Since 2006, Mignon Fogarty, also known as Grammar Girl, has delivered trusted tips and fun facts about the English language through her Grammar Girl podcast, newsletter, books, and courses. This is the style guide we have developed internally for our own use, and we thought readers might also find it useful.
Many style guides exist, and they serve different purposes for different needs. The Grammar Girl Style Guide below will help you find answers to common grammar and English usage topics that we have needed to decide how to handle. Although these topics are often covered in major style guides, sometimes the answers can vary. This style guide is not meant as a comprehensive guide to all English grammar matters, and we encourage you to use the best style guide for your needs.
We will continue to update this style guide, and we have also linked to additional information for some entries.
The Grammar Girl Style Guide
Words
AD (no periods) “AD” is an abbreviation for “anno Domini,” which stands for “in the year of the Lord.” Used for dates starting with year 1 in the Gregorian calendar. Generally not needed because years are presumed to be AD, but if needed, write it like this: “AD 2020.” We generally use the BC/AD designations because they are widely recognized, but the BCE/CE designations are generally preferred in science writing. If a writer would rather use BCE/CE in an article for our site, that is fine.
Alzheimer disease (no apostrophe)
an Use “a” before an @mention: a @Guardian story. (Rationale: If you were reading the sentence aloud, you wouldn’t say “It’s an at Guardian story.” Also see “at.”)
AP Stylebook “The” is not capitalized as part of the name on the AP website or in the Stylebook itself ( e.g., “The online edition of the AP Stylebook is updated throughout the year.”)
Asian American (no hyphen)
associate’s degree (parallel with “bachelor’s degree” and “master’s degree”)
at The @ symbol in a username does not substitute for the word “at” in a sentence. (“You can find the post at @APStylebook on Instagram.” Also see “an.”)
average Joe
a while (n.), awhile (adv.) “It’s been a while since Squiggly tried marmite.” “Go play awhile.” See the linked article for more examples, discussion, and exceptions.
autocorrect
baby boomer (lowercase)
the Bard (capitalize when referring to Shakespeare)
BC (no periods) “BC” means “before Christ.” Used for dates before year 1 in the Gregorian calendar. Written like this: “1000 BC.” See also “AD.”
bell ringer (two words) a short video or lesson teachers play at the beginning of class.
Black Capitalize when used as a racial identifier, as you would Latino, Asian, etc. But “white.” (See note under “white.”)
Braille Capitalized per AP style, but general style guidelines are unsettled. We’ll revisit this if a different consensus emerges.
breeds Capitalize proper nouns and lowercase common nouns in breed names: Bernese mountain dog, Yorkshire terrier, basset hound.
brown (as a racial identifier) Avoid. If you want to refer to darker skinned people collectively, use “people of color.”
buses (plural of “bus” the vehicle)
busses (plural of “buss” meaning “to kiss”)
buy into (as in “buying into the idea that…”)
CamelCase
canceled (American spelling)
Catholic Church (but lowercase generic “church”)
caucasian (avoid)
chapter, episode, section (lowercase, “in episode 456, we covered …”)
ChatGPT (capitalized because it’s a product name)
Chicago Manual of Style, The (see entry under The Chicago Manual of Style)
cluster Three or more people can cluster, two cannot. [h/t Grammargeddon Angel]
co-exist (hyphenate)
copy editor, copy editing (as per ACES: The Society for Editors)
co-worker (hyphenate)
D-day, D-Day Lowercase when used generically. Uppercase when used to refer to the invasion of Normandy during WWII.
decision-maker, decision-making
dipshittery
drop out (v.) He dropped out of Stanford.
dropout (n.) He is a dropout from Stanford. (Note that it is “dropout from,” not “dropout of.”)
earth-shattering
e-book
et cetera
etc.
Father’s Day (singular)
First, second, third (not “firstly,” “secondly,” “thirdly”)
Generation Z, Gen Z GenZer
gods (lowercase)
graduated from (“I graduated from Stanford,” not “I graduated Stanford.”)
grit, gritted, gritting (not “grit,” “grit,” “gritting”)
groundbreaking
half-dozen (adj.) (a half-dozen snails)
healthcare
hertz (abbreviate “Hz”)
hizzouse
homeschooler, homeschooling
impact (as a transitive verb) Not wrong but consider replacing with a more descriptive verb. For example, instead of “Construction will impact traffic,” consider “Construction will impede traffic.”
inbox
internet
lip-sync, lip-synced, lip-syncing
longtime (adj.) (“my longtime friend” but “We’ve been friends for a long time.”)
medieval
midday
Middle Ages
mini-series Consider whether “limited series” would work instead.
MOOC (all caps, no periods, stands for “massively open online course”)
Mother’s Day (singular)
mouse (plural is “mice” for both animals and computer input devices)
North Star (capitalize, even when used metaphorically)
Norwegian Use the adjective form of country names when using them as adjectives (“the Brazilian government,” not “the Brazil government”).
OK
OK, boomer
old-fashioned (“the old-fashioned way,” “He poured himself an old-fashioned.”)
over May be used to mean “more than” unless doing so causes ambiguity. Here’s an example about an auto recall that would have been better with “more than”: “Toyota Pulls Over 6 Million Vehicles Worldwide” [h/t Pam Nelson, @grammarguide]
pet, petted, petting (not “pet,” “pet,” “petting”)
preexisting (no hyphen)
Protestant (capitalized)
Proto-Indo-European
queen, king, rook, pawn (lowercase)
The Queen’s Gambit Capitalized as the name of a movie, but lowercase as the name of a chess move.
