Style Guide - The Economist 2018

The essence of stylea

a or the see grammar and syntax.

abbreviations

Write words in their full form on first appearance:

Trades Union Congress (not TUC), Troubled Asset Relief Programme (not TARP)

unless an abbreviation or acronym is so familiar that it is used more often in full:

AIDS BBC CIA EU FBI HIV IMF NASA NATO NGO OECD UNESCO

or unless the full form would provide little illumination — AWACS, DNA. If in doubt about its familiarity, explain what the organisation is or does. After the first mention, try not to repeat the abbreviation too often; so write the agency rather than the IAEA, the party rather than the KMT, to avoid spattering the page with capital letters. And prefer chief executive, boss or manager to CEO.

There is no need to give the initials of an organisation if it is not referred to again. This clutters both the page and the brain.

Do not use spatterings of abbreviations and acronyms simply in order to cram more words in; you will end up irritating readers rather than informing them. An article in a recent issue of The Economist contained the following:

CIA DCI DNI DOD DVD FBI NCTC NSA

Some of these are well known to most readers and can readily be held in the mind. But unfamiliar abbreviations may oblige the reader to constantly refer back to the first use.

ampersands should be used:

1 when they are part of the name of a company: Procter & Gamble Pratt & Whitney

2 for such things as constituencies, where two names are linked to form one unit:

The rest of Brighouse & Spenborough joins with the Batley part of Batley & Morley to form Batley & Spen.

The area thus became the Pakistani province of Kashmir and the Indian state of Jammu & Kashmir.

3 in R&D and S&1.

compass references/readings should be given as 40°N, etc.

definite article If an abbreviation can be pronounced — COSATU, NATO, UNESCO — it does not generally require the definite article. Other organisations, except companies, should usually be preceded by the: the BBC the KGB the NHS the NIESR the UNHCR

elements

Do not sprinkle chemical symbols unnecessarily: they may put readers off. But common abbreviations such as CO₂ may sometimes be used for variety.

Different isotopes of the same element are distinguished by raised (superscript) prefixes:

carbon-14 is ¹⁴C

helium-3 is ³He

initials in people’s and companies’ names take points (with a space between initials and name, but not between initials). In general, follow the practice preferred by people, companies and organisations in writing their own names, for example: I.M. Pei J.C. Penney J. Sainsbury A.N. Wilson

junior and senior Spell out in full (and lower case) junior and senior after a name:

Douglas Fairbanks junior Douglas Fairbanks senior

lower case Abbreviate:

kilograms (not kilogrammes) to kg (or kilos)

kilometres per hour to kph

kilometres to km

miles per hour to mph

Use m for million, bn for billion and trn for trillion.

Use lower case for kg, km, lb (never lbs), mph and other measures, and for ie, eg; ie should be followed by a comma. When used with figures, these lower-case abbreviations should follow immediately, with no space:

11am 4.30pm 15kg 35mm 100mph 78rpm

Two abbreviations together, however, must be separated: 60m b/d. Use b/d not bpd as an abbreviation for barrels per day.

MPs Except in British contexts, use MP only after first spelling out member of Parliament in full (in many places an MP is a military policeman).

Members of the European Parliament are MEPs (not Euro-MPs).

Members of the Scottish Parliament are MSPs.

Members of the Welsh Assembly are AMs (Assembly Members).

organisations

EFTA is the European Free Trade Association.

The FAO is the Food and Agriculture Organisation.

The FDA is the Food and Drug Administration.

The IDA is the International Development Association.

NAFTA is the North American Free-Trade Agreement.

The PLO is the Palestine Liberation Organisation.

pronounceable abbreviations

Abbreviations that can be pronounced and are composed of bits of words rather than just initials should be spelt out in upper and lower case:

There is generally no need for more than one initial capital letter, unless the word is a name: ConsGold, KwaZulu, McKay, MiG.

OK (supposedly an abbreviation for “Oll Correct”) is spelled thus, and is not okay when spelled thus.

ranks and titles Do not use Prof, Sen, Col, etc. Lieut-Colonel and Lieut-Commander are permissible. (These should be Commander and Colonel on second mention.) Rev is also permissible, but it must be preceded by the and followed by a Christian name or initial: the Rev Jesse Jackson (thereafter Mr Jackson).

scientific units named after individuals Scientific units, except those of temperature, that are named after individuals are not capitalised when written out in full: watt, joule, etc. When abbreviated these units should be set in capitals, though any attachments denoting multiples go in lower case:

watt is W

kilowatt, 1,000 watts, is kW

milliwatt, one-thousandth of a watt, is mW

megawatt, 1m watts, is MW

gigawatt, 1 bn (10⁹) watts, is GW

terawatt, 1 trn (10¹²) watts, is TW

petawatt, 1 quadrillion (10¹⁵) watts, is PW

megahertz is MHZ

writing out upper-case abbreviations Most upper-case abbreviations are shortenings of proper names with initial capital letters. The LSO is the London Symphony Orchestra. However, there are exceptions:

CAP but common agricultural policy

EMU but economic and monetary union

GDP but gross domestic product

PSBR but public-sector borrowing requirement

VLSI but very large-scale integration

miscellaneous Spell out:

page pages hectares miles

Do not spell out Centigrade, and do not use Fahrenheit for temperature.

Remember, too, that the V of HIV stands for virus, so do not write

HIV virus. Similarly the D of DAB stands for digital, so do not write DAB digital radio.

See measures in Part 3.

absent In Latin absent is a verb meaning they are away. In English it is either an adjective (absent friends) or a verb (to absent yourself). Avoid the American habit of using it as a preposition meaning in the absence of.

accents On words now accepted as English, use accents only when they make a crucial difference to pronunciation: café cliché communiqué éclat exposé façade soupçon But: chateau decor elite feted naive

The main accents and diacritical signs are:

If you use one accent (except the tilde — strictly, a diacritical sign), use all:

émigré mêlée protégé résumé

Put the accents and diacritical signs on French, German, Spanish and Portuguese names and words only:

Any foreign word in italics should, however, be given its proper accents. See also italics.

acronym A pronounceable word, formed from the initials of other words, like radar, nimby or NATO. It is not a set of initials, like the BBC or the IMF.

actionable means giving ground for a lawsuit. Do not use it to mean susceptible of being put into practice: prefer practical or practicable. Do not use action as a verb.

adjectives and adverbs see grammar and syntax, punctuation.

adjectives of proper nouns see grammar and syntax, punctuation.

address What did journalists and politicians do in the days, not so long ago, when address was used as a verb only before objects such as audience, letter, ball, haggis and, occasionally, themselves? Questions can be answered, issues discussed, problems solved, difficulties dealt with. See clichés.

aetiology, etiolate Aetiology is the science of causation, or an inquiry into something’s origins. Etiolate is to make or become pale for lack of light.

affect (verb) means to have an influence on, as in the novel affected his attitude to immigrants. See also effect.

affirmative action is a euphemism with little to be said for it. It is too late to suppress it altogether, but try to avoid it as much as possible. If you cannot escape it, put it in quotation marks on first mention and, unless the context makes its meaning clear, explain what it is. You may, however, find that preferential treatment, job preferment or even discrimination serve just as well as alternatives. See euphemisms.

affordable By whom? Avoid affordable housing, affordable computers and other unthinking uses of advertising lingo.

Afghan names see names.

aggravate means make worse, not irritate or annoy.

aggression is an unattractive quality, so do not call a keen salesman an aggressive one (unless his foot is in the door).

agony column Remember that when Sherlock Holmes perused this, it was a personal column. Only recently has it come to mean letters to an agony aunt.

agree Things are agreed on, to or about, not just agreed. See transitive and intransitive verbs.

aircraft see hyphens and italics.

alibi An alibi is the fact of being elsewhere, not a false explanation.

alternate, alternative Alternate (as an adjective) means every other. As a noun, it has now come to mean a stand-in for a director or delegate. Alternative (as a noun), strictly, means one of two, not one of three, four, five or more (which may be options). As an adjective, alternative means of two (or, loosely, more) things, or possible as an alternative.

Americanisms

See Part 2, on British and American usage. To the points made there might be added the following preferred usages in British English (and in The Economist):

and not additionally

the army not the military (noun)

car not automobile

company not corporation

court not courtroom or courthouse

district not neighborhood

normality not normalcy

oblige not obligate

rocket not skyrocket

Back-formations are common in English, so curate, the verb meaning organise or superintend exhibitions of pictures, sculptures and so on formed from curator, is now acceptable in British English. But it is still too soon for gallerist (prefer dealer or, if appropriate, just gallery).

adverbs Put adverbs where you would put them in normal English speech, which is usually after the verb (not before it, which usually is where Americans put them).

avoid nouning adjectives Do not noun adjectives such as:

advisory — prefer warning

centennial — prefer centenary

inaugural — prefer inauguration

avoid verbing and adjectiving nouns Try not to verb nouns or to adjective them. So do not:

access files (except electronically)

action proposals

author books (still less co-author them)

critique style guides

gun someone down; use shoot

haemorrhage red ink (haemorrhage is a noun)

let one event impact another (try affect)

loan money, still less gift it

pressure colleagues (press will do)

progress reports, or reference them

source inputs

summit a hill

trial programmes

See transitive and intransitive verbs.

Avoid parenting (or using the word) and parenting skills. (See also grammar and syntax.)

Though it is sometimes necessary to use nouns as adjectives, do not call:

an attempted coup a coup attempt

a suspected terrorist a terrorist suspect

the Californian legislature the California legislature

And avoid throwing together several nouns into one adjectival reticule:

Texas millionaire real-estate developer and failed thrift entrepreneur Hiram Turnipseed …

coining words Avoid coining verbs and adjectives unnecessarily. Instead of:

dining experiences and writing experiences, use dining and writing; downplaying criticism, you can play it down (or perhaps minimise it); upcoming and ongoing use forthcoming and continuing.

Why outfit your children when you can fit them out?

Hosting has now entered the language (often to mean acting as host at an event paid for by someone else, otherwise giving would be the right word), but guesting (appearing as a guest on a programme) should be kept at bay, as should gifting.

overuse of American words Do not feel obliged to follow American usage with such words as:

constituency — try supporters

gubernatorial — try governor’s

perception — try belief or view

rhetoric (of which there is too little, not too much) — try language or speeches or exaggeration if that is what you mean

Note that in British usage:

City centres are not central cities.

Companies: call for a record profit if you wish to exhort the workers, but not if you merely predict one. And do not post it if it has been achieved. If it has not, look for someone new to head, not head up, the company.

Countries, nations and states: London is the country’s capital, not the nation’s. If you wish to build a nation, you will bind its peoples together; if you wish to build a state, you will forge its institutions. Deep: make a deep study or even a study in depth, but not an in-depth study.

Grow a beard or a tomato, but not a company (or indeed a salesman: the Financial Times reported on August 8th 2003 that BMW was “to grow its own car salesmen”).

Do not use likely to mean probably.

On-site inspections are allowed, but not on-train teams or in-ear headphones.

Stay outside the door, not outside of it.

Programme: you may program a computer, but in all other contexts the word is programme.

Use power cut or blackout rather than outage.

Keep a promise, rather than deliver on it.

Raise cattle and pigs, but children are (or should be) brought up. Regular is not a synonym for ordinary or normal: Mussolini brought in the regular train, All-Bran the regular man; it is quite normal to be without either.

A religious group sounds better than a faith-based organisation. Do not task people, or meet with them.

Throw stones, not rocks.

Trains run from railway stations, not train stations. The people in them, and on buses, are passengers, not riders.

Use senior rather than ranking.

And only the speechless are dumb and the insane mad.

tenses Choose tenses according to British usage, too. In particular, do not fight shy of the perfect tense, especially where no date or time is given. Thus:

Mr Obama has woken up to the danger is preferable to Mr Obama woke up to the danger, unless you can add last week or when he heard the explosion.

Do not write Your salary just got smaller or I shrunk the kids. In British English Your salary has just got smaller and I’ve shrunk the kids.

See also adjectives of proper nouns, euphemisms, grammar and syntax, and Part 2.

among and between Some sticklers insist that, where division is involved, among should be used where three or more are concerned, between where only two are concerned. So: The plum jobs were shared among the Socialists, the Liberals and the Christian Democrats, while the president and the vice-president divided the cash between themselves.

This distinction is unnecessary. But take care with between. To fall between two stools, however painful, is grammatically acceptable; to fall between the cracks is to challenge the laws of physics.

Prefer among to amongst, as while to whilst.

an should be used before a word beginning with a vowel sound (an egg, an umbrella, an MP) or an h if, and only if, the h is silent (an honorary degree). But a European, a university, a U-turn, a hospital, a hotel. Historical and historian are preceded by a whether or not you treat the has silent.

anarchy means the complete absence of law or government. It may be harmonious or chaotic.

animals For the spelling of the Latin names of animals, plants, etc, see Latin names.

annus horribilis, annus mirabilis Annus horribilis is often used, presumably in contrast to annus mirabilis, to describe an awful year, for example by Queen Elizabeth in 1992 (the year of her daughter’s divorce, the separation of the Duke and Duchess of York and a fire at Windsor Castle). It serves its purpose well, but it should be noted that annus mirabilis originally meant much the same thing: 1666, of which it was first used, was the year of the great fire of London and the second year of the great plague in England. Physicists, however, have used the term to describe 1932, the year in which the neutron was discovered, the positron identified and the atomic nucleus first broken up artificially.

anon means soon, though it once meant straight away. Presently also means soon, though it is increasingly misused to mean now. (See also presently.)

anticipate does not mean expect. It means to forestall or look forward to. Jack and Jill expected to marry; if they anticipated marriage, only Jill might find herself expectant.

apostasy, blasphemy, heresy If you abandon your religion, you commit apostasy. If that religion is the prevailing one in your community and your beliefs are contrary to its orthodoxy, you commit heresy. Blasphemy is offending by word or deed against the prevailing orthodoxy.

apostrophes see punctuation.

appeal is intransitive nowadays (except in America), so appeal against decisions.

appraise means set a price on. Apprise means inform.

Arabic The Arabic alphabet has several consonants that have no exact equivalents in English: for example, two kinds of s, two kinds of t, two different (one vocalised, the other not) th sounds. Moreover, there are three sounds: a glottal stop like a hiccup, a glottal sound harsher than this and a uvular trill. Ultra-fastidious transliterators try to reproduce these subtleties with a profusion of apostrophes and hs which yield spellings like Mu’ammar al-Qadhdhafi. The risk of error and the sheer ugliness on the page are too great to justify the effort, so usually ignore the differences.

Vowels present a lesser problem. There are only three — a, u, i — but each can be lengthened. Do not bother to differentiate between the short and the long a. Occasionally, a spelling is established where the u has been lengthened by using oo, as in Sultan Qaboos. In such instances, follow that convention, but in general go for ou, as in murabitoun or Ibn Khaldoun. The long Arabic i is almost always an i in Roman letters.

Muhammad is the correct spelling unless it is part of the name of someone who spells it differently. (See also names.)

as of say, April 5th or April. Prefer on (or after, or since) April 5th, in April.

assassinate is, properly, the term used not just for any old killing, but for the murder of a prominent person, usually for a political purpose. (See execute.)

as to There is usually a more appropriate preposition, eg about. Or rewrite the sentence.

autarchy, autarky Autarchy means absolute sovereignty. Autarky means self-sufficiency.

avert, avoid, evade To avert something means to head it off. To avoid it means to keep away from it. To evade it means to elude it or escape it artfully. Tax avoidance is legal; tax evasion is not.

avocation An avocation is a distraction or diversion from your ordinary employment, not a synonym for vocation.

bail, bale In the hayfield, bale; otherwise bail, bail out and bail-out (noun).

Bangladeshi names see names.

-based A Paris-based group may be all right, if, say, that group operates abroad (otherwise just say a group in Paris). But avoid community-based, faith-based, knowledge-based, etc. A community-based organisation is perhaps a community organisation; a faith-based organisation is probably a church; a knowledge-based industry needs explanation: all industries depend on knowledge.

beg the question means neither raise the question, invite the question nor evade the answer. To beg the question is to adopt an argument whose conclusion depends upon assuming the truth of the very conclusion the argument is designed to produce.

All governments should promote free trade because otherwise protectionism will increase. This begs the question.

Belarusian names see names.

bellwether This is the leading sheep of a flock, on whose neck a bell is hung. It has nothing to do with climate, prevailing winds or the like, but the term is used in the stockmarket.

between see among and between.

biannual, biennial Biannual can mean twice a year or once every two years. Avoid. Since biennial also means once every two years, that is best avoided too. So are bimonthly and biweekly, which also have two meanings. Luckily, fortnightly is unambiguous.

bicentennial Prefer bicentenary (as a noun).

black In the black means in profit in Britain, but making losses in some places. Use in profit.

blond, blonde Blond is an adjective and, unusually, in its adjectival use it retains its two genders (see grammar and syntax, masculine or feminine). Use blonde as a noun, referring to a woman with blond hair: the blonde in the corner of the room. Use blond for everything else, including the hair of a blonde.

blooded, bloodied Blooded means pedigreed (as in blue-blooded) or initiated. Bloodied means wounded.

bon vivant not bon viveur.

born, borne are both past participles of the verb bear. Born is used in the sense of giving birth: She was born in April. Borne is used for supporting or putting up with (The victims had borne enough pain) and for giving birth in active constructions (She had already borne six children).

both … and A preposition placed after both should be repeated after and. Thus both to right and to left; but to both right and left is all right.

brackets see punctuation.

British titles see titles.

brokerage is what a stockbroking firm does, not what it is.

cadre Keep this word for the framework of a military unit or the officers of such a unit, not for a communist functionary.

calibres see hyphens.

Cambodian names see names.

Canute’s exercise on the seashore was designed to persuade his courtiers of what he knew to be true but they doubted, ie, that he was not omnipotent. Don’t imply he was surprised to get his feet wet.

capitals A balance has to be struck between so many capitals that the eyes dance and so few that the reader is diverted more by our style than by our substance. The general rule is to dignify with capital letters organisations and institutions, but not people; and full names, but not informal ones. More exact rules are laid out below. Even these, however, leave some decisions to individual judgment. If in doubt use lower case unless it looks absurd. And remember that “a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds” (Ralph Waldo Emerson).

avoiding confusion Use capitals to avoid confusion, especially with no (and therefore yes). In Bergen no votes predominated suggests a stalemate, whereas In Bergen No votes predominated suggests a triumph of noes over yeses. In most contexts, though, yes and no should be lower case: “The answer is no.”

In the context of the British referendum of 2016, Remain and Leave are upper case. “He voted Leave, but the Remain faction kept going.”

cities City with a capital, even though City is not an integral part of their names:

City also takes a capital when it is part of the name:

compass points Lower case for:

east west north south

except when part of a name (North Korea, South Africa, West End) or part of a thinking group: the South, the Midwest, the West (but lower case for vaguer areas such as the American north-east, northwest, south-east, south-west). Lower-case too for the adjectives: midwestern, western, southern.

The regions of Africa are southern, east, west and north Africa. But South Africa is the name of the country.

Europe Europe’s divisions are no longer neatly political, and are now geographically imprecise, so use lower case for central, eastern and western Europe.

Use West Germany (West Berlin) and East Germany (East Berlin) only in historical references. They are now west or western Germany (Berlin) and east or eastern Germany (eastern Berlin).

The Basque country (or region) is ill-defined and contentious, and may include parts of both France and Spain, so lower case for country (or region).

See also Euro-.

finance In finance there are particular exceptions to the general rule of initial capitals for full names, lower case for informal ones. There are also rules about what to do on second mention.

Deutschmarks are still known just as D-marks, even though all references are historical.

Special drawing rights are lower case but are abbreviated as SDRs, except when used with a figure as a currency (SDR500m).

The Bank of England and its foreign equivalents have initial caps when named formally and separately, but collectively they are central banks in lower case, except those like Brazil’s, Ireland’s and Venezuela’s, which are actually named the Central Bank. The Bank of England becomes the bank on second mention.

The IMF may become the fund on second mention.

The World Bank and the Fed (after first spelling it out as the Federal Reserve) take initial upper case, although these are shortened, informal names. The World Bank becomes the bank on second mention.

Treasury bonds issued by America’s Treasury should be upper case; treasury bills (or bonds) of a general kind should be lower case. Avoid t-bonds and t-bills.

food and drink Lower case should be used for most common or familiar wines, cheeses, grape varieties, for example:

But the proper names of particular wines take upper case: Cheval Blanc Lafite Marqués de Riscal Pontet-Canet

as do some foods and drinks that would look odd lower case: Bombay duck Nuits St George Parma ham

historical terms

Allies (in the second world war)

Black Death

Cultural Revolution

D-Day

the Depression (1930s) Enlightenment

Holocaust (second world war)

Industrial Revolution

Middle Ages

New Deal

Prohibition

Reconstruction

Reformation

Renaissance

Restoration

Six-Day War

Stone Age (etc)

Thirty Years War

Year of the Dog, Horse, Rat

Note that all other revolutions are lower case, but upper-case for the qualifier: Orange revolution, Green revolution, French revolution.

organisations, institutions, acts, etc

1 Organisations, ministries, departments, institutions, treaties, acts, etc, generally take upper case when their full name (or something pretty close to it, eg, State Department) is used.

Amnesty International

Arab League

Bank of England (the bank)

Central Committee

Court of Appeal

the Crown (Britain)

Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA)

Department of State (the department)

European Commission

Forestry Commission

Health and Safety at Work Act

High Court

House of Commons

House of Lords

House of Representatives

Household Cavalry

Metropolitan Police

Ministry of Defence

New York Stock Exchange

Oxford University

Politburo

Scottish Parliament (the parliament)

Senate

St Paul’s Cathedral (the cathedral)

Supreme Court

Treasury

Treaty of Rome

Welsh Assembly (the assembly)

World Bank (the bank)

2 Organisations with unusual or misleading names, such as the African National Congress and Civic Forum, may become the Congress and the Forum on second and subsequent mentions.

3 But most other organisations — agencies, banks, commissions (including the European Commission and the European Union), etc — take lower case when referred to incompletely on second mention.

4 Informal names

Organisations, committees, commissions, special groups, etc, that are impermanent, ad hoc, local or relatively insignificant should be lower case:

international economic subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee;

Market Blandings rural district council;

Oxford University bowls club;

subcommittee on journalists’ rights of the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party.

5 Artistic movements

Artistic movements (Impressionism, Cubism, etc) should be upper case. So should their practitioners (Romantics).

