Where possible, use the -t as opposed to the -ed suffix to form the simple past or past participle of verbs. This is controversial in some cases, believed by some (primarily North American) contributors to be archaic. In fact the -t form is far more widespread than many realize, is often more succinct, occasionally avoids confusion with an adjectival form (eg, the learned scholar learnt in her youth.) The following are especially recommended:
Avoid verb use; in the UK it means to bring forward or take action, while in the USA it means the opposite.
Singular. Plural form is tableaux.
Although derived from French, the phrase has a specifically English sense of a complete meal for a fixed price, and so is not italicized as a foreign term.
Overused, clichéd.
Adjective, proper noun, and language are all Tajik.
The noun.
The verb, never hyphenated.
The noun.
The verb.
Avoid; prefer participate.
Never use except in direct quotes (and then, never censor as take the p— or anything similar.)
Not Taleban. A plural proper noun. (Translation of Pashto ??????: “students” or “seekers”)
Not talkshow.
Hyphenated; plural tally-hos.
The woolen hat named after Tam o’Shanter from the eponymous Robert Burns poem.
Trade name of oseltamivir, an anti-viral drug. It is not a vaccine.
Full formal title is Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), but Tamil Tigers is sufficient in most cases. However, do not shorten to either Tamil or Tigers alone; either might be misleading as over-broad.
No final ‘s’.
The vice-executive head of the Irish government, similar to Deputy Prime Minister. Note the title is not capitalizedi in Irish Gaelic, but it is capitalised when used as a proper noun in English.
The executive head of the Irish government, similar to Prime Minister. Note the title is not capitalized in Irish Gaelic, but it is capitalized when used as a proper noun in English.
Avoid use as a verb; prefer to aim, to direct. Attempt to restrict its use to military/hostile actions
Never tarriff.
Tartan is most commonly used to describe a plaid woolen fabric, generally one whose coloring pattern is associated with a military or Scottish association. By no means are these patterns limited to such organizations, or solely associated with the British Isles; similar patterns date from the Neolithic era.
Trademark; the generic term is stun gun. Note that most countries classify this weapon as deadly
Also, tattooer, tattooist, tattooment, and tattooage. But never tattoed.
No hyphen. Taxman is cliché, and often pejorative, therefore avoid use except in direct quotes.
Full name Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
Clichéd loan-word from Yiddish; avoid. Plural is tchotchkes.
There are regional variations and exceptions; a private Japanese-style tea house differs from a retail teahouse, for example.
Sporting teams are generally plural, no matter the actual proper noun, in most contexts. Example: The Wild are leading in their conference. The exception is in business reporting. Example: The New York Jets reported its largest annual revenues.
Hyphenate.
The FTSE techMARK 100, in that capitalization, a technology index on the London stock exchange.
Do not use as a substitute for the adjective teenage, teenaged.
Not teatotal, or other variants.
Not Teheran.
Full name Telefónica S.A., note acute accent.
In general, there is no benefit, ever, to reporting a phone number on Wikinews.
If a phone number must be recorded, use the country code with prefixed ‘+’, and the national phone number format which usually involves a city or area code number, sometimes a local exchange number, and finally the phone number. For example, a US phone number might appear as +1 123 456-7890. A UK number might appear as +44 0151-234 8464. Note that specific punctuation is the style used in the given country; hyphenation and parentheses are used as sparingly as possible.
TV is acceptable in either headlines or body text. Use full station title on first use, abbreviations are acceptable thereafter (Canadian Television Network, thereafter CTV; Australian Broadcast Company Television, ABC-TV, etc.) Where a specific broadcaster is not known, use the construction [region] television, for example, Norwegian television blah blah.
Television programme titles are italicized, as with other creative works. See #titles of works.
The preferred form, except in articles specifically about weather events in the United States, is 15C (59F), minus 20C (-4F). Note the use of “minus”, not negative. Outside parens, prefer the word and not the symbol. There is no need to use ° or the word degree. Do not refer to temperatures as “hot” or as “cold”; use high or low.
Avoid the use of temperature changes; they are very prone to errors. A temperature rise of 2C is not a rise of 36F – it is actually a rise of approximately 4F.
Not ten-pin. Tenpin bowling is the sport, while each pin is also a tenpin, particularly in the UK.
Not terraced house.
In almost all cases, avoid use except in direct quotes. In particular, avoid gratuitous use as a marketing ploy by groups attempting to spin or bias the press, such as “anti-terrorism legislation” or “war on terrorism”. Terms such as guerrilla or insurgent, paramilitary, armed gangsters, or similar are generally more specific and may be more applicable to a given situation.
