Grammarian: UK v US punctuation…worlds apart! Full stop (or period)

British English (BrE) is used in the UK, whereas American English (AmE) is used in the United States, and that goes for punctuation as well as grammar and vocabulary. 

BrE v AmE Punctuation differences

We’ll concentrate solely upon punctuation for this blog.

That means putting aside a myriad of different (potentially embarrassing!) word meanings; e.g. if we make a mistake in the UK, we would correct is with a ‘rubber’, whereas Americans would use an ‘eraser’ and be shocked at our forwardness!

1. Putting full stops after abbreviations

i. Yes – both BrE and AmE

• Abbreviated titles (*) – Prof.,Rev., Hon. (note ‘The Reverend’ = written out in full)
• Latin abbreviations: exampli gratia = e.g.

(*) Abbreviation v Contraction

• Contraction – where the middle of the word is dropped; e.g. Doctor = D…..r
• Abbreviation – where the ending is dropped; e.g. Professor = Prof.

ii. Yes AmE / No BrE

AmE tends to put periods (full stops in English!) after EVERY abbreviation….not so BrE.

Full stop exceptions in British English include:

• Contracted Titles (*) – Mr, Mrs, Ms, Dr (AmE = Mr., Mrs., Ms., Dr.)
• Imperial quantities (**) – lb (pounds), oz (ounces) (AmE = lb.,oz.)
• Time (***) 1 yr

(**) Units of measurement in should not be pluralised when abbreviated, so don’t use lbs or ozs

(***) There should always be a space left between the number and the abbreviation; e.g.  1 yr NOT 1yr

iii. No AmE and BrE

• Metric quantities – never use periods with metric system units; kg, m, Hz

• Countries – USA (not U.S.A)
• Organisation – RMT (not R.M.T.) or BBC (incidentally, this is an initialism, not an acronym as it is not pronounced as a word!)
• Positions – MP (note plural MPs not MP’s)

UNCLEAR – depends upon House Style

• Qualifications – Ph.D or PhD
• Plural of an abbreviation – URLs (more common) but also URL’s

2. Other punctuation differences between BrE and AmE

• Time – 10.30 (full stop for BrE) / 10:30 (colon for AmE)
• Dates – 1980s (no apostrophe for the plural form in BrE) / 1980’s

3. Quotations

There are a quite a few stylistic variations here, so deep breath, here’s a very simplistic summary:

• Double quotes – both BrE and AmE use double quotes (“”) for standalone/block quotations (*) and for run-on quotations

BUT

• Unquoted full stops and commas – OUTSIDE quotation marks for BrE, INSIDE for AmE  (*)

BrE “We are delighted to be celebrating our 50th anniversary”, said Hopkins, “which is a great achievement.”

AmE “We are delighted to be celebrating our 50th anniversary,” said Hopkins, “which is a great achievement”.

(*) BUT, If the full stop or commas are quoted – i.e. part of the original quote – they are included within the quotation marks.