6 Rough descriptions or translations

Use lower case for rough descriptions (the safety act, the American health department, the French parliament, as distinct from its National Assembly). If you are not sure whether the English translation of a foreign name is exact or not, assume it is rough and use lower case.

7 Congress and Parliament

Congress and Parliament are upper case, unless parliament is used not to describe the institution but the period of time for which it sits:

This bill will not be brought forward until the next parliament.

But congressional and parliamentary are lower case, as is the opposition, even when used in the sense of her majesty’s loyal opposition.

The government, the administration and the cabinet are always lower case.

After first mention, the House of Commons (or Lords, or Representatives) becomes the House.

8 Acts

In America acts given the names of their sponsors (eg, Glass— Steagall, Helms—Burton) are always rough descriptions (see above) and so take a lower-case act.

people

1 Ranks and titles

Use upper case when written in conjunction with a name, but lower case when on their own:

Colonel Qaddafi, but the colonel

Pope Benedict, but the pope

President Obama, but the president

Queen Elizabeth, but the queen

Vice-President Ansari, but the vice-president

Do not write Prime Minister Brown or Defence Secretary Cannon; they are the prime minister, Mr Brown, and the defence secretary, Mr Cannon. You might, however, write Chancellor Merkel.

2 Office-holders

When referred to merely by their office, not by their name, office-holders are lower case:

the chairman of Marks & Spencer

the chancellor of the exchequer

the foreign secretary

the president of the United States

the prime minister

the treasury secretary

The only exceptions are a few titles that would look unduly peculiar without capitals:

Black Rod

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster

First Lady

Lord Chancellor

Lord Privy Seal

Master of the Rolls

Speaker (in a parliament)

and a few exalted people, such as: the Dalai Lama, the Aga Khan. Also God and the Prophet.

3 Some titles serve as names, and therefore have initial capitals, though they also serve as descriptions: the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Emir of Kuwait. If you want to describe the office rather than the individual, use lower case: The next archbishop of Canterbury will be a woman. Since the demise of the ninth duke, there has never been another duke of Portland.

places Use upper case for definite geographical places, regions, areas and countries (The Hague, Transylvania, Germany), and for vague but recognised political or geographical areas (but see Europe above):

Central, South and South-East Asia

East Asia (which is to be preferred to the Far East) the Gulf

Highlands (of Scotland)

Middle East

Midlands (of England)

North Atlantic

North, Central and South America

South Atlantic

the West (as in the decline of the West), Western, Westerns (as in novels, films, etc), Wild West

West Country

Use capitals for particular buildings even if the name is not strictly accurate, eg, the Foreign Office.

And if in doubt use lower case (the sunbelt).

The third world (an unsatisfactory term now that the communist second world has disappeared) is lower case.

Avoid the western hemisphere. Unlike the southern hemisphere and the northern hemisphere, it is not clear where the western hemisphere begins or ends. The Americas will usually serve instead.

political terms

1 The full name of political parties is upper case, including the word party:

Communist (if a particular party)

Labour Party

Peasants’ Party

Republican Party

Tea Party (though not strictly a party, it looks too odd in lower case)

2 But note that some parties do not have party as part of their names, so this should therefore be lower case:

Greece’s New Democracy party

India’s Congress party

Indonesia’s Golkar party

Turkey’s Justice and Development party

3 Note that usually only people are:

Their parties, policies, candidates, committees, etc, are:

They also vote Democratic, etc; but a committee may be Democrat-controlled.

The exceptions are Britain’s Liberal Democrat Party and Thailand’s Democrat Party.

4 When referring to a specific party, write Labour, the Republican nominee, a prominent Liberal, etc, but use lower case in looser references to liberals, conservatism, communists, etc. Tories, however, are upper case, as is New Labour.

proper names When forming nouns, adjectives and verbs from proper names, retain the initial capital:

Buddhism

Christian

Finlandisation

Gaullism

Hindu

Hobbesian

Islamic

Jacobite

Leninist

Luddite

Maronite

Marxist

Napoleonic

Paisleyite

Russify

Thatcherism

Exceptions are: platonic, pyrrhic, draconian.

Indian castes are upper case and roman. Eg Brahmin, Dalit.

province, river, state are lower case when not strictly part of the name:

Exceptions are: River Nile, River Thames, Red River (USA), Yellow River (China).

American counties are part of the name; hence Orange County, Madison County.

trade names Use capitals:

BlackBerry eBay Google Hoover Teflon Valium Jeep Stetson

miscellaneous (lower case)

19th amendment (but Article 19)

aborigines, aboriginal

administration

amazon (female warrior)

angst

blacks (and whites)

cabinet

civil servant

civil service

civil war (including America’s)

cold war

common market

communist (generally)

constitution (including America’s)

cruise missile

draconian euro

first world war

french windows, fries

general synod

gentile

government

Gulf war

gypsy

heaven (and hell)

internet junior (as in George Bush junior)

Kyoto protocol

the left

mafia (any old group of criminals)

mecca (when used loosely, as a mecca for tourists)

new year (but New Year’s Day)

Olympic games (and Asian, Commonwealth, European)

opposition

philistine

platonic

the pope

the press

pyrrhic

the queen

quisling

realpolitik

republican (unless a party)

revolution (everyone’s)

the right

second world war

senior (as in Douglas Fairbanks senior)

state-of-the-union message

sun

titanic (not the ship)

titans (unless the original Titans)

white paper

world wide web

young turk

miscellaneous (upper case)

Anglophone (but prefer (English-speaking)

Antichrist

anti-Semitism

Atlanticist

the Bar

the Bible (but biblical)

Catholics

CD-ROM

Chapter 9, etc

Christ

Christmas Day

Christmas Eve

Coloureds (in South Africa)

Communist (if a particular party)

Congress

the Crown

the Cup Final

the Davis Cup

D-Day

Earth (when, and only when, it is being discussed as a planet like Mars or Venus)

Empire (everyone’s)

First Lady

Founding Fathers

Francophone

General Assembly (UN)

Hispanics

Koran

Labour Day

Mafia (the genuine article)

May Day

Mecca (in Saudi Arabia, California and Liberia)

Memorial Day

Moon (when it is Earth’s)

Nature (the general entity)

New Year’s Eve etc (but new year)

Parliament (the institution)

Pershing missile (because it is named after somebody)

Protestants

the Queen’s Speech

Semitic (-ism)

Social Security (in American contexts only, where it is used to mean pensions; what is usually understood by social security elsewhere is welfare in the United States)

Stealth fighter, bomber

Taser

Teamster

Ten Commandments

Test Match

Tory

Tube (London Underground)

Utopia (-n)

Warsaw Pact

See also abbreviations.

cartel A cartel is a group that restricts supply in order to drive up prices. Do not use it to describe any old syndicate or association of producers — especially of drugs.

case “There is perhaps no single word so freely resorted to as a trouble-saver,” says Gowers, “and consequently responsible for so much flabby writing.” Often you can do without it. There are many cases of it being unnecessary is better as It is often unnecessary. If it is the case that simply means If. It is not the case means It is not so.

Cassandra Do not use Cassandra just as a synonym for a prophet of doom. The most notable characteristic about her was that her predictions were always correct but never believed.

catalyst A catalyst is something that speeds up a chemical reaction while itself remaining unchanged. Do not confuse it with one of the agents.

Central Asian names see names.

centred on not around or in.

challenge Although duels and gauntlets have largely disappeared into history, modern life seems to consist of little else but challenges. At every turn, every president, every government, every business, everyone everywhere is faced with challenges. No one nowadays has to face a change, difficulty, task or job. Next time you grab the word challenge, drop it at once and think again.

charge If you charge intransitively, do so as a bull, cavalry officer or some such, not as an accuser (so avoid The standard of writing was abysmal, he charged).

cherry-pick If you must use this cliché, note that to cherry-pick means to engage in careful rather than indiscriminate selection, whereas a cherry-picker is a machine for raising pickers (and cleaners and so on) off the ground.

Chinese names see names.

circumstances stand around a thing, so it is in, not under, them.

civil society pops up a lot these days, often in the company of citizenship skills, community leaders, good governance, the international community, social capital and the like. It can, however, be a useful, albeit ill-defined, term to describe collectively all non-commercial organisations between the family and the state. But do not use it as a euphemism for NGOs (non-governmental organisations), which is how it is usually employed.

clerical titles see titles.

clichés weren’t always clichéd. The first person to use window of opportunity or level playing-field or accident waiting to happen was justly pleased with himself. Each is a strong, vivid expression — or was. The trouble is that such expressions have been copied so often that they have lost their vividness. Mass printing made constant repetition easy, which explains how the word cliché came into being: it is the French term for a stereotype printing plate. Careful writers since Flaubert, who was so obsessive in his search for freshness that he insisted on anything approaching a cliché being printed in italics, have tried to avoid hackneyed phrases.

In “A Dictionary of Clichés” (1940), Eric Partridge wrote: “Clichés range from fly-blown phrases (much of a muchness; to all intents and purposes), metaphors that are now pointless (lock, stock and barrel), formulas that have become mere counters (far be it from me to …) — through sobriquets that have lost all their freshness and most of their significance (the Iron Duke) — to quotations that are nauseating (cups that cheer but not inebriate), and foreign phrases that are tags (longo intervallo, bête noire).”

Many of yesterday’s clichés have become so much a part of the language that they pass unnoticed; they are like Orwell’s dead metaphors. The ones most to be avoided are the latest, the trendiest. Since they usually appeal to people who do not have the energy to pick their own words, they are often found in the wooden prose of bureaucrats, academics and businessmen, though journalese is far from immune.

Clichés numb, rather than stimulate, the reader’s brain.

Many of the clichés in The Economist are phrases like bite the bullet, confirmed bachelor, eye-watering sums, grinding to a halt, high-profile, honeymoon period, incurable optimist, road maps, tax packages, too close to call, toxic debt, whopping bills. They serve merely to bore. Far worse are some of those placed in its pages by its managers, which probably induce terminal despair. The following appeared in an advertisement in May 2009: world-class analysis, key industries, proven track record, strategic, transformative thinking, decisive goal-driven leader, consummate collaborator within a team framework, impactful programmes, strategic and consultative approach, professional in all internal and external interactions, results-driven, relationship-building and communication skills.

Many of these expressions are meaningless. All are ugly. All are borrowed unthinkingly from the language of other advertisers, and since they appear so often they fail to make an impact. Bureaucrats are inveterate offenders. Here is part of a letter from a large London think-tank, explaining that it might be slow in updating members’ details because it was improving its computer system. This simple message was conveyed in 125 words, of which these are some:

The organisation is upgrading its IT infrastructure by introducing a new database which will enable us to store and share information more effectively internally. We embarked upon this major project when it became clear that the current system no longer adequately supported our requirements. When the new system is fully implemented in the autumn it will enable us to more effectively manage our relationship with members and other stakeholders … We kindly ask for your patience while we resolve any issues over the next two weeks.

Language such as this is so common that its authors have stopped asking themselves whether it means anything, whether the message might make more impact if it were expressed in 20 words rather than 125 or whether anyone will even bother to read it.

Do not add to such tosh. Banish from your mind and prose bridges too far; empires striking back; kinder, gentler; F-words; flavours of the month; Generation X; hearts and minds; $64,000 questions; southern discomfort; back to the future; shaken, not stirred; thirty-somethings; and where’s the beef? Be especially careful not to borrow the empty phrases of politicians who constantly invoke paradigm shifts, wake-up calls, supply-side solutions, blue-sky thinking and social inclusion, while asserting their desire to go the extra mile, push the envelope and kick-start the economy. Making a difference is one of the most fatuous favourites. Thus a former director of communications for the Labour Party could assert that the prime minister, Gordon Brown, was being criticised only because he wanted to make a difference, as though the same plea could not have been made for A. Hitler or J. Stalin.

Not all clichés, however, are used unthinkingly. Politicians often resort to hackneyed language to give the impression that they are saying something when they are doing their best to avoid it.

Treat all such stuff as a caution. (“Political language is designed to … give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” George Orwell)

co- This prefix is sometimes useful but now overdone. In the sentences He co-founded the company with Sir Alan or He co-wrote “The Left Nation” with Adrian Windback, the co- is unnecessary. Co-author and co-sleep are worse than that. “We want parents … not to co-sleep with their baby,” said Professor Peter Fleming. This was because “the majority of the co-sleeping deaths occurred in a hazardous sleeping environment.” (The Times, October 14th 2009.) Co-workers are colleagues.

coiffed not coiffured.

colons see punctuation.

come up with Try suggest, originate or produce.

commas see punctuation.

commit Do not commit to, but by all means commit yourself to something.

community is a useful word in the context of religious or ethnic groups. But in many others it jars. Not only is it often unnecessary, it also purports to convey a sense of togetherness that may well not exist:

The black community means blacks (or African-Americans, etc).

The business community means businessmen (who are supposed to be competing, not colluding).

The intelligence community means spies.

The online community means geeks, nerds and netizens.

The migration and development communities means NGOs.

The international community, if it means anything, means other countries, aid agencies or, just occasionally, the family of nations. What the global community (Financial Times, July 12th 2005) means is a mystery.

company names Call companies by the names they call themselves. Therefore check the company’s name against their literature or website. Economist usage is now to ignore all rogue exclamation marks, backward letters, etc in company names.

comparatives Take care. One thing may be many times more expensive than another. It cannot be many times cheaper. Indeed, it can be cheaper only by a proportion that is less than one. A different but similar mistake is to say that people grew twice as poor during a given period. Instead, say people’s incomes fell by half during that period (if that is what you mean, which, since it confuses income with wealth, it may not be).

Remember that comparatives should be compared with (or to) something.

compare In best usage, A is compared with B when you draw attention to the difference. A is compared to B when you want to stress their similarity.

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

compound (verb) does not mean make worse. It may mean combine or, intransitively, it may mean to agree or come to terms. To compound a felony means to agree for a consideration not to prosecute. (It is also used, with different senses, as a noun and adjective.)

comprise means is composed of. NATO’s force in Afghanistan comprises troops from 42 countries. America’s troops make up (not comprise) nearly half the force. Alternatively, Nearly half NATO’s force in Afghanistan is composed of American troops.

contemporary see current.

continuous describes something uninterrupted. Continual admits of a break. If your neighbours play loud music every night, it is a continual nuisance; it is not a continuous one unless the music is never turned off.

contrast, by or in Use by contrast only when you are comparing one thing with another: Somalia is a poor country. By contrast, Egypt is rich. This means Egypt is rich by comparison with Somalia, though by other standards it is poor. If you are simply noting a difference, say in contrast: The Joneses spend their holidays in the south of France. In contrast, the Smiths go to south Wales.

convince should be followed by a noun or, in the passive, that or of. Do not convince people to do something. If you want to write to, the verb you need is persuade. The prime minister was persuaded to call a June election; he was convinced of the wisdom of doing so only after he had won.

coruscate means sparkle or throw off flashes of light, not wither, devastate or reduce to wrinkles (that’s corrugate).

could is sometimes useful as a variant of may or might: His coalition could (or might) collapse. But take care. Does He could call an election in June mean He might call an election in June or He would be allowed to call an election in June?

council, counsel A council is a body of people, elected or appointed, that advises, administers, organises, legislates, etc. Counsel (noun) means advice or consultation, or lawyers who give legal advice and fight cases in court.

crescendo Not an acme, apogee, peak, summit or zenith but a passage of increasing loudness. You cannot therefore build to a crescendo.

crisis A decisive event or turning-point. Many of the economic and political troubles wrongly described as crises are really persistent difficulties, sagas or affairs.

critique is a noun in British English. If you want a verb, try criticise.

currencies Use $ as the standard currency and, on first mention of sums in all other currencies, give a dollar conversion in brackets.

Apart from those currencies that are written out in full (see below), write the abbreviation followed by the number.

Britain

pound, abbreviated as £

pence, abbreviated as p

1p, 2p, 3p, etc to 99p (not £0.99)

£6 (not £6.00), £6.47

£5,000—6,000 (not £5,000—£6,000)

£5m—6m (not £5m—£6m)

£5 bn—6 bn (not £5—6 bn), £5.2 bn—6.2 bn

America

dollar, abbreviated as $, will do generally; US$ if there is a mixture of dollar currencies (see below)

cents, spell out, unless part of a larger number: $4.99

other dollar currencies

Europe

euro, plural euros, abbreviated as €, for those countries that have adopted it.

cents, spell out, unless part of a larger number.

€10 (not 10 euros), €10.75

DM, BFr, drachmas, FFr, Italian lire, IR£ (punts), markkas, Asch, Ptas and other currencies of the euro area have all been replaced by €, but may turn up in historical references.

DKr Danish krone (plural kroner)

IKr Icelandic krona (plural kronur)

NKr Norwegian krone (plural kroner)

SFr Swiss franc, SFr1m (not 1m Swiss francs)

SKr Swedish krona (plural kronor)

sums in all other currencies are written in full, with the number first.

Brazil, real, 100m reais

China, yuan, 100m yuan (not renminbi) (see below)

India, rupee, 100m rupees

Nigeria, naira, 100m naira

peso currencies, 100m pesos

South Africa, rand, 100m rand (not rands)

Turkey, Turkish lira, 100m liras

But Japan, yen ¥, ¥1,000 (not 1,000 yen)

China Properly, Chinese sums are expressed as, eg, 1 yuan rmb, meaning 1 yuan renminbi. Yuan, which means money, is the Chinese unit of currency. Renminbi, which means the people’s currency, is the description of the yuan, as sterling is the description of the pound. Use yuan.

See also figures; and currencies and measures in Part 3.

current, contemporary Current and contemporary mean at that time, not necessarily at this time. So a series of current prices from 1960 to 1970 will not be in today’s prices, just as contemporary art in 1800 was not modern art. Contemporary history is a contradiction in terms.

cusp is a pointed end or a horn of, for example, the Moon, or the point at which two branches of a curve meet. So it is odd to write, say, “Japan is on the cusp of a recovery” unless you think that recovery is about to end.

dashes see punctuation.

data It cannot be emphasised enough that this is a plural (singular, datum), despite its almost universal use as a singular noun. Do not be cowed by the majority.

dates month, day, year, in that order, with no commas:

Do not write on June 10th—14th; prefer between June 10th and 14th. If, say, ministers are to meet over two days, write on December 14th and 15th.

Do not burden the reader with dates of no significance, but give a date rather than just last week, this week or next week (or, indeed, last month or next month), which can cause confusion.

Dates are often crucial to an account of events, but sentences (and, even more, articles) that begin with a date can be clumsy and off-putting. This week Congress is due to consider the matter is often better put as Congress is due to consider the matter this week. The effect is even more numbing if a comma is inserted: This week, Congress is due to consider the matter, though this construction is sometimes merited when emphasis is needed on the date.

Dates that require AD or BC should be set as one unhyphenated word (76AD, 55BC). The same applies to CE (common era) and BCE (before common era), though neither is used in The Economist.

deal (verb) Transitively, deal means distribute: “He was dealt two aces, two kings and a six.” Intransitively, deal means engage in business. Do not deal drugs, horses, weapons, etc; deal in them.

decimate means to destroy a proportion (originally a tenth) of a group of people or things, not to destroy them all or nearly all.

demographics used not to be a word at all, but has become a useful term for facts about births and deaths, and the size and distribution of population, and it would be foolish to ban it.

deprecate, depreciate To deprecate is to argue or plead against (by prayer or otherwise). To depreciate is to lower in value.

different from not to or than.

dilemma Not just any old awkwardness but one with horns, being, properly, a form of argument (the horned syllogism) in which you find yourself committed to accept one of two propositions each of which contradicts your original contention. Thus a dilemma offers the choice between two alternatives, each with equally nasty consequences.

discreet, discrete Discreet means circumspect or prudent. Discrete means separate or distinct. Remember that “Questions are never indiscreet. Answers sometimes are.” (Oscar Wilde)

disinterested means impartial; uninterested means indifferent. “Disinterested curiosity is the lifeblood of civilisation.” (G.M. Trevelyan)

douse, dowse Douse means to throw water over something or extinguish a light or a fire. Dowse means to search for underground water with a divining rod.

down to down to earth yes, but “Occasional court victories are not down to human rights.” (The Economist) No: down to does not mean attributable to, the responsibility of or even up to (It’s up to you). Use caused by or the result of.

due process is a technical term, or piece of jargon, which was first used in England in 1355. It comes in two forms, substantive due process, which relates to the duties of governments to act rationally and proportionally when doing anything that affects citizens’ rights, and procedural due process, which relates to the need for fair procedures. If you use the expression, make sure it is clear what you mean by it.

due to when used to mean caused by must follow a noun, as in The cancellation, due to rain, of … Do not write It was cancelled due to rain. If you mean because of and for some reason are reluctant to say it, you probably want owing to. It was cancelled owing to rain is all right.

Dutch names see names.

earnings Do not write earnings when you mean profits (try to say if they are operating, gross, pre-tax or net).

-ee employees, evacuees, detainees, divorcees, referees, refugees but, please, no attendees (those attending), draftees (conscripts), enrollees (participants), escapees (escapers), indictees (the indicted), retirees (the retired), or standees. A divorcee may be male or female.

effect the verb, means to accomplish, so The novel effected a change in his attitude. See also affect.

-effective, -efficient Cost-effective sounds authoritative, but does it mean good value for money, gives a big bang for the buck or just plain cheap? If cheap, say cheap.

effectively, in effect Effectively means with effect; if you mean in effect, say it. The matter was effectively dealt with on Friday means it was done well on Friday. The matter was, in effect, dealt with on Friday means it was more or less attended to on Friday.

either … or see none.

elite, elitist Once a neutral word meaning a chosen group or the pick of the bunch, elite is now almost always used pejoratively. Elitist and elitism are even more reprehensible. No matter that the words have their roots in the French verb élire, to elect, and the Latin eligere, to pick out; if you believe in government by a chosen group, or are a member of such a group, you are a reprobate. Only elite forces seem to escape censure. Though scornful of elites in education and politics, most people, when taken hostage, are happy to be rescued by elite troops. Use these words with care.

enclave An enclave is a piece of territory or territorial water entirely surrounded by foreign territory (Andorra, Ceuta, Kaliningrad, Melilla, Nagorno-Karabakh, Nakhichevan, San Marino).

endemic, epidemic Endemic means prevalent or generally found in a place or population. Epidemic means prevalent among a population at a particular time.

enormity means a crime, sin or monstrous wickedness. It does not mean immensity.

environment is often unavoidable, but it’s not a pretty word. Avoid the business environment, the school environment, the work environment, etc. Try to rephrase the sentence — conditions for business, at school, at work, etc. Surroundings can sometimes do the job. In a writing environment you may want to make use of your correction fluid, rubber (or American eraser) or delete key.

epicentre means that point on the surface (usually the Earth’s) above the centre of something below (usually an earthquake). So Mr Putin was not at the epicentre of the dispute, he was at its centre.

