User:LordSputnik/Definite Article
| Status: This page describes an active style guideline proposal and is not official. |
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JIRA ticket http://tickets.musicbrainz.org/browse/STYLE-180 |
Introduction
This proposal is designed to improve the correctness of artist names in the database, where the artist name starts with "The" or some other definite article. It also aims to improve the consistency of artist credits for these artists.
Proposal
Insert the following text at the end of the "Name" section of Style/Artist.
Definite Articles
A definite article is a word before a noun which indicates uniqueness, found in some languages. For example:
- English has one: the
- French has three: le, la, les
- Spanish has four: el, la, los, las
- German has many, including: der, die, das
When adding an artist to the database whose name appears to start with a definite article, always check whether the definite article is actually part of the artist name. In cases where this is not known, ignore the definite article.
If an artist name does not start with a definite article, but is credited with a definite article on a release, include the definite article in the artist credit. The exception here is where a join phrase is used before the artist name - in this case, include the definite article in the join phrase.
