-
cabby
not cabbie, but the plural is cabbies -
cabin attendant, crew, staff
not air hostesses -
cabinet, shadow cabinet
but Cabinet Office -
caddie
tee; caddy tea -
Cádiz
-
Caernarfon
place; Lord Carnarvon person (he lives at Highclere Castle in West Berkshire) -
caesarean section
Julius Caesar is not thought to have been born by C-section (because his mother survived his birth) -
caesar salad
attributed to the restaurateur Caesar Cardini -
Caesars Palace
hotel and casino in Las Vegas; this one really is named after Julius Caesar -
Cafcass
Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service -
cafe
no accent -
Calcutta
now Kolkata -
calf leather
but calf's liver -
Californian
a person; the adjective is California, which is why Brian Wilson did not write a song called Californian Girls; the same rule applies to other US states, so a "Texan drilling for Texas tea" is an oilman -
call girl
like "vice girl", an old-fashioned term encountered only in the tabloids, where it is always the 1950s -
callous
adjective, meaning hardened, metaphorically or literally; callus (plural calluses) noun, meaning hard area of skin.
The correct word to use to mean "covered in calluses" is in fact calloused, from the medical verb, to callous; although callused is often seen -
Calor
TM -
cameraphone
-
Campaign for Better Transport
formerly Transport 2000 -
Campari
TM -
can not, cannot
are not the same: note the difference between "you can not eat if you don't want to" and "you cannot eat porridge with a knife" -
Canal+
French TV channel, formerly Canal Plus -
canal boats
A narrowboat is the popular type of British canal boat, 7ft wide and up to 72ft long – do not call it a barge; a wider version (typically 10-14ft wide) is a broadbeam narrowboat. A barge is a broader (10-14ft wide) cargo-carrying boat - normally towed but sometimes self-powered. The version with accommodation is usually a Dutch barge. A cruiser is the white-hulled GRP (glass-reinforced plastic) style of boat, more commonly seen on rivers; smaller versions are cabin cruisers.
The difference between narrowboat and barge is important, particularly if you don't want to get stuck in a narrow lock somewhere outside Birmingham -
Canary Wharf
the whole development, not the main tower, which is 1 Canada Square -
Cancún
city in Mexico -
cannabis
people smoke cannabis rather than "experiment" with it, despite what politicians and young members of the royal family might claim -
canon
cleric, decree, principle, body of writings, type of music; cannon something you fire (plural: cannon, not cannons) -
Canute
(c994-1035) Danish king of England, Denmark and Norway who commanded the tide to turn back, so the legend says – not in a vain attempt to exercise power over nature, but to prove to his toadying courtiers that he was not all-powerful -
canvas
tent, painting -
canvass
solicit votes -
CAP
common agricultural policy -
capitals
"I am a poet: I distrust anything that starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop" (Antjie Krog)
Times have changed since the days of medieval manuscripts with elaborate hand-illuminated capital letters, or Victorian documents in which not just proper names, but virtually all nouns, were given initial caps (a Tradition valiantly maintained to this day by Estate Agents).
A look through newspaper archives would show greater use of capitals the further back you went. The tendency towards lowercase, which in part reflects a less formal, less deferential society, has been accelerated by the explosion of the internet: some web companies, and many email users, have dispensed with capitals altogether.
Our style reflects these developments. We aim for coherence and consistency, but not at the expense of clarity. As with any aspect of style, it is impossible to be wholly consistent – there are almost always exceptions, so if you are unsure check for an individual entry in this guide. But here are the main principles:
jobs all lc, eg prime minister, US secretary of state, chief rabbi, editor of the Guardian.
titles cap up titles, but not job description, eg President Barack Obama (but the US president, Barack Obama, and Obama on subsequent mention); the Duke of Westminster (the duke at second mention); Pope Benedict XVI but the pope. -
British government departments of state initial caps, eg Home Office, Foreign Office, Ministry of Justice.