The hypocentre, in contrast, is the place on the surface (usually of the earth) below something above (usually an explosion). It is the same as ground zero.

eponymous is the adjective of eponym, which is the person or thing after which something is named. So George Canning was the eponymous hero of the Canning Club, Hellen was the eponymous ancestor of the Hellenes (Greeks), Ninus was the eponymous founder of Nineveh. Do not say John Sainsbury, the founder of the eponymous supermarket. Rather he was the eponymous founder of J. Sainsbury’s. The word is ugly, though, and usually unnecessary.

ethnic groups Your first concern should be to avoid giving offence. But also avoid mealy-mouthed euphemisms and terms that have not generally caught on despite promotion by pressure-groups.

Ethnic meaning concerning nations or races, or even something ill-defined in between, is a useful word. But do not be shy of race and racial. After several years in which race was seen as a purely social concept, not a scientific one, the term is coming back among scientists as a shorthand way of speaking about genetic rather than cultural or political differences. See also political correctness.

Africans may be descended from Asians, Europeans or black Africans. If you specifically mean the last, write black Africans, not simply Africans.

Anglo-Saxon is not a synonym for English-speaking. Neither the United States nor Australia is an Anglo-Saxon country; nor is Britain. Anglo-Saxon capitalism does not exist.

Asians In Britain, but nowhere else, Asians is often used to mean immigrants and their descendants from the Indian subcontinent. Many such people are coming to dislike the term, and many foreigners must assume it means people from all over Asia, so take care. Note that, even in the usage peculiar to Britain, Asian is not synonymous with Muslim.

blacks In many countries, including the United States, many black people are happy to be called blacks, although some prefer to be African-Americans. Black is shorter and more straightforward, but use either. Use Native American for indigenous Americans, to avoid confusion with the growing number of Indian-Americans.

mixed race Do not call people who are neither pure white nor pure black browns. People of mixed race in South Africa are Coloureds. Note the capital.

other groups The inhabitants of Azerbaijan are Azerbaijanis, some of whom, but not all, are Azeris. Those Azeris who live in other places, such as Iran, are not Azerbaijanis. Similarly, many Croats are not Croatian, many Serbs not Serbian, many Uzbeks not Uzbekistanis, etc.

Spanish-speakers in the United States When writing about Spanish-speaking people in the United States, use either Latino or Hispanic as a general term, but try to be specific (eg, Mexican-American). Many Latin Americans (eg, those from Brazil) are not Hispanic.

euphemisms Avoid, where possible, euphemisms and circumlocutions, especially those promoted by interest-groups keen to please their clients or organisations anxious to avoid embarrassment. This does not mean that good writers should be insensitive to giving offence: on the contrary, if you are to be persuasive, you would do well to be courteous. But a good writer owes something to plain speech, the English language and the truth, as well as to manners. Political correctness can be carried too far.

So, in most contexts, offending behaviour is probably criminal behaviour. Female teenagers are girls, not women. Living with mobility impairment probably means wheelchair-bound. Developing countries are often stagnating or even regressing (try poor) countries. The underprivileged may be disadvantaged, but are more likely just poor (the very concept of underprivilege is absurd, since it implies that some people receive less than their fair share of something that is by definition an advantage or prerogative).

Remember that euphemisms are the stock-in-trade of people trying to obscure the truth. Thus Enron’s document-management policy simply meant shredding. France’s proposed solidarity contribution on airline tickets was a tax. Bankers’ guaranteed bonuses are salaries (or fractions thereof).

Take particular care if you borrow the language of politicians, especially when they are trying to justify a war. “They make a wilderness and call it peace,” wrote Tacitus nearly 2,000 years ago, quoting Calgalus, a British chief whose people had suffered at the hands of the Romans. Orwell was equally acute in pointing out decades ago how terms like transfer of population and rectification of frontiers put names on things without calling up mental pictures of them. Friendly fire, body count, prisoner abuse, smart bombs, surgical strike, collateral damage have been coined more recently with the same ends in mind. The Reagan administration spoke of its airborne invasion of Grenada in 1983 as a vertical insertion.

The butchers of the Balkans produced ethnic cleansing, and the jihadists of al-Qaeda speak of martyrdom operations in place of Islamically incorrect suicide-bombs. The Bush administration, with its all-justifying war on terror (prosecuted with the help of the Patriot Act), provided more than its fair share of bland misnomers. Its practice of enhanced interrogation was torture, just as its practice of extraordinary rendition was probably torture contracted out to foreigners and its self-injurious behaviour incidents at Guantánamo Bay were attempted suicides. The president’s ensuing reputational problem just meant he was mistrusted.

Orwell would surely have put human-rights abuses in the same category of nerve-deadening understatement as pacification and elimination of unreliable elements. The term may occasionally be useful, but try to avoid it by rephrasing the sentence more pithily and accurately. The army is accused of committing numerous human-rights abuses probably means The army is accused of torture and murder. A high-net-worth individual is a rich man or rich woman. Zero-percent financing means an interest-free loan. Non-observable inputs are assumptions used in self-serving guesswork. Intimate apparel is underwear.

See also affirmative action.

Euro- is the prefix for anything relating to the European Union; euro- is the prefix for anything relating to the currency. The usual rules apply for the full, proper names (with informal equivalents on the right below). Thus:

The EU grouping may be called EU-15, EU-27.

When making Euro- or euro-words, always introduce a hyphen.

Exceptions are:

Europhile Europhobe Eurosceptic Eurobond Euroyen bond

Prefer euro zone or euro area (two words, no hyphen) to euro-land. CAP is the common agricultural policy.

EMU stands for economic and (not European) monetary union.

ERM is the exchange-rate mechanism.

IGC is an inter-governmental conference.

ex- (and former) Be careful. A Labour Party ex-member has lost his seat; an ex-Labour member has lost his party.

execute means put to death by law. Do not use it as a synonym for murder. An extra-judicial execution is a contradiction in terms. (See assassinate.)

existential Often used, seldom understood, even it seems by those who use it, existential means of or pertaining to existence. In logic it may mean predicating existence, and in other philosophical contexts, relating to existentialism. It is sometimes used in such phrases as existential threat or existential crisis, where the author wants it to mean a threat to the existence (of Israel, say) or a crisis that calls into the question the existence of something (eg, NATO). But in most instances, including most in The Economist, it seems to serve no purpose other than to make the writer believe he is impressing his readers.

fact The fact that can often be reduced to that, but not always. Check whether it confuses the start of a sentence, as it sometimes does.

factoid A factoid is something that sounds like a fact, is thought by many to be a fact (perhaps because it is repeated so often), but is not in fact a fact. In general, avoid, instead using myth for a fake fact and bit of trivia for a small, fun, true fact.

fed up with, not of. Similarly, bored with, not of.

federalist in Britain, someone who believes in centralising the powers of associated states; in the United States and Europe, someone who believes in decentralising them.

fellow Often unnecessary, especially before countrymen (“Friends,Romans, fellow-countrymen”?).

feral can mean brutish or uncultivated, but is best used of animals, children, etc, that were once tamed or domesticated but have run wild.

ferment, foment When you ferment, what you are doing is to cause something to effervesce, like yeast. But you foment trouble, sedition, revolution.

fewer than, less than Fewer (not less) than seven speeches, fewer than seven samurai. Use fewer, not less, with numbers of individual items or people. Less than £200, less than 700 tonnes of oil, less than a third, because these are measured quantities or proportions, not individual items.

Time, being viewed as a continuum, also takes less; in less than six weeks, after less than five months.

fief not fiefdom.

figures Never start a sentence with a figure; write the number in words instead.

Use words for simple numerals from one to ten inclusive, except: in references to pages; in percentages (eg, 4%); and in sets of numerals, some of which are higher than ten.

Deaths from this cause in the past three years were 14, 9 and 6.

Always use numbers with units of measurement, even for those less than ten:

4 metres, 9 miles, but four cows.

It is occasionally permissible to use words rather than numbers when referring to a rough or rhetorical figure (such as a thousand curses, a hundred years of solitude).

In all other cases, though, use figures for numerals from 11 upwards.

first to tenth centuries, the 11th century

20th century, 21st century

20th-century ideas

in 100 years’ time

two and a half years later

a 29-year-old man

a man in his 20s

20th anniversary

40-fold (but fourfold, up to and including ten)

30-something

the Sixties (etc)

The Thirty Years War is an exception.

decimal point Use figures for all numerals that include a decimal point (eg, 4.25).

fractions Figures may be appropriate for fractions, if the context is either technical or precise, or both: Though the poll’s figures were supposed to be accurate to within 1%, his lead of 4¼ points turned out on election day to be minus 3½.

Where precision is less important but it is nonetheless impossible to shoot off the fraction, words may look better:

Though the beast was sold as a two-year-old, it turned out to be two and a half times that.

Fractions should be hyphenated (one-half, three-quarters, etc) and, unless they are attached to whole numbers (8½, 29¾), spelled out in words, even when the figures are higher than ten: He gave a tenth of his salary to the church, a twentieth to his mistress and a thirtieth to his wife.

fractions and decimals Do not compare a fraction with a decimal. So avoid:

The rate fell from 3¼% to 3.1%.

Fractions are more precise than decimals (3.33 neglects an infinity of figures that are embraced by ¹/3), but your readers probably do not think so. You should therefore use fractions for rough figures: Kenya’s population is growing at 3½% a year. A hectare is 2½ acres. and decimals for more exact ones:

The retail price index is rising at an annual rate of 10.6%.

But treat all numbers with respect. That usually means resisting the precision of more than one decimal place, and generally favouring rounding off. Beware of phoney over-precision.

hyphens and figures Do not use a hyphen in place of to except with figures: He received a sentence of 15—20 years in jail but He promised to escape within three to four weeks.

Latin usage It is outdated to use Latin words. So, with figures, do not write per caput, per capita or per annum. Use:

a head or per head

a person or per person

a year or per year

2 litres of water per person

prices rose by 10% a year

See also per caput.

measurements In most non-American contexts use metric units: hectares, not acres

kilometres (or km), not miles

metres, not yards

litres, not gallons

kilos (kg), not lb (never lbs)

tonnes, not tons

In American contexts, you may use the measurements more familiar to Americans (though remember that American pints, quarts, gallons, etc, are smaller than imperial ones).

Regardless of which you choose, you should give an equivalent, on first use, in the other units: It was hoped that after improvements to the engine the car would give 20km to the litre (47 miles per American gallon), compared with its present average of 15km per litre.

It is now rare to buy petrol in imperial gallons. In America it is sold in American gallons; in most other places it is sold in litres.

Note that a four-by-four vehicle can be a 4x4.

million, billion, trillion, quadrillion Use m for million, bn for billion and trn for trillion.

8m 8 bn

£8m €8 bn

A billion is a thousand million, a trillion a thousand billion, a quadrillion a thousand trillion.

per cent, percentage points Use the sign % instead of per cent. But write percentage, never %age (though in most contexts proportion or share is preferable).

A fall from 4% to 2% is a drop of two percentage points, or of 50%, but not of 2%. (See also per cent.)

ranges Write:

5,000—6,000

5—6%

5m—6m (not 5—6m)

5 bn—6 bn

But:

Sales rose from 5m to 6m (not 5m—6m); estimates ranged between 5m and 6m (not 5m—6m).

ratios Where to is being used as part of a ratio, it is usually best to spell it out.

They decided, by nine votes to two, to put the matter to the general assembly, which voted, 27 to 19, to insist that the ratio of vodka to tomato juice in a bloody mary should be at least one to three, though the odds of this being so in most bars were put at no better than 11 to 4.

Where a ratio is being used adjectivally, figures and dashes may be used, but only if one of the figures is greater than ten:

a 50—20 vote

a 19—9 vote

Otherwise, spell out the figures and use to and hyphens:

a two-to-one vote

a ten-to-one probability

finally Do not use finally when you mean at last. Richard Burton finally marries Liz Taylor would have been all right second time round but not first.

flaunt, flout Flaunt means display; flout means disdain. If you flout this distinction, you will flaunt your ignorance.

focus can be a useful word. It is shorter than concentrate and sharper than look at. But it is overused.

-fold Use -fold only for increases, not decreases.

footnotes, sources, references see footnotes, sources, references in Part 3.

foreign languages and translation Occasionally, a foreign language may provide the mot juste or a good joke. Sometimes it may be hard to translate a word satisfactorily, or it may be unusually evocative. But try not to use foreign words and phrases unless there is no English alternative, which is unusual.

names of foreign companies, institutions, groups, parties, etc should usually be translated. So:

the Dutch People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (not the Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie

the German Christian Democratic Union (not the Christlich Demokratische Union)

the Shining Path (not Sendero Luminoso)

the National Assembly (not the Assemblée Nationale)

But if an abbreviation is also given, that may be the initials of the foreign name:

UMP for France’s Union for a Presidential Majority

SPD for the Social Democratic Party of Germany

PAN for Mexico’s National Action Party

Break this rule when the name is better known untranslated:

Forza Italia

Médecins Sans Frontières

Parti Québécois (Canada)

yakuza (not 8-9-3)

placenames Some placenames are better translated if they are well known in English:

St Mark’s Square in Venice (not Piazza San Marco)

the Elysée Palace (not the Palais de l’Elysée)

titles of foreign books, films, etc The titles of foreign books, films, plays, operas and TV programmes present difficulties. Some are so well known that they are unlikely to need translation:

“Das Kapital” “Mein Kampf” “Le Petit Prince” “Die Fledermaus”

And sometimes the meaning of the title may be unimportant in the context, so a translation is not necessary:

“Hiroshima, Mon Amour”

But often the title will be significant, and you will want to translate it. One solution, easy with classics, is simply to give the English translation:

“One Hundred Years of Solitude” “The Leopard” “War and Peace” “The Tin Drum”

This is usually the best practice to follow with pamphlets, articles and non-fiction, too.

But sometimes, especially with books and films that are little known among English-speakers or unobtainable in English (perhaps you are reviewing one), you may want to give both the original title and a translation, thus:

“11 Septembre 2001: l’Effroyable Imposture” (“September 11th 2001: The Appalling Deception”)

“La Règle du Jeu” (“The Rules of the Game”)

“La Traviata” (“The Sinner”)

Foreign titles do not need to be set in italics. Treat them as if they were in English.

Note that book publishers follow different rules here. (See italics.)

translating words and phrases If you want to translate a foreign word or phrase, even if it is the name of a group or newspaper or party, just put it in brackets without inverted commas, so: Arbeit macht frei (work makes free)

Pravda (Truth)

zapatero (shoemaker)

forensic means pertaining to courts of law (held by the Romans in the forum) or, more loosely, the application of science to legal issues. Forensic medicine is medical jurisprudence. Forensic does not mean very careful or very detailed.

forgo, forego Forgo means do without; it forgoes the e. Forego means go before. A foregone conclusion is one that is predetermined; a forgone conclusion is non-existent.

former see ex-.

former and latter Avoid the use of the former and the latter whenever possible. It usually causes confusion.

founder, flounder If you flounder, you struggle clumsily or helplessly. If you founder, you stumble (if you’re a horse), collapse (a building) or sink (a ship).

Frankenstein was not the monster, but its creator.

free is an adjective or an adverb (and also a transitive verb), so you cannot have or do anything for free. Either you have it free or you have it for nothing. Resist to the death the increasingly common (mis-)usage.

French names see names.

fresh is not a synonym for new or more. “A few hundred fresh bodies are being recovered every day,” reported The Economist improbably, two months after a tsunami had struck. Use with care.

full stops see punctuation.

fulsome is an old word that Americans generally use only to mean cloying, insincere or excessively flattering. In British English it can also mean copious, abundant or lavish. But these meanings are now tending to merge.

garner means store, not gather.

gearing is an ugly word which, if used, needs to be explained. It may be either the ratio of debt to equity or the ratio of debt to total capital employed. (See also leverage.)

gender is nowadays used in several ways. One is common in feminist writing, where the term has a technical meaning. “One is not born a woman, one becomes one,” argued Simone de Beauvoir: in other words, one chooses one’s gender. In such a context it would be absurd to use the word sex; the term must be gender. But, in using it thus, try to explain what you mean by it.

The primary use of gender is in grammar, where it is applied to words, not people. If someone is female, that is her sex, not her gender. The gender of Mädchen, the German word for girl, is neuter. So do not use gender as a synonym for sex.

In recent years, gender terms have become much more complicated. When describing someone’s sexuality, it is best to use the term they use for themselves: gay (adj only; never used as a noun, which is slang or archaic); lesbian or lesbians (adj or n); bisexual (adj or n); straight (adj only).

When describing people, prefer gay or gay and lesbian to homosexual, which has become outdated. Gay does not just refer to men — hence gay marriage, gay pride. Reserve homosexual for sexual behaviours and tendencies. Hence a homosexual liaison or homosexual acts (which could be done by people who do not see themselves as gay).

When describing someone’s gender identity, it is best to use the term they use for themselves: man; woman; transgender man or woman, which can be shortened to trans man/woman. If you need to state a far less common gender identity, such as non-binary and genderqueer, it is likely to be significant enough in the text you are writing that it is worth explaining.

The LGBT movement When referring to advocates of rights for lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people and other minority sexual and gender identities, you can use LGBT as an umbrella term to describe the activists. Do not write LGBT community, because activists for one particular issue do not represent all people who are either L, G, B or T. Because the LGBT church is broad, usually it is most accurate to refer to the specific group of people with regard to a specific right or issue. “Transgender activists are fighting the bathroom law in Texas”, “Gay men are calling for the anti-HIV drug PrEP to be available on the NHS”, and so on.

gentlemen’s agreement not gentleman’s.

geographical The adjective from geography is geographical, not geographic.

German names see names.

get is an adaptable verb, but it has its limits. A prize-winner does not get to shake hands with the president, or spend the money all at once; he gets the chance to, is able to, or allowed to.

global Globalisation can go to the head. It is not necessary to describe, eg, the head of Baker & Mackenzie as the global head of that firm. And what is a global vacancy (as advertised by The Economist Group)? And avoid saying “now that we’re all part of a global world”, unless you have hitherto believed the Earth to be flat.

good in parts is what the curate said about an egg that was wholly bad. He was trying to be polite.

gourmet, gourmand Gourmet means epicure; gourmand means greedy-guts.

governance, government Corporate governance has now entered the language as a useful, albeit ugly, term to describe the rules relating to the conduct of business. Governance has come to mean the system or structure of governing in general; government is the specific instance of this in particular places.

grammar and syntax Take care in the construction of your sentences and paragraphs. A single issue of The Economist contained the following:

When closed at night, the fear is that this would shut off rather than open up part of the city centre.

Unlike Canary Wharf, the public will be able to go to the top to look out over the city.

Only a couple of months ago, after an unbroken string of successes in state and local elections, pollsters said …

Some hints are provided here on avoiding pitfalls, infelicities and mistakes; this is not a comprehensive guide to English grammar and syntax.

a or the Strictly, Barclays is a British bank, not the British bank, just as Toyota is a car company, not the car company, and Angela Gheorghiu is an opera singer, not the opera singer. If it seems absurd to describe someone or something thus — that is, with the indefinite article — you can probably dispense with the description altogether or insert an extra word or two that may be useful to the reader: Toyota, the world’s biggest car company in 2009; Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones.

active or passive? Be direct. Use the active tense. A hit B describes the event more concisely than B was hit by A.

adjectives and adverbs Adjectives qualify nouns, adverbs modify verbs. If you have a sentence that contains the words firstly, secondly, more importantly, etc, they almost certainly ought to be first, second, more important.

adjectives of proper nouns If proper nouns have adjectives, use them.

Crimean war (not the Crimea war)

Dutch East India Company (not the Holland East India Company)

Lebanese (not Lebanon) civil war

Pakistani (not Pakistan) government

It is permissible to use the noun as an adjective if to do otherwise would cause confusion.

An African initiative suggests the proposal came from Africa, whereas an Africa initiative suggests it was about Africa.

Californian, Texan Do not feel you have to follow American convention in using words like Californian and Texan only as nouns. In British English, it is quite acceptable to write a Californian (not California) judge, Texan (not Texas) scandal, etc. “Mr Gedge … was not fond of St Rocque, and this morning it would have seemed less attractive to him than ever, for three of his letters bore Californian postmarks and their contents had aggravated the fever of his home-sickness.” (P.G. Wodehouse, “Hot Water”)

collective nouns — singular or plural? There is no firm rule about the number of a verb governed by a singular collective noun. It is best to go by the sense — that is, whether the collective noun stands for a single entity:

The council was elected in March.

The me generation has run its course.

The staff is loyal.

or for its constituents:

The council are at sixes and sevens.

The preceding generation are all dead.

The staff are at each other’s throats.

Do not, in any event, slavishly give all singular collective nouns singular verbs: The couple are now living apart is preferable to The couple is now living apart.

majority When it is used in an abstract sense, it takes the singular; when it is used to denote the elements making up the majority, it should be plural.

A two-thirds majority is needed to amend the constitution

but A majority of the Senate were opposed.

A majority of can often be replaced by most.

number Rule: The number is …; A number are …

pair and couple Treat both a pair and a couple as plural.

comparisons Take care, too, when making comparisons, to compare like with like:

The Belgian economy is bigger than Russia should be Belgium’s economy is bigger than Russia’s.

An advertisement for The Economist declared,

Our style and our whole philosophy are different from other publications. Only changing publications to publications’ could turn this into sense.

contractions Don’t overdo the use of don’t, isn’t, can’t, won’t, etc.

false possessive An ’s at the end of a word, in the possessive or genitive case, does the job of of. An increasingly common practice, especially among broadcasters and sometimes in The Economist, is to use it to do the job of in. Thus places or buildings are described as, eg, New York’s Chrysler Building, Edinburgh’s Usher Hall or Belfast’s Shankill Road. Do not commit this sin. The Chrysler Building is in New York, not of it, just as Shankill Road is in Belfast and the Usher Hall is in Edinburgh.

genitive Take care with the genitive. It is fine to say a friend of Bill’s, just as you would say a friend of mine, so you can also say a friend of Bill’s and Carol’s. But it is also fine to say a friend of Bill, or a friend of Bill and Carol. What you must not say is Bill and Carol’s friend. If you wish to use that construction, you must say Bill’s and Carol’s friend, which is cumbersome.

gerunds Respect the gerund. Gerunds look like participles — running, jumping, standing — but are more noun-like, and should never therefore be preceded by a personal pronoun. So the following are wrong: I was awoken by him snoring, He could not prevent them drowning, Please forgive me coming late.

