Talk:The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy at All

Requested move 30 July 2024

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: moved. (non-admin closure) Bobby Cohn (talk) 17:56, 13 August 2024 (UTC)

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The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn't a Guy at All → The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy at All – Correcting capitalization per MOS:AT and MOS:TITLECAPS. This title is on the local or global move blacklist. DocWatson42 (talk) 12:46, 30 July 2024 (UTC) — Relisting. Bobby Cohn (talk) 17:47, 6 August 2024 (UTC)

Oppose, "interested in" is a phrasal verb, meaning the word "in" is an adverb in this context and should stay capitalized. Compare Turn On the Radio, All I Ask For Anymore, etc. However, I do suggest that the un-capitalized variant be un-blacklisted and restored as a redirect. Ten Pound Hammer • ^{(What did I screw up now?)} 20:02, 31 July 2024 (UTC)

Support per MOS:CT: "in" is a preposition in this title, and prepositions with four or fewer letters are lowercased. Darkday (talk) 21:39, 6 August 2024 (UTC)

Oppose: I think TenPoundHammer is right about it being a phrasal verb. —⁠ ⁠BarrelProof (talk) 21:43, 6 August 2024 (UTC)

The following is a quote from MOS:CT (footnote g):

The term phrasal verb has conflicting meanings. According to English Grammar Today (Carter, McCarthy, Mark, and O'Keefee, 2016, as quoted by Cambridge Dictionary): "Multi-word verbs are verbs which consist of a verb and one or two particles or prepositions (e.g. up, over, in, down). There are three types of multi-word verbs: phrasal verbs, prepositional verbs and phrasal-prepositional verbs. Sometimes, the name 'phrasal verb' is used to refer to all three types." For capitalizing in titles, phrasal verb is meant in the narrow sense (of verb + particle) only.

So, the question is whether "interested in" is a particle verb (verb + particle) or a prepositional verb (verb + preposition). The Wikipedia article English phrasal verbs has the section Distinguishing phrasal verb types which describes four tests. A simple test is to check whether it's possible to shift the preposition/particle to after the noun. For particle verbs, this is usually possible:

• You can take on Susan → You can take Susan on
• I made up a story → I made a story up
• Can you fill in this form? → Can you fill this form in?

But for prepositional verbs, it is not possible:

• get off the bus → *get the bus off
• It depends on the weather → *It depends the weather on
• She's looking for a job → *She's looking a job for

So, what about "she was interested in the guy"? You cannot say "she was interested the guy in", so "interested in" is a prepositional verb, which means "in" is a preposition. Or let's look at the third test, checking if it's possible to insert an adverb or adverbial between the verb and the particle/preposition. This is possible for prepositional verbs, but not for particle verbs. Well, you can say "She was interested completely in the guy", which again means that "in" is a preposition. Darkday (talk) 15:45, 7 August 2024 (UTC)

Opposition withdrawn after seeing the explanation from Darkday. —⁠ ⁠BarrelProof (talk) 18:05, 7 August 2024 (UTC)

In the meantime I asked for an outside opinion—see "Phrasal verb?" at r/English on Reddit. —DocWatson42 (talk) 19:41, 7 August 2024 (UTC)

Support: Looks like it's not a phrasal verb after all. —⁠ ⁠BarrelProof (talk) 04:39, 11 August 2024 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.