See departments of state for a full list
other countries' departments of state lc, eg US state department, Russian foreign ministry.
government agencies, public bodies, quangos initial caps, eg Crown Prosecution Service, Equality and Human Rights Commission, Heritage Lottery Fund, Revenue & Customs.
acts of parliament initial caps (but bills lc), eg Official Secrets Act, Child Poverty Act 2010, local government bill.
parliamentary committees, reports and inquiries all lc, eg trade and industry select committee, royal commission on long-term care for the elderly, Jenkins report.
artistic and cultural names of institutions, etc, get initial caps, eg British Museum, National Gallery, Royal Albert Hall, Tate Modern. Books, films, music, works of art, etc have initial caps except a, an, and, at, for, from, in, of, the, to (except in initial positions or after a colon), eg There is a Light That Never Goes Out.
churches, hospitals and schools cap up the proper or placename, lc the rest, eg St Peter's church, Pembury, Great Ormond Street children's hospital, Ripon grammar school, Vernon county primary school. -
universities and colleges of further and higher education caps for institution, lc for departments, eg Sheffield University department of medieval and modern history, Oregon State University, Free University of Berlin, University of Queensland school of journalism, London College of Communication.
airports cap the name but lc the generic part (if necessary at all), eg Heathrow, Gatwick (no need for "airport"), Liverpool John Lennon airport.
geographical features lc, eg river Thames, Sydney harbour, Monterey peninsula, Bondi beach, Solsbury hill (but Mount Everest).
words and phrases based on proper names that have lost connection with their origins (alsatian dog, cardigan, cheddar cheese, french windows, swiss roll, wellington boots, yorkshire pudding and many others) are lc.
Those that retain a strong link, which may be legally recognised, include Cornish pasty, Melton Mowbray pork pies, Parma ham and Worcestershire sauce, and take initial cap.
Although champagne and scotch are legally required to come from Champagne and Scotland, they are almost universally regarded as lc
-
cappuccino
-
car bomb, car park
but carmaker -
carcass
plural carcasses -
cards
scratchcard, smartcard, swipecard but credit card, debit card, sim card -
careen
to sway or keel over to one side; often confused with career, to rush along -
career girl, career woman
We don't use these sexist labels -
carer
an unpaid family member, partner or friend who helps a disabled or frail person with the activities of daily living; not someone who works in a caring job or profession. The term is important because carers are entitled to a range of benefits and services that depend on them recognising themselves as carers -
Caribbean
-
Carlos the Jackal
real name Ilich Ramírez Sánchez -
cartel
It is dangerous to call a group of companies a cartel unless you want to hear from ... -
Carter-Ruck
You might think that, given this law firm's close relationship with newspapers, everyone would know that it's hyphenated. You would, sadly, be wrong -
Casanova
cap up, whether you are talking about the original (Giacomo Girolamo Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-98), or any latterday womaniser ("he is the Casanova of the Observer") -
casbah
rather than kasbah -
cash for honours
noun but cash-for-honours should, like similar phrases, be hyphenated when used adjectivally (the cash-for-honours scandal) -
cashmere
fabric -
caster
sugar, wheels on a sofa; castor oil; Caster Semenya South African runner -
castoff
one word (noun, adjective); cast off two words (verb) -
casual
(workers) freelance is often preferable -
casualties
includes dead and injured, so not a synonym for deaths; casualty lc, as in she's been taken to casualty (though normally called A&E) -
Cat scan
or CT scan; it stands for computerised (axial) tomography -
Catalonia
adjective Catalan -
catch-22
lc unless specifically referring to Joseph Heller's 1961 novel Catch-22, which explained the dilemma thus: "Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he were sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to" -
catchphrase
-
catchup TV
not catch-up or catch up -
cathedrals
cap up, eg eg Béziers Cathedral (its full name is Cathédrale Saint-Nazaire-et-Saint-Celse de Béziers) -
catherine wheel
-
Catholic church
but if you mean Roman Catholic, say so -
caviar
not caviare -
CBeebies
-
CD, CDs, CD-Rom
a CD is a disc, not a disk -
CE, BCE
some people prefer CE (common era, current era or Christian era) and BCE (before common era, etc) to AD and BC, which, however, remain our style -
ceasefire
-
Ceausescu, Nicolae
former president of Romania, deposed and executed in 1989, and dug up again in 2010 -
ceilidh
-
celibate, celibacy
strictly refer to being unmarried (especially for religious reasons), but it is now acceptable to use them to mean abstaining from sexual intercourse -
cellphone
mobile phone in British English -
celsius
without degree symbol and with fahrenheit equivalent in brackets: 23C (73F), -3C (27F), etc; to convert celsius to fahrenheit, multiply by 9, divide by 5, then add 32; to convert fahrenheit to celsius, subtract 32, divide the answer by 9, then multiply by 5 (or use one of the many online calculators) -
Celtic
not Glasgow Celtic -
cement or concrete?