Those sentences should have ended:

his snoring, their drowning, my coming late.

In other words, use the possessive adjective rather than the personal pronoun.

he, she, they To make language gender-neutral would be a forlorn undertaking in most tongues, and even in English, which assigns few genders to nouns, it presents difficulties. It may be no tragedy that policemen are now almost always police officers and firemen firefighters, but to call chairmen chairs serves chiefly to remind everyone that the world of committees and those who make it go round are largely devoid of humour. Avoid also chairpersons (chairwoman is permissible but unnecessary), humankind and the person in the street — ugly expressions all.

It is no more demeaning to women to use the words actress, ballerina or seamstress than goddess, princess or queen. (Similarly, you should feel as free to separate Siamese twins or welsh on debts — at your own risk — as you would to go on a Dutch treat, pass through french windows, or play Russian roulette. Note, though, that you risk being dogged by catty language police.)

If you believe it is “exclusionary” or insulting to women to use he in a general sense, the best solution is to rephrase some sentences in the plural. Thus Instruct the reader without lecturing him may be put as Instruct readers without lecturing them.

The Oxford English Dictionary now accepts the use of “their” in examples like the following: We can’t afford to squander anyone’s talents, whatever colour their skin is.

When someone takes their own life, they leave their loved ones with an agonising legacy of guilt.

The construction should be avoided where there is an easy fix: Each student should bring their homework can easily become Students should bring their homework. But with someone, everyone or anyone, they is better than either he or she.

See also ethnic groups, gender, tribe.

indirect speech If you use indirect speech in the past tense, you must change the tense of the speaker’s words appropriately: Before he died, he said, “I abhor the laziness that is commonplace nowadays” becomes Before he died, he said he abhorred the laziness that was commonplace nowadays.

masculine and feminine Several English nouns have both a masculine and a feminine form, for example:

alumnus, alumna

compère, commère

Filipino, Filipina

Latino, Latina

man, woman

prince, princess

testator, testatrix

widow, widower

nouns acting as verbs Do not force nouns or other parts of speech to act as verbs: A woman who was severely brain-damaged in 2000 would be better put as A woman whose brain was severely damaged in 2000 (unless, remarkably, she was no longer brain-damaged at some later date). See transitive and intransitive verbs.

participles Do not use a participle unless you make it clear what it applies to. Here are some examples of confused construction: Proceeding along this line of thought, the cause of the train crash becomes clear.

Looking out from the city’s tallest building, the houses stretch for miles and miles.

plural nouns

1 The -ics words on page 64 (abstract nouns) are plural when preceded by the, or the plus an adjective, or with a possessive.

For example:

The dynamics of the dynasty were dysfunctional.

The complicated politics of Afghanistan have a logic all their own. The athletics take place in London.

2 These are plural:

antics

atmospherics

basics

graphics

histrionics

hysterics

statistics

tactics

Specifics are discouraged (try details).

3 Data, elite (as a group) and media are plural. So are whereabouts and headquarters.

4 Elections are not always plural. If, as in the United States, several votes (for the presidency, the Senate, the House of Representatives, etc) are held on the same day, it is correct to talk about elections. But in, say, Britain parliamentary polls are usually held on their own, in a single general election.

The opposition demanded an election is often preferable to The opposition demanded fresh elections. And to write The next presidential elections are due in 2015 suggests there will be more than one presidential poll in that year.

5 The Taliban are plural. The singular is Talib.

Make sure that plural nouns have plural verbs. Too often, in the pages of The Economist, they do not.

Kogalym today is one of the few Siberian oil towns which are [not is] almost habitable.

What better evidence that snobbery and elitism still hold [not holds] back ordinary British people? — and this in a leader on education.

singular nouns

1 A government, a party, a company (whether Tesco or Marks & Spencer) and a partnership (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill) are all it and take a singular verb.

2 Brokers are singular.

Legg Mason Wood Walk is preparing a statement.

So avoid:

stockbrokers Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, bankers JPMorgan Chase or accountants Ernst & Young.

3 Chemical, drug, pension: prefer the singular when referring to:

chemical (not chemicals) companies

drug- (not drugs) traffickers

pension (not pensions) systems

4 Countries are singular, even if their names look plural.

The Philippines has a congressional system, as does the United States; the Netherlands does not.

The United Nations is also singular.

5 Abstract nouns that look plural when being used generally, without the definite article, an adjective or a possessive, are singular. For example:

acoustics

athletics

ballistics

dynamics

economics

kinetics

mathematics

mechanics

physics

politics

propaganda

statics

when being used generally, without the definite article, are singular. For example:

“Economics is the dismal science” (Carlyle).

“Politics is the art of the possible” (Bismarck).

Statics is a branch of physics.

6 Some games are singular:

billiards

bowls

darts

fives

But teams that take the name of a town, country or university are plural, even when they look singular:

England were bowled out for 56.

7 Law and order defies the rules of grammar and is singular.

split infinitives A reader of The Economist offers trenchant thoughts on split infinitives or, rather, the reaction against them:

“Sir — The Economist seems increasingly to prefer actively to write in a way destined consistently to irritate and jar, presumably, so as clearly to demonstrate its commitment consistently to avoid splitting the infinitive (The Economist 2017, passim, including main leader, April 22). Sadly, writing in a clear, elegant style would take more effort. Yours, etc.”

What to do?

Happy the man who has never been told that it is wrong to split an infinitive: the ban is pointless. To see a split infinitive nevertheless annoys some readers, so try to avoid placing a modifier between “to” and the verb in an infinitive. But if moving the modifier would ruin the rhythm, change the meaning or even just put the emphasis in the wrong place, splitting the infinitive is the best option.

Do not merely move the modifier one word to the left: Emerging economies need firmly to curb the build-up of corporate leverage, bad bank loans and foreign debt. (No one needs anything firmly.)

Moving the modifier one word to the right is better: Emerging economies need to curb firmly the build-up of corporate leverage, bad bank loans and foreign debt.

But sometimes the best thing is to put the modifier right before the verb: Emerging economies need to firmly curb the build-up of corporate leverage, bad bank loans and foreign debt. (A reasonably split infinitive.)

If you cannot stand splitting the infinitive, rewrite the passage entirely, eg: Emerging economies are suffering from growing corporate leverage, bad bank loans and foreign debt. They need to curb the build-up firmly.

Modifiers like “more than” and “nearly” must often go before the verb. So do not write Its budget is expected more than to double, but rather Its budget is expected to more than double.

subjunctive Use the subjunctive properly. If you are posing a hypothesis contrary to fact, you must use the subjunctive. If I were you … or If Hitler were alive today, he could tell us whether he kept a diary.

If the hypothesis may or may not be true, you do not use the subjunctive. If this diary is not Hitler’s, we shall be glad we did not publish it.

If you have would in the main clause, you must use the subjunctive in the if clause. If you were to disregard this rule, you would make a fool of yourself.

It is common nowadays to use the subjunctive in such constructions as:

He demanded that the Russians withdraw.

They insisted that the Americans also move back.

The referee suggested both sides cool it.

In soccer it is necessary that everyone remain civil.

This construction is correct, and has always been used in America,

whence it has recrossed the Atlantic. In Britain, though, it fell into disuse some time ago except in more formal contexts:

I command the prisoner be summoned.

I beg that the motion be put to the house.

In British English, but not in American, a better course is to insert the word should:

He demanded that the Russians should withdraw.

The Americans should also move back.

Both sides should cool it.

Everyone should remain civil.

Alternatively (and best of all), some of the sentences could be rephrased:

He asked the Russians to withdraw.

It is necessary for everyone to remain civil.

See also may and might.

tenses Any account of events that have taken place must use a past tense. Yet newspaper articles may have greater immediacy if they use the present or future tenses where appropriate.

The perfect and pluperfect tenses also serve a purpose, often making accounts more pointed, and so more interesting. Here are a few rough rules:

1 If you use the past simple (aorist) tense, put a time or date to the event: He died on April 11th.

2 If you cannot, or do not want to, pin down the occasion in this way, use the perfect tense: He has died, or the present, He is dead. These imply continuance.

3 The pluperfect should be used for events that punctuate past continuance: He grew up in post-war Germany, where he had seen the benefits of hard work.

So does the imperfect tense: He was a long time dying.

See also may and might.

ground rules Just as house rules are the rules of the particular house, so ground rules are the rules of the particular ground (or grounds). They are not basic or general rules.

halve is a transitive verb, so deficits can double but not halve. They must be halved or fall by half.

haver means to talk nonsense, not dither, swither or waver.

health care The American system of health care (adjective, health-care) for the poor is Medicaid, and for the elderly is Medicare. Canada’s national health-care system is also called Medicare.

healthy If you think something is desirable or good, say so. Do not call it healthy.

heresy see apostasy.

heteronym see homograph, homophone.

historic, historical Historic is best reserved for objects, events, eras and so on that may come to be considered notable in history (a judgment, incidentally, often made swiftly and implausibly by journalists). Historical should be used to mean relating to history, associated with it or derived from it.

hoards, hordes Few secreted treasures or stashes of things like food and money being kept to guard against privation (hoards) are multitudes on the move (hordes).

Hobson’s choice is not the lesser of two evils; it is no choice at all.

holistic properly refers to a theory developed by Jan Smuts, who argued that, through creative evolution, nature tended to form wholes greater than the sum of the parts. If this is not what you mean by holistic, you would probably be wise to avoid it.

homeland Although it is now used as a synonym for the United States’ domestic territory, your homeland is your native land, your motherland or even your fatherland.

homogeneous, homogenous Homogeneous means of the same kind or nature. Homogenous means similar because of common descent. The word you will almost always want to use is homogeneous.

homograph, homophone Homographs are words with the same spelling but different meanings and sometimes different pronunciations. If they are spelt and pronounced the same they are also homonyms: bear (animal), bear (carry); like (similar), like (be fond of); stalk (part of a plant), stalk (to follow someone or something). If they are spelt the same but pronounced differently they are also heteronyms: content (happy), content (subject matter); entrance (way in), entrance (charm); rebel (to resist or fight against authority), rebel (someone who rebels).

Homophones are words that are pronounced the same regardless of how they are spelt and their meaning: baited (food put on a hook or trap), bated (diminished, restrained); birth (the process of bearing children); berth (somewhere to sleep in a ship, train etc); heroin (a Class A drug), heroine (a courageous woman).

homonym see above.

homosexual see gender.

hopefully Some authorities say it is pedantic and outmoded to object to the use of hopefully to mean it is hoped that. The practice originated in America, where English has been much influenced by German immigrants, who found the language of their new country had only one adverb to serve for both hoffnungsvoll, meaning full of hope, and hoffentlich, which can mean let’s hope so. In The Economist, however, by all means begin an article hopefully, but do not write: Hopefully, it will be finished by Wednesday. Try with luck, if all goes well, it is hoped that…

horrible words Nothing betrays the lazy writer faster than fly-blown and horrible words used in the belief that they are snappy, trendy or cool. If you find yourself using any of the following vogue words, you should stop and ask yourself whether it is the best word for the job, whether you would have used it in the same context five or ten years ago, and if not why not:

address meaning answer, deal with, attend to, look at

Brits

chattering classes

commit to (meaning commit yourself to)

facilitate

famously: usually redundant, nearly always irritating

focus: all the world’s a stage, not a lens

grow the business

guesstimate

historic: let historians, not contemporary commentators, be the judge

iconic

impact (meaning affect)

individual: fine as an adjective and occasionally as a noun, but increasingly favoured by the wooden-tongued as a longer synonym for man, woman or person

inform, when used as a pretentious alternative to influence

innovative

kids

likely (meaning probably, rather than probable)

looking to (meaning intending to)

meaningful

metrosexual

paradigm

participate in — use take part in, with more words but fewer syllables

poster child

prestigious

proactive

process — a word properly applied to attempts to bring about peace, because they are meant to be evolutionary, but now often used in place of talks

rack up (profits, etc)

reductive

relationship — relations can nearly always do the job

reputational

resources, especially human resources, which may be personnel, staff or just people

savvy

segue

showcase (meaning display)

source (meaning obtain)

supportive — helpful?

target — if you are tempted to target your efforts, try to direct them instead

transparency — openness?

wannabes

Such words should not be banned, but if you find yourself using them only because you hear others using them, not because they are the most appropriate ones in the context, you should avoid them.

See also euphemisms, grammar (turning nouns to verbs), journalese and slang.

hyphens There is no firm rule to help you decide which words are run together, hyphenated or left separate. If in doubt, consult a dictionary. Do not overdo the literary device of hyphenating words that are not usually linked: the stringing-together-of-lots-and-lots-of-words-and-ideas tendency can be tiresome.

1 Words with common or short prefixes

In general, try to avoid putting hyphens into words formed of one word and a short prefix.

3D

asexual

biplane

declassify

disenfranchise

geopolitical

neoclassicism

neoconservative but neo-cons

neoliberal

Neolithic

neologism

neonatal

overcapacity

overdone

overeducated

overemployment

precondition

predate

preoccupied

preordained

prepay

realign

rearm

rearrange

reborn

redirect

reopen

reorder

repurchase

subcommittee

subcontinent

subcontract

subhuman

submachinegun

suboptimal

subprime

tetravalent

underdog

underdone

underinvest

underpaid

upended

2 Words beginning with re-

Some words that begin with re are hyphenated to avoid confusion:

re-cast

re-create (meaning create again)

re-present (meaning present again)

re-sort (meaning sort again)

re-use

3 Unfamiliar combinations

Words making unfamiliar combinations, especially if they

would involve running consonants or vowels together, may benefit from a hyphen, so:

cross-reference (a cross reference would be unpleasant)

demi-paradise

over-governed

sub-investment grade

under-age

under-secretary

Antidisestablishmentarianism would, however, lose its point if it were hyphenated.

See also 5 below.

4 Fractions

Whether nouns or adjectives, these take hyphens:

But note that it is a half, a fifth, a sixth.

5 Use hyphens for words that begin with

agri

anti

counter

extra

half

infra

inter

mid

multi

non

post

pre

semi

ultra

The rules vary:

anti-aircraft, anti-fascist, anti-submarine (but antibiotic, anticlimax, antidote, antimatter, antiseptic, antitrust)

counter-attack, counter-clockwise, counter-espionage, counter-intuitive (but counteract, countermand, counterpane)

extraordinary, extraterrestrial, extraterritorial (but extra-judicial)

half-baked, half-hearted, half-serious (but halfway)

hydropower, but hydro-electric

inter-agency, inter-country, inter-faith, inter-governmental, inter-regional (but intermediate, international, interpose)

mid-August, mid-week

multibillion, multilingual, multiracial (but multi-occupancy, multi-storey, multi-user)

non-combatant, non-existent, non-partisan, non-payment, non-violent (but nonaligned, nonconformist, nonplussed, nonstop)

postdate, post-war, pre-war

semi-automatic, semi-conscious, semi-detached

6 The word worth

A sum followed by the word worth needs a hyphen:

$25m-worth of goods.

7 Some titles

attorney-general (US)

director-general

field-marshal

lieutenant-colonel

major-general

secretary-general

under-secretary

vice-president

But:

attorney general (UK)

deputy director

deputy secretary

district attorney

general secretary

8 Avoiding ambiguities

fine-tooth comb (most people do not comb their teeth)

9 Aircraft

(If in doubt, consult Jane’s “All the World’s Aircraft”.)

Note that Airbus A340, BAe RJ70 do not have hyphens.

10 Calibres

The style for calibres is 50mm or 105mm with no hyphen, but 5.5-inch and 25-pounder.

11 Adjectives formed from two or more words

70-year-old judge

balance-of-payments difficulties

private-sector wages

public-sector borrowing requirement

right-wing groups (but the right wing of the party)

state-of-the-union message

value-added tax (VAT)

12 Adverbs

Adverbs do not need to be linked to participles or adjectives by hyphens in simple constructions:

The regiment was ill equipped for its task.

The principle is well established.

Though expensively educated, the journalist knew no grammar.

But if the adverb is one of two words together being used adjectivally, a hyphen may be needed:

The ill-equipped regiment was soon repulsed.

All well-established principles should be periodically challenged.

The hyphen is especially likely to be needed if the adverb is short and common, such as ill, little, much and well. Less common adverbs, including all those that end -ly, are less likely to need hyphens:

Never employ an expensively educated journalist.

13 Separating identical letters

book-keeping

coat-tails

co-operate

pre-eminent

pre-empt

re-emerge

re-entry

side-effect

trans-ship

unco-operative

Exceptions include:

overrate

overreach

override

overrule

overrun

skiing

underrate

withhold

14 Some nouns formed from prepositional verbs

bail-out

build-up

buy-out

call-up

get-together

lay-off

pay-off

print-out

pull-out

rip-off

round-up

run-up

set-up

shake-out

shake-up

stand-off

start-up

trade-off

But:

fallout

handout

knockout

lockout

payout

turnout

15 The quarters of the compass

mid-west(ern)

north-east(ern)

north-west(ern)

south-east(ern)

south-west(ern)

16 Hybrid ethnics

Greek-Cypriot, Irish-American, etc, whether noun or adjective.

17 Makers and making

A general, though not iron, rule for makers and making: if the prefix is of one or two syllables, attach it without a hyphen to form a single word, but if the prefix is of three or more syllables, introduce a hyphen. antimacassar-maker clockmaker steelmaker bookmaker holiday-maker tiramisu-maker candlestick-maker lawmaker troublemaker carmaker marketmaker chipmaker peacemaker

Policymaker and profitmaking are one word and an exception.

But: note foreign-policy maker (-ing).

18 Other words ending -er (-ing) that are similar to maker and making

The general rule should be to insert a hyphen:

arms-trader

copper-miner

drug-dealer

drug-trafficker

field-worker

front-runner

gun-runner

home-owner

hostage-taker

mill-owner

truck-driver

vegetable-grower

But some prefixes, especially those of one syllable, can be used to form single words.

coalminer

farmworker

foxhunter

gatekeeper

householder

landowner

metalworker

muckraker

nitpicker (-ing)

peacekeeper

shipbroker

shipbuilder

shipowner

steelworker

steeplechaser

taxpayer

Less common combinations are better written as two words:

crossword compiler

currency trader

dog owner

gun owner

insurance broker

tuba player

19 Quotes

Words gathered together in quotation marks as adjectives do not usually need hyphens as well: the “Live Free or Die” state.

20 One word

airfield

airspace

airtime

babysitter

backyard

banknote

barcode

bedfellow

bestseller (-ing)

bilingual

blackboard

blacklist

blackout

blueprint

bookseller

businessman

bypass

carjacking

carpetbagger

cashflow (but cash flow in accountancy)

catchphrase

ceasefire

checklist

cloudcuckooland

coastguard

codebreaker

comeback

commonsense (adj)

crossfire

cyberspace

dealmaker

diehard

dotcom

downturn (noun)

farmworker

faultline

figleaf

fivefold

foothold

forever (adv, when preceding verb)

foxhunter (-ing)

freshwater (adj.)

frontline (adj, but noun front line)

girlfriend

Gmail

goodwill

grassroots (adj and noun)

groundsman

groupthink

halfhearted

halfway

handpicked

handwriting

hardline

hardworking

headache

hijack

hobnob

holdout

housebuilding

infrared

kowtow

lacklustre

landmine

laptop

logjam

loophole

lopsided

lukewarm

machinegun

marketplace

minefield

multilingual

nationwide

nevertheless

nonetheless

offline

offshore

oilfield

oilrig

oneupmanship

online

onshore

peacetime

petrochemical

petrodollars

phrasebook

pickup truck

prizewinner (-ing)

rainforest

ringtone

roadblock

rulebook

rustbelt

salesforce

satnav

scaremonger

seabed

shantytown

shorthand

shortlist

shutdown

sidestep

smartphone, smartcard, etc

socioeconomic

soulmate

soyabean

spillover

startup

statewide

stockmarket

streetlight

streetwalker

strongman

sunbelt

superdelegates (US)

swansong

takeover

textbook

threefold

threshold

timetable

trademark

transatlantic

transpacific

troublemaker

turnout

twofold

ultraviolet

underdog

videocassette

videodisc

wartime

watchdog

website

whistleblower

wildflower (adj, but noun wild flower)

windfall

workforce

worldwide

worthwhile

wrongdoing

21 Two words

3D printer

ad hoc

air base

air force

air strike

all right

any more

any time

arm’s length

ballot box

birth rate

call centre

career woman

child care (noun)

cluster bombs

common sense (noun)

dare say

data set

errand boy

flood plain

for ever (when used after a verb)

health care (noun)

hedge fund

home page

home town

joint venture

Land Rover

no one

pay cheque

photo opportunity

plea bargain

salt water (noun)

sea water (noun)

some day

some time

sugar cane

under way

vice versa

wild flowers (but adj. wildflower)

wind power (but windpowered)

22 Two hyphenated words

aid-worker

air-conditioning (do not use A/C)

aircraft-carrier

anti-retroviral

asylum-seekers

baby-boomer

back-up

bail-out (n)

balance-sheet

bell-ringer

brand-new

break-even

break-up (n)

buy-out (n)

call-up (n)

clearing-house

climb-down

come-uppance

counter-attack

court-martial (noun and verb)

cover-up

cross-border

cross-dresser

cross-sell

crowd-funding

current-account deficit

death-squads

derring-do

down-payment

drawing-board

drunk- (not drink)

driving

end-game

end-year

faint-hearted

field-worker

fund-raiser (-ing)

grand-daughter

grown-up

hand-held

have-not (n)

health-care (adj)

heir-apparent

hit-list

home-made

hot-head

ice-cream

in-fighting

interest-group

kerb-crawler

know-how

laughing-stock

like-minded

long-standing (adj)

machine-tool

mark-up

mid-term, mid-week, etc

money-laundering

nation-building

nation-state

nest-egg

new-found

news-stand

non-partisan

number-plate

on-side

pay-off (n)

place-name

pot-hole

pre-school (but prefer nursery)

pressure-group

pre-teen

print-out

question-mark

rain-check

recreate

safety-valve

set-up (n)

shake-out (n)

short-lived

stand-off (n)

starting-point

sticking-point

stumbling-block

subject-matter

suicide-bomb (-er, -ing)

talking-shop

task-force

tear-gas

tech-speak

think-tank

time-bomb

turning-point

under-age

voice-mail

voice-over

vote-winner

war-chest

well-being

Wi-Fi

Wi-Max

window-dressing

wish-list

witch-hunt

working-party

world-view

write-down (noun)

23 Three words

ad hoc agreement (meeting, etc)

armoured personnel carrier

chief(s) of staff

consumer price index

foreign direct investment

half a dozen

in as much

in so far

multiple rocket launcher

national security adviser

nuclear power station

sovereign wealth fund

third world war (if things get bad)

world wide web

24 Three hyphenated words

A-turned-B (unless this leads to something unwieldy, so jobbing churchwarden turned captain of industry)

brother-in-law

chock-a-block

commander-in-chief

most-favoured-nation (adj)

multiple-rocket-launcher

no-man’s-land

prisoners-of-war

second-in-command

stock-in-trade

track-and-field

25 Numbers

Avoid from 1947—50 (say in 1947—50 or from 1947 to 1950) and between 1961—65 (say in 1961—65, between 1961 and 1965 or from 1961 to 1965). See also figures.

