oblivious
of
(not to)
Means forgetful of, unaware of. It does not mean ignorant or
uncomprehending.
obscenities
Four-letter words and profanities should be avoided.
occupied territories, the (all lower case)
occurred (not occured)
o'clock
octogenarian
octopuses (plural of octopus, not octopi)
Oder-Neisse Line (the boundary between Poland and
Germany)
of
Avoid expressions such as "all of the people attending",
"half of the children replied"; say simply "all the
people", "half the children", etc.
of all time
Do not use this phrase, as in “best golfer of all time”, in any
circumstances. It is meaningless.
offbeat (no hyphen)
Office for Standards in Education, but Ofsted usually
sufficient on its own.
officers
(naval and military)
Do not call ratings or NCOs officers.
oil-drilling, oil-fired, oil-slick, oil-tanker
But oildrum, oilfield, oilrig, oil platform
OK
rather than okay
old see elderly
Old Masters (capitals to avoid confusion)
Olympics
Can be used as a short form of the Olympic Games.
Similarly, the Games (always capped) can be used.
Always capitalise Olympics and Olympic even when used adjectivally, e.g.,
an Olympic athlete.
Note International Olympic Committee (no final “s” on Olympic).
on behalf of
Is a frequently misused phrase. It means in the interest of (a person,
etc.) or as representative of (e.g., “acting on behalf of his client”
is correct). It must not be used as a verbose way of saying by; e.g.,
“the book betrays a lack of understanding on behalf of the author” is
wrong.
one
Use the singular verb in structures such as “one in three says that
...”
In first-person pieces, try to avoid the use of one as a synonym of I.
one member, one vote (no hyphens).
one-time
Do not use as synonym of former as in “one-time chairman”, etc.
ongoing
Avoid this ugly adjective; say continuing if anything is necessary.
online one word in computer context
only
Take great care to place only before the word or phrase it qualifies;
“she only touched the key, but did not press it; she
touched only the key, not the switch; she touched the only
key”. Similarly, “he only played cricket” is wrong; “he played
only cricket” is correct.
on to
Unlike into, two words usually better than one, as in “she moved on to
better things”, though “he collapsed onto the floor” is
acceptable.
As a general rule, use onto as little as possible.
open-heart surgery; open-door policy (if
this overworked phrase has to be used)
open-plan living
room
Opposition
The same capital or lower case rules apply as to Government - capitalise
as a noun but generally lower case as adjective; e.g., “He accused the
Opposition of lying”, but “He said it was an opposition lie”.
or
Need not be preceded by either, though it is strengthened thereby if two
options are mentioned.
Usually avoid a comma before it.
oral
Must not be confused with verbal; it means pertaining to
the mouth, often in the spoken context (e.g., the oral tradition, by word
of mouth);
Verbal means pertaining to words (contrasted with, e.g., physical or
choral).
ordinals
see numbers
Ordnance Survey
Orient,
the
Wherever possible, say the East.
The adjective is oriental, lower case.
Oscar
Award(s), or the Oscars capitals, as they are
registered trademarks
Ouija (board) takes the capital as it is proprietary
Outback, the (in Australia)
outdoor (adjective); but the outdoors
outpatients, inpatients (no hyphen)
outside NEVER say outside of
-out suffixes in nouns, generally join up rather than
hyphenate, as in fallout, knockout, printout, callout, dropout,
bailout, etc. (but to fall out etc.).
over
Do not use as a synonym of more than when followed by a number, e.g.,
"she waited over four hours for the train" should be "...
more than four hours ..."; "there were over 60 victims"
should be "... more than 60 ...". See more than.
over as prefix
Wherever the word does not look too ugly, dispense with the hyphen, even
when this leads to a double “r” in the middle; thus, overcapacity,
overestimate, overreact, override, overrule, overuse, overvalue;
an obvious exception where the hyphen is essential is over-age.
overall one word as adjective, but use sparingly
overly do not use as an alternative for over or too
owing to see due to
Oxbridge
Be sparing in using the term as a
“catch-all” for Oxford and Cambridge Universities.
