The Times Style Guide: A guide to English usage. Ian Brunskill

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СКАЧАТЬ aircraftwoman not aircraftsman etc

      aircraft names are italicised, like ship or locomotive names, on the rare occasions when they are needed, eg the Enola Gay (Hiroshima bomber)

      aircraft types B-52, F-111 etc (roman, hyphens between letter and numbers just because it looks neater)

      air fares two words, as rail fares, bus fares etc

      air force cap Royal Air Force (thereafter the RAF), otherwise all lower case: the US air force (USAF, or in Second World War contexts USAAF), Brazilian air force; and lower case in adjectival use, eg an air force raid. No hyphen, even adjectivally

      airplane ugly Americanism; do not use

      airports as a general rule for British airports, use the name of the city or town followed by lower case airport, eg Manchester airport, Leeds/Bradford airport, East Midlands (formerly Nottingham) airport, Luton airport; but Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted are fine on their own

      air raid two words (unlike airstrike)

      air show two words; lower case even when specific, eg the Paris air show, the Farnborough air show

      airstrike one word in military sense, but air raid (two words)

      AK47 no need to hyphenate the Kalashnikov assault rifle

      akimbo use only with reference to arms (never legs). It means hands on the hips with elbows turned outwards

      al- as the prefix to Arabic nouns (including names), prefer the al- to the el- form, except where the el- has become widely accepted. The prefix is dropped from names at second mention, so that Bashar al-Assad becomes Assad

      Albert Hall, the prefer to give Royal at first formal mention (that is its name); subsequently (or informally) fine without

      alcohol its strength is measured either by volume (a percentage) or by the more traditional proof system, of which there are British and American variants. Do not confuse the percentage and proof systems by writing, eg that a drink is 48 per cent proof. As an example, a spirit that is 40 per cent alcohol by volume (ABV) is 80 degrees proof on the American scale (which runs from 0 to 200, and the proof number being precisely double the ABV figure); on the old British scale, which runs from 0 to 175, 40 per cent ABV would be 70 degrees proof. On the British scale, 100 degrees proof spirit (57.1 per cent ABV) is the minimum strength of distilled alcohol that when mixed with gunpowder sustains its combustion, and this property was used to test the traditional rum ration in the British navy. Since 1980 Britain has used the ABV system. See drink-drive

      A level no hyphen as a noun, but A-level results etc (hyphenate when adjectival). A levels now embrace AS levels and A2s, and can still be used as the generic phrase and in historical context. But use O levels (same hyphenation rules) now only in historical context

      alfresco one word, roman

      algebra take great care in writing and presenting algebraic expressions. Individual terms should be in italics. Be sure that superscripts, including squares of numbers, and subscripts are properly rendered, eg E=mc². As an example in narrative text: “Dr Edwards noted that the mass, m, is proportional to Ax where A is the area of the burger and x is its thickness. If all other parameters remain the same (heat of grill, absence of sudden downpour, mood of cook and so on), then t, the total cooking time, is proportional to x²A.” See italics

      alibi not a general alternative to excuse; it means being elsewhere at the material time

      Alistair always check the spelling of this name (Alastair, Alasdair, Alister etc)

      all in phrases such as “all the president’s men” there is no need to write “all of the president’s men”

      Allahu akbar (God is greatest); note also alhamdulillah (“praise God”, approximately equivalent to the Judaeo-Christian alleluia/hallelujah)

      allcomers one word

      allege avoid the suggestion that the writer is making the allegation; somewhere in the story always specify the source. Do not assume that use of this verb will keep you out of legal trouble; if in doubt, ask a lawyer. Do not use alleged as a synonym of ostensible, apparent or reputed

      All Hallows Eve not Allhallows

      Allies cap the Allies in the Second World War context; generally, lower case alliance, as in the Atlantic alliance, Gulf War alliance etc

      all right never alright, except in the television programme It’ll be Alright on the Night

      All Souls College Oxford (no apostrophe)

      all-time avoid as in all-time high; use highest or record high instead

      al-Qaeda thus, hyphen and ae

      alsatian lower case, the German shepherd dog. See dogs

      alternate (adj) as well as being English for “every other” or “every second” in a sequence, is also American for alternative. This latter use is to be resisted, firmly, although we may need to concede that alternate history has gained more or less universal currency to denote the “what if” school of fiction that imagines, eg life in a Britain occupied by victorious Nazis after the Second World War

      alternative of two, choice of three or more, but there is no need to be obsessive about this

      alternative vote (AV) system; note also first-past-the-post system

      alumnus a (singular, male) graduate of a particular educational institution; alumni is the plural, including for mixed groups. The female equivalents are alumna and alumnae

      ambassador lower case even when specific (see capitalisation); the French ambassador; “he was appointed ambassador to Japan”

      ambience prefer to the French spelling ambiance

      Amendment spell out and upper case for clarity in relation to the US constitution, eg the First Amendment, the Fifth Amendment etc

      Americanisms generally to be resisted, unless they have clearly passed into standard English use

      American spellings allow US spellings for proper names of institutions, well-known landmarks etc. So Lincoln Center, World Trade Center, Labor Day, Medal of Honor, Pearl Harbor etc; in practice this means US spellings may be retained in proper names used with initial caps, as it will be clear what is going on; job titles that in our style become lower case (ie almost all of them) should be anglicised (the secretary of defence etc, so that they do not just look like spelling mistakes); for all other words use English spellings.

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