a bit of a grey area here. At what point do Hank and Dean become "the Venture Brothers" rather than the "Venture brothers"? Is it because the title of the show is The Venture Brothers? Or do they not get the capitalization because there's another pair of Venture brothers on the show?

In short, 'group' words like twins or brothers should not be capitalized unless they are part of an official title, so when in doubt, stick with lowercase.


Visit The OWL at Purdue for detailed rules on capitalization.

Comments

[immortalje]

Thanks for the explanation. That makes it so much easier to understand the difference between both cases.

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad it helps!