Grammar Question - Please Help!

[seven_of_nineski]

I am transcribing some medical dictations and I am stuck on some grammar.

The sentence is "Lives at home with mother and brothers and sisters."

It is already implied that "the patient lives at home with mother and brothers and sisters." My question is whether I capitalize mother because it is not preceded by a possessive, or do I need to assume the possessive is already there (like I assume the patient is the one who lives at home) and keep the "m" in mother lowercase?

 

[sojourner]

Truth to be told, I wouldn't have known to capitalize "mother" in the middle of a sentence at all unless it had already been established as the proper name of someone.

 

[auntiehill]

Lower case. "The patient lives at home with his mother, brothers and sisters." Even if one incorrectly removes the possessive, it's still a description of relation, not a proper name.

You only capitalize it when you're using it as a name. "I asked Mother to come shopping with me."

 

[RoJoHen]

Lower case. "The patient lives at home with his mother, brothers and sisters." Even if one incorrectly removes the possessive, it's still a description of relation, not a proper name.

Yeah, possessive or not, there is no reason to capitalize mother.

But now the question is: do you put a comma after "brothers?"

I say yes.

 

[auntiehill]

Knock yourself out.

 

[seven_of_nineski]

Thanks auntiehill! Medical transcription has some weird rules so I can't change what the dictator is saying unless there is some major grammar/punctuation error,so I actually have to keep the sentence as is...."Lives at home with mother and brothers and sisters."....even if it would look better as, "The patient lives with at home with his mother, brothers and sisters."

And in regards to putting the comma after brothers...I don't think that grammatical you are suppose to but when it comes to transcribing for medical services and hospitals it is optional. There are alot of grey areas with medical transcription so it can get confusing sometimes.

 

[RoJoHen]

And in regards to putting the comma after brothers...I don't think that grammatical you are suppose to

I believe we had a whole thread debating this at one point, and nobody won. It all comes down to how you were taught.

 

[Chaos Descending]

And in regards to putting the comma after brothers...I don't think that grammatical you are suppose to

I believe we had a whole thread debating this at one point, and nobody won. It all comes down to how you were taught.

Correct. This isn't strictly a matter of grammar, but rather of style.

Whether you put a comma after the penultimate item in a list like that depends on which style guide you follow.

 

[scotpens]

The sentence is “Lives at home with mother and brothers and sisters.”

Actually it’s not a sentence, but rather a sentence fragment because the subject is missing (though the subject “the patient” is implied).

Everyone’s correct on this. “Mother” should be capitalized only if you’re using it like a name, e.g., “Mother, please! I’d rather do it myself!”

(Who recognizes the reference?)

 

[seven_of_nineski]

And in regards to putting the comma after brothers...I don't think that grammatical you are suppose to

I believe we had a whole thread debating this at one point, and nobody won. It all comes down to how you were taught.

Correct. This isn't strictly a matter of grammar, but rather of style.

Whether you put a comma after the penultimate item in a list like that depends on which style guide you follow.

True, very true.

 

[Gryffindorian]

If, however, the patient's name is Norman Bates, you could type "lives with Mother, brothers, and sisters." That's assuming Norman has siblings.

 

[scotpens]

If, however, the patient's name is Norman Bates, you could type “lives with Mother, brothers, and sisters.” That's assuming Norman has siblings.

In Norman’s case, it would be more like, “Patient and Mother share same head.”

 

[Avalon]

Everyone’s correct on this. “Mother” should be capitalized only if you’re using it like a name, e.g., “Mother, please! I’d rather do it myself!”

(Who recognizes the reference?)

Don't take it out on her! Take some Anacin and stop being such a bitch!

(Yes, I, too, am an old geezer. )

 

[seven_of_nineski]

If, however, the patient's name is Norman Bates, you could type “lives with Mother, brothers, and sisters.” That's assuming Norman has siblings.

In Norman’s case, it would be more like, “Patient and Mother share same head.”

In that case, this would be a mental health examination and not a pediatric one.