not interchangeable terms: cement is an ingredient of concrete, which is a mix of aggregates (sand and gravel or crushed stone) and paste (water and portland cement); so a "cement mixer" should always be referred to as a concrete mixer -
censer
container in which incense is burnt; censor prevent publication; censure criticise severely -
census
lc, eg the next UK census is due on 27 March 2011 -
Center Parcs
-
centimetres
abbreviation cm, not cms -
Central America
comprises Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama -
central belt
the swath across Scotland, containing Glasgow and Edinburgh, where population density is highest. It is in the south, not the centre of the country -
centre on
or centre in, but revolve around -
Centre Court
Wimbledon -
Centres for Disease Control
not singular, and not the American spelling -
century
sixth century, 21st century, etc; but sixth-century remains, 21st-century boy, etc -
Cephalonia
eschew the variations -
Cern
the Geneva-based European laboratory for particle physics -
Cézanne. Paul
(1839-1906) French artist -
CFC
chlorofluorocarbon -
chablis
wines from Chablis -
cha-cha-cha
the dance, not cha-cha -
chair
acceptable in place of chairman or chairwoman, being nowadays widely used in the public sector and by organisations such as the Labour party and trade unions (though not the Conservative party, which had a "chairman" in kitten heels); if it seems inappropriate for a particular body, use a different construction ("the meeting was chaired by Ian" or "Kath was in the chair") -
Chakrabarti, Shami
director of Liberty -
champ at the bit
not chomp -
champagne
-
Champions League
-
Champs Elysées
-
chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, chancellor of the exchequer
-
changeable
-
Channel, the
not the English Channel -
Channel 4, Channel 5
-
Channel Islands
-
Channel tunnel
not Chunnel -
chaos theory
is not a synonym for chaos. It describes the behaviour of dynamic systems that are sensitively dependent on their initial conditions. An example is the weather: under the "butterfly effect", the flap of a butterfly's wing in Brazil can in principle result in a tornado in Texas -
chapters
like this: chapter 6, chapter 16, etc, whether of books or the UN charter -
chardonnay
lc, like other wines, whether named after a grape (as in this case) or a region -
chargé, chargée d'affaires
-
Charity Commission
-
Charter of the United Nations
but UN charter is normally sufficient; chapter 1, etc (not roman numerals) -
Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy
Cipfa or the institute after first mention -
chassis
singular and plural -
chateau, chateaux
no accent -
Chatham House rule
often mistakenly called "rules". There is just one, namely: "When a meeting, or part thereof, is held under the Chatham House rule, participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed." Chatham House is more formally known as the Royal Institute of International Affairs, based at Chatham House in London -
chatroom, chatshow
-
Chávez, Hugo
elected president of Venezuela in 1998, and re-elected in 2000, 2006 and 2012; died in 2013 -
Chavismo, Chavistas
-
chavs
a term best avoided -
Chechnya
inhabited by Chechens -
check-in, checkout
noun, adjective -
check in, check out
verb: so you might check in at the check-in after checking out the checkout desk -
cheese
normally lc, even if named after a place: brie, camembert, cheddar, cheshire, double gloucester, lancashire, parmesan, stilton, wensleydale, etc -
Chekhov
-
Chek Lap Kok
Hong Kong international airport, designed by Sir Norman Foster, opened in 1998 -
Chennai
formerly Madras -
chequebook
-
cherrypick, cherrypicker
-
cherubim
plural of cherub -
Cheshire cat
but cheshire cheese -
chickenpox
one word -
chicken tikka masala
Britain's favourite dish until chicken jalfrezi displaced it (according to a 2011 poll); note that there is also an Italian dish called chicken marsala -
chief
("planning chiefs", etc): try to use proper titles; officers or officials may be preferable -
chief constable
a job, not a title – John Smith, chief constable of Greater Manchester; Smith at second mention -
chief rabbi
lc, a style consistent with that followed by Haaretz and the Jerusalem Post -
chief secretary to the Treasury, chief whip
-
child abuse images
rather than "child pornography", "child porn" and especially the tabloid "kiddy porn".