“If you take hyphens seriously, you will surely go mad.” (Oxford University Press style manual)

hypothermia is what kills old folk in winter. If you say it is hyperthermia, that means they have been carried off by heat stroke.

Icelandic names see names.

identical with, not to.

ilk means same, so of that ilk means of the place of the same name as the family, not of that kind. Best avoided.

immolate means to sacrifice, not to burn.

important If something is important, say why and to whom. Use sparingly, and avoid such unexplained claims as this important house, the most important painter of the 20th century. See also interesting.

impractical, impracticable If something is impractical, it is not worth trying to do it. If it’s impracticable, it cannot be done. See also practical, practicable.

inchoate means not fully developed or at an early stage, not incoherent or chaotic.

including When including is used as a preposition, as it often is, it must be followed by a noun, pronoun or noun clause, not by a preposition. So Iran needs more investment, including for its tired oil industry is ungrammatical. The sentence should be rephrased, perhaps, as Iran, including its tired oil industry, needs more investment; or, Iran needs more investment, especially for its tired oil industry.

individual (noun) used occasionally, can be a useful colloquial term for chap or bloke or guy (“In a corner, Parker, a grave, lean individual, bent over the chafing-dish, in which he was preparing for his employer and his guest their simple lunch.” P.G. Wodehouse). Used indiscriminately as a term for person or, in the plural, people, it becomes bureaucratic.

Indonesian names see names.

initially Prefer first, at first.

interesting Like important and funny, interesting makes assumptions about the word or words it describes that may not be shared by the reader. Facts and stories introduced as interesting often turn out to be something else. “Interestingly, my father-in-law was born in East Kilbride,” for instance. If something really is interesting, you probably do not need to say so.

Internet/IT terms

computer terms are usually lower case:

dotcom

home page

laptop

online

the net (and internet)

the web, website and world wide web

but Gmail, Wi-Fi

When giving websites, do not include http://. Just www is enough: www.economist.com. But it should be included for websites that do not use www, eg http://twitter.com.

cyber-expressions Most cyber-terms are hyphenated: cyber-attack, cyber-security, cyber-soccer, etc, but cybercrime, cybernetics, cyberspace and cyberwars.

e-expressions Except at the start of a sentence, the e- is lower case and hyphenated:

e-book

e-business

e-commerce

e-mail

inverted commas (quotation marks) see punctuation.

investigations of not into.

Iranian names see names.

Islamic, Islamist Islamic means relating to Islam; it is a synonym of the adjective Muslim, but it is not used for a follower of Islam, who is always Muslim. But Islamic art and architecture is conventional usage.

Islamist refers to those who see Islam as a political and social ideology as well as a religious one.

See jihad.

issues The Economist has issues — 51 a year — but if you think you have issues with The Economist, you probably mean you have complaints, irritations or delivery problems. If you disagree with The Economist, you may take issue with it. Do not use issue as a synonym for problem. Be precise.

Italian names see names.

italics

algebraic formulae Thus: e = mc²

books, pamphlets, films, plays, operas, ballets, radio and television programmes and video games Titles are roman, not italic, with capital letters for each main word, in quotation marks. Thus: “Pride and Prejudice”, “Much Ado about Nothing”, “Any Questions”, “Crossfire”, “Grand Theft Auto”, etc. But the Bible and its books (Genesis, Ecclesiastes, John, etc), as well as the Koran, are written without inverted commas. These rules apply to footnotes as well as bodymatter.

Web magazines and blogs are in italics, as for newspapers, with a lower-case “The” if appropriate.

But book publishers may follow different rules here.

foreign words and phrases should be set in italics:

cabinet (French type)

de rigueur

fatwa

glasnost

Hindutva

in camera

intifada

loya jirga

Mitbestimmung

pace

papabile

perestroika

persona non grata

sarariman

Schadenfreude

ujamaa

If they are so familiar that they have become anglicised, they should be in roman. For example:

a priori

à propos

ad hoc

apartheid

avant-garde

bête noire

bona fide

bourgeois

café

chargé d’affaires

coup d’état (but coup de foudre, coup de grâce)

Dalit, etc

de facto, de jure

dirigisme

en masse, en route

grand prix

hijab

in absentia

in situ

jihad, jihadist

machismo

nom de guerre

nouveau riche

parvenu

pogrom

post mortem

putsch

raison d’être

Realpolitik

sharia

status quo

tsunami

vice versa

vis-à-vis

Remember to put appropriate accents and diacritical signs on French, German, Spanish and Portuguese words in italics (and give initial capital letters to German nouns when in italics, but not if not). Make sure that the meaning of any foreign word you use is clear. See also accents.

Foreign-language quotations are in quotation marks and roman.

For the Latin names of animals, plants, etc, see spelling and Part 3.

lawsuits

Brown v Board of Education

Coatsworth v Johnson

Jarndyce v Jarndyce

If abbreviated, versus should always be shortened to v, with no point after it. The v should not be italic if it is not a lawsuit.

names of ships, aircraft, spacecraft

HMS Illustrious

Spirit of St Louis

Apollo 13 (but Apollo space programme) Air Force 1

Prototype craft, such as Sea Duck, are roman.

newspapers and periodicals Only The Economist has The italicised. Thus the Daily Telegraph, the New York Times, the Financial Times, the Spectator (but Le Monde, Die Welt, Die Zeit). The Yomiuri Shimbun should be italicised, but you can also say the Yomiuri, or the Yomiuri newspaper, as shimbun simply means newspaper in Japanese.

political parties Names of parties based on foreign-language slogans (eg “Podemos”, “Pouvoir”) are roman with quote marks; they may need a translation, also in quotes.

Japanese names see names.

jib, gibe, gybe

Don’t jibe.

jihad is the Arabic word for struggle. For modern Muslims, it may mean military war to propagate Islamism, that is, to spread Islam as a religious, political and social ideology (jihad of the sword). Or it may mean spiritual striving for personal purification and moral betterment (jihad against oneself). Or it may merely mean doing right, improving society and being virtuous (jihad of the tongue or of the hand). A religious obligation for all Muslims, jihad is for most a non-violent duty, though for some a violent one. Do not therefore use it simply to mean holy war, which it never did in classical Arabic. Rather, make clear what sort of jihad is under discussion in the context.

Someone engaged in jihad is a mujahid (plural, mujahideen) or a jihadist. Logically, mujahideen and jihadists might be considered to be engaged in a struggle that could be either violent or non-violent. In practice, the terms nowadays are always used of Muslims engaged in an armed struggle, though mujahideen may simply be Muslim militants fighting for a cause, whereas jihadists are always fighting to spread Islamism by force.

journalese and slang Do not be too free with slang like He really hit the big time in 2001. Slang, like metaphors, should be used only occasionally if it is to have effect. Avoid expressions used only by journalists, such as giving people the thumbs up, the thumbs down or the green light. Stay clear of gravy trains and salami tactics. Do not use the likes of. Use sparingly such terms as Big Pharma (big drug firms).

Try not to be predictable, especially predictably jocular. Spare your readers any mention of mandarins when writing about the civil service, of their lordships when discussing the House of Lords, and of comrades when analysing communist parties. Must all stories about Central Asia include a reference to the Great Game? Must all lawns be manicured? Must all small towns in the old confederacy be called the buckle on the Bible belt? Are drug-traffickers inevitably barons? Must starlets and models always be scantily clad? Is there any other kind of wonk than a policy wonk?

Resist saying This will be no panacea. When you find something that is indeed a panacea (or a magic or silver bullet), that will indeed be news. Similarly, hold back from offering the reassurance There is no need to panic. Instead, ask yourself exactly when there is a need to panic.

In general, try to make your writing fresh. It will seem stale if it reads like journalese. Prose such as this is often freighted with codewords (writers apply respected to someone they approve of, militant to someone they disapprove of, prestigious to something you won’t have heard of). The story usually starts with First the good news, inevitably to be followed in due course by Now the bad news. An alternative is Another week, another bomb (giving rise to thoughts of Another story, another hackneyed opening). Or, It was the best of times, it was the worst of times — and certainly the feeblest of introductions (except when Dickens first thought of it). A quote will then be inserted, attributed to one (never an) industry analyst, and often the words If, and it’s a big if … Towards the end, after an admission that the author has no idea what is going on, there is always room for One thing is certain, before rounding off the article with a negative and … any time soon.

See also clichés, headings and captions, metaphors.

key A key may be major or minor, but not low. Few of the decisions, people, industries described as key are truly indispensable, and fewer still open locks.

This overused word is a noun and, like many nouns, may be used adjectivally (as in the key ministries). Do not, however, use it as a free-standing adjective, as in The choice of running-mate is key.

Do not use key to make the subject of your sentence more important than he, she or it really is. The words key players are a sure sign of a puffed-up story and a lazy mind.

Korean names see names.

Kyrgyzstan, Kirgiz see place-names.

lag If you lag transitively, you lag a pipe or a loft. Anything failing to keep up with a front-runner, rate of growth, fourth-quarter profit or whatever is lagging behind it.

last The last issue of The Economist implies its extinction; prefer last week’s or the latest issue. Last year, in 2010, means 2009; if you mean the 12 months up to the time of writing, write the past year. The same goes for the past month, past week, past (not last) ten years. Last week is best avoided; anyone reading it several days after publication may be confused. See dates.

Latin names When it is necessary to use a Latin name for animals, plants, etc, follow the standard practice. Thus for all creatures higher than viruses, write the binomial name in italics, giving an initial capital to the first word (the genus): Turdus turdus, the songthrush; Metasequoia glyptostroboides, the dawn redwood; Culicoides clintoni, a species of midge. This rule also applies to Homo sapiens and to such uses as Homo economicus. On second mention, the genus may be abbreviated (T. turdus). In some species, such as dinosaurs, the genus alone is used in lieu of a common name: Diplodocus, Tyrannosaurus. Also Drosophila, a fruitfly favoured by geneticists. But Escherichia coli, a bacterium also favoured by geneticists, is known universally as E. coli, even on first mention.

leverage Leverage is now accepted as a general synonym for debt in financial contexts. But do not overdo the noun, and studiously avoid the verb. See also gearing.

liberal in Europe, someone who believes above all in the freedom of the individual; in the United States, someone who believes in the progressive tradition of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

lifestyle Prefer way of life.

like, unlike govern nouns and pronouns, not verbs and clauses. So as in America not like in America, as I was saying, not like I was saying, as Grandma used to make them, not like Grandma used to make them. English has no word for the opposite of as that would be the equivalent of unlike, so you must rephrase the sentence if you are tempted to write unlike in this context, unlike at Christmas, or unlike when I was a child.

If you find yourself writing She looked like she had had enough or It seemed like he was running out of puff, you should replace like with as if or as though, and you probably need the subjunctive: She looked as if she had had enough, It seemed as if he were running out of puff (or, even better, He seemed to be running out of puff).

Ogden Nash reminds us that this infelicity, sadly, is nothing new:

Like the hart panteth for the water brooks I pant for a revival of Shakespeare’s “Like You Like It”.

I can see tense draftees relax and purr When the sergeant barks, “Like you were.” — And don’t try to tell me that our well has been defiled by immigration;

Like goes Madison Avenue, like so goes the nation.

But authorities like Fowler and Gowers is a perfectly acceptable alternative to authorities such as Fowler and Gowers.

likely Avoid such constructions as He will likely announce the date on Monday and The price will likely fall when results are posted Friday. Use He is likely to announce … or It is likely that the price will … Or just use probably.

locate (in all its forms) can usually be replaced by something less ugly. The missing scientist was located means he was found. The diplomats will meet at a secret location means either that they will meet in a secret place or that they will meet secretly. A company located in Texas is simply a company in Texas. To relocate is to move.

lower case see capitals.

luxurious, luxuriant Luxurious means indulgently pleasurable; luxuriant means exuberant or profuse. A tramp may have a luxuriant beard but not a luxurious life.

may and might are not always interchangeable, and you may want may more often than you think. If in doubt, try may first. I might be wrong, but I think it will rain later should be I may be wrong, but I think it will rain later.

Much of the trouble arises from the fact that may becomes might in both the subjunctive and in some constructions using past tenses. Mr Blair admits that weapons of mass destruction may never be found becomes, in the past, Mr Blair admitted that weapons of mass destruction might never be found.

Conditional sentences using the subjunctive also need might. Thus If Sarah Palin were to write a novel, it might be called a thriller from Wasilla. This could be rephrased by If Sarah Palin writes a novel, it may be called a thriller from Wasilla. Conditional sentences stating something contrary to fact, however, need might: If pigs had wings, birds might raise their eyebrows.

The facts are crucial. I might have called him a liar (but I didn’t have the guts). I may have called him a liar (I can’t now remember).

Do not write He might call himself an ardent free-market banker, but he did not reject a government rescue. It should be He may call himself an ardent free-market banker, but he did not reject a government rescue. Only if you are putting forward a hypothesis that may or may not be true are may and might interchangeable. Thus If he is honest with himself, he may (or might) call himself something else in future.

Could is sometimes useful as an alternative to may and might: His coalition could (or may) collapse. But take care. Does He could call an election in May mean He may call an election in May or He would be allowed to call an election in May?

Do not use may or might when the appropriate verb is to be. His colleagues wonder how far the prime minister may go. The danger for them is that they may all lose their seats should be His colleagues wonder how far the prime minister will go. The danger for them is that they will all lose their seats.

See also grammar and syntax.

measures see Part 3.

media Remember that the media, like data, are plural.

meta- is a prefix derived from the Greek word for with, beyond or after, has long been used before the name of a science to designate what the Oxford English Dictionary calls a higher science of the same nature but dealing with ulterior problems, such as metachemistry, metaphysiology. This, says the OED, is done in supposed analogy to metaphysics, which is misapprehended as meaning the science of that which transcends the physical. Philosophers have extended the usage to, for example, metalanguage, language about language, which is used to express metatheorems, and computer geeks have fallen on it with delight, coining meta-elements, metadata, metatags. The practice of meta-naming is now adopted by those who wish to add scientific gravitas to almost any subject, especially any that is intrinsically jejune.

metaphors “A newly invented metaphor assists thought by evoking a visual image,” said Orwell, “while on the other hand a metaphor which is technically ’dead’ (eg, iron resolution) has in effect reverted to being an ordinary word and can generally be used without loss of vividness. But in between these two classes there is a huge dump of worn-out metaphors which are merely used because they save people the trouble of inventing phrases for themselves.”

Every issue of The Economist contains scores of metaphors: gay soldiers booted back on to Civvy Street, asset-price bubbles pricked, gauntlets thrown down, ideas floated, tides turned, accounts embraced, barrages of criticism unleashed, retailing behemoths arriving with a splash, foundering chains, both floods and flocks of job-seekers, limelight hogged, inflation ignited, the ratio of chiefs to Indians, landmark patent challenges, cash-strapped carmakers, football clubs teetering on the brink, prices inching up (or peaking, spiking or even going north), a leaden overhang of shares, giddying rises, rosy scenarios being painted, a fat lady not singing.

Some of these are tired, and will therefore tire the reader. Most are so exhausted that they may be considered dead. Dead or alive, take great care not to mix them.

An issue of The Economist chosen at random had: a package cutting the budget deficit, the administration loath to sign on to higher targets, the lure of eastern Germany as a springboard to the struggling markets of eastern Europe, west Europeanness helping to dilute an image, someone finding a pretext to stall the process before looking for a few integrationist crumbs, a spring clean that became in the next sentence a stalking-horse for greater spending, and Michelin axing jobs in painful surgery.

mete You may mete out punishment, but if it is to fit the crime it is meet.

meter, metre A meter is a gadget for measuring. A metre is a unit of length. Do not confuse their spellings.

Metrics is the theory of measurement. Do not use the term as a pretentious word for figures, dimensions or measurements themselves, as in “I can’t take the metrics I’m privileged to and work my way to a number in [that] range” (General George Metz, talking about the number of insurgents killed in Iraq).

migrate is intransitive. Do not migrate people or things.

millionaire The time has long gone when young women would think that the term millionaire adequately described the man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo. If you wish to use it, make it plain that millionaire refers to income (in dollars or pounds), not to capital. Otherwise try plutocrat or rich man.

mitigate, militate Mitigate mollifies or makes better; militate tells against.

momentarily This means for a moment, not in a moment. If you say We will momentarily land at Heathrow, that suggests we shall take off again almost as soon as the wheels hit the ground.

monopoly, monopsony A monopolist is the sole seller. A sole buyer is a monopsonist. See oligopoly.

moot in British English means arguable, doubtful or open to debate. Americans often use it to mean hypothetical or academic, ie, of no practical significance. Prefer the British usage, but generally avoid if you wish to be clear.

mortar If not a vessel in which herbs, etc, are pounded with a pestle, a mortar is a piece of artillery for throwing a shell, bomb or lifeline. Do not write He was hit by a mortar unless you mean he was struck by the artillery piece itself, which is improbable.

move Do not use move (noun) if you mean decision, bid, deal or something more precise. But move (verb) rather than relocate.

mujahid, mujahideen see jihad.

musical notes should be set in ordinary caps, thus: Bach’s “Air on a G-string”.

mutual Mutual does not, properly, mean common but interchanged, belonging to each respectively or reciprocal. Thus, “Mutual fear is the only solid basis of alliance” (Benjamin Jowett translating Thucydides). However, the sense of mutual as common (as in Dickens’s “Our Mutual Friend”) goes back respectably to 1632. Use in either sense.

named after, not for.

names

For guidance on spelling people’s names, see the list below. As with all names, spell them the way the person concerned has requested, if a preference has been expressed. Here are some names that cause spelling difficulties:

See also specific listings below.

Afghan

Arabic names and words

Al, al- Try to leave out the Al, Al-, al or al- where possible. This is common practice with some well-known figures like Muammar Qaddafi (not al-Qaddafi), but not all: Bashar al-Assad (not Assad), for example. Moreover, many names would look peculiar without al-, so with less well-known people it should be included (lower case, usually followed by a hyphen). On subsequent mentions, it can be dropped. Bin (son of) must be repeated: Osama bin Laden, thereafter Mr bin Laden. But it is often ignored in alphabetisation.

The Al-, Al-, al or al- (or Ad-, Ar-, As-, etc) before most Arab towns can be dropped (so Baquba not al-Baquba, Ramadi not ar-Ramadi). But al-Quds because it is the Arab name for Jerusalem and will be important in any context in which it appears.

Some common Arabic names are:

Abdel Aziz (founder of Kingdom of Saudi)

Abdel Halim Khaddam

Abdullah, King

Abu Alaa (aka Ahmed Queri)

Abu Mazen (aka Abbas)

Abu Musab al-Zarpawi

Adel abd al-Mahdi

Ahmad Jibril

Ahmed Chalabi

Ahmed Queri

Al Saud (not al-Saud, since the Al in this instance means house of)

Ali Abdullah Saleh

Ali al-Sistani (Grand Ayatollah)

al-Qaeda

Amin Gemayel

Anwar Sadat

Bahrain

Barham Saleh

Bashar al-Assad (Mr Assad)

Boutros Boutros-Ghali

Chouf (the)

Farouq Qaddoumi

Gaza Strip (and City)

Hafez Assad

Hassan, Crown Prince

Hizbullah

Hosni Mubarak

Hussein, King

Ibn Khaldoun

Ibrahim al-Jaafari (Dr)

Islamic Jihad

Iyad Allawi

Jaafar Numeiri

Jalal Talabani

jamaat islamiya

Jeddah

King Fahd

Maronite

Marwan Barghouti

Masjid Sulayman

Masoud Barzani

Mohamed ElBaradei

Mohammed al-Maktoum

Mosul

Muammar Qaddafi

Muhammad Dahlan

Muhammad the Prophet

Mukhabarat

Muqtada al-Sadr

Mustafa Barghouti

Nuri al-Maliki

Omar Al-Bashir

Qaboos, Sultan

Rafik Hariri

Ras Tanura

Riyadh

Sabah al-Ahmad, Sheikh

Saddam Hussein

Sadiq el-Mahdi

Salam Fayyad

Samarra

Sana’a

Saud al-Faisal, Prince

Saud ibn Abdel Aziz (king of Saudi Arabia who followed Abdel Aziz)

Sharjah

Sharm el Sheikh

Shatt al-Arab

Strait of Hormuz

Suleiman Franjieh

Tal Afar

Tawheed

Umm al Aish

Wahhabi

Walid Jumblatt

Yasser Arafat

Zayed, Sheikh

Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali

And some common Arabic words are:

burqa

Fatah

Hadith

hajj

hijab

Hizbullah

intifada

niqab

See also Arabic.

Bangladeshi If the name includes the Islamic definite article, it should be lower case and without any hyphens: Mujib ur Rahman.

Belarusian If Belarusians (not Belarussians) wish to be known by the Belarusian form of their names (Ihor, Vital), so be it. But use the familiar, Russian, placenames (Minsk, not Miensk), and Alexander Lukashenko.

Cambodian On second reference, repeat both names, adding Mr: Mr Hun Sen, Mr Sam Rainsy.

