More about Words

Abbreviations

Knowing when to use a, an, or the with abbreviations can be confusing.  Here is the rule: Use a when the word begins with a consonant sound, and use an when the word begins with a vowel sound. For example:

• In today's news, a  NASA spokesman said. . .(NASA is pronounced as a word, not as individual letters.  The a is correct because the word begins with a consonant sound.) 

• An HTML code book is helpful for a novice web designer. (H-T-M-L is pronounced as separate letters.  An is correct because H  is a vowel sound--aych.)

• Please include an SASE with your application. (S-A-S-E is pronounced as separate letters. S is a vowel sound--ess. SASE means self-addressed stamped envelope.)

• A  USAF spokeswoman said that the new jets were designed badly. (U-S-A-F is pronounced as separate letters. U sounds like you--a consonant sound. A is correct to use.  USAF means "United States Air Force".)

When to use periods:

• Abbreviations of units of measure are written with or without periods: lb. or lb for pound, oz. or oz for ounce, ft. or ft for foot, gal. or gal  for gallon, yd. or yd  for yard, yr for year, etc.

• The computer terms mb or MB or M for megabytes, kb or KB for kilobytes, and G or GB (also written as gigs) are written without periods.   

• We do use periods for most abbreviations in lower case, as shown in the table below.  

• If an abbreviation ends in a period at the end of a sentence, you should not add another period. 

• When a person's initials stand alone, type them without spaces or periods. "Yes, CC, I will take care of that right away."

• Professional designations such as CEO (Chief Executive Officer), CPA (Certified Public Accountant), or LPN (Licensed Practical Nurse) are separated from the last name with a comma and written without spaces or periods. "Lance Bigelow, CPA"

• Read the other categories for more information about when to use and not use spaces and periods.

Abbreviations of some Latin words  are used in formal written English. You will see them used in reference books, text books, research papers, scholarly journals and other type of materials that are usually written in the formal manner. It is a good idea to become familiar with these if you are learning Business English, or writing academic essays. Some sources say to use these abbreviation only in footnotes and bibliographies.  Other sources say not to use them at all. Since you will see them in many places, we have included some of the most common ones:

Titles before Names

Titles after names

Academic degrees can be written with periods or without them, but don't use spaces within the abbreviation:  Ph.D. or PhD, M.F.A. or MFA

Don't use a  title before and after a name at the same time .

Correct: Dr. George Walters or George Walters, PhD.

Incorrect: Dr. George Walters, PhD

Don't abbreviate a title without a name. 

Correct: I took my sister to the doctor yesterday.

Incorrect: I took my sister to the Dr. yesterday.

When not to abbreviate:

• If you are writing in the formal style (business or academic, for example) don't abbreviate words to save time or space. (lite for light, tho for though, kno for know, Mon. for Monday, Wed. for Wednesday, Jan. for January, etc.)  

• Don't begin a sentence with an abbreviated word.

• Don't abbreviate proper names unless the abbreviation is also a nickname the person uses. (Geo. for George, Eliz. for Elizabeth, Jos. for Joseph)

• Don't abbreviate academic courses such as soc (sociology), Amlit (American literature), phys ed (physical education).

Acronyms

An acronym is usually formed by taking the first initials of a phrase or compound word and using those initials to form a word that stands for something. LASER (pronounced "LAYzer"), is an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. FBI (said as F--B--I) is not an acronym for the Federal Bureau of Investigation; it is an abbreviation. AIDS is an acronym; HIV is an abbreviation. URL is an abbreviation for Uniform Resource Locator (World Wide Web address), but if you pronounce it "earl", it becomes an acronym.

To find more acronyms and abbreviations, try this link:  http://www.acronymfinder.com/

Capitalization

CAPITALIZE:

• The first letter of the first word of a sentence 

 When Pete tells a joke, he makes all of us laugh.

• The pronoun " I " 

The last time I spoke to Annie, she was still helping CC unpack.

• Proper nouns 

(the names of specific people, places, organizations, and some things)

• Family relationships (when used as proper names)

I like Aunt Clara because she has a parrot that swears.

BUT: I like my aunt because she has a parrot that swears.              

 I never knew Grandfather to get angry.

BUT: I never knew my grandfather to get angry. 

• The names of God, specific deities, religious figures, and holy books

Exception: Do not capitalize the non-specific use of the word god. Example: 

•  Some cultures worship more than one god.

• Titles preceding names, but not titles that follow names 

• Percy drives for Queen Elizabeth II. BUT: Percy drives for Elizabeth, the queen.

• He went to see President George W. Bush. BUT: George H. W. Bush, ex-president of the United States, was president from 1989 to 1993. 

• Directions that are names

(North, South, East, and West when used as sections of the country, but not as compass directions)

• CC has moved to the South.

• China is several thousand miles west of Georgia.

• The days of the week, the months of the year, and holidays 

Exception: Seasons are capitalized when in a title, but not when used in a general sense unless it's the first word of a sentence.

The Spring Style Show will take place at the end of May. BUT: Some cities get snow in the winter.

• **All names of countries, nationalities, and specific languages 

•The first letter of the first word in a sentence that is a direct quote 

Hamlet said, "To be or not to be, that is the question."

• The major words in the titles of books, articles, and songs, but not short prepositions or the articles the, a or an, unless it's the first word of the title)

One of Marvin's favorite books is For Whom the Bell Tolls.

Love is a Many-Splendored Thing is one of her favorite songs.