The NSPCC says that such terms give "a misleading and potentially trivialising impression of what is a very serious crime", and favours the term "child abuse images".
The Internet Watch Foundation says: "The IWF uses the term 'child sexual abuse content' to accurately reflect the gravity of the images we deal with. Please note that child pornography, child porn and kiddy porn are not acceptable terms" -
childcare, childminder
-
ChildLine
-
child trust fund
colloquially known as baby bonds, abolished by the new progressive government in 2010 -
chilli
with two Ls but note Red Hot Chili Peppers -
Chinese names
Mainland China: in two parts, eg Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Jiang Zemin. Hong Kong, Taiwan: in two parts with hyphen, eg Tung Chee-hwa, Chiang Kai-shek (exception: when a building, park or the like is named after a person it becomes three parts, eg Chiang Kai Shek Cultural Centre); note also that Korean names are written the same way, eg Kim Il-sung. Singapore, Malaysia: in three parts, eg Lee Kuan Yew.
For people with Chinese names elsewhere in the world, follow their preference – but make sure you know which is the surname -
Chloé
(fashion) note accent
-
chock-a-block
-
chocoholic
not chocaholic -
Chomsky, Noam
US linguist and political activist -
choose
for some mysterious reason this often appears in the paper as "chose", its past tense -
chords
musical; cords vocal -
Christ Church
Oxford (not Christ Church College) -
christened, christening
only when referring to a Christian baptism: don't talk about a boat being christened or a football club christening a new stadium; named is fine -
Christian, Christianity
but unchristian -
Christian name
use first name, forename or given name (which in many cultures comes after the family name) -
Christian Union
an evangelical Christian organisation -
Christie's
the auction house; Christies the holding company has no apostrophe -
Christmas Day, Christmas Eve
-
chronic
means lasting for a long time or constantly recurring, too often misused when acute (short but severe) is meant -
Chumbawamba
(not Chumbawumba) band whose guitarist, Danbert Nobacon, threw a bucket of iced water over John Prescott, the then deputy prime minister, at the 1998 Brit awards -
church
lc for the established church, eg "the church is no longer relevant today"; Anglican church, etc, but Church of England (abbreviation: C of E) -
cineaste
someone who enjoys films; but note that, in France, a cinéaste is someone who makes them -
cinemagoer
-
cinéma vérité
-
Cites
convention on international trade in endangered species of wild fauna and flora -
Citizens Advice
what the organisation likes to be called, although it still runs bureaux -
Citroën
-
city
in Britain a town that has been granted a charter by the crown; it usually has a cathedral; City capped when used as shorthand for the City of London -
City of London Corporation
the corporation after first mention -
civil partnership
rather than gay marriage, but gay wedding is fine and does not need quotation marks -
civil servant, civil service
-
Civvy Street
-
CJD
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, not normally necessary to spell it out; it is acceptable to refer to variant CJD as the human form of BSE, but not "the human form of mad cow disease" -
Clapham Junction
and Clapham are two distinct, separate areas of south London.
Clapham Junction should be called just that: it is not only a railway station but an area in its own right with its own shopping street. It is part of Battersea and comes under Wandsworth council.
Clapham is about a mile and a half away, also has its own high street, and is part of Lambeth council -
classical music
Mozart's 41st Symphony (or Symphony No 41) in C, K551; Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No 2; Schubert's Sonata in A minor for Piano, D845 -
clause IV
of the Labour manifesto, rewritten in 1995; also by extension to "clause IV moment" as in "will the Tories experience their own clause IV moment?" (not so far) -
clearcut
-
cliches
Overused words and phrases to be avoided, some of which merit their own ignominious entry in this guide, include: ahead of, back burner, boost (massive or otherwise), bouquets and brickbats, but hey ... , controversial, count 'em, drop-dead gorgeous, elephant in the room, famous, fit for purpose, flagship, landmark, key, major, massive, meanwhile, ongoing, politically correct, raft of measures, special, stepchange, to die for, upcoming, upsurge; verbs overused or misused in headlines include: bid, boost, downplay, fuel, hike, insist, probe, quiz, set to, signal, spiral, target, unveil.