Central Asian For those with Russified names, see Russian.

Askar Akayev

Heidar Aliyev

Nursultan Nazarbayev

Saparmurat Niyazov

Chinese In general, follow the pinyin spelling of Chinese names, which has replaced the old Wade-Giles system, except for people and places outside mainland China. Peking is therefore Beijing and Chou Enlai is now Zhou Enlai.

There are no hyphens in pinyin spelling. So:

Deng Xiaoping

Guangdong (Kwangtung)

Guangzhou (Canton)

Jiang Qing (Mrs Mao)

Mao Zedong (Tse-tung)

Qingdao (Tsingtao)

Tianjin (Tientsin)

Xi Jinping

Xinjiang (Sinkiang)

Zhao Ziyang

But:

Chiang Kai-shek

Hong Kong

Lee Teng-hui

Li Ka-shing

The family name comes first, so Xi Jinping becomes Mr Xi on a later mention.

Note that Peking University and Tsinghua University have kept their pre-pinyin romanised names.

Dutch If using first name and surname together, vans and dens are lower case: Dries van Agt and Joop den Uyl. But without their first names they become Mr Van Agt and Mr Den Uyl; Hans van den Broek becomes Mr Van den Broek. These rules do not always apply to Dutch names in Belgium and South Africa: Herman Van Rompuy (thereafter Mr Van Rompuy); Karel Van Miert (Mr Van Miert).

Note that Flemings speak Dutch.

French Any de is likely to be lower case, unless it starts a sentence. De Gaulle goes up; Charles de Gaulle and plain de Gaulle go down. So does Yves-Thibault de Silguy.

German Any von is likely to be upper case only at the start of a sentence.

Icelandic Most Icelanders do not have family names. They take their last name from the first name of their father, so Leifur Eiriksson, say, is the son of Eirikur, and Freyja Haraldsdottir is the daughter of Harald. If she marries Leifur Eiriksson, she continues to be known as Freyja Haraldsdottir, their son has Leifsson as his last name (patronym) and their daughter Leifsdottir. Both names (or more, if someone has two first names) should be used on first and all subsequent references (when they should be preceded by Mr, Mrs or the appropriate title). A few Icelanders, such as the late President Kristjan Eldjarn, do have family names. These are the only people who can be referred to by one name only.

Indonesian Generally straightforward, but:

Abu Bakar Basyir

Jemaah Islamiah

Muhammadiyah

Nahdlatul Ulama

Syafii Maarif

Some Indonesians have only one name. On first mention give it to them unadorned: Budiono. Thereafter add the appropriate title: Mr Budiono. For those who have several names, be sure to get rid of the correct ones on second and subsequent mentions:

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, for example, becomes President (or Mr) Yudhoyono.

President Joko Widodo is so popularly known as Jokowi that he should be referred to as Jokowi after the first mention.

Iranian Farsi, an Arabised version of Parsi (meaning of Persia), is the term Iranians use for their language. In English, the language is properly called Persian.

The language spoken in Iran (and Tajikistan) is Persian, not Farsi.

Here is a list of some words and proper names.

Abadan

Abu Musa

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Ahwaz

Ali Akbar Velayati

Bahai

Bandar Abbas

baseej

Bushehr

Hojjatieh

Kermanshah

Keyhan

Ali Khamenei, Ayatollah

Kharg island

Muhammad Khatami

Bandar Khomeini

Khorramshahr

Khuzestan

Lavan island

Mahdavi-Kani, Ayatollah

maqnaeh

Hossein-Ali Montazeri, Ayatollah

Hossein Moussavi

Queshm

Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani

Massoud Rajavi

Rezaiyeh

Hassan Rohani

Yusef Saanei, Ayatollah

Abdolkarim Soroush

Strait of Hormuz

Jalaluddin Taheri, Ayatollah

Taqi Banki

Tehran

Tudeh

Tumbs

velayet-e faqih

Yahyaoui

Italian Any De is likely to be upper case, but there are exceptions (especially among aristocrats such as Carlo Ripa di Meana), so check.

Japanese Although the Japanese put the family name first in their own language (Koizumi Junichiro), they generally reverse the order in Western contexts. So: Junichiro Koizumi, Heizo Takenaka, Shintaro Ishihara, etc.

Korean South Koreans have changed their convention from Kim Dae Jung to Kim Dae-jung. But North Koreans, at least pending unification, have stuck to Kim Jong Il. Kim is the family name.

The South Korean party formed in 2003 is the Uri Party.

Pakistani If the name includes the Islamic definite article ul, it should be lower case and without any hyphens: Zia ul Haq, Mahbub ul Haq (but Sadruddin, Mohieddin and Saladin are single words).

The genitive e is hyphenated: Jamaat-e-Islami, Muttahida Majlis-eAmal.

Portuguese Portuguese-speakers sometimes have several names, including two surnames. On first mention, if they publicly use the whole name, like José Manuel Durão Barroso, spell out the entire name. After that, use the second family name: Mr Barroso. Note that this is the opposite of the case with Spanish names (qv), where the first surname is used on second mention.

Russian Each approach to transliterating Russian has drawbacks. The following rules aim for phonetic accuracy, except when that conflicts with widely accepted usage.

No y before e after consonants: Belarus, perestroika, Oleg, Lev, Medvedev. (The actual pronunciation is somewhere between e and ye.)

1 Where pronunciation dictates, put a y before the a or e at the start of a word or after a vowel:

Aliyev not Aliev

Baluyevsky

Dostoyevsky

Dudayev

Yavlinsky

Yevgeny not Evgeny

2 Words spelled with e in Russian but pronounced yo should be spelled yo. Thus:

Fyodorov not Fedorov

Pyotr not Petr

Seleznyov not Seleznev

But stick to Gorbachev, Khrushchev and other famous ones that would otherwise look odd.

3 With words that could end -i, -ii, -y or -iy, use -y after consonants and -i after vowels. This respects both phonetics and common usage.

Gennady

Georgy

Nizhny

Yury

Zhirinovsky

But:

Bolshoi

Nikolai

Rutskoi

Sergei

Exception (because conventional): Tolstoy.

4 Replace dzh with j.

Jokhar, Jugashvili (for Stalin; bowing to convention, give his first name as Josef, not Iosif).

5 Prefer Aleksandr, Viktor, Eduard, Piotr to Alexander, Victor, Edward, Peter, unless the person involved has clearly chosen an anglicised version. But keep the familiar spelling for historical figures such as Alexander Nevsky, Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Peter the Great.

Singaporean names have no hyphens and the family name comes first: Lee Kuan Yew (thereafter Mr Lee).

Spanish Spaniards sometimes have several names, including two surnames. On first mention, spell out in full all the names of such people, if they use both surnames. Thereafter the normal practice is to write the first surname only, so Joaquín Almunia Amann becomes Mr Almunia on second and subsequent mentions.

Often, though, the second surname is used only by people whose first surname is common, such as Fernández, López or Rodríguez. To avert confusion with others, they may choose to keep both their surnames when they are referred to as Mr This or Mr That, so Miguel Ángel Fernández Ordóñez, for instance, becomes Mr Fernández Ordóñez, just as Andrés Manuel López Obrador becomes Mr López Obrador and Juan Fernando López Aguilar becomes Mr López Aguilar. A few people, notably José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, choose to have their names shortened to just the second of their surnames, so he becomes Mr Zapatero.

Although on marriage Spanish women sometimes informally add their husband’s name (after a de) to their own, they do not usually change their legal name, merely adopting Señora in place of Señorita. Unless the woman you are writing about prefers some other title, you should likewise simply change from Miss to Mrs.

Swiss personal names follow the rules for the two languages mostly spoken in Switzerland: French and German.

Turk, Turkic, Turkmen, Turkoman, etc see placenames.

Ukrainian After an orgy of retransliteration from their Russian versions, a convention has emerged. Its main rules are these.

1 Since Ukrainian has no g, use h: Hryhory, Heorhy, Ihor (not Grigory, Georgy, Igor). Exception: Georgy Gongadze.

2 Render the Ukrainian i as an i, and the N as a y. So Vital, Kharkiv, Chernivtsi; but Volodymyr, Yanukovych, Tymoshenko, Borys, Zhytomyr. Change words ending -iy to -y (Hryhory).

However, respect the wishes of those Ukrainians who wish to be known by their Russian names, or by an anglicised transliteration of them: Alexander Morozov.

Kiev remains Kiev, not Kyiv.

Vietnamese names have no hyphens and the family name comes first:

Ho Chi Minh

Tran Duc Luong (thereafter Mr Tran)

See also place-names.

neither … nor see none.

new words and new uses for old words Part of the strength and vitality of English is its readiness to welcome new words and expressions, and to accept new meanings for old words. Yet such meanings and uses often depart as quickly as they arrived, and early adopters risk looking like super-trendies if they bring them into service too soon. Moreover, to anyone of sensibility some new words are more welcome than others, even if no two people of sensibility would agree on which words should be ushered in and which kept firmly on the doorstep.

Before grabbing the latest usage, ask yourself a few questions. Is it likely to pass the test of time? If not, are you using it to show just how cool you are? Has it already become a cliché? Does it do a job no other word or expression does just as well? Does it rob the language of a useful or well-liked meaning? Is it being adopted to make the writer’s prose sharper, crisper, more euphonious, easier to understand — in other words, better? Or to make it seem more with it (yes, that was cool once, just as cool is cool now), more pompous, more bureaucratic or more politically correct — in other words, worse?

See also clichés, horrible words, jargon, journalese and slang.

none usually takes a singular verb. So does neither (or either) A nor (or) B, unless B is plural, as in Neither the Dutchman nor the Danes have done it, where the verb agrees with the element closest to it. Similarly,

Come live with me and be my love,

And we will all the pleasures prove

That hills and valleys, dales and fields,

Or woods or steepy mountain yields.

(Christopher Marlowe)

nor means and not, so should not be preceded by and.

numbers, use of Some guidelines on the use of numbers:

1 Numbers, like words, should tell a story. If you have interesting numbers, don’t be afraid to use them. But make sure the numbers are interesting.

2 If you are citing a figure for something, what should it be compared against? If the norm is not obvious, explain it.

3 If you are using numbers to describe a change, give a) a marker for comparison (usually the starting point) and b) a time period in which the change has taken place.

4 Percentage change for a change in value; percentage-point change for a change in a percentage.

5 Be sceptical of all numbers presented as facts. Question the assumptions and methodology. What is being measured, by whom, for what purpose? What is not being measured? What is being exaggerated?

6 Be precise in the use of numbers, but avoid spurious accuracy.

7 Be wary of superlatives. Claims of biggest, fastest, richest etc are often sensitive to how something is measured and over what time period; these are often the easiest to disprove by someone finding a single exception.

8 Avoid inflating numbers for dramatic effect. Be aware that, after big terrorist incidents, death figures can vary wildly, and the final numbers are often revised down.

9 Sometimes it is best to give a range of values, eg, for the number of people killed in a war in which casualties are impossible to measure.

10 Correlation is not causality.

11 Macroeconomic data for countries — debt, deficits, etc — are usually best expressed as a percentage of GDP.

12 When quoting changes in GDP, trade, etc, prefer real rather than nominal figures.

offensive In Britain, offensive (as an adjective) means rude; in America, it often means attacking. Similarly, to the British an offence is usually a crime or transgression; to Americans it is often an offensive, or the counterpart to a defence.

oligopoly Limited competition between a small number of producers or sellers. See also monopoly, monopsony.

one Try to avoid one as a personal pronoun. You will often do instead.

only Put only as close as you can to the words it qualifies. Thus These animals mate only in June. To say They only mate in June implies that in June they do nothing else.

onto On and to should be run together when they are closely linked, as in He pranced onto the stage. If, however, the sense of the sentence makes the on closer to the preceding word, or the to closer to the succeeding word, than they are to each other, keep them separate: He pranced on to the next town or He pranced on to wild applause.

overwhelm means submerge utterly, crush, bring to sudden ruin. Majority votes, for example, seldom do any of these things. As for the ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, although 90% of the population, they turned out to be an overwhelmed majority, not an overwhelming one, until NATO stepped in.

oxymoron An oxymoron is not an unintentional contradiction in terms but a figure of speech in which contradictory terms are deliberately combined, as in: bitter-sweet, cruel kindness, friendly fire, jolie laide, open secret, sweet sorrow, etc.

Pakistani names see names.

palate, pallet, palette Your palate, the roof of your mouth (or your capacity to appreciate food and drink), is best not confused with a pallet, a mattress on which you may sleep or a wooden frame for use with fork-lift trucks, still less with a palette, on which you may mix paints.

panacea Universal remedy. Beware of cliché usage. See also journalese and slang.

parliaments Do not confuse one part of a parliament with the whole thing. The Dail is only the lower house of Ireland’s parliament, as the Duma is of Russia’s and the Lok Sabha is of India’s.

passive see grammar and syntax (active, not passive).

peer (noun) is one of those words beloved of sociologists and eagerly co-opted by journalists who want to make their prose seem more authoritative. A peer is not a contemporary, colleague or counterpart but an equal.

per capita is the Latin for by heads; it is a term used by lawyers when distributing an inheritance among individuals, rather than among families (per stirpes). Unless the context demands this technical expression, never use either per capita or per caput but per head or per person. See also figures.

per cent is not the same as a percentage point. Nothing can fall, or be devalued, by more than 100%. If something trebles, it increases by 200%. If a growth rate increases from 4% to 6%, the rate is two percentage points or 50% faster, not 2%. See also figures.

percolate means to pass through, not up or down.

place-names In most contexts, favour simplicity over precision. Use Britain rather than Great Britain or the United Kingdom, and America rather than the United States. (“In all pointed sentences, some degree of accuracy must be sacrificed to conciseness.” Dr Johnson)

Sometimes, however, it may be important to be precise. Remember therefore that Great Britain consists of England, Scotland and Wales, which together with Northern Ireland (which we generally call Ulster, though Ulster strictly includes three counties in Ireland) make up the United Kingdom.

Americans: Remember too that, although it is usually all right to talk about the inhabitants of the United States as Americans, the term also applies to everyone from Canada to Cape Horn. In a context where other North, Central or South American countries are mentioned, you should write United States rather than America or American, and it may even be necessary to write United States citizens.

EU is now well enough known (like the UN) to need no spelling out on first mention as the European Union. Europe and Europeans may sometimes be used as shorthand for citizens of countries of the European Union, but be careful: there are plenty of other Europeans too.

Europe: Note that although the place is western (or eastern) Europe, euphony dictates that the people are west (or east) Europeans.

Holland, though a nice, short, familiar name, is strictly only two of the 12 provinces that make up the Netherlands, and the Dutch do not like the misuse of the shorter name. So use the Netherlands.

Belgian place-names should be Dutch or French according to which part they are in.

Ireland is simply Ireland. Although it is a republic, it is not the Republic of Ireland. Neither is it, in English, Eire. North and south should not have capitals in the Irish context. And always prefer Northern Ireland to Ulster.

Madagascar: Malagasy is its adjective and the name of the inhabitants.

Roma is the name of the people; they may also still be called gypsies in non-political contexts.

Scandinavia is primarily Norway and Sweden, but the term is often used to include Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, which, with Finland, make up the Nordic countries.

USA and US are not used in The Economist (if they were, they would spatter the paper), except in charts, as part of an official name (eg, US Steel, US attorney), and sparingly in the Americas section to differentiate official bodies (the US Border Patrol).

Do not use the names of capital cities as synonyms for their governments. Britain will send a gunboat is fine, but London will send a gunboat suggests that this will be the action of the people of London alone. To write Washington and Moscow now differ only in their approach to Havana is absurd.

Washington, DC may shed the DC wherever there is no risk of confusion with Washington state, which is most of the time.

Note that a country is it, not she.

changes of name Where countries have made it clear that they wish to be called by a new (or an old) name, respect their requests. Thus:

Burkina Faso

Myanmar (though Burmese is acceptable for its people in general)

Sri Lanka

Thailand

Zimbabwe

Zaire has now reverted to Congo. In contexts where there can be no confusion with the ex-French country of the same name, plain Congo will do. But if there is a risk of misunderstanding, call it the Democratic Republic of Congo (never DRC). The other Congo can be Congo-Brazzaville if necessary. The river is now also the Congo. The people of either country are Congolese.

Former Soviet republics that are now independent countries include:

Belarus (not Belorus or Belorussia), Belarusian (adjective)

Kazakhstan

Kyrgyzstan

Moldova (not Moldavia)

Tajikistan Turkmenistan (see Turk, Turkic, Turkmen, Turkoman, pages 115—16)

Kyrgyzstan is the name of the country. Its adjective is Kyrgyzstani, which is also the name of one of its inhabitants. But Kirgiz is the noun and adjective of the language, and the adjective of Kirgiz people outside Kyrgyzstan.

Follow local practice when a country changes the names of rivers, towns, etc, within it. Thus:

Almaty not Alma Ata

Balochistan, not Baluchistan

Chemnitz not Karl-Marx-Stadt

Chennai not Madras

Chernigov not Chernihiv

Chur not Coire

Kolkata not Calcutta

Lvov not Lviv

Mumbai not Bombay

Nizhny Novgorod not Gorky

Papua not Irian Jaya

Polokwane not Pietersburg

St Petersburg not Leningrad

Tshwane is the new name for the area around Pretoria but not yet for the city itself.

Yangon not Rangoon

But two exceptions: Ivory Coast, not Côte d’Ivoire, and East Timor, not Timor-Leste. The previous form should be preserved in historical contexts (the Black Hole of Calcutta). If the names are very dissimilar, add (now xx).

definite article Do not use the definite article before:

Krajina

Lebanon

Piedmont

Punjab

Sudan

Transkei

Ukraine

But:

the Caucasus

the Gambia

The Hague

Le Havre

the Maghreb

the Netherlands

La Paz

English forms are preferred when they are in common use:

Andalusia

Archangel (not Archangelsk or Arkhangelsk)

Cassel (not Kassel)

Castile

Catalonia (catalan)

Cologne

Cordoba

Corinth

Corunna

Cracow

Dagestan

Dnieper

Dniester (but Transdniestria)

Dusseldorf (not Düsseldorf)

East Timor

Florence

Geneva

Genoa

Hanover

Ivory Coast

Kiev

Majorca

Milan

Minorca

Minsk

Munich

Naples

Nuremberg

Odessa

Pomerania

Salonika (not Thessaloniki)

Saragossa

Saxony (and Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt)

Sebastopol

Seville

Turin

Zurich (not Zürich)

Use British English rather than American — Rockefeller Centre, Pew Centre for Research — unless the place-name is part of a company’s name, such as Rockefeller Center Properties Inc.

The final s sometimes added by English-speakers to Lyon, Marseille and Tangier now seems precious, so use the s-less form.

some spellings

Abkhazia

Ajaria (not Adjaria)

Argentina (adj and people Argentine, not Argentinian)

Ashgabat

Azerbaijan

Baden-Württemberg

Baghdad

Bahamas (Bahamian)

Bahrain

Basel

Belarus

Bengalooru

Beqaa

Bermuda, Bermudian

Bern

Bophuthatswana

Bosporus (not Bosphorus)

British Columbia

Brittany, Breton (but Britannia, Britannic)

Cameroon

Cape Town

Caribbean

Catalan

Chechnya

Cincinnati

Colombia (South America)

Columbia (university, District of British)

the Comoros

Cracow

Cusco

Czech Republic; Czech Lands

Dar es Salaam

Derry/Londonderry (use in this full dual form at least on first mention; afterwards, plain Derry will do)

Dhaka

Djibouti

Dominica (Caribbean island)

Dominican Republic (part of another island)

East Timor

El Salvador, Salvadorean

Falkland Islands (not Malvinas)

Falluja

Gaza Strip (but Gaza City)

Gettysburg

Gothenburg

Grozny

Guantánamo

Gujarat, Gujarati

Guyana (but French Guiana)

Gweru (not Gwelo)

Hanover

Hercegovina

Hong Kong (unless part of the name of a company which spells it as one word)

Ingushetia

Issyk-Kul

Ivory Coast, Ivorian

Jeddah

KaNgwane

Kathmandu

Kiev

Kinmen (not Quemoy)

Kolkata

Kuwait City

KwaNdebele

KwaZulu-Natal

Kwekwe (not Que Que)

Laos, Lao (not Laotian)

Livorno (not Leghorn)

Ljubljana

Londonderry (Derry also permissible)

Luhansk

Luxembourg

Lyon

Macau

Mafikeng

Mauritania

Middlesbrough

Mpumalanga (formerly Eastern Transvaal)

Mumbai (not Bombay)

Nagorno-Karabakh

Nepal, Nepali (not Nepalese)

New York City

north Caucasus

North Rhine-Westphalia

Ouagadougou

Philippines (the people are Filipinos and Filipinas)

Phnom Penh

Pittsburgh

Port-au-Prince

Putumayo

Pyrenees, Pyrenean

Quebec, Quebecker (but Parti Quebecois)

Reykjavik

Rheims

Romania

Rwanda, Rwandan (not Rwandese)

St Petersburg

Salonika (not Thessaloniki)

Sana’a

Salzburg

San Jose (Costa Rica)

San Jose (California)

Sao Paulo

Sea of Japan (East Sea) (give both names thus)

Sindh

Srebrenica

Strasbourg

Suriname

Taipei

Teesside

Tehran

Tigray, Tigrayan

Timbuktu

Transdniestra

Uffizi

Ulaanbaator (not Ulan Bator)

Uzbekistan

Valletta

Yangzi

Zepa

Zepce

Zurich

See also capitals (places).

Turk, Turkic, Turkmen, Turkoman, etc

Turk, Turkish: noun and adjective of Turkey.

Turkoman, Turkomans: member, members, of a branch of the Turkish race mostly living in the region east of the Caspian sea once known as Turkestan and parts of Iran and Afghanistan; Turkoman may also be the language of the Turkmen and an adjective.

Turkic: adjective applied to one of the branches of the Ural-Altaic family of languages — Uighur, Kazan Tatar, Kirgiz.

Turkmen: Turkoman or Turkomans living in Turkmenistan; adjective pertaining to them.

Turkmenistani: adjective of Turkmenistan; also a native of that country.

plants For the spelling of the Latin names of animals, plants, etc, see Latin names.

plurals see spelling. For plural nouns, see grammar and syntax.

political correctness Avoid, if you can, giving gratuitous offence (see euphemisms): you risk losing your readers, or at least their goodwill, and therefore your arguments. But pandering to every plea for politically correct terminology may make your prose unreadable, and therefore also unread.