The Grapes of Wrath

• Members of national, political, racial, social, civic, and athletic groups 

• Periods and events (but not century numbers)

• Brand names 

• Words and abbreviations of specific names, but not names of things that were once specific names, but are now general terms. Words that became general terms are called EPONYMS. To find more eponyms on other websites, do a Google search. 

Writing & Saying Numbers

Most people spell out numbers that can be expressed in one or two words and use numerals for other numbers.  Others spell out figures ten (10) and under, and use numerals for 11 and higher.  If the number begins the sentence, it should be written as a word.  Examples:

• Four score and seven years ago. . ..  

• Five students out of 20 passed the TOEFL exam. (This means that of the twenty (20) students who took the TOEFL exam, only five (5) of them passed the test.)

Other Examples:

Days, months, and years

• May 10, 1960 (but NOT 10-5-60 to mean May 10, 1960.) The American style of writing dates using numbers, is to write the month FIRST, then the date, and then the year. To write the date Dec. 9, 2000 in numbers, you MUST write it this way: 12-9-2000; NOT 9-12-2000

• 1941-45  or  1941-1945

• 4 B.C. (B.C. means before the birth of Christ)                                                                           

• in the 1960s, in or during the sixties

• the seventeenth century; the 17th century

• Spring in the U.S. begins on March 20. (In formal writing, NEVER "March 20th" !)   

• Bobby arrived on the twelfth of April.

Times of day**

• 8:00 P.M. or p.m. or pm; say eight o'clock in the evening, or eight at night, or eight p.m.

• 2:15 A.M. or a.m. or am; say a quarter-past two in the morning, or a quarter after two in the morning, or two fifteen in the morning, or two fifteen a.m.

• 3:45 P.M. or p.m. or pm; say three forty five, or fifteen to four, or fifteen minutes to (or before ) four, or quarter to four in the afternoon.

• 12:30 p.m. or a.m.; say twelve thirty, or half-past 12

• 12:00 a.m.; say midnight

• 12:00 p.m.; say noon

** Do not say o'clock and p.m./a.m. at the same time when saying what time it is; choose one or the other; say 8 o'clock at night, OR 8 p.m.

Military Time

• 1500 hours means 3:00 p.m.

• 1730 hours means 5:30 p.m.

Addresses

• 218 W. Walnut Street (St.)

• 301 South First Avenue (Ave.)

• Numbered street names may be written either way (63rd Street, Sixty-third Street).

Identification Numbers

• Edward III (say Edward the Third)

• Route 66 (say Route sixty-six)

• Room 101 (say Room one-oh-one)

• Channel 13

Page and Division of Books and Plays

• Page 14

• Chapter 11

• Act 2, Scene 2 (or Act II, Scene ii)

Decimals and Percentages

• a 4.0 average (say a four point OH average, or a four point average)

• 50 percent (For informal writing, you can write 50%)

• 1.5 pounds (say one and a half pounds, or a pound and a half, or one point five pounds)

Large Round Numbers

• three trillion dollars (or $3 trillion)

• 17,500 (say seventeen thousand five hundred; 17.5 thousand, say seventeen point five thousand)

Numbers referring to a person's age:

• He is 15 years old.

• She is 1 month old.

• Those men are in their late eighties (or 80s). (87, 88, 89 years old)

NOTE: It is a very common error for students of English to say 1 years old. One year is singular, not plural. Say a year old, or one year old.

NOTE: Practice reciting numbers.

• For two zeros after 1 number, say hundred (not hundreds**). For 500 say five hundred; for 850 say eight hundred and fifty, or eight fifty.

• For three numbers followed by a comma and three zeros, say thousand. For 435,000 say four hundred thirty-five thousand, or four hundred and thirty-five thousand.

• For a number with six zeros, write a comma after each group of 3, starting from the right side of the number: 9,000,000. Say nine million.

• When saying the price of an item, don't say and, nor cents: It's on sale for $2.99; say two ninety-nine. The taxi fare was $3.50; say three fifty. BUT: The internet service costs $50 a month; say fifty dollars a month.

** Say hundreds, or thousands, or millions when there's no number specified: Thousands of people died in the tsunami.

More Notes on Usage

• In legal or business writing, you must first write the number in words, and then write it a second time in numbers, in parentheses. Note that the dollar sign ($) is always written before the number, not after: The budget will be forty-five hundred dollars. ($4,500.00)

• Numbers in series and statistics should be consistent, i.e., don't mix numerals and words in the same sentence.

• four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves, and one partridge
  NOT 3 French hens, two turtle doves, and 1 partridge

• the final score was 10-0 (say: ten to zero)

• a 4x4 truck (say: four by four)

• the room was 12' x 15' (say: twelve by fifteen)

• Write out the number using words when it's at the beginning of a sentence.

                            Forty-seven percent of people return at least one Christmas gift. NOT 47% of people. . .

EXCEPTION: Use a combination of numbers and words in order to avoid confusion.

Correct: The farmer had thirty 2-year-old heifers. (or 30 two-year-old heifers)

Incorrect: The farmer had 30 2-year-old heifers. (The reader will be confused, and will probably read it as 302)

 

FOR FORMAL WRITING

• Use a hyphen (-) in all two-word numbers from twenty-one to ninety-nine. 

• There were seventy-three people standing in line at the theater.

• Pete easily ate one-third of the pie. 

• Use words to write numbers like these: second, fifty-first, etc. Do not write them as "21st, 42nd, 73rd", etc. 

• Milo was the fourth person to raise his hand.

• Rip Van Winkle awoke in the twentieth year of his nap.

• Lincoln was the sixteenth president of the United States.

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