Ian Brunskill (editor) - The Times Style Guide: A practical guide to English usage

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First published 2003
Second edition 2017
Third edition 2022

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e-Book Edition April 2022
ISBN 9780008412890
Version: 2022-04-21

a, an use a before all words beginning with a vowel or diphthong with the sound of u (as in unit) a eulogy, a European etc; but use an before unaspirated h an heir, an honest woman, an honour. Whether or not to use an before an aspirated h when the first syllable of a word is unaccented hotel, historian, heroic is a matter of preference; The Times and The Sunday Times prefer a. With abbreviations, acronyms, initials, be guided by pronunciation: an LSE student, an RAF officer, an NGO

abbreviated negatives (cant, dont, shant etc, and similar abbreviations/contractions such as Ill, youre) should be discouraged except in direct quotes, although in more informal pieces such as diaries, sketches and some features they are fine when the full form would sound pedantic

Abdication cap with specific reference to Edward VIIIs; in general sense, use lower case

Aboriginal (singular, noun and adjective) and Aborigines (plural), for native Australian(s); aboriginal (lower case) for the wider adjectival use. Be aware that the term, especially as a noun, is increasingly regarded as outmoded and potentially offensive in Australia, where terms such as Indigenous Australians are often preferred

absorption is the noun from absorb; absorbtion is a non-word that has found its way into our pages more than once

abstraction often an escape from precise meaning and a sign of lazy writing. Beware words such as situation, crisis, problem, resolution, question, issue, condition. A newspaper is about what happens and what people do; it should use concrete words. A headline, especially, may be killed by an abstract noun or phrase

abu means father of so must not be separated from the name that follows, ie Abu Qatada at first mention remains Abu Qatada (father of Qatada), not simply Qatada, and certainly not Mr Qatada

accents give French and German words their proper accents and diacritical marks, unless they have passed into common English usage. Use accents as appropriate also on capital letters and in headlines. With anglicised foreign words, no need for accents (hotel, depot, debacle, elite, regime etc), unless it makes a crucial difference to pronunciation or understanding, eg clich, faade, caf, expos. NB matinee, puree etc.

In Spanish give accents only on the names of people, if they can be checked. In other Spanish words and place names, ignore accents and diacritical marks except for n with the tilde (or , as in El Nio); this is considered a distinct letter of the alphabet in its own right and is also familiar to (and easily pronounceable by) most English-speaking readers

Achilles heel a small but deadly area of weakness in someone seemingly invulnerable (like the Greek hero of the Trojan War, hence cap and apostrophe); but achilles tendon (lower case, no apostrophe, as the connection with the myth is more remote)

acknowledgment as with most (but not quite all) such words, no middle e

acronym a word formed from the initial letters or groups of letters of words in a set phrase or series of words, eg Opec, from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, or Ukip for the United Kingdom Independence Party. If the acronym is easily pronounced and usually spoken as a word, write with an initial cap and then lower case: Opec, Nato, Ukip, Rada, Bafta, Nice, Acas, Asbo etc; follow this house style whatever the organisation itself may choose to do. Acronyms do not normally take the definite article.

Non-acronym abbreviations based on initials that are spelt out separately in speech (ie not pronounced as a word) remain in caps, and normally retain a definite article: the BBC, the RAF, the CBI, the LSO, the UN, the EU etc. A few, by convention, take an unpleasant mixture of upper and lower case: MoT, the MoD, the DfE, the IoD. All but the most familiar organisations, bodies, concepts and things should be named in full at first mention with the initials in brackets. However, a lot of initials in text will produce an unappetising alphabet soup, so use as sparingly as possible; after first mention try to vary with a suitable word: the ministry, the corporation, the department, the institute etc

Act theatre, ballet, opera etc; use cap and use roman numerals when naming, specifying or giving references: Macbeth, Act I, Act II etc; for more general refs use lower case, eg in the second act of the play, in the third scene of Act II

Act and Bill (parliamentary), cap when giving full name (the Data Protection Act, the Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill etc) but otherwise lower case: a bill intended to decriminalise assisted suicide; the act covers the gathering, storing and processing of personal information etc

action as a transitive verb meaning undertake (The marketing department will action this) is corporate jargon of the most irritating kind; avoid

active the active voice is generally better (and shorter) than the passive, especially in headlines

actor, actress for women use the feminine designation

AD, BC note that AD comes before the date, eg AD35; BC comes after, 350BC. Both have no spaces. With century, both are used after, eg 3rd century BC/AD. The terms BCE and CE (Common Era) are not to be used by