Grammar: All about (T)

Grammar: Which word to use (T)

https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-observer-style-guide-t

1. CORRECT USAGE

1.1. Similar words mean different things…

tic or tick?

tic an idiosyncratic habitual behaviour or spasm; tick a bloodsucking bug, correction mark or sound a clock makes.

throw or throes?

You might make a last throw of the dice, but if you are in your last throes, your situation is considerably more serious.

titillate or titivate?

titillate mildly excite; titivate tidy up.

tonne or ton?

tonnage is measured in tons (units of volume), not tonnes (units of mass) – derived from the number of tuns (large barrels) a vessel could hold; registered tonnage is the total internal capacity of a vessel.

Note: the metric tonne is 1,000kg (2,204.62lb), the British ton is 2,240lb, and the US ton is 2,000lb; usually there is no need to convert.

For figurative use, write tons (I’ve had tons of birthday cards, etc).

tortuous or torturous?

A long and winding road is tortuous; an experience involving pain or suffering might be described as torturous.

translator or interpreter?

translator works with the written word; often confused with interpreter, who works with the spoken word.

triumphant or triumphal?

You might put up a triumphal arch because you are triumphant in battle.

trooper or trouper?

trooper soldier in a cavalry regiment, so you might “swear like a trooper”; trouper member of a troupe, or dependable worker – “the night team are real troupers”.

1.2 Use the right word in context…

T

(not tee) as in “it suited her to a T”,” he had it down to a T”.

tarmac 

tarmac  formerly used to make pavements, roads and runways; we now walk and drive on asphalt.

till

Not an abbreviation of until, but an older word. Until sounds more natural as the first word of a sentence and before a verb (“Until you come back to me”); till works well in less formal contexts and before a noun (“till lunchtime”). Do not use til or ’til.

torpid, turbid or turgid?

• Torpid means apathetic or sluggish;
• turbid is muddy, thick or cloudy;
• turgid means congested or swollen, and therefore can be handy if you want to accuse someone of using bombastic or pompous language.

total

Avoid sentences such as, “three men were jailed for a total of 19 years”, a statistic that conveys no meaningful information; eg  if they had been given sentences of nine, six and four years.

The only time total might be justified is when one person is given a series of life sentences, and “he was jailed for a total of 650 years”.

transpire

to emit vapour through the skin, so by analogy to become apparent, come to be known; this is not  a synonym for “occur” or “happen”; eg “it transpired that” usually sounds artificial and/or pompous.

2. SPELLINGS

-t

use the -t ending for past participles: the cakes were burnt, the word was misspelt. Exception: earned NOT earnt

T&Cs

terms and conditions

temperatures

Write 30C (85F);  ie celsius, with fahrenheit in brackets on first mention.

try to

never try and.

As Bart Simpson put it: “I can’t promise I’ll try, but I’ll try to try”

2.1 To hyphenate (or not)?

YES

tailor-made

Ta-dah!

take-up (noun) BUT take up (verb)

team-made

“three-line whip”

T-junction

to-do

to-ing and fro-ing

top-down (and bottom-up)

EXCEPTIONS

no hyphen in such phrases as “the then prime minister” or in turned “the prime minister turned novelist”.

2.2 One word or two?

One word

teammate

takeoff (noun) BUT take off (verb)

taskforce

teabag, teacup, teapot, teaspoon

textbook

theatregoer

thermonuclear

think tank

thoroughbred, thoroughgoing

threefold, threescore

thunderstorm

timebomb, timescale, timeshare

tinfoil

tipoff

trademarks

transatlantic

twofold

Two words

tarot cards

teddy boys

chatshow, gameshow, quizshow, talkshow BUT television shows

terrafirma BUT terracotta

Top 10, Top 40

2.3 Frequently misspelt

T rex = dinosaur (note: T Rex – band)

T-shirt NOT tee-shirt

targeted, targeting

tariff

teargas

teetotaller

tendinitis NOT tendonitis

tenpin bowling

terrace houses NOT terraced

3D

titbit NOT tidbit

tomato (plural) tomatoes

tornado (plural) tornadoes

totalled

traffic, trafficking (-ed) NOT trafficking

tranquillisers NOT tranquilisers

tyranny NOT tyrany

tying

2.4 Change with form or plural

talisman (plural) talismans NOT “talismen”

taxi, taxiing (of aircraft)

tsar NOT czar

trolley (plural) trolleys NOT trollies

2.5 Take note of capitals

[ic = initial capitals | lc = lowercase]

ic only

Teesside

Trades Union Congress (TUC) BUT trade union

Treasury, the (officially HM Treasury)

