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"Subway" or "subway"?


Tokkemon

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What does one call the heavy rail rapid transit system that serves a city?

 

In Paris, London, L.A., D.C, Boston, Tokyo, and just about everywhere else is is called the "Metro".

 

In New York it is called "the Subway." That's why I feel it's a proper noun.

 

"Metro" is the term, and/or branding of a few individual systems. In LA, DC, Houston, and a few other cities "Metro" stands for the transit authority as a whole. This includes buses, and is not limited to rail operations.

 

If no one objected to calling it "subway" for over 106 years, why see any reason to change it now?

 

It is "subway." However, when following NYC, the word becomes a proper noun. New York City Subway is the only way that is grammatically correct. I can't even believe we are having this conversation! This is like 2rd grade English!

 

Same goes for New York City Bus. Long Island Railroad, etc.

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"Metro" is the term, and/or branding of a few individual systems. In LA, DC, Houston, and a few other cities "Metro" stands for the transit authority as a whole. This includes buses, and is not limited to rail operations.

 

 

 

It is "subway." However, when following NYC, the word becomes a proper noun. New York City Subway is the only way that is grammatically correct. I can't even believe we are having this conversation! This is like 2rd grade English!

 

Same goes for New York City Bus. Long Island Railroad, etc.

 

 

We aren't having any goddamned discussion. How arrogant you sound.

 

The LIRR spells it as "Rail Road" to match the charter, but Metro-North spells it as "Railroad."

 

As cool as "New York City Bus" sounds, it's only marked so on the buses. On (MTA) documents they just refer to NYCT as a whole, or call it "New York City Transit Bus."

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For some kind of authoritative answer to the question, I checked with my old Writer's Guide by Kate Turabian that is a standard in college English classrooms (or at least was at the time).

 

If you follow the guidelines in the book, when one refers to the "New York Subway" or the "Boston Subway", etc the word is part of a proper noun and is therefore capitalized. If you simply refer to it as "the subway" with no specific reference to the proper noun (location), it is not capitalized. That is the technical answer.

 

What do you do in a situation like we are discussing, in which a specific subway system is spoken of, but without the location name? Since the Writer's Guide does not address it, I checked with my brother-in-law, who teaches college level English. According to him, either is ok. It can be either "Subway" or "subway."

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Yet another form of NYC hatred on display here.... I highly doubt this nitpicky BS would've been brought up, had it been to refer to a subway system of another city.....

 

Starting nouns with uppercase letters show importance, and emphasis... hence the term "proper noun"...

 

for example...

 

Someone hands me their business card, or some type of flyer, trying to promote/advertise their newly formed company or w/e....

I look at the thing, and the name of the company is printed on the card/flyer as "joe's bakery"..... and then I get another person who's card/flyer reads "Vinny's Bakery".... If you ask me which establishment I might be willing to check out first, it's blatantly obvious.... Starting a proper noun like that with a lowercase letter tells me that you're not confident, and/or want as little emphasis as possible on & about it.... it's the impression it gives off....

 

and the thing is, using my little example, the food @ "joe's bakery" might outshine that of Vinny's Bakery...

 

 

Anyway, to summarize this:

 

- "subway", as a standalone term, is a descriptive, improper noun...

- "New York City Subway", the whole naming itself, as was stated by many of you on here, is a proper noun.

 

The capitalization stands.....

 

prosecution rests...

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"Metro" is the term, and/or branding of a few individual systems. In LA, DC, Houston, and a few other cities "Metro" stands for the transit authority as a whole. This includes buses, and is not limited to rail operations.

 

It is "subway." However, when following NYC, the word becomes a proper noun. New York City Subway is the only way that is grammatically correct. I can't even believe we are having this conversation! This is like 2rd grade English!

 

Same goes for New York City Bus. Long Island Railroad, etc.

 

Your second paragraph what the point I was trying to make. Only in NYC is the term subway used to indicate a specific system. (Most of) The rest of the world uses metro to indicate their system. Also, as long as there are people with opinions, conversations like this will always be around (especially when it comes to the English language).

 

Yet another form of NYC hatred on display here.... I highly doubt this nitpicky BS would've been brought up, had it been to refer to a subway system of another city.....

 

Starting nouns with uppercase letters show importance, and emphasis... hence the term "proper noun"...

 

for example...

 

Someone hands me their business card, or some type of flyer, trying to promote/advertise their newly formed company or w/e....

I look at the thing, and the name of the company is printed on the card/flyer as "joe's bakery"..... and then I get another person who's card/flyer reads "Vinny's Bakery".... If you ask me which establishment I might be willing to check out first, it's blatantly obvious.... Starting a proper noun like that with a lowercase letter tells me that you're not confident, and/or want as little emphasis as possible on & about it.... it's the impression it gives off....

 

and the thing is, using my little example, the food @ "joe's bakery" might outshine that of Vinny's Bakery...

 

 

Anyway, to summarize this:

 

- "subway", as a standalone term, is a descriptive, improper noun...

- "New York City Subway", the whole naming itself, as was stated by many of you on here, is a proper noun.

 

The capitalization stands.....

 

prosecution rests...

 

That's how proper nouns became proper, by the indication of their usage. I have never heard a New Yorker refer to PATH as a subway, because it is not part of the system they refer to as "the subway", which is the NYCT Department of Subways (would that be considered a candidate for a proper noun?).

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