POTUS: Punctuation (etc.) of the United States

By Michael Moore, vice president of membership development and president-elect of SD/PEN.

I could not vote in this month’s election (on account of my penchant for British English), but now that a few weeks have passed, there is something I can do: ensure the winners and losers are addressed with correct style and usage.

For this, I’m taking you on a journey of the presidential changing of the guard via the Chicago Manual of Style, the AP Stylebook, the GPO Style Manual (that of the US Government Publishing Office, used by the federal government), and occasionally Merriam-Webster. I’ll also consult Garner’s Modern English Usage along the way.

Capitalization

Whether running for the presidency or running for president (both phrases are correct, though the former is better [Garner’s § “presidency”]), the thought on every presidential candidate’s mind is this: “Will the American people incorrectly capitalize president for another four years?” Hopefully, with the help of this blog post, they won’t.

President and Vice President

The titles president and vice president are capitalized when preceding an individual’s name (CMOS § 8.20; AP § “president”) but are lowercased when not, or when set off from a name by a comma (CMOS § 8.20; AP § “titles”).

Chancellor Merkel and President Obama visited the Brandenburg Gate.

The prime minister discussed the matter with the president.

Senior officials met with the president, Joe Biden.

Presidential

The adjective presidential is always lowercased unless part of a proper name (CMOS § 8.22; AP § “presidential”).

Following the presidential election, President-elect Clinton took calls from world leaders congratulating him on his victory.

Together, they visited the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library.

They were awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

President of the United States

When referring to an individual holding the office of president of the United States, president is capitalized when preceding an individual’s name, but is lowercased when not, and when set off from a name by a comma (CMOS § 8.20; AP § “titles”).

Mao Tse-tung, Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, met with President Richard Nixon of the United States.

Jimmy Carter became the president of the United States on his inauguration in 1977.

The 35th president of the United States, John F. Kennedy.

In GPO style, President and Vice President, and the adjectival forms Presidential and Vice-Presidential, are capitalized in all instances when referring to an individual, no matter whether they precede a name or are set off by a comma (GPO §§ 3.36–37). 

GPO: Vice President Nixon was informed of the President’s death.

GPO: Republican Presidential candidate John McCain and Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate Joe Biden spoke with the President.

GPO: Lisa Simpson became President of the United States, succeeding Donald Trump.

Hyphenation

President-elect

According to the AP, the term president-elect can be used to refer to a newly elected candidate as soon as a race is called—presumably, by that they mean when they call it.

Once the race is called, the suffix -elect is always hyphenated and lowercased (CMOS § 7.96; AP § “-elect”; GPO § 6.41).

Biden, the president-elect.

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.

Presidents-elect

The plural of president-elect is presidents-elect (AP § “plurals”; GPO § 5.8; Garner’s § “Plurals: G. Compound Nouns”).

Presidents-elect and vice presidents-elect are protected by the United States Secret Service.

Garner identifies the -elect ­in president-elect as a postpositive adjective, an adjective following the noun it modifies (other examples include accounts payable and postmasters general). Postpositive adjectives were adopted into English from Norman French during the Middle Ages and follow Romance rather than Germanic syntax (Garner’s § “Postpositive Adjectives”).

Pluralizing the nouns in these Romantic, French, postpositively adjectival compounds can be tricky, but some compound nouns and hyphenated terms are pluralized simply by adding s to the main word. In this case we do just that, arriving at presidents-elect.

Vice, VP, and Veep

Now we turn to the vice presidency (only hyphenated by the GPO [§ 6.40]).

For presumptive vice presidents, the suffix -elect is added, though hyphenation of it varies between styles. AP style adds a hyphenated -elect, leaving vice president open (AP § “-elect”); Chicago hyphenates -elect unless the name of the office is an open compound (CMOS § 7.96), so president-elect but vice president elect; and GPO style hyphenates the title in its entirety. In all styles, the same rules of capitalization apply to president.

The adjective form vice-presidential is hyphenated before the noun (CMOS § 7.96 “vice”).

They took their vice-presidential duties very seriously.

She delivered a speech that was vice presidential.

But the noun form vice presidential is open.

Both parties’ vice presidential nominees, Governor Time Walz and Senator J. D. Vance (AP style JD Vance), took to the debate stage.

As for VP and veep, both can be found in Merriam-Webster, but are only used informally.

Then-, ex-, and former presidents

When does a then-president become a former president? And what offense must a president cause to warrant the title ex-president?

For then-, ex-, and former the usual rules of capitalization apply.

When then is used in the sense of former, a hyphen is added. Previous rules of hyphenation remain, though Chicago uses an en dash when then precedes an open compound. GPO style continues to apply hyphens liberally, particularly in the case of ex-Vice-President-elect.