Quick and Dirty Tips (a trademark) Capitalize in the context of the network (“I work for the Quick and Dirty Tips network”), but not in running text (“Today, I have a quick and dirty tip about trademarks”).
quotation, quote “Quotation” is a noun, and “quote” is a verb. (“Use quotations to liven up your writing.” “He quoted the mayor.”)
reason is that (avoid “the reason is because”)
representatives (lowercase for members of the House of Representatives)
senators (lowercase)
shambles (“in shambles,” as opposed to “in a shambles”)
shout-out (n.) (“Thanks for the shout-out.”)
solstice (lowercase)
South (capitalized to refer to the region in the US)
southern United States
spellcheck (v. and n.) This deviates from many current dictionary and style guide recommendations, but is our preference. See also our Mastodon poll and LinkedIn poll. For the verb, consider whether “check spelling” would sound better.
stomach ache
sun (lowercase)
sync, synced, syncing
teenage (“The book appeals to teenage girls.”)
thank you, thank-you, thank-yous Two words as a verb. Hyphenated as a noun or adjective modifying a noun. (“Thank you for the letter.” “He sent a thank-you.” “She wrote a thank-you note.”)
The Chicago Manual of Style
tl;dr
to-do, to-dos
traveled (American spelling)
US (no periods in text or headlines)
Venmoed, Venmoing
website, webpage, the Web
waah the sound someone makes when crying
white (lowercase when used as a racial identifier) Although this is inconsistent with capitalizing other racial identifiers, such as “Black,” most editing organizations have recommended keeping it lowercase to avoid implying unintended sentiments stemming from the history of white supremacists favoring the capitalized form.
winter solstice, summer solstice (lowercase)
worshipping, worshipped. Some sources say “worshiped” is the American English spelling, but others list them both equally. A Google Ngram search shows that “worshipped” and “worshipping” are more common in both British and American English.
Xmas Try to avoid this abbreviation (unless it’s in a quotation). If you do use it, capitalize the X.
Yule, Yuletide
Regional Differences
When there are regional differences in usage, choose the American form. (“color,” not “colour”)
Band and Publication Names
the Beatles
Capitalize “the” as part of the name if the publication capitalizes it when they write their own name, for example in press releases or legal notices.
- The Wall Street Journal
- The Chicago Manual of Style
- The New York Times
- AP Stylebook
Do not use italics or quotation marks for newspaper names or website names (this treats them the same way we treat the titles of reference works, such as Garner’s Modern English Usage).
Punctuation
commas Use the serial comma: “red, white, and blue.”
dashes Use a true em dash inserted from the symbol menu (not one or two hyphens), and use spaces around dashes (“Jo — a Washingtonian — hates rain”). The Mac command to make an em dash is option-shift-hyphen.
ellipses Treat as a three letter word with a space on each side.
emphasis When using symbols or emoji for emphasis, put the standard punctuation after the symbol or emoji: It’s about *politics*. She won the ✨Pulitzer✨.
exclamation points Don’t overuse them.
hyphens
Hyphenate between double vowels: “re-enter.”
In a headline, hyphenate the part after the hyphen: “Re-Enter”
No hyphen in “century” modifiers: “a ninth century scroll”
colons
In running text, only use a colon after something that could stand alone as a sentence. Right: “She gave us the following: paper clips, yarn, and marshmallows.” Wrong: “She gave us: paper clips, yarn, and marshmallows.”
In an introductory line before a bulleted list, use a colon whether the line is a complete sentence or not (but do not combine colons with question marks or exclamation points). Also consider whether there is an easy way to make the introductory line a complete sentence.
question marks Capitalize the first letter after add-on fragment questions: Can I have a cookie? Two cookies? Four cookies?
quotation marks Periods and commas go inside the closing quotation mark.
quotation marks and question marks If both parts are a question, put the question mark inside the closing quotation mark. Did Larry ask, “Who stole my ketchup?”
Formatting
Use quotation marks to highlight words used as words. People often have a hard time spelling “bureaucrat.”
Use quotation marks for titles. In the book “Nicholas Nickleby,” Dickens …
Capitalize single letters: The L in “salmon” is silent.
Use apostrophes to pluralize letters: Mind your p’s and q’s. Haley earned four A’s. (AP and Chicago differ regarding uppercase letters.)
Genus and species names: Write in Roman text. Do not italicize.
Headline Style
Capitalize prepositions with five or more letters. It’s Between You and Me, ‘Which’ Versus ‘That’
Capitalize verbs of being. He Was Astonished, What Is the Dress Code?
Lowercase “to” in “how to.” How to Tie Your Shoes
Capitalize “do” in titles. Why Do Computers Slow Down?
Put a question mark the end of titles that are a question. Why Do Computers Slow Down?
Do not write out numbers. 9 Reasons to Paint Your House
Numbers
In body copy, write out the words for numbers one through nine, and use numerals for most other numbers. Read Grammar Girl’s nine tips for using commas. Laura cited 56 reasons people put off writing a will.
centuries ninth century scroll, 10th century scroll (same as the general number rule, no hyphen when acting as a compound modifier)
Use numerals in headlines 9 Tips for Using Commas
percents Use the % symbol. According to 94% of readers …
Dates
1980s
’80s
two thousand eight Pronounce the year without an “and” before the eight.
QDT’s Preferred Style for Company Names
- Amazon
- Barnes & Noble
- Books-a-Million
- Indiebound
- Macmillan
- Overstock
- Powell’s
- Target
- Walmart
E-Book Platforms
- B&N NOOK
- Google Play
- iBooks
- Kindle
- Kobo
You know about the major style guides like AP, Chicago and APA, but did you ever think about having your own house style guide? In this Grammar Girl podcast episode, Mignon explains why you should! Listen in this player:
Grammar Girl shares more about editorial style sheets in this 2013 episode of the Grammar Girl podcast. In short, don’t make the mistake of treating your style sheet like a style guide. Listen to more with this player: