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

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СКАЧАТЬ for theatre or missing the u out of words such as colour; eg US usage does not double the final l of the root verb in forms such as traveller, cancelled, fuelled, modelling etc; license is both verb and noun in US English, and so, confusingly, is practice; avoid all of these and be ready to change them in agency copy or quotes

      America(n)/US in general, try to use American as in “American cities”, “American food” etc; but US in headlines and in the context of government institutions, such as US Congress, US navy, US military operation. Never use America when ambiguity could occur with Canada or Latin America

      amid not amidst; similarly among, not amongst

      amok not amock or amuck

      ampersand use in a company name if the company uses it

      amphitheatres in classical context are oval or circular (eg the Colosseum in Rome); do not confuse with theatres, which are semi-circular or horseshoe-shaped

      Amsterdam treaty (lower case t), but the Treaty of Amsterdam

      analogue in all contexts, noun and adjective

      anathema meaning accursed, consigned to perdition; there is no need for an article, thus: “It is anathema to me.” Although a noun, it is quasi-adjectival in usage

      ancestor strictly means a person from whom another is directly descended, especially someone more distant than a grandparent. Do not use in the looser sense of predecessor; eg Queen Elizabeth I is not the ancestor of the present Queen. An ancestor is not a descendant, so do not mix them up

      ancient Briton/Britain ancient Greek/Greece, ancient Egyptian/Egypt, ancient Roman/Rome, the ancient world; seems fine to lower case the a on ancient but cap the national adjective or noun

      and also do not use together

      androgynous not androgenous in reference to having both male and female characteristics; androgenic refers to male hormones, eg testosterone

      aneurysm not aneurism

      angioplasty is a procedure carried out by cardiologists and is not surgery

      Anglesey never Anglesea

      anglicise, anglophile, anglophobe, anglophone all lower case

      angst roman, lower case

      animals cap proper nouns or adjectives derived from them when naming breeds of animals (or species of birds): Indian elephant, Nile crocodile, Bengal tiger, Arctic tern, Dartford warbler, African grey parrot, Bewick’s swan etc; otherwise all lower case. When referring to individual animals in stories or captions, use “he” or “she” if the sex is definitely known or if the creature is called by a masculine or feminine name (eg Felix the cat had only himself to blame). But use “it” if sex is unspecified or irrelevant. On the racing pages, horses are always “he” or “she”. See anthropomorphism

      annexe noun, but to annex verb

      anniversary by definition, is the date on which an event occurred in some previous year. So avoid such nonsense as the “nine-month anniversary” or the “300-day anniversary” of something

      answerphone or answering machine

      Antarctic around the South Pole, Arctic around the North: capitalise, spell correctly and do not mix up

      antennae plural of antenna in zoological sense; antennas in radio or aerial sense

      anthropomorphism the lazy option in captioning photographs of animals; try instead to convey some real information about the creatures or the photograph

      anti in compounds, generally no hyphen (unless hideous or confusing without) but always hyphenate before a capital letter, eg anti-American

      Antichrist initial cap, no hyphen

      anticipate widely (and acceptably) used to mean expect; better, however, to preserve the senses of to foresee something and react (to anticipate a blow), or to do something before the due time (so that to anticipate marriage is quite different from expecting to marry)

      anticlimax no hyphen

      anticyclone no hyphen

      antidepressant (noun or adjective), no hyphen

      antihero no hyphen

      Antipodes, Antipodean cap A when referring to Australia and New Zealand

      antisemitic, antisemitism arguments have been advanced for using the unhyphenated form to mean specifically hatred of Jews, which is what is almost always intended, and anti-Semitism to denote hostility to a whole group of Semitic peoples; the distinction seems rather effortful but it reinforces our preference for avoiding hyphens where we can

       antisocial

      antisocial behaviour order Asbo; plural Asbos

      anti-tank one that probably looks better with a hyphen

      anti-terrorism another

      antiviral one word

      any more always two words

      apart from prefer to the Americanism “aside from”

       ape, aping, apish

      aphelion the point in its orbit when a planet or comet is farthest from the sun. See perihelion

      apostrophes with proper names/nouns ending in s that are singular, follow the rule of writing what is voiced, eg Keats’s poetry, Sobers’s batting, The Times’s style (or Times style); and with names where the final s is soft, use the s apostrophe, eg Rabelais’ writings, Delors’ presidency; plurals follow normal form, as Lehman Brothers’ loss etc.

      Note that with Greek names of more than one syllable that end in s, generally do not use the apostrophe s, eg Aristophanes’ plays, Achilles’ heel, Socrates’ life, Archimedes’ principle; but note Jesus’s (not Jesus’) parables. Beware of organisations that have variations as their house style, eg St Thomas’ Hospital, where we should respect their preference.

      Take care with apostrophes with plural nouns, eg women’s, not womens’; children’s, not childrens’; people’s, not (usually) peoples’. Also beware of moving the apostrophe when creating plurals: a lot of shepherd’s pies, two rival builder’s merchants, two private member’s bills, etc.

      Use the apostrophe in expressions such as two years’ time, several hours’ delay etc.

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