then prime minister

[navi tasan]

1) I talked to then prime minister Mr. Jackson.
2) I talked to then-prime minister Mr. Jackson.
3) I talked to the then prime minister Mr. Jackson.

Which is grammatically correct and correctly punctuated?

 

[emsr2d2]

Use #3. #2 is certainly wrong. #1 might be heard but two online grammar checkers added "the" before "then".
I wouldn't use the full stop after "Mr" these days. It's commonly omitted although I'm sure there are formal style guides that would insist on its inclusion.

 

[jutfrank]

Right now I say they're all grammtically correct, and that it is possible to use a zero article as in #1 and #2 to make an appositive phrase. However, I might change my mind about that with a bit of convincing!

As for how to write it, this is how I would probably do it:

then Prime Minister Mr Jackson
the then prime minister Mr Jackson

With no article, Prime Minister is an official title followed by a name so must be capitalised whereas with an article it's just a normal noun phrase. I imagine most people would write Prime Minister with capitals in both sentences, however. I think you can argue about how title-like Prime Minister is here.

 

[emsr2d2]

I dithered over the capitalisation of "prime minister" but decided against it on the basis that I felt it was being used as the common noun rather than part of the title.