So strike a balance. If you judge that a group wishes to be known by a particular term, that the term is widely understood and that using any other would seem odd, old-fashioned or offensive, then use it. Context may be important: Coloured is a common term in South Africa for people of mixed race; it is not considered derogatory. Elsewhere it may be. Remember that both times and terms change: expressions that were in common use a few decades ago are now odious. Nothing is to be gained by casually insulting your readers.

But do not labour to avoid imaginary insults, especially if the effort does violence to the language. Some people, such as the members of the Task-force on Bias-Free Language of the Association of American University Presses, believe that ghetto-blaster is “offensive as a stereotype of African-American culture”, that it is invidious to speak of a normal child, and that massacre should not be used “to refer to a successful American Indian raid or battle victory against white colonisers and invaders”. They want, they say, to avoid “victimisation” and to get “the person before the disability”. The intent may be admirable, but they are unduly sensitive, often inventing slights where none exists.

Thomas Bowdler provides a cautionary example. His version of Shakespeare, produced in 1818 using “judicious” paraphrase and expurgation, was designed to be read by men to their families so that no one would be offended or embarrassed. In doing so, he gave his name to an insidious form of censorship (bowdlerism).

Some people believe the possibility of giving offence or perpetuating prejudice to be more important than stating the truth. They are wrong. Do not self-bowdlerise your prose. You may be neither Galileo nor Salman Rushdie, but you too may sometimes be right to cause offence. Your first duty is to the truth.

populace is a term for the common people, not a synonym for the population.

practical, practicable Practical means useful; practicable means feasible.

pre- is often unnecessary as a prefix, as in pre-announced, precondition, pre-prepared, pre-cooked. If it seems to be serving a function, try making use of a word such as already or earlier: Here’s one I cooked earlier.

Pre-owned is second-hand.

premier (as a noun) should be confined to the first ministers of Canadian provinces, German Länder and other subnational states. Do not use it as a synonym for the prime minister of a country.

prescribe You do not prescribe someone something; you prescribe something for someone.

presently usually means soon, not at present. (“Presently Kep opened the door of the shed, and let out Jemima Puddle-Duck.” Beatrix Potter.) However, the second use may be acceptable, as in “She dislikes the praise presently heaped upon her.” Consider the rhythm and placing of the word in the sentence.

press, pressure, pressurise Pressurise is what you want in an aircraft, but not in an argument or encounter where persuasion is being employed — the verb you want there is press. Use pressure only as a noun.

prevaricate, procrastinate Prevaricate means evade the truth; procrastinate means delay. (“Procrastination” — or punctuality, if you are Oscar Wilde — “is the thief of time.”)

pristine means original or former; it does not mean clean.

proactive Not a pretty word: try active or energetic.

process Some writers see their prose in industrial terms: education becomes an education process, elections an electoral process, development a development process, writing a writing process. If you follow this fashion, do not be surprised if readers switch off.

prodigal If you are prodigal, that does not mean you are welcomed home or taken back without recrimination. It means you have squandered your patrimony.

proofreading see Part 3.

propaganda (which is singular) means a systematic effort to spread doctrine or opinions. It is not a synonym for lies.

protagonist means the chief actor or combatant. If you are referring to several people, they cannot all be protagonists.

protest By all means protest your innocence, or your intention to write good English, if you are making a declaration. But if you are making a complaint or objection, you must protest at or against it. See transitive and intransitive verbs.

pry Unless you mean peer or peep, the word you probably should be using is prise.

public schools in Britain, the places where fee-paying parents send their children; in the United States, the places where they don’t.

punctuation Some guidelines on common problems.

apostrophes

1 With singular words and names that end in s use the normal possessive ending ’s:

boss’s

caucus’s

Delors’s

Jones’s

St James’s

Shanks’s

2 After plurals that do not end in s also use ’s: children’s, Frenchmen’s, media’s.

3 Use the ending s’ on plurals that end in s: Danes’, bosses’, Joneses’.

And on plural names that take a singular verb: Barclays’

Cisco Systems’

Reuters’

4 Some plural nouns, although singular in other respects, such as the United States, the United Nations, the Philippines, have a plural possessive apostrophe:

Who will be the United States’ next president?

In general, however, try to avoid Texas’s, Congress’s, and all such formations which are horrible to read silently, and even worse aloud.

5 Lloyd’s (the insurance market): try to avoid using as a possessive; like Christie’s and Sotheby’s, it poses an insoluble problem.

6 Achilles heel: the vulnerable part of the hero of the Trojan war.

7 Decades do not have apostrophes: the 1990s.

8 Phrases like two weeks’ time, four days’ march, six months’ leave need apostrophes. So do those involving worth, when it follows a quantity or other measurement: three months’ worth of imports, a manifesto’s worth of insincerity (see also hyphens, page 70).

9 People:

people’s = of (the) people

peoples’ = of peoples

See also grammar and syntax (false possessive).

brackets If a whole sentence is within brackets, put the full stop inside. Square brackets should be used for interpolations in direct quotations: “Let them [the poor] eat cake.” To use ordinary brackets implies that the words inside them were part of the original text from which you are quoting.

colons Use a colon “to deliver the goods that have been invoiced in the preceding words” (Fowler).

They brought presents: gold, frankincense and oil at $100 a barrel.

Use a colon before a whole quoted sentence, but not before a quotation that begins in mid-sentence.

She said: “It will never work.” He retorted that it had “always worked before”.

commas Use commas as an aid to understanding. Too many in one sentence can be confusing.

1 It is not always necessary to put a comma after a short phrase at the start of a sentence if no natural pause exists: That night she took a tumble.

2 But a breath, and so a comma, is needed after longer passages:

When day broke and she was able at last to see what had happened, she realised she had fallen through the roof and into the Big Brother house.

3 A comma is also needed in shorter sentences where a but changes the direction of travel: He won the election, but with a reduced majority.

4 Use two commas, or none at all, when inserting a parenthetical clause in the middle of a sentence. Thus, do not write:

Use two commas, or none at all when inserting … or

Use two commas or none at all, when inserting …

Similarly, two commas or none at all are needed with constructions like:

And, though he denies it, he couldn’t tell a corncrake from a cornflake …

But, when Bush came to Shuv, he found it wasn’t a town, just a Hebrew word for Return.

5 American states: commas are usual after the names of American states when these are written as though they were part of an address: Kansas City, Kansas, proves that even Kansas City needn’t always be Missourible (Ogden Nash). But do not do so where it offends against grammar, as before “and”, or where it produces too many commas for the sentence to stand. Apply your discretion.

6 For sense: commas can alter the sense of a sentence. To write Mozart’s 40th symphony, in G minor, with commas indicates that this symphony was written in G minor. Without commas, Mozart’s 40th symphony in G minor suggests he wrote 39 other symphonies in G minor.

7 Lists: do not put a comma before and or or at the end of a sequence of items unless one of the items includes another and. Thus:

The doctor suggested an aspirin, half a grapefruit and a cup of broth. But he ordered scrambled eggs, whisky and soda, and a selection from the trolley.

8 Question-marks: do not put commas after question-marks, even when they would be separated by inverted commas: “May I have a second helping?” he asked.

9 Quotations: within a sentence a quotation needs to be preceded by a comma, or a colon, or a word such as that (or if, because, whether etc), if it is an entire sentence. The first quoted word should also have an initial capital. Thus The doctor responded, “You’ll probably be better in the morning, or dead,” before sampling a crème caramel. If the words quoted are not an entire sentence, neither comma nor capital is needed: The doctor responded that he would “probably be better in the morning, or dead,” before sampling a crème caramel. In this example, it is known that the final quoted word was followed by a punctuation mark — a full stop, converted in the quotation into a comma — so the final comma is placed within the inverted commas. If, however, it is not known whether the quoted words constituted a full sentence, assume that the quotation is unpunctuated and put the appropriate punctuation mark outside the inverted commas: Having impaled himself with a handle-bar in the back of the cab, he was heard to say he “now realised what was meant by fatal attraction”.

If you want to quote a full sentence and precede it with the word that (etc), no comma is needed before the inverted commas, but the first quoted word still needs an initial capital: On learning that he was only scratched, her comment was that “Next time I hope Cupid’s dart will be tipped with curare.”

See also inverted commas below.

dashes You can use dashes in pairs for parenthesis, but not more than one pair per sentence, and ideally not more than one pair per paragraph.

“Use a dash to introduce an explanation, amplification, paraphrase, particularisation or correction of what immediately precedes it. Use it to gather up the subject of a long sentence. Use it to introduce a paradoxical or whimsical ending to a sentence. Do not use it as a punctuation maid-of-all-work.” (Gowers)

Do not use a parenthetical dash as a catch-all punctuation device when a comma, colon, etc could be used. The much-reviled semicolon is often worth an airing, too.

full stops Use plenty. They keep sentences short. This helps the reader. Do not use full stops in abbreviations or at the end of headings and subheadings.

inverted commas (quotation marks) Use single ones only for quotations within quotations. Thus:

“When I say ’immediately’, I mean some time before April,” said the builder.

For the relative placing of quotation marks and punctuation, follow Oxford rules. Thus, if an extract ends with a full stop or question-mark, put the punctuation before the closing inverted commas.

His maxim was that “love follows laughter.” In this spirit came his opening gambit: “What’s the difference between a buffalo and a bison?”

If a complete sentence in quotes comes at the end of a larger sentence, the final stop should be inside the inverted commas. Thus: The answer was, “You can’t wash your hands in a buffalo.” She replied, “Your jokes are execrable.”

If the quotation does not include any punctuation, the closing inverted commas should precede any punctuation marks that the sentence requires. Thus:

She had already noticed that the “young man” looked about as young as the New Testament is new. Although he had been described as “fawnlike in his energy and playfulness”, “a stripling with all the vigour and freshness of youth”, and even as “every woman’s dream toyboy”, he struck his companion-to-be as the kind of old man warned of by her mother as “not safe in taxis”. Where, now that she needed him, was “Mr Right”?

When a quotation is broken off and resumed after such words as he said, ask yourself whether it would naturally have had any punctuation at the point where it is broken off. If the answer is yes, a comma is placed within the quotation marks to represent this. Thus:

“If you’ll let me see you home,” he said, “I think I know where we can find a cab.”

The comma after home belongs to the quotation and so comes within the inverted commas, as does the final full stop.

But if the words to be quoted are continuous, without punctuation at the point where they are broken, the comma should be outside the inverted commas. Thus:

“My bicycle”, she assured him, “awaits me.”

Do not use quotation marks unnecessarily:

Her admirer described his face as a “finely chiselled work of art”; she wrote in her diary that it looked more like a “collapsed lung”.

Note that the Bible contains no quotation marks, with no consequent confusions.

question-marks Except in sentences that include a question in inverted commas, question-marks always come at the end of the sentence. Thus:

Where could he get a drink, he wondered?

Had Zimri peace, who slew his master?

semi-colons Use them to mark a pause longer than a comma and shorter than a full stop. Don’t overdo them.

Use them to distinguish phrases listed after a colon only if commas will not do the job clearly. Thus:

They agreed on only three points: the ceasefire should be immediate; it should be internationally supervised, preferably by the AU; and a peace conference should be held, either in Geneva or in Ouagadougou.

question-marks see punctuation.

quite In America, quite is usually an intensifying adverb similar to altogether, entirely or very; in Britain, depending on the emphasis, the tone of voice and the adjective that follows, it usually means fairly, moderately or reasonably, and often damns with faint praise.

quotes Be sparing with quotes. Direct quotes should be used when either the speaker or what was said is surprising, or when the words used are particularly pithy or graphic. Otherwise you can probably paraphrase more concisely. The most pointless quote is the inconsequential remark attributed to a nameless source: “Everyone wants to be in on the act,” says one high-ranking civil servant.

If you wish to quote someone, either give a date or use the present tense:

“He leaves a legacy of wisdom,” said John Smith the next day or … says Mr John Smith.

For quotation marks (inverted commas), see punctuation.

real Is it really necessary? When used to mean after taking inflation into account, it is legitimate. In other contexts (Investors are showing real interest in the country, but Colombians wonder if real prosperity will ever arrive) it is often better left out.

rebut, refute Rebut means repel or meet in argument. Refute, which is stronger, means disprove. Neither should be used as a synonym for deny. “Shakespeare never has six lines together without a fault. Perhaps you may find seven: but this does not refute my general assertion.” (Samuel Johnson)

red and blue In Britain, colours that are associated with socialism and conservatism respectively; in the United States, colours that are associated with Republicans and Democrats respectively. They are very confusing to the large number of readers who associate red with the political left, and should therefore be avoided, except in an exclusively American context.

redact in Latin means bring back. It is now also used to mean obscure, blot out, obliterate, as when testimony thought harmful to national security is officially blacked out in documents. Use it only in that narrowly technical sense.

redolent means smelling of, fragrant. Do not therefore write redolent of the smell of linseed oil and turpentine.

reduce, diminish, lessen, shrink are not interchangeable. Reduce is transitive, so must be followed by a noun. Diminish and shrink can be transitive or intransitive. So can lessen, though it is usually used before a noun.

redux A word often dropped into headlines by pretentious people anxious to impress. It is seldom clear what they mean. Avoid.

references see footnotes, sources, references in Part 3.

regrettably means to be regretted. Do not confuse with regretfully, used of someone showing regret.

relationship is a long word often better replaced by relations. The two countries hope for a better relationship means The two countries hope for better relations. But relationship is an appropriate word for two people in a close friendship.

report on not into.

Republican A long word, but not so long that it needs replacing with red (see above), or GOP (for Grand Old Party), which is as meaningless as red to non-American readers.

reshuffle, resupply Shuffle and supply will do, except for British Cabinets, which are reshuffled from time to time.

resources, resourceful Resourceful is a useful word; the term natural resources, less satisfactory, also has its merits. Most other uses of resource tend to be vile.

revert means return to or go back to, as in The garden has reverted to wilderness. It does not mean come back to or get back to, as in I’ll give you an answer as soon as I can.

Richter scale Beloved of journalists, the Richter scale is unknown to seismologists. The strength of an earthquake is its magnitude, so say an earthquake of magnitude 8.9. See earthquakes in Part 3.

ring, wring (verbs) bells are rung; hands are wrung. Both may be seen at weddings.

rock A working definition of a rock is a stone too large to throw. You should also be aware of the Law of the Sea definition: “A landmass permanently above water but unable to sustain human habitation.”

Roma is the name of the people. Their language is Romany. Remember that Sinti are also gypsies.

run In countries with a presidential system you may run for office. In those with a parliamentary one, you stand.

Russian names see names.

same is often superfluous. If your sentence contains on the same day that, try on the day that.

Scot, scotch To scotch means to disable, not to destroy. (“We have scotched the snake, not killed it.” “Macbeth”) The people are Scots or Scottish; choose as you like. The distinctive Scottish dialect of English is Scots. The traditional Celtic language is Gaelic. Scot-free means completely free from payment of a fine (or punishment), not free from Scotsmen.

second-biggest (third-oldest, fourth-wisest, fifth-commonest, etc) Think before you write.

Apart from New York, a Bramley is the second-biggest apple in the world. Other than home-making and parenting, prostitution is the third-oldest profession. After Tom, Dick and Harriet, Henry I was the fourth-wisest fool in Christendom. Besides justice, prudence, temperance and fortitude, the fifth-commonest virtue of the Goths was punctuality.

None of these sentences should contain the ordinal (second- , third- , fourth- , fifth- , etc).

sector Try industry instead or, for example, banks instead of banking sector.

semi-colons see punctuation.

sensual, sensuous Sensual means carnal or voluptuous. Sensuous means pertaining to aesthetic appreciation, without any implication of lasciviousness.

sequestered, sequestrated Sequestered means secluded. Sequestrated means confiscated or made bankrupt.

short words Use them. They are often Anglo-Saxon rather than Latin in origin. They are easy to spell and easy to understand. Thus prefer:

about to approximately

after to following

before to prior to

but to however

enough to sufficient

let to permit

make to manufacture

plant, club, warehouse, etc, to facility

set up to establish

show to demonstrate

spending to expenditure

take part to participate

use to utilise

Underdeveloped countries are often better described as poor. Substantive often means real or big. “Broadly speaking, the short words are the best and the old words, when short, are best of all.” (Winston Churchill)

shrug This means to draw up the shoulders, so do not write She shrugged her shoulders.

simplistic Prefer simple-minded, naive.

Singaporean names see names.

singular or plural? see grammar and syntax.

skills are turning up all over the place — in learning skills, thinking skills, teaching skills — instead of the ability to. He has the skills probably means He can.

skyrocketed Rocketed, not skyrocketed.

slither, sliver As a noun, slither is scree. As a verb, it means slide. If you mean a small, narrow piece of something, the word you want is sliver.

sloppy writing Use words with care.

If This door is alarmed, does its hair stand on end? If this envelope says Urgent: dated material, is it really too old-fashioned to be worth reading? Is a handicapped toilet really faultily designed or carrying extra weight? Is offensive marketing just rude salesmanship?

More serious difficulties may arise with indicted war criminals. As their lawyers could one day remind you, these may turn out to be innocent people accused of war crimes.

Some familiar words may cause trouble. When Gordon Brown wrote in the Guardian, “No one can underestimate the scale of the challenge climate change represents,” he presumably meant just the opposite. A heart condition is usually a bad heart. A near miss is probably a near hit. Positive thoughts (held by long-suffering creditors, according to The Economist) presumably means optimism, just as a negative report is probably a critical report. Industrial action is usually industrial inaction, industrial disruption or a strike. A courtesy call is generally a sales offer or an uninvited visit. A substantially finished bridge is an unfinished bridge. Someone with high name-recognition is well known. Something with reliability problems probably does not work. If yours is a live audience, what would a dead one be like?

And what is an ethics violation? An error of judgment? A crime? A moral lapse?

See also unnecessary words.

smart used to mean only well dressed, but smartcards, smart sanctions, smart weapons, etc are now universally with us, to the point where you may have to find another word (elegant, chic, natty) for well-dressed. Smartly still seems to work as an adverb suggesting prompt efficiency.

social security in America, Social Security means pensions and should be capitalised. Elsewhere it usually means state benefits more generally, which are called welfare in the United States.

soft is an adverb as well as an adjective and a noun. Softly is also an adverb. You can speak softly and carry a big stick, but if you have a quiet voice you are soft — not softly — spoken.

soi-disant means self-styled, not so-called.

sources see footnotes, sources, references in Part 3.

Spanish names see names.

specific A specific is a medicine, not a detail, unless in the plural: Let’s get down to specifics.

spelling Use British English rather than American English or any other kind. Sometimes, however, this injunction will clash with the rule that people and companies should be called what they want to be called, short of festooning themselves with titles. If it does, adopt American (or Canadian or other local) spelling when it is used in the name of an American (etc) company or private organisation (Alcan Aluminum, Carter Center, Pulverizing Services Inc, Travelers Insurance), but not when it is used for a government institution or a think-tank (Department of Defence, Department of Labour, Pew Centre for Research). The principle behind this ruling is that place-names are habitually changed from foreign languages into English: Deutschland becomes Germany, München Munich, Torino Turin, etc. And to respect the local spelling of government institutions would present difficulties: a sentence containing both the Department of Labor and the secretary of labour, or the Defense Department and the need for a strong defence, would look unduly odd. That oddity will arise nonetheless if you have to explain that Rockefeller Center Properties is in charge of Rockefeller Centre, but with luck that will not happen too often. See place-names.