A survey by the Plain English Campaign found that the most irritating phrase in the language was "at the end of the day", followed by (in order of annoyance): at this moment in time, like (as in, like, this), with all due respect, to be perfectly honest with you, touch base, I hear what you're saying, going forward, absolutely, and blue sky thinking; other words and phrases that upset people included 24/7, ballpark figure, bottom line, diamond geezer, it's not rocket science, ongoing, prioritise, pushing the envelope, singing from the same hymn sheet, and thinking outside the box -
cliffhanger
one word -
Climate Camp
disbanded in March 2011; its full name was Camp for Climate Action -
climate change terminology
A sensitive area. The editor of the Guardian's environment website says: "Climate change deniers has nasty connotations with Holocaust denial and tends to polarise debate. On the other hand there are some who are literally in denial about the evidence."
Our guidelines are:
Rather than opening itself to the charge of denigrating people for their beliefs, a fair newspaper should always try to address what it is that people are sceptical about or deny.
The term sceptics covers those who argue that climate change is exaggerated, or not caused by human activity.
If someone really does claim that climate change is not happening – that the world is not warming – then it seems fair enough to call them a denier -
climbdown
noun; climb down verb -
clingfilm
-
Close, Glenn
two Ns (as in bunny boiler) -
cloud cuckoo land
-
CO2
-
coalfield, coalmine, coalminer
-
Coalite
TM -
coalition government
Con-Lib if you are being polite; Lib-Con if you are a sceptic; Con-Dem if you want to be rude -
coarse fishing
we have been known to spell it "course" -
coastguards
HM Coastguard (UK), but US Coast Guard -
Cobra
government crisis response committee, so-called because it originally met in Cabinet Office Briefing Room A. The US equivalent is the White House Situation Room -
Coca-Cola, Coke
TM; the generic term is cola; coke for smokeless fuel and cocaine -
cockney
-
coconut
-
cohabitant
not cohabitee -
cold war
-
Coliseum
London theatre; Colosseum Roman amphitheatre -
collectible
-
collective nouns
Nouns such as committee, family, government, jury, squad and team take a singular verb or pronoun when thought of as a single unit, but a plural verb or pronoun when thought of as a collection of individuals:
The committee gave its unanimous approval to the plans;
The committee enjoyed biscuits with their tea.
The family can trace its history back to the middle ages;
The family were sitting down, scratching their heads.
The squad is looking stronger than for several seasons;
The squad are all very confident that they will win promotion this season -
collector's item
-
College of Arms
-
colleges
take initial caps, eg West Kent College; but not when college forms part of the name of a school, eg Bash Street sixth-form college, Eton college -
Colombia
South American country that we frequently misspell as "Columbia" -
colon
Use between two sentences, or parts of sentences, where the first introduces a proposition that is resolved by the second, eg Fowler put it like this: to deliver the goods invoiced in the preceding words.
A colon, rather than a comma, should be used to introduce a quotation: "He was an expert on punctuation," or to precede a list – "He was an expert on the following: the colon, the comma and the full stop."
Use before quotes when the quote could stand on its own as a sentence. He said: "You'll never take me alive."
When a colon is used in a headline, the next word is lowercase, eg Osborne: there is no plan B.
This 2010 example from the Guardian is an awful (but by no means isolated) example of the tendency to use a semicolon where only a colon will do (all the more unfortunate for distracting the reader from a funny sentence): "Here's a task for the new coalition government; set up a Drumming Taskforce today, and appoint a Snare Tsar."
We are in danger of losing the distinction between colon and semicolon; many writers seem to think they are interchangeable but to make it clear: they are not.
