7: Spelling, Distinctive Treatment of Words, and Compounds
- Recommended dictionaries
- Variant spellings
- Non-US spelling
- Supplementing the dictionary
- Standard plural forms
- Alternative plural forms
- Plurals of compound nouns
- Plurals for centuries
- Plurals of proper nouns
- Plural form for names of Indigenous groups
- Singular form used for the plural
- Plural form of italicized words
- Plural form for words in quotation marks
- Plurals of noun coinages
- Plurals for letters, abbreviations, and numerals
- Possessive form of most nouns
- Possessive of proper nouns, abbreviations, and numbers
- Possessive of words and names ending in unpronounced “s”
- Possessive of names like “Euripides”
- Possessive of nouns plural in form, singular in meaning
- “For . . . sake” expressions
- An alternative practice for words ending in “s”
- Joint versus separate possession
- Compound possessives
- Possessive to mean “of”
- Double possessive
- Possessive versus attributive forms for groups
- Possessive with gerund
- Possessive with italicized or quoted terms
- Contractions
- Interjections
- “A” and “an” before “h”
- “A” and “an” before abbreviations, symbols, and numerals
- When not to use ligatures
- When ligatures should be used
- Dictionary word division
- Word divisions that should be avoided
- Dividing according to pronunciation
- Dividing after a vowel
- Dividing compounds, prefixes, and suffixes
- Dividing words ending in “ing”
- Dividing proper nouns and personal names
- Dividing numerals
- Dividing numerals with abbreviated units of measure
- Dividing mathematical expressions
- Division in run-in lists
- Dividing URLs at the end of a line
- Hyphenation and appearance
- Setting off proper names and titles of works
- Italics and markup
- Italics for emphasis
- Boldface or underlining for emphasis
- Asterisks for emphasis
- Capitals for emphasis
- Unfamiliar words and phrases from other languages
- Roman for familiar words from other languages
- Roman for Latin words and abbreviations
- Italics or boldface for key terms
- Linked text
- “Scare quotes”
- Mixing single and double quotation marks
- “So-called”
- Common expressions and figures of speech
- Signs and notices
- Mottoes
- Words and phrases used as words
- Letters as letters
- Scholastic grades
- Letters standing for names
- Letters as shapes
- Names of letters
- Rhyme schemes
- Mathematical variables
- Communication code words
- Suggested references for music publishing
- Musical pitches
- Octaves
- Chords
- “Major” and “minor”
- Dynamics
- Application-specific versus generic usage
- Capitalization for keys, menu items, and file formats
- Keyboard combinations and shortcuts
- Setting off file names and words to be typed or selected
- Terms like “web” and “internet”
- Hashtags
- To hyphenate or not to hyphenate
- Compounds defined
- The trend toward closed compounds
- Hyphens and readability
- Compound modifiers before or after a noun
- Compound modifiers that are always hyphenated
- Adverbs ending in “‑ly”
- Multiple hyphens
- Suspended hyphens
- Hyphenation guide