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Pacific
Rim, South Pacific, North Pacific, etc.
paedophile
An adult sexually attracted to children.
But pederast, a man who has sexual relations with boys
Pakistani
Can be used both for the people of Pakistan and adjectivally, e.g.,
Pakistani culture.
palace
Capitalise in full names, such as Blenheim Palace, thereafter the palace -
except that the Palace is acceptable for Buckingham Palace in most cases
where Royalty is mentioned.
Palace
of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh
palaeo- (not paleo-), so palaeography, etc.
palaeontology
Concerns the study of fossils and must not be confused with archaeology,
which concerns human cultural remains.
paparazzi
paraffin (see kerosene)
paraphernalia (not paraphanalia)
paratroops
A general term for troops dropped by parachute; a parachutist is a
specialist in the activity.
Note, The Parachute Regiment.
Paris
Some of the more familiar place names prone to error are the Champs
Elysées, the Elysée Palace, the Quai
d'Orsay, the Jardin du Luxembourg (not de), the Jardin
des Tuileries (not de) and the Jeu de Paume (not
Pomme).
Parkinson's disease
Parliament
Capitalise always in British context, and in overseas contexts when the
word forms part of the institution, e.g., the European Parliament,
Canadian Parliament.
However, lower case in such as the Spanish parliament (the Cortes), the
Russian parliament (Duma), the Israeli parliament (Knesset), Polish
parliament (Sejm), etc.
partially, partly
Partially is of degree, e.g., partially deaf
partly is of extension, e.g., partly under water
participles
Beware the grammar trap of the disconnected (or unrelated) participle;
e.g., “Judging by the lingering camera shots, X's luck was not about to
change” is wrong - the present participle judging has to have a
following noun or pronoun in agreement (in other words, X's luck is not
doing the judging).
So the sentence has to be rephrased, as “Judging by the lingering camera
shots, I saw that X's luck ...”, or “To judge from the lingering
camera shots, X's luck ...”.
parties (political)
Labour Party, Conservative Party, or any other party, with capital.
Also overseas, such as Republican Party, Democratic Party (though usually
Republicans and Democrats will suffice).
part-time,
part-timer (hyphens)
partygoer (see -goer)
passer-by,
passers-by
past
Use rather than last in such phrases as “the past two weeks”. See last
pastime
past tense of verbs
Almost always prefer the shorter form using final -t where appropriate;
e.g., spelt not spelled, dreamt not
dreamed (though NEVER earnt for earned).
payout, payoff (no hyphens)
peacekeeping, peacemaking, etc. (no hyphens)
peal of bells, peel of an orange, etc.
Pearl Harbor (not Harbour)
pedal as in bicycle
peddle as in selling drugs or advocating ideas
Thus a pedaller is someone who pedals a bike, a pedlar
is the (often shady) small trader; and a drug-pusher is a peddler.
peers
A peer or a peeress has a seat in the House of Lords.
A female life peer is a peeress usually referred to as Baroness Smith.
After the first mention of the Marquess of Paddington, Earl of Euston,
Viscount Pimlico or Lord Holborn, call them all Lord Paddington, Lord
Euston, etc.
pejorative
(not perjorative)
Peking only in phrases such as Peking duck or Peking
man.
The city is now Beijing.
peninsula
Never peninsular when used as a noun; peninsular is the adjective, as in
the Peninsular War.
pension funds (not pensions funds, as plural)
pensioners
Take care with this word. Some people take exception to
"ambiguous" usage, so it should strictly be confined to people
drawing their state pension (men at 65, women at 60).
If in doubt, write the elderly, or as last resort, senior
citizen. See elderly
peony (not paeony)
People for information on how to refer to
individuals.
people/persons
Use rather than persons wherever appropriate; exceptions would be “the
law is no respecter of persons” or the ubiquitous missing persons.
