Tricky words
- alumna – a woman who previously belonged to [college etc]
- alumnae – plural term for women who were formerly members [of college etc]
- alumni – plural term applying to either men only or members of both sexes [of college etc]
- alumnus – a man who previously belonged to [college etc]
- benefited
- biased
- comprise (not comprise of)
- dependant (noun)/dependent (adjective)
- email (written in lower case and without a hyphen)
- enquire/enquiry (favoured in preference to inquire/inquiry)
- focused
- fundraising
- instalment
- internet (lower case)
- licence (noun)/ license (verb)
- manoeuvre
- no-one (hyphenated)
- paralleled
- postdoctoral (no hyphen)
- postgraduate (written without hyphen, whether as noun or adjective)
- postholder (written without hyphen and in lower case)
- practice (noun)/practise (verb)
- riveting
- supersede
- website/webpage (written without hyphen and in lower case)
General guidelines
- use suffix -ise NOT –ize
✓ Derren Brown placed his subject under hypnosis during a live TV performance.
- keep the -e when it is needed for correct pronunciation: ageing, acknowledgement, judgement
- when pluralising proper names ending in -y, the -y does not convert to -ies
- for words borrowed from other languages, employ 'e' spellings rather than ae or æ in cases that follow standard British usage
✓ encyclopedia
✓ medieval
- plurals: employ the appropriate foreign plural forms (drawn chiefly from ancient Greek and Latin) for those that continue to be widely recognised (also see alumnus under spelling section above)
✓ nucleus–nuclei
✓ stratum–strata
✓ genus–genera
✓ medium–media
✓ datum–data
✓ analysis–analyses
✓ basis–bases
✓ crisis–crises
- bear in mind that some words may have multiple forms which vary according to their meaning:
✓ formula–formulas but formulae in maths/chemistry
✓ index–indices for maths and indexes for books
✓ appendix–appendices for books and appendixes in anatomy
- contractions: in most contexts, and especially in less formal writing, it is perfectly acceptable to write 'hasn't' in place of 'has not' etc
- when dealing with compound words created from a noun and an adjective or two nouns joined by a preposition, make the (key) noun plural
✓ Attorney General/Attorneys General
✓ brother-in-law/brothers-in-law
✓ passer-by/passers-by
Word usage and spelling
among v between
- Among is used for items lacking individual distinction (She couldn't decide among all the colleges.)
- Between is used when referring to specific, identified items (She couldn't decide between Magdalen or St Hilda's.)
less v fewer
- Less is used with nouns that are uncountable: if you could use much to describe having a lot of the noun, use less ('I can't eat that much cheese: please give me less.')
- Fewer is used with items you can count: if you could use many to describe having a lot of the noun, use fewer ('I can't eat that many sprouts: please give me fewer.')
effect v affect (verb)
- Effect as a verb means to cause or produce, or to bring about a particular result: A glass of brandy may effect his recovery. (effect his recovery: bring about his recovery)
- Affect as a verb means to influence or alter something; it can also mean to pretend or make a false claim:
✓ A glass of brandy may affect his recovery. (affect his recovery: influence whether or how quickly he will recover)
✓ He affected to have drunk only one glass of brandy. (affect to have drunk only one glass: falsely claim he had consumed less brandy)
effect v affect (noun)
- Effect as a noun refers to the result something produces
✓ The storm created far-reaching effects.
- Affect as a noun denotes the external display of someone's emotional or psychological condition
✓ His affect suggested a sense of cheerful indifference.