Initial cap only if “Theatre” comes first, eg Theatre Royal, Stratford East

ic for books (The Lord of the Rings), films (The Matrix), poems (The Waste Land), television shows (The West Wing), and works of art (The Adoration of the Magi).

ic & lc

Test (cricket and rugby); the third Test, etc

Tourette syndrome

Trojan horse

lowercase for “theatre”, eg Adelphi theatre, Crucible theatre (but normally just Adelphi, Crucible).

lower case for tube lines, eg Jubilee line, Northern line, etc;

treaties, eg peace of Westphalia (1648), treaty of Versailles (1919)

note, no ‘the’ before the following countries: Central African Republic (CAR on second mention), Ivory Coast, Lebanon, Seychelles, Sudan, Ukraine, Vatican City (but the Vatican), Yemen.

lc only

tropic of cancer, tropic of capricorn

tube, the underground, the BUT London Underground is the name of the company.

the tote

town councillor, town hall

lc for newspapers (the Guardian), magazines (the New Statesman), pubs (the Coach and Horses), bands (the Black Eyed Peas, the Not Sensibles, the The), nicknames (the Hulk, the Red Baron), and sports grounds (the Oval).

3. EXPRESSIONS

tending

one’s flock, etc (not “tending to”).

trooping the colour

(no “of”).

turned

“the politician turned celebrity said…” (no hyphens).

21st century

but hyphenate if adjectival: e.g.  “newspapers of the 21st century, 21st-century newspapers”.

4. PUNCTUATION

times

1am, 6.30pm, etc; 10 o’clock last night but 10pm yesterday;

half past two, a quarter to three,

10 to 11, etc;

2hr 5min 6sec, etc;

for the 24-hour clock, 00.47, 23.59;

noon, midnight (not 12 noon, 12 midnight or 12am, 12pm):

Note: the week starts on Mondays, but stories published on Sunday refer to the following week as “this week” and the six days preceding that Sunday as “last week”.

Writers should put the date in brackets when there might be ambiguity.

5. GRAMMAR

teams

Sports teams take plural verbs: “Wednesday were relegated again, Australia have won by an innings”.

Note:  in a business context, they are singular like other companies, eg “Manchester United reported its biggest loss to date”.

that

Do not use automatically after the word “said”, but it can be useful: you tend to read a sentence such as “he said nothing by way of an explanation would be forthcoming” as “he said nothing by way of an explanation” and then realise that it does not say that at all; “he said that nothing by way of an explanation would be forthcoming” is much clearer.

A similar problem arises with verbs such as argue and warn. “He argued the case for war had not been made” and “he warned the case for war had not been made” both become much clearer if you insert “that” after the verb

that or which?

The traditional definition is that “that” defines (gives essential information) and “which” informs (gives extra information), as in:

“This is the house that Jack built; but this house, which John built, is falling down.”

Note that in such examples the sentence remains grammatical without “that” (“this is the house Jack built.”

Note also the punctuation in the example above:

A formula that may help simplify things:

• Restrictive clauses – “that” (desirable), no comma (essential).
• Non-restrictive clauses – “which”, comma (both essential).

the

If it is thought necessary to explain who someone is, write “Nigel Adkins, the Sheffield United manager, said” or “the Sheffield United manager, Nigel Adkins, said”. In such cases the commas around the name indicate there is only one person in the position, so write “the Tory prime minister, David Cameron, said” (only one person in the job), but “the former Tory prime minister John Major said” (there have been many).

Leaving “the” out often reads like official jargon: say “the conference agreed to do [something]”, not “conference agreed”; “the government has to do”, not “government has to”.

Note: names of trains take the definite article (the Flying Scotsman); names of locomotives do not (Mallard)

this and that

that was then, but this is now; this looks forward, that looks back:

eg The man showing his son and heir the lands lying in front of them says: “One day, son, all this will be yours.” Then he points behind him to the house and says: “But that remains mine”