Take care with the apostrophe: remember that people is a plural, so the
normal use is apostrophe “s”, e.g., “it is the people's wish”;
very occasionally, peoples in the sense of races can take an “s”
apostrophe, e.g., “the African peoples' common heritage”.
per
Try to avoid in phrases such as “six times per year”; “six times a
year” is better.
per cent
Always takes figures rather than the word, e.g., 3 per cent, not three per
cent. Usually use decimals rather than fractions (3.25 per cent rather
than 3¼ per cent).
percentage, proportion
Do not use as a synonym of part or many if that is all they mean in a
sentence; e.g., instead of “a large percentage of parents objected”
say “many parents objected”.
percentage points take care.
If the mortgage rate rises from 8 per cent to 10 per cent, it does not
rise by 2 per cent, but by two percentage points. Similarly if a political
party's support drops from 50 per cent to 40 per cent in an opinion poll,
it has lost ten percentage points or 20 per cent of its support.
perestroika
personnel
Prefer people or employees or workers wherever possible.
petfood (no hyphen); similarly, catfood, dogfood
Pharaoh (not -oah), pharaonic (adjective
l/c)
phenomenon
Plural phenomena: beware the use of phenomenal as a cliché
meaning remarkable or big.
phoney (not phony)
photo-finish, but photo call (two words);
likewise, photo opportunity
pidgin
English
(not pigeon)
piecemeal, piecework
pigeonhole(d) (no longer hyphenate)
pigheaded
pilgrims are lower case, but the Pilgrim Fathers;
note The Pilgrim's Progress
pitstop (motor racing)
Places
Plaid Cymru (the Welsh Nationalist Party)
plane, on a higher (not plain)
planes
Try to avoid in text as a synonym of aircraft where jets (where
applicable) or aircraft are always better.
plc (all lower case), can usually be dropped from company
names; see Ltd
plurals
Make corporate bodies and institutions singular unless this looks odd.
Thus “The National Trust is ...”, but sports teams are plural, e.g.,
“Arsenal were worth their 8-0 lead”.
Whether singular or plural, always maintain consistency.
plus, minus
Do not use as variants of and or without.
point-to-point
police forces
Capitalise the word Police when it is part of the full name of the force
e.g. City of London Police, Bedfordshire Police and North Wales
Police.
Other forces use Constabulary instead of Police, so either give that full
title or, more commonly, say Cleveland police, Kent police, etc.
Do not cap when referring to a local division, e.g., Luton police,
or police in Luton.
policemen
Take care with this word. Certain senior officers, men and women,
regularly chide us for using policemen when we mean police officers.
police
ranks
Wherever possible avoid the inelegant abbreviated forms such as Det Con,
Det Chief Insp. Spell out, even if inconvenient sometimes. An exception is
PC, or WPC (for Woman Police Constable).
policyholder, policymaker, but policy document
Pope, the
Not usually necessary to give his full name after identifying which Pope
(unless several Popes are mentioned in a story), but always capital. Note papacy,
pontiff (lower case).
populist
Should not be confused with, or used as a synonym of, popular; it means
supporting the interest of ordinary people, or pandering to mass public
taste.
postcode (no hyphen)
postgraduate, undergraduate (noun and adjective both one
word)
postwar,
prewar
(adjectives, commonly referring to the Second World War).
Do not use adverbially (as in “there were a million unemployed prewar”).
potatoes (plural, as tomatoes)
pothole (as in caving or road surfaces), potholer
pound do not use the £ by itself
PoW (prisoner of war); plural PoWs
practical, practicable do not confuse.
Practical means adapted to actual conditions or (of a person) able to make
things function well practicable means capable of being effected or
accomplished.
practice (noun); practise (verb).
It is an inexcusable practice to confuse the two; writers should practise
getting it right.
prearrange
predilection (not predeliction)
pre-empt
pregnant
Avoid the infelicitous phrase she fell pregnant.
Premier
Do not use in text as a synonym of Prime Minister. Generally, confine the
word to heads of government of the Canadian provinces or Australian
states, when it should take a capital.