Former is the easiest here—it is always lowercased (and never hyphenated). When referring to a former president or vice president, the usual rule of capitalizing titles used immediately before names is followed (CMOS § 8.22; AP § “former”).

President Trump will be the first former president to serve a second term in the White House after a period out of office.

Before Joe Biden, former President Lyndon B. Johnson was the most recent president not to run for a second term.

Commander in chief

A phrase dating back to the English Civil War in the mid-1600s, “commander-in-chief” has been mostly hyphenated (just over half of the time) since the early 1800s (Garner’s § “commander-in-chief”).

All three of our style guides, however, side with leaving commander in chief open (CMOS § 8.25; AP § “commander in chief”; GPO § 6.40). It is capitalized by Chicago and the AP only when immediately preceding a name, but GPO style is a little more complicated.

As we have seen, unlike CMOS and the AP, when referring to an individual the GPO capitalizes president, etc., anywhere in a sentence. It does not, however, capitalize commander in chief just anywhere. “To indicate preeminence or distinction,” commander in chief is capitalized immediately preceding, following, or when used alone as a substitute for a name (GPO § 3.37).

The president is the commander in chief of the United States Armed Forces and all federalized United States Militia.

As commander in chief, President George Bush ordered the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

GPO: Distinguished guests, please be standing for the Commander in Chief.

GPO: Please welcome, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Commander in Chief.

Garner points out that commander and chief is incorrect—it is a malapropism (i.e., the president is not both a commander and a chief, but the “chief commander” of all military operations).

And just as with presidents-elects, the plural here is commanders in chief.

Honorifics (the gendered titles)

Honorific or courtesy titles such as Mr. President and Madam President are capitalized by Chicago in any context (CMOS § 8.34), but are not used by the AP, except in direct quotations (AP § “courtesy titles”).

Similarly, First Lady, First Gentleman, and their secondary counterparts are capitalized by Chicago and the GPO in any context (CMOS § 8.34; GPO § 4), but are lowercased by the AP as they are not official titles (AP § “first lady, first gentleman”).

Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff.

The prime minister spoke at length with the First Lady.

AP: Jill Biden, the first lady.

US of A’lternative punctuation

Punctuating US

As promised, nothing so far has met the threshold of controversiality. Here’s where that might change; in the abbreviation of United States across our style manuals:

Of the style manuals we are consulting, Chicago is alone in omitting periods from US—as it does consistently with abbreviations in all caps (CMOS § 10.4)—though it does so with the backing of Merriam-Webster. 

A Chicago Q&A entry on the subject makes a case for its “more logical, streamlined approach to abbreviations” while noting that the omission of periods in US  “not only breaks with tradition but also contravenes the recommendations in the GPO Style Manual.” In a rather compelling (and somewhat sassy) argument in defense of its streamlined approach, Chicago states, “Nor does CMOS align with the journalistic recommendations of the Associated Press, according to which ‘U.S.’ and ‘U.K.’ take periods…but ‘EU’ and ‘AP’ do not.” Ouch!

The GPO stipulates that United States be spelled out when it appears alongside another country in a sentence (GPO § 9.9).

GPO: The United States and Brazil are to resume trade talks.

GPO: The U.S. is set to increase its military budget to $849.8 billion in 2025.

Presidents’ Day (a.k.a. Washington’s Birthday)

Presidents’ Day is the unofficial name of the federal holiday Washington’s Birthday. Garner cites the current ratio in print of Presidents’ Day vs. President’s Day vs. Presidents Day as 5:3:1—noting that the singular possessive President’s Day is incorrect (Garner’s § “Presidents’ Day”).

In an exception to Merriam-Webster, the AP does not add an apostrophe as per its rule of not adding apostrophes to words ending in s when part of a descriptive phrase (AP § “Presidents Day,” “possessives”).

See you back here in 2028.

References

The Associated Press Stylebook Online. Associated Press. https://www.apstylebook.com/.

The Chicago Manual of Style Online. 18th ed. University of Chicago Press, 2024.
https://doi.org/10.7208/cmos18

The Chicago Manual of Style. “Abbreviations: Style Q&A.” The Chicago Manual of Style Online, accessed October 28, 2024. https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/Abbreviations/faq0093.html

Garner, Bryan A. Garner’s Modern English Usage. 5th ed. Oxford University Press, 2022.

US Government Publishing Office. GPO Style Manual: An Official Guide to the Form and Style of Federal Government Publishing. 31st ed. Washington, DC, 2016. https://www.govinfo.gov/gpo-style-manual.