The Australian Labor Party should be spelt without a u not only because it is not a government institution but also because the Australians spell it that way, even though they spell labour as the British do.

s spelling Use -ise, -isation (realise, organisation) throughout. But please do not hospitalise.

common problems

abattoir

abut, abutted, abutting

accommodate

acknowledgment

acquittal, acquitted, acquitting

adrenalin

adviser, advisory

aeon

aeroplane

aesthetic

aficionado

Afrikaans (the language), Afrikaner (the person)

ageing (but caging, paging, raging, waging)

agri-business (not agro-business)

aircraft, airliner

algorithm

al-Qaeda

amiable

amid (not amidst)

amok (not amuck)

among (not amongst)

analogous

annex (verb), annexe (noun)

antecedent

appal, appals, appalling, appalled

aqueduct

aquifer

arbitrager

artefact

asinine

balk (not baulk)

balloted, balloting

bandanna

bandwagon

battalion

bellwether

benefiting, benefited

biased

bicentenary (noun, not bicentennial)

billeting, billeted

blanketing, blanketed

bloc for a grouping of countries; otherwise, block

blowzy (not blousy)

bogey (bogie is on a locomotive)

borsch

braggadocio

brethren

bumf

bused, busing (keep bussing for kissing)

by-election, bylaw, bypass, byproduct, byword

bye (in sport)

caddie (golf), caddy (tea)

caesium

cannon (gun), canon (standard, criterion, clergyman)

cappuccino

carcass

caviar

chancy

channelling, channelled

checking account (spell it thus when explaining to Americans a current account, which is to be preferred)

choosy

cipher

clubable (coined, and spelled thus, by Dr Johnson)

colour, colouring, colourist

combating, combated

commemorate

confectionery

connection

consensus

cooled, cooler, coolly

coral (stuff found in sea), corral (cattle pen)

coruscate

cosseted, cosseting

debacle

defendant

dependant (person), dependent (adj)

depository (unless referring to American depositary receipts)

desiccate, desiccation

detente (not detente)

dexterous (not dextrous)

dignitary

dilapidate

disk (in a computer context), otherwise disc (including compact disc)

dispatch (not despatch)

dispel, dispelling

distil, distiller

divergences

doppelganger(s)

doveish

dryer, dryly

dullness

dwelt

dyeing (colour)

dyke

ecstasy

embarrass (but harass)

encyclopedia

enroll, enrolment

ensure (make certain), insure (against risks)

enthrall

extrovert

farther (distance), further (additional)

favour, favourable

ferreted

fetus (not foetus, misformed from the Latin fetus)

field-marshal (soldier)

Filipino, Filipina (person), Philippine (adj of the Philippines)

filleting, filleted

flotation

flyer, frequent flyer, high-flyer

focused, focusing

forbear (abstain), forebear (ancestor)

forbid, forbade

foreboding

foreclose

forefather

forestall

forewarn

forgather

forgo (do without), forego (precede)

forsake

forswear, forsworn

fuelled

-ful, not -full (thus armful, bathful, handful, etc)

fulfil, fulfilling

fullness

fulsome

funnelling, funnelled

furore

gallivant

gelatine

glamour, glamorise, glamorous

graffito, graffiti

gram (not gramme)

grey

guerrilla

gulag

Gurkha

gypsy

haj

hallo (not hello)

harass (but embarrass)

hiccup (not hiccough)

high-tech

Hizbullah

honour, honourable

hotch-potch

humour, humorist, humorous

hurrah (not hooray)

idiosyncrasy

impostor

impresario

inadvertent

incur, incurring

innocuous

inoculate

inquire, inquiry (not enquire, enquiry)

install, instalment, installation

instil, instilling

intransigent

jail (not gaol)

Janjaweed

jewellery (not jewelry)

judgment

kilogram or kilo (not kilogramme)

labelling, labelled

laissez-faire

lama (priest), llama (beast)

lambast (not lambaste)

launderette

leukaemia

levelled

libelling, libelled

licence (noun), license (verb), licensee (person with a licence)

limited

linchpin, lynch law

liquefy

literal

littoral (shore)

logarithm

loth (reluctant), loathe (hate), loathsome

low-tech

madrassa

manilla envelope, but Manila, capital of the

Philippines

manoeuvre, manoeuvring

marshal (noun and verb), marshalled

mayonnaise

medieval

melee

meter (a measuring tool), metre (metric measure, meter in American)

mileage

millennium, but millenarian

minuscule

moccasin

modelling, modelled

mould

Muslim (not Moslem)

naivety

’Ndrangheta

nimbyism

nonplussed

nought (for numerals), otherwise naught

obbligato

occur, occurring

oenology

oesophagus

oestrus (oestrogen, etc)

optics (optician, etc)

ophthalmic (ophthalmology, etc)

outsize (not outsized)

paediatric, paediatrician

palaeontology, palaeontologist

panel, panelled

paraffin

parallel, paralleled

pastime

pavilion

phoney (not phony)

piggyback (not pickaback)

plummeted, plummeting

poky

practice (noun), practise (verb)

praesidium (not presidium)

predilection

preferred (preferring, but proffered)

preventive (not preventative)

pricey

primeval

principal (head, loan; or adj), principle (abstract noun)

proffered (proffering, but preferred)

profited

program (only in a computer context, otherwise programme)

prophecy (noun), prophesy (verb)

protester

Pushtu (language), Pushtun (people)

pygmy

pzazz

queuing

rack, racked, racking (as in racked with pain, nerveracking)

racket

rankle

rarefy

razzmatazz

recur, recurrent, recurring

regretted, regretting

restaurateur

resuscitate

rhythm

rivet (riveted, riveter, riveting)

rococo

ropy

rottweiler

rumoured

sacrilegious

sanatorium

savannah

seize

shaky

sharia

shenanigans

sheriff

Shia (noun and adj), Shias, Shiism

shibboleth

Sibylline

siege

sieve

silicon (element)

silicone (synthetic resin)

siphon (not syphon)

skulduggery

smelt

smidgen (not smidgeon)

smoky

smooth (both noun and verb)

snigger (not snicker)

sobriquet

somersault

soothe

souped up

soyabean

specialty (only in context of medicine, steel and chemicals), otherwise speciality

sphinx

spoilt

squirrelled

stanch (verb)

stationary (still)

stationery (paper)

staunch (adj)

storey (floor)

straitjacket and strait-laced but straight-faced

stratagem

strategy

Sunni, Sunnis

supersede

swap (not swop)

swathe (not swath)

synonym

Taliban (plural)

taoiseach (but prefer prime minister, or leader)

tariff

Tatar (not Tartar)

threshold

titbits

titillate

tonton-macoutes

tormentor

trade union, trade unions (but Trades Union Congress)

transatlantic, transpacific

transferred, transferring

travelled

tricolor

trouper (as in old trouper)

tsar

tyre

unnecessary

unparalleled

untrammelled

vaccinate

vacillate

vermilion

wacky

wagon (not waggon)

weasel, weaselly

while not whilst

whizz-kid

wiggle (not wriggle) room

wilful

wisteria

withhold

yarmulke (prefer to kippah)

yogurt

If in doubt, consult Chambers or the OED. It is time well spent.

-able

debatable

dispensable

disputable

forgivable

imaginable

implacable

indescribable

indictable

indispensable

indistinguishable

lovable

movable

ratable

salable (but prefer sellable)

tradable

unmissable

unmistakable

unshakable

unusable

usable

-eable

bridgeable

changeable

knowledgeable

likeable

manageable

noticeable

serviceable

sizeable

traceable

unenforceable

unpronounceable

-ible

accessible

convertible

digestible

dismissible

feasible

inadmissible

indestructible

investible

irresistible

permissible

submersible

plurals No rules here. The spelling of the following plurals may have been decided by either practice or derivation.

-a

consortia

corrigenda

data

media

memoranda

millennia

phenomena

quanta

sanatoria

spectra

strata

-ae

alumnae (female)

antennae

amoebae

formulae

-eaus

bureaus

plateaus

-eaux

chateaux

tableaux

-fs, -efs

-i

alumni

bacilli

nuclei

stimuli

termini

-oes

archipelagoes

buffaloes

cargoes

desperadoes

dominoes

echoes

embargoes

frescoes

haloes

heroes

innuendoes

mangoes

mementoes

mosquitoes

mottoes

noes

potatoes

salvoes

tomatoes

tornadoes

torpedoes

vetoes

volcanoes

-os

albinos

armadillos

calicos

casinos

commandos

demos

dynamos

egos

embryos

Eskimos

falsettos

fandangos

fiascos

flamingos

folios

ghettos

impresarios

librettos

manifestos

memos

mulattos

neutrinos

oratorios

peccadillos

pianos

placebos

provisos

quangos

radios

silos

solos

sopranos

stilettos

studios

virtuosos

weirdos

zeros

-s

agendas

-ums

conundrums

crematoriums

curriculums

forums

moratoriums

nostrums

premiums

quorums

referendums

stadiums

symposiums

ultimatums

-uses

buses caucuses circuses

fetuses focuses geniuses

prospectuses syllabuses

-ves

calves

halves

hooves

loaves

scarves

turves

wharves

Note: indexes (of books), but indices (indicators, index numbers); appendices (supplements), but appendixes (anatomical organs).

split infinitives see grammar and syntax.

stanch, staunch Stanch the flow, though the man be staunch (loyal, stout-hearted). The distinction is useful, if bogus (since both words derive from the same old-French estancher).

stationary, stationery Stationary is still; stationery is writing paper, envelopes, etc.

stentorian, stertorous Stentorian means loud (like the voice of Stentor, a warrior in the Trojan war). Stertorous means characterised by a snoring sound (from sterto, snore).

straight, strait Straight means direct or uncurved; strait means narrow or tight. The strait-laced tend to be straight-faced. Straits are narrow bodies of water between bits of land.

strategy, strategic Strategy may sometimes have some merit, especially in military contexts, as a contrast to tactics. But strategic is usually meaningless except to tell you that the writer is pompous and is trying to invest something with a seriousness it does not deserve.

-style Avoid German-style supervisory boards, an EU-style rotating presidency, etc. Explain what you mean.

subcontract If you engage someone to do something, you are contracting the job to that person (or company); only if that person (or company) then asks someone else to do it is the job subcontracted.

swear words Avoid them, unless they convey something genuinely helpful or interesting to the reader (eg, you are quoting someone). Usually, they will annoy rather than shock. But if you do use them, spell them out in full, without asterisks.

Swiss names see names.

syntax see grammar and syntax.

systemic, systematic Systemic means relating to a system or body as a whole. Systematic means according to system, methodical or intentional.

target Not so long ago target was almost unknown as a verb, except when used to mean provide with a shield. Now it turns up everywhere, even though aim or direct would often serve as well.

terrorist Use with care, preferably only to mean someone who uses terror as an organised system of intimidation. Prefer suspected terrorists to terrorist suspects.

testament, testimony A testament is a will; testimony is evidence. It is testimony to the poor teaching of English that journalists habitually write testament instead.

the Occasionally, the use of the definite article may be optional:

Maximilien Robespierre, the leader of the Committee of Public Safety, is preferable to Maximilien Robespierre, leader of the Committee of Public Safety, but in this context the the after Robespierre is not essential. However, Given that leaders of mainstream left and right parties means something different from Given that the leaders of both mainstream left and right parties. Likewise, If polls are right means something different from If the polls are right. They include freedom to set low flat taxes is similarly, if subtly, different from They include the freedom to set low flat taxes. In each of these examples the crucial the was left out. See also grammar and syntax.

there is, there are Often unnecessary. There are three problems facing the prime minister is better as Three problems face the prime minister.

throe, throw Throe is a spasm or pang (and is usually in the plural). Throw is to cast or hurl through the air. Last throws may be all right on the cricket pitch, but last throes are more likely on the battlefield.

ticket, platform, manifesto The ticket lists the names of the candidates for a particular party (so if you split your ticket you vote for, eg, a Republican for president and a Democrat for Congress). The platform is the statement of basic principles (planks) put forward by an American party, usually at its pre-election convention. It is thus akin to a British party’s manifesto, which sets out the party’s policies.

Platform has also acquired two modern meanings: a standard for the hardware of a computer system, determining what software it can run, and an opportunity to voice one’s views. Both are permissible.

time If you have to give an exact time, you should write 6.25am, 11.15pm, etc. But it is permissible to write two o’clock, 11 o’clock, half past ten, a quarter past four, if you wish to be less precise.

times Take care. Three times more than X is four times as much as X.

titles The overriding principle is to treat people with respect. That usually means giving them the title they themselves adopt. But some titles are ugly (Ms), some misleading (all Italian graduates are Dr) and some tiresomely long (Mr Dr Dr Federal Sanitary-Inspector Schmidt). Do not therefore indulge people’s self-importance unless it would seem insulting not to.

Do not use Mr, Mrs, Miss, Ms or Dr on first mention. Plain Barack Obama, David Beckham or other appropriate combination of first name and surname will do. But thereafter the names of all living people should be preceded by Mr, Mrs, Miss or some other title. Serving soldiers, sailors, airmen, etc should be given their title on first and subsequent mentions. Those (such as Colin Powell, but not Pervez Musharraf) who cast aside their uniforms for civvy street become plain Mr (or whatever). Governor X, President Y, the Rev John Z may be Mr, Mrs or Miss on second mention.

On first mention use forename and surname; then drop the forename (unless there are two people with the same surname mentioned): Nicolas Sarkozy, then Mr Sarkozy

1 Avoid nicknames and diminutives unless the person is always known (or prefers to be known) by one: Joe Biden Tony Blair Bill Emmott Maggie Smith Tiger Woods

2 Avoid the habit of joining office and name: Prime Minister Brown, Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn. But Chancellor Merkel is permissible.

3 Knights, dames, princes, kings, etc should have their titles on first and subsequent mentions. Many peers are, however, better known by their former names and can be given those on first mention. After that, they should be called by their titles. Life peeresses may be called Lady, not Baroness, just as barons are called Lord. Note that some people choose not to use their titles. So Sir Donald Tsang, for instance, prefers to be just Mr Tsang. (See British titles below.)

4 If you use a title, get it right. Rear-Admiral Jones should not, at least on first mention, be called Admiral Jones. On second and subsequent mentions the shorter form is acceptable.

5 Titles are not necessary in headings or captions, although surnames are: no Baracks, Davids, Gordons, Hillarys, etc. Sometimes they can also be dispensed with for athletes and pop stars, if titles would make them seem more ridiculous than dignified.

6 The dead: no titles (including Mr, etc), except those whom you are writing about because they have just died. Dr Johnson and Mr Gladstone are also permissible. There is no need to use first names for well-known people such as Einstein or Keats, though you might choose to do so for people whose second names are more common, like Inigo Jones.

7 Ms is permissible, though avoid it if you can. To call a woman Miss is not to imply that she is unmarried, merely that she goes by her maiden name. Married women who are known by their maiden names — eg, Aung San Suu Kyi, Jane Fonda — are therefore Miss, unless they have made it clear that they want to be called something else.

8 Foreign titles: take extra care.

9 Dr: use Dr only for qualified medical people, unless the correct alternative is not known or it would seem perverse to use Mr. And try to keep Professor for those who hold chairs, not just a university job or an inflated ego.

10 Middle initials: omit except in cases where confusion would be caused otherwise. George W. Bush (and George H. W. Bush) are allowed; but nobody will imagine that the Lyndon Johnson you are writing about is Lyndon A. Johnson or Lyndon C. Johnson.

11 Some titles serve as names, and therefore have initial capitals, though are also descriptions: the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Emir of Kuwait. If you want to describe the office rather than the individual, use lower case: The next archbishop of Canterbury will be a woman. Use lower case in references simply to the archbishop, the emir: The Duchess of Scunthorpe was in her finery, but the duke wore jeans.

British titles Long incomprehensible to all foreigners and most Britons, British titles and forms of address now seem just as confusing to those who hold them. Snobbery, embarrassment and obscurity make it difficult to know whether to write Patricia Scotland, Lady Scotland, Baroness Scotland, Lady Patricia Scotland or Baroness Patricia Scotland. Properly, she is Patricia, Baroness Scotland, but on first mention the following are preferable: Patricia Scotland or Lady Scotland. On subsequent mentions, Lady Scotland is fine.

On first mention all viscounts, earls, marquesses, dukes should be given their titles (shorn of all Right Honourables, etc). Thereafter they can be plain Lord (except for dukes). Barons, a category that includes all life peers, can always be called Lord. The full names of knights should be spelled out on first mention. Thereafter they become Sir Firstnameonly.

clerical titles Ordained clerics should be given their proper titles on first and subsequent mentions, though not their full honorifics (no need for His Holiness, His Eminence, the Right Reverend, etc).

But:

the Rev Michael Wall (thereafter Mr Wall)

Father Ted (Father Ted)

Bishop Cuthbert Auckland (Bishop Auckland)

Archbishop Desmond Tutu (Archbishop Tutu)

Imams, muftis, ayatollahs, rabbis, gurus, etc should be given an appropriate title if they use one, and it should be repeated on second and subsequent mentions, so:

Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri (Ayatollah Montazeri)

Rabbi Lionel Bloom (Rabbi Bloom)

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (Sri Sri Ravi Shankar)

to or and? To try and end the killing does not mean the same as to try to end the killing.

tortuous, torturous Tortuous means winding or twisting. Torturous means causing torture.

total is all right as a noun, but as a verb prefer amount to or add up to.

transitive and intransitive verbs The distinction between transitive and intransitive verbs is often now disregarded, to the distress of those brought up to respect it. Transitive verbs require a direct object; intransitive do not. Many verbs are both transitive and intransitive, and some ditransitive, meaning they appear to govern two objects, one direct and one indirect (as in She gave her husband a piece of her mind).

But not all. Commit is transitive. By committing yourself to the wrong person, you would be committing a mistake, but at least it would be grammatical. Deplete, too, is transitive: stocks do not deplete, they are depleted. Deliver also requires an object, which is implicit in commands like “Stand and deliver!” and questions like “Do you deliver?” Reduce is also transitive. If you want to use it intransitively, try diminish. Halve is another verb that needs an object: do not write The growth rate has halved (rather it has fallen by half). And do not obsess.

Many intransitive verbs need to be followed by a preposition, either explicitly or implicitly. Agree is one such. If something is involved, you must agree to, on or about it. If somebody is involved, you may agree with him, or perhaps agree to do something. Similarly, you may appeal against this injunction, but you may not appeal it. Nor may you cascade it to your colleagues, still less migrate it or pause it. Do not progress it, either, if by that you mean advance it. Progress is also intransitive. If you wish to protest, it must be against something, not at it. And if you live in a pleasant city, do not call it liveable. Life may be liveable there, and life is for living; but cities are lived in, not lived.

Embark and disembark are both transitive and intransitive. But take care if you use them transitively: you may disembark people or goods from a ship or aircraft, but you may not disembark the ship or aircraft yourself even when instructed to.

Avoid table as a transitive verb. In Britain to table means to bring something forward for action, and should be kept to committees. In America it sometimes means exactly the opposite.

In the past the intransitive use of present was seldom used except in obstetrics. Now symptoms present intransitively in every surgery, and other things elsewhere too. All such manifestations are unpleasant.

Even in the age of presentations, keep present transitive.

transpire means exhale, not happen, occur or turn out.

transportation in America, a means of getting from A to B; in Britain, a means of getting rid of convicts.

tribe Regarded as politically incorrect in some circles, tribe is widely used in Africa and other places. It should not be regarded as derogatory and is often preferable to ethnic group. See also ethnic groups, political correctness.

trillion A thousand billion (see figures), written as trn.

trooper, trouper An old trooper is an old cavalry soldier (supposedly good at swearing), old private soldier in a tank regiment, or old mounted policeman. An old trouper is an old member of a theatrical company, or perhaps a good sort.

Turk, Turkic, Turkmen, Turkoman, etc see place-names.

twinkle, twinkling In the twinkling of an eye means in a very short time. Before he was even a twinkle in his father’s eye means Before (perhaps just before) he was conceived. So, more loosely, Before the Model T was even a twinkle in Henry Ford’s eye could mean Before Henry Ford was even thinking about a mass-produced car. Before the internet was even a twinkle in Al Gore’s eyes, however, suggests Al Gore invented the internet.

Ukrainian names see names.

underprivileged Since a privilege is a special favour or advantage, it is by definition not something to which everyone is entitled. So underprivileged, by implying the right to privileges for all, is not just ugly jargon but also nonsense.

unique do not use it unless it is true. Unique means, literally, of which there is only one.

unlike should not be followed by in. Like like, unlike governs nouns and pronouns, not verbs and clauses.

unnecessary words Some words add nothing but length to your prose. Use adjectives to make your meaning more precise and be cautious of those you find yourself using to make it more emphatic. The word very is a case in point. If it occurs in a sentence you have written, try leaving it out and see whether the meaning is changed. The omens were good may have more force than The omens were very good.

Avoid:

cutbacks (cuts will do)

large-scale (big)

the policymaking process (policymaking)

sale events (sales)

strike action (strike)

track record (record)

weather conditions (weather)

wilderness area (usually either a wilderness or a wild area)

This time around means This time, just as any time soon means soon. On a daily/weekly/monthly basis means daily/weekly/monthly. And at this moment in time means now or at present. Currently, actually and really often serve no purpose.

Shoot off, or rather shoot, as many prepositions after verbs as possible. Thus:

Companies can be bought and sold rather than bought up and sold off.

Budgets may be cut rather than cut back.

Plots can be hatched but not hatched up.

Markets should be freed, rather than freed up.

Organisations should be headed by rather than headed up by chairmen.

People can meet rather than meet with each other.

Children can be sent to bed rather than sent off to bed — though if they are to sit up they must first sit down.

Pre-prepared just means prepared.

This advice you are given free, or for nothing, but not for free.

Certain words are often redundant:

The leader of the so-called Front for a Free Freedonia is the leader of the Front for a Free Freedonia.

A top politician or top priority is usually just a politician and certainly only a priority.

A major speech is usually just a speech, an executive summary a summary and a role model a model.

A safe haven is a haven, a free gift a gift and a whole raft a raft (who has ever had half a raft?).

Most probably and most especially are probably and especially.

The fact that can sometimes be shortened to that (That I did not do so was a self-indulgence), but not if it causes confusion.

Loans to the industrial and agricultural sectors are just loans to industry and farming.

Member states or member countries of the EU may simply be referred to as members.

In general, be concise. Try to be economical in your account or argument (“The best way to be boring is to leave nothing out” — Voltaire). Similarly, try to be economical with words — but not with the truth. “As a general rule, run your pen through every other word you have written; you have no idea what vigour it will give to your style” (Sydney Smith). Raymond Mortimer put it even more crisply when commenting about Susan Sontag: “Her journalism, like a diamond, will sparkle more if it is cut.”

See also community, sloppy writing.

use and abuse are much used and abused. You take drugs, not use them (Does he use sugar?). And drug abuse is just drug taking, as is substance abuse, unless it is abuse of prescription drugs.

venerable means worthy of reverence. It is not a synonym for old.

venues Avoid them. Try places, unless in their specific meaning as a site for an event.

verbal Every agreement, except the nod-and-wink variety, is verbal. If you mean one that was not written down, describe it as oral.

viable means capable of living. Do not apply it to things like railway lines. Economically viable means profitable.

Vietnamese names see names.

wars Prefer lower case for the names of wars:

American civil war

cold war

Gulf war

war of the Spanish succession

war of Jenkin’s ear

But these are exceptions:

the Thirty Years War

the War of Independence

the Wars of the Roses

the Six-Day War

Write:

the first world war or the 1914—18 war, not world war one, I or 1 the second world war or the 1939—45 war, not world war two, II or 2

Post-war and pre-war are hyphenated.

the West, Western should be capitalised in a political context (as in the decline of the West). Use capitals also for Western, as in films, novels, etc.

which and that Which informs, that defines. This is the house that Jack built. But This house, which Jack built, is now falling down. Americans tend to be fussy about making a distinction between which and that. Good writers of British English are less fastidious. (“We have left undone those things which we ought to have done.”)

while is best used temporally. Do not use it in place of although or whereas.

who, whom Who is one of the few words in English that differ in the accusative (objective) case, when it becomes whom, often throwing native English-speakers into a fizzle.

In the sentence This is the man who can win the support of most Tory MPs, the word you want is who, since who is the subject of the relative clause. It remains the subject, and therefore also who, in the sentence This is the man who she believes (or says or insists, etc) can win the support of most Tory MPs. That becomes clearer if the sentence is punctuated thus: This is the man who, she believes (or says or insists, etc), can win the support of most Tory MPs.

However, in the sentence This is the man whom most Tory MPs can support, the word in question is whom because the subject of the relative clause has become most Tory MPs. Whom is also necessary in the sentence This is the man whom she believes to be able to win the support of most Tory MPs. This is because the verb believe is here being used as a transitive verb, when it must be followed by an infinitive. If, however, the word insists were used instead of believes, the sentence could not be similarly changed, because the verb insist cannot be used transitively.

wrack is an old word meaning vengeance, punishment or wreckage (as in wrack and ruin). It can also be seaweed. And as a verb it can mean to wreck, devastate or ruin. It has nothing to do with wreak, and it is not an instrument of torture or a receptacle for toast: that is rack. Hence racked with pain, by war, drought, etc. Rack your brains — unless they be wracked.