Premiership is preferable to prime-ministership.
premiere, of a play, ballet, etc. (no accent)
premise
is an assumption in an argument;
premises (property) take the plural verb, e.g., “the
premises are well positioned”
prepositional verbs
Avoid wherever possible. Examples such as measure up to, get on with are
acceptable on the odd occasion.
Others such as consult with, meet with (where the preposition is
tautologous) are hideous and must never be used.
Pre-Raphaelite
present
Better than current but often redundant.
President (of any country, also President of the
European Commission)
Capital at first and all subsequent mentions.
press always lower case except in titles such as the
Press Complaints Commission.
prestigious
Try to avoid this much-overworked word and find an appropriate substitute
such as highly regarded, admired, eminent, esteemed, leading, noted,
outstanding, powerful, etc.
pretension, but pretentious
prevaricate must not be confused with procrastinate.
The first means to speak or act evasively; the second to defer action, to
be dilatory.
preventive (not preventative)
Prime
Minister
Capital for every country. But l/c when referring to an unspecific, e.g.,
“he would make a good prime minister”.
primeval
principal (noun or adjective)
Means chief, main, important, head etc.
For example, the principal of a college,
or the team's principal objective. It must never be confused with principle,
which is a noun meaning concept, ideal, rule, moral etc.; e.g., her
Christian principles.
prior to
Avoid wherever possible; use before.
prize-money (use hyphen)
prizewinner (one word)
a Nobel prizewinner (unspecific Nobel award), but winner of the Nobel
Prize for Literature (a specific award); also, a Nobel Prize-winning
novel. See Nobel
probe
Use only in a scientific, medical or space context. Never to be used as
inquiry.
problem
Be sparing with use of this overworked word.
procrastinate
Means to defer action, to be dilatory. See prevaricate
Professor of History, Psychology, etc. (capitals);
thereafter, the professor or Professor X.
proffer, proffered; not profer, proferred
program (computers)
programme (the arts, etc.)
prone means lying face-down; supine,
face-up
propeller (not -or)
prophecy (noun), prophesy (verb)
proportion see percentage
pros and cons
protagonist
Means a supporter (of either side) in a debate or quarrel; it does not
mean advocate or proponent.
protégé
protester (NEVER -or)
Protestant
Beware of using for all Christians who are not Roman Catholic.
provided that (not providing that)
provinces, provincial
Take great care of these words in the context of “outside London”.
Many regard them as patronising; use the regions or regional wherever
possible.
prurient
Means having an unhealthy obsession with sex; it does NOT mean puritanical.
public house
Pub is acceptable.
publicly (never publically)
Pulitzer prizes see Nobel for when to capitalise
pullout (noun, one word); but to pull out
punctuation some important reminders:
Commas:
keep commas inside quotes in the following type of “broken”
sentence: “The trouble is,” he said, “that this is a contentious
issue.” Omit the comma before if, unless, before, since, when unless
the rhythm or sense of the sentence demands it. Avoid the so-called
Oxford comma; say “he ate bread, butter and jam” rather than “he
ate bread, butter, and jam”.
Dashes:
should not be used in place of commas. Too many dashes can be ugly and
disruptive.
Note
that punctuation marks go inside the inverted commas
if they relate to the words quoted, outside if they relate to the main
sentence, e.g., She is going to classes in “health and beauty”. If
the whole sentence is a quotation, the final point goes inside, e.g.,
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty.”
Interrogation/question
marks are
never used with indirect questions or rhetorical questions, e.g.,
“She asked why he did not laugh.”
Parentheses
should be used sparingly; try to use commas instead.
And and but, both conjunctions, may occasionally be
used at the beginning of a sentence, especially for emphasis.
With
ellipses, use three points with full space after last
word, then thin-spacing between points, then full space before next
word; for example, not only ... but also.
putsch
A military seizure of power, as in coup
pygmy, pygmies
Pyramids
The three main Pyramids at Giza (including the Great Pyramid) should be
capped. But there are many other pyramids (lower case) throughout Egypt.
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