See semicolon -
colonel
Colonel Napoleon Bogey, subsequently Bogey (Col Bogey in leading articles) -
Columbia
as in District of Columbia (Washington DC) and Columbia University (New York), Columbus Day (12 October, marking the date Christopher Columbus landed in the West Indies in 1492); Columbus is also the state capital of Ohio -
comedian
male and female; do not use comedienne -
commando
plural commandos -
commas
Use a comma to help the reader by inserting breathing space into a sentence: "When the Dutch reflect on their performance in the World Cup final, they will not find it hard to see why their aggressive tactics lost them many friends in 2010."
"The editor, Alan Rusbridger, is a man of great vision" – commas if there is only one editor.
"The subeditor Amelia Hodsdon is all style and no substance" – no commas if there is more than one subeditor.
A misplaced comma can sabotage a sentence, as in this example from the paper: "Neocon economists often claim a large, black economy turbo-powers growth ..." (the writer was talking about a big black economy, not a big and black one, which is not the same at all).
A comma is also crucial to avoid ambiguity in examples such as this: "Part of the report will heavily criticise a so-called power culture among the Dublin bishops who have been accused of not taking the allegations seriously." We should have inserted a comma after "bishops" to make clear that all the Dublin bishops have been accused; as published, the sentence implies that only some of the bishops have.
See Oxford comma -
commented
"said" is normally adequate -
common agricultural policy
lc but the abbreviation is CAP -
Commons, House of Commons
but the house, not the House -
Commons committees
lc, home affairs select committee, public accounts committee, etc -
common sense
noun; commonsense adjective: "William Hague's 'commonsense revolution' showed little common sense" -
Commonwealth, the; Commonwealth War Graves Commission
-
communique
no accent -
communism, communist
lc, except in name of party, eg Communist party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist) -
community
the subediting community is encouraged to weed out examples of this shockingly overused word -
community charge
what no one, apart from a handful of Conservative ministers, called the poll tax -
company names
A difficult area, as so many companies have adopted unconventional typography and other devices that, in some cases, turn their names into logos. In general, we use the names that companies use themselves: c2c, Capgemini, easyJet, eBay, ebookers, iSoft Group, etc. Some of these look odd, particularly when used as the first word in a headline, although some are becoming more familiar with time.<br
Exceptions include Adidas (not adidas), ABN Amro (not ABN AMRO), BAE Systems (not BAE SYSTEMS), BhS (no italicised H), Toys R Us (do not attempt to turn the R backwards), Yahoo (no exclamation mark).
Company names are always singular -
compare to or with?
The former means liken to, the latter means make a comparison: so unless you are specifically likening someone or something to someone or something else, use compare with.
A former lord chancellor compared himself to Cardinal Wolsey because he believed he was like Wolsey; I might compare him with Wolsey to assess their relative merits.
As so often, we are indebted to Prince for the grammatically immaculate Nothing Compares 2U -
compass points
lc for regions: eg the north, the south of England, the south-west, north-east Scotland, south Wales.
The same applies to geopolitical areas: the west, western Europe, the far east, south-east Asia, etc.
Cap up, however, when part of the name of a county (eg West Sussex, East Riding of Yorkshire) or province (East Java, North Sulawesi, etc).
