Conservative. Idaho. Software engineer. Historian. Trying to prevent Idiocracy from becoming a documentary.
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Wednesday, April 27, 2022
Weird English Rule Exception
A student gave me a sentence that included the phrase, "the Rich did it to the poor."
Clearly “the Rich” is a proper noun, yet I almost never see it written this way. Any guesses why?
"Rich" is a fairly common nickname and surname, and capitalizing "the Rich" creates a clash - is it a reference to the class of wealthy people, or is it an odd form of reference to a person with a nickname or surname of "Rich"? That's my guess as to why "the rich" (the wealthy class) generally isn't capitalized.
"Rich" is a fairly common nickname and surname, and capitalizing "the Rich" creates a clash - is it a reference to the class of wealthy people, or is it an odd form of reference to a person with a nickname or surname of "Rich"? That's my guess as to why "the rich" (the wealthy class) generally isn't capitalized.
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