Talk:Grand prix motorcycle

Maveric, the p in "Grand Prix" is always capitalized. Perhaps this should be titled "Grand Prix motorcycle racing" (or "MotoGP", the title the organisers use). --Robert Merkel


 * Not MotoGP, that is the new name for the fastest class of Grand Prix motorcycle racing (which I think is the appropriate name). The official name appears to be Road Racing Grand Prix, but that is not a good name for the article, since it excludes the motorcycle part. jheijmans

Have to disagree with you here Robert -- "grand prix" in this context has slipped into general usage. I always Goggle a term before determining the correct capitalization of articles. Check this out. If the number one linked and page ranked site on Google along with several others on the same first search result page uses the term in lowercase, then I think we can't claim that the the 'p' is always capitalized. The corresponding wikipedia naming convention to follow here is to use lowercase if the term is not always capitalized in English. BTW, I don't go out of my way to find lowercased examples of terms since improper usage is easy to find on even Google after the first two or three pages of search results. There should be an article about the race itself, but I'm not sure what to call it either. Capitalization of that "Grand Prix" may be warrented, but only a proper search and determine this (of course if you use the official and proper name of the race itself then it should be capitalized). Cheers! --maveric149

Maveric, on the google search you link, I don't see a lowercase p in the first hit. But, I think Grand Prix definitely should be in caps, no matter the usual policy. You may also find "Olympic games" (with lowercase g), but the page here isn't named like that. Both words are names and should be capitalised. jheijmans

The issue here is proper names - everything in wikipedia has a name but everything is wikipedia is not capitalized. If Grand Prix is a particular brand of motorcycle or if it is a very specific term that in other contexts is always capitalized (which when by itself it almost always is) and that term applies to a very specific class of bikes then capitalization may be warrented. With that said, this particular case really isn't that important because redirects now exists to cover several different capitalization and pluralization variants. Capitalization wasn't he major issue with the old name of the article BTW -- it was pluralization. How about a compromise of Grand Prix motorcycle? I wouldn't object to that due to the fact that Grand Prix (when expressed as a single term) is supposed to be capitalized. --maveric149

Grand Prix is not a type of motorcycle, but a type of contest in sports. You may also find it in automobile racing, but also in other sports the term is used. The (originally French) term is considered a proper name, yes. I see that the issue was about change the plural to singular, but Robert Merkel's proposal was to change the article's name to what it is about: the racing rather than the kind of motorcycles used. jheijmans


 * Interesting. How about Grand Prix motorcycle racing or if the capitalization of the "P" really isn't needed or is a general word (capitalization of the roots of anglicized terms isn't really valid -- otherwise all anglicized German nouns would be capitalized) then grand prix motorcycle racing (which is lowercased enough to technically rationalize this -- although there are several common capitalization variants besides these two. But I would recommend only the ones above). --maveric149

That's fine - see you've already taken that action. jheijmans