People will refer to New York City as "the city" fairly often, but in writing should that be capitalized?
Learn English – Is it “the city” or “the City” when colloquially referring to NYC
capitalizationproper-nouns
capitalizationproper-nouns
People will refer to New York City as "the city" fairly often, but in writing should that be capitalized?
Best Answer
Strange as it may seem to New Yorkers, the use of "the city" to refer to their hometown is not by any means unique to them. (By the way, I am one of those New Yorkers.) If you have friends in Philadelphia, for example, or its surrounding area, you'll find they might say they're spending Saturday night in the city, and after a brief period of cogitation, you realize they aren't making the 90-minute drive to Manhattan.
This scenario holds true for any big city. Therefore, I don't think that "the City" is a nickname, nor is it specific to New York. I would suggest using lower-case, whether you're coming from Brooklyn or eastern Long Island.
By the way, the City of London is a specific district in the British capital, and references to that specific area should be capitalized.