Note the following: East End, West End (London), Middle East, Central America, North America, South America, Latin America -
Competition Commission
formerly the Monopolies and Mergers Commission and yes, there is only one -
complement, compliment, complimentary
to complement is to make complete: the two strikers complemented each other; to compliment is to praise; a complimentary copy is free -
complicit
you can be complicit in a crime, for example, if you know about it but fail to report it -
comprise
to consist of; "comprise of" is wrong -
Concord
town in Massachusetts; Concorde plane -
confidant
male; confidante female -
congestion charge
-
Congo
acceptable on second mention for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (or DRC, formerly Zaire); we call its neighbour Congo-Brazzaville; the Congo is the river -
Congregational
uc when referring to the Congregational Union of England and Wales, formed in 1832, which joined the Presbyterian Church of England in 1972 to form the United Reformed Church (please, not "Reform") -
Congress
comprises the House of Representatives (the House) and Senate; but lc congressman, congresswoman, congressional -
conjoined twins
not Siamese twins -
conman
-
connection
not connexion -
Conservative central office, Conservative party
-
consortium
plural consortiums not consortia -
constitution
lc as in the US constitution -
Consuelo
not Consuela; from a reader: "I really have had enough of show-off ignoramuses messing up my name. Consuelo is a Spanish abstract noun, masculine, invariable. Pilar and Mercedes are also Spanish female names derived, like Consuelo, from titles of the Virgin Mary" -
consult
not consult with -
consumer prices index
forms the basis for the government's inflation target and other inflation-linked tools; CPI after first mention -
Consumers' Association
now known as Which?, after its magazine -
contemporary
of the same period, though often wrongly used to mean modern; a performance of Shakespeare in contemporary dress would involve Elizabethan costume, not 21st-century clothes -
continent, the
but mainland Europe is preferable -
continual
refers to things that happen repeatedly but not constantly; continuous indicates an unbroken sequence
-
contractions
Do not overuse contractions such as aren't, can't, couldn't, hasn't, don't, I'm, it's, there's and what's (even the horrific "there've" has appeared); while they might make a piece more colloquial or easier to read, they can be an irritant and a distraction, and make a serious article sound frivolous. They also look horrible -
controversial
overused, typically to show that the writer disapproves of something ("the government's controversial free schools scheme"); like "famous", it can normally be safely removed from copy to allow readers to make up their own minds -
convener
not convenor -
conversions
We give metric measures and convert on first mention only to imperial in brackets (exceptions: miles and pints); if a rough figure is given in metric, do not convert it into an exact figure in imperial, and vice versa, eg if someone says the towns are about 50km apart, convert to 30 miles, not "31.07 miles"; the same goes for rough amounts of currencies, though don't round up £3.6bn to £4bn -
convertible
not -able -
convince or persuade?
having convinced someone of the facts, you might persuade them to do something -
co-operate, co-operation, co-operative
-
Co-operative Bank, Group, party
but you might shop at your local Co-op -
co-opt, co-ordinate
-
cop-out
-
copy editor
what subeditors are known as in the United States and Canada, where they copy-edit -
copyright
but copywriter -
Corbusier, Le
(1887-1965) Swiss architect and city planner, born Charles-Edouard Jeanneret -
Córdoba
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cords
vocal; chords musical -
cornflakes
in general but Kellogg's Corn Flakes -
Cornish pasty
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coronavirus
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coroner's court
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corporation of London
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corps de ballet
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cortege
no accent -
coruscating
means sparkling, or emitting flashes of light; people seem to think, wrongly, that it means the same as excoriating, censuring severely, eg "a coruscating attack on Clegg's advisers" -
cosmetic surgery
is not the same as plastic surgery, which should be reserved for people treated for deformity or illness -
councils
lc apart from placename: Lancaster city council, London borough of Southwark, Kent county council, etc; it is normally sufficient to say Lancaster council, Southwark council, etc -
count 'em
cliche often seen in parenthesis after a number is mentioned. For example, an article referred to "the seminal Andrex puppy advent calendar with 25 – count 'em – puppy pictures ... " -
counteract, counterattack, countermeasures
but counter-terrorism -
coupe
no accent -
courts
all lc, eg court of appeal, court of session, high court, magistrates court (no apostrophe), supreme court, European court of human rights, international criminal court -
court martial
plural courts martial -
court of St James's
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couscous
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CPRE
Campaign to Protect Rural England (formerly the Council for the Protection of Rural England) -
CPS
Crown Prosecution Service -
Cradock, Fanny
(1909-94) TV chef, often misspelt as "Craddock" -
crapulent, crapulous
drunk; hence crapula, hangover -
creche
no accent -
credible