Be aware a government or state actor may use terror as a tool to govern or exert influence, and in fact is usually better equipped and positioned to do so than any small group of opposition.
For cricket or rugby, capitalised. For cricket this is used only for games between official Test nation teams (Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies, Zimbabwe.) For rugby it is used for matches between official national teams. Other matches are lower-cased test matches.
With circumflex and grave accents.
The adjectival form is Texas, as Texas Cowboys, Texas wildlife, while the noun for a person from Texas is Texan.
Single word, no hyphen, same as guidebook, handbook, etc.
The former Prime Minister of Thailand, Thaksin at second mention. (Note: Convicted of fraud and corruption in absentia, Thaksin is now a citizen of Montenegro.)
Highly toxic element.
Highly teratogenic pharmaceutical.
Overused, and often incorrectly used. “That” defines, “which” gives additional information.
In news writing, use “that” to connect a subordinate indicating clause, or as a determiner to indicate a specific noun. Do not use as a pronoun, adverb. Do not assume constructions “[name] said” must be followed by “that”; only use that when necessary for clarity. He said no explanation would be forthcoming sounds like an exact quote, which might be misleading. He said that no explanation would be forthcoming is less ascriptive, however She said the effort must be made is more vigorous than She said that the effort must be made.
Acceptable usage:
Questionable usage:
Unacceptable usage:
(See also which)
Upper case in titles of books, poems, works of art, television or radio shows, place names. In most other contexts, lower case. Note especially, newspapers are lower case, the Washington Post, the Globe and Mail, or the Times.
Do not use this construction. Use constructions such as then Prime Minister, or who was President at the time, or Mrs Clinton (then Miss Rodham). Note: no hyphen.
In names, generally lowercase where appended as the Bolshoi theater, Shanghai Grand theater, upper case where preceding in names as Theatre Royal, Covent Gardens, Theatre Rhinoceros.
May often be omitted without any alteration to the meaning of the sentence. There are three challengers aiming to get the job vs. Three challengers aim to get the job.
Ownership is without an apostrophe.
This is a trade mark, and needs capitalisation.
Avoid constructions similar to think early-Edwardian. Simplest alteration is to add the word ‘of’: think of early-Edwardian.
Preferred over thinktank or think tank.
Do not use except in direct quotes. (Also do not use firstly, secondly, etc.)
Must agree with subject in number.
Caps. Avoid as the term is dated and objectionable (referring to countries neither aligned with the western powers nor the eastern powers during the w:Cold War.) Prefer instead newly industrialized countries, developing economies, or developing nations, or related constructions.
See Social titles
Do not italicise or put in quotes the title of a work of art. Words in a title of a work of art take an initial cap, a, and, at, for, from, in, of, on, the, to, with (except in initial position.) Note this capitalisation does not apply to the subtitle, if any.
Over-used and often bombastic; avoid clichés/pleonasm use such as thorough investigation, thorough inquiry, thorough check, and thorough reform.
Never hyphenated.
No hyphens.
Third generation mobile telephony.
Not threshhold.
Located within Beijing.
Avoid use other than related to tides. See tsunami.
General formats:
Weeks begin on Monday, but Sunday references to the following week are this week. Avoid starting anything with Last week…
Do not insist on placing a time reference at the start of the sentence or paragraph. You would not say “I this morning ate breakfast,” so do not write “The Premier this morning announced…” Make the time element a natural part of your sentence. “The initiative announcement was one of several in the Premier’s morning press conference.”
Formerly East Timor. Full title Democratic Republic of Timór-Leste. Yes, I know en.WN uses East Timor: it’s wrong in doing so.
Book titles, poems, songs, albums, and any other artistic work are not italicised, quoted, nor in bold font. Words in a title are capitalised, excepting a, and, at, for, from, in, of, the, to; the exception to the exceptions being when in the initial position or after a colon.
Social titles are uniquely relevant to geography. The general rules described in the Style guide serve for most situations. A planned sub-section will be SG Details-Social titles.
The phrase is generally over-used. However, the use as subjunctive clause preceding a statement, eg To be fair, his economic policies…, must be avoided. The phrase is unnecessary, and biasing as it introduces doubt regarding earlier statements.
In general, avoid. See rant at Relative time.
Refers to the room, not the lavatory
In general, avoid. See rant at Relative time.
Avoid verb use; prefer add up to, amount to, similar constructions. Noun use is normal.
See also numeracy regarding creating sums.
The preferred term for a seismic-induced sea wave. Tsunami is a term borrowed from Japanese (??, ??, ???), and usually refers to a wave caused by tectonic or volcanic forces.