capable of being believed, hence credibility; credulous gullible, hence credulity; we sometimes mix the two up -
creme fraiche
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crescendo
a gradual increase in loudness or intensity; musically or figuratively, it is the buildup to a climax, not the climax itself (we frequently get this wrong) -
cretinism
a medical condition, not a term of abuse -
cricket
leg-side, leg-spinner, off-spin, off-stump, silly mid-on, mid-off, etc, all hyphenated -
cripple, crippled
offensive and outdated -
crisscross
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criterion
plural criteria -
critique
a noun meaning review, rather than a verb meaning criticise -
Crombie
TM; the company's wool coats have been popular with, among others, the Confederate army in the 1860s and mods in the 1960s -
crowdsourcing
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Crowley, Aleister
dead satanist -
crown, the; crown estate, crown jewels
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crucifix
not synonymous with cross: a crucifix depicts the body of Christ on the cross -
crucifixion, the
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Crufts
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cruise missile
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Crusades, the
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Cruz, Penélope
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cubism, cubist
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Cub scouts
boys (and now girls) aged from eight to 10, organised in packs but no longer known as "Wolf Cubs"; avoid dated "Dyb Dyb Dyb, Dob Dob Dob" jokes but if relevant, it is spelt thus (it stands for "do your best" and we will "do our best"), and not "Dib" -
cuckoo clock
originated in Germany, not Switzerland -
cucumiform
cucumber-shaped -
cull
means pick or choose as in "culled from the best authors". It doesn't mean killed, axed or massacred (though you cull sheep in order to kill them). So a jobs cull does not mean the same as mass sackings -
CULV
consumer ultra-low voltage -
cum
Latin for "with", seen in such placenames as Chorlton-cum-Hardy, and phrases such as cookbook-cum-autobiography (unfortunately, we wrote "cookbook-come-autobiography") -
Cumberland sausage
It now has protected status, and must be made in Cumbria; hence capital C -
Cummings, EE
US poet (1894-1962) who, despite what many people think, used capitals in his signature – so don't call him "ee cummings" -
Cup, FA
after first mention it is the Cup; but other cups are lc on second mention -
curate's egg
Used nowadays to mean good in parts ("this was a curate's egg of a match"), the expression originally, and more subtly, meant to deliberately gloss over the truth – the curate was trying to spare his bishop's feelings, or perhaps his own embarrassment, when served a bad egg, by saying: "Oh no, My Lord, I assure you! Parts of it are excellent!" (cartoon in Punch, 9 November 1895) -
curb
restrain; kerb pavement -
currencies
When the whole word is used it is lc: euro, pound, sterling, dong, etc. Abbreviate dollars like this: $50 (US dollars); A$50 (Australian dollars); HK$50 (Hong Kong dollars).
Convert all foreign amounts to sterling in brackets at first mention, but use common sense – there is no need to put £500,000 in brackets after the phrase "I feel like a million dollars."
Take care when converting old money to new: some of our attempts have been meaningless, in that they have ignored the relative value of sums involved. We said in an obituary, for example, that Ronnie Barker was paid £1 9s (£1.45) a week for his first job in 1947 – a comparison of average earnings would convert that to around £113 today.
Similarly, in converting the price of a "four shilling dish of rice and vegetables" in 1967 to 20p in today's money we forgot to allow for its relative value; taking into account changes in the retail price index it would now be worth £2.23.
There are some excellent websites to assist with such conversions -
currently
"now" is usually preferable, if needed at all -
cusp
a place where two points meet (eg "on the cusp of Manchester and Salford", "on the cusp of Taurus and Gemini"), which may be extended metaphorically to a place or time where two things or groups of things come into contact, as in this elegant example from the Review: "It was a world caught on the cusp between postwar recession, stasis and a dying moral code, and the colour, mobility and licence of the 60s."
Writers who use cusp under the impression that it is a clever way to say on the brink of or about to ("on the cusp of adolescence", "on the cusp of the final", "tanker drivers are on the cusp of striking over a coming supermarket-led cut in their wages", "the garlic was on the cusp of bursting into a constellation of white stars") are, sadly, mistaken -
custody
since the 1989 Children Act the correct term for what used to be known as custody in cases involving care of children is residence -
Customs, Revenue & Customs
(singular) but customs officers -
cutbacks
avoid; cuts will suffice -
cyberbully, cybercafe, cybercrime, cyberlocker, cybernetics, cyberpunk, cybersex, cyberspace, cyberterrorism, cyberwar
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cyber-attack
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Cyprus
Cyprus, properly known as the Republic of Cyprus, joined the EU in 2004, 30 years after Turkey invaded the northern part of the island, which should be referred to as "Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus" (the self-styled "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" is recognised only by Turkey) -
Czech Republic
