Many questions related to spelling can be resolved simply by referring to a dictionary or using a good computer spellchecker. But there are also issues that require more careful consideration and that cannot be resolved automatically. This section of the Guide provides recommendations on such issues, including the general conventions applicable to spelling, such as use of British and American variants, and the consequences of these conventions (for example, ligatures and consonant doubling). By “American” here we refer to the English written in the United States of America. There are other American Englishes in Canada and the Caribbean, and other Englishes around the world, but in regard to spelling the British and American (USA) variants are dominant alternatives. We also refer to other considerations that are not strictly in the province of spelling but that nevertheless affect the way the language is written; issues here include the use or non-use of diacritics, italics and hyphens.

1.1 Conventions

As a reflection of our European geographical situation, we recommend the use of British English in most contexts, particularly for institutional documents. Some universities within the Vives Network of Universities have opted to use British English combined with so-called Oxford spelling, which is based on the Oxford Dictionary. In certain ways, it is similar to spelling in American English; in others, it resembles British spelling conventions. Details are given in Section 1.1.1.

In some situations, many university texts may be addressed specifically to American readers or may be for or from an academic ambit in which American English is more usual. In such cases, use common sense and discretion in deciding which variant is most suitable.

We strongly recommend, however, that only one variant of English be used within a single text or related series of texts, for reasons of coherence.

1.1.1 Differences in spelling between British and American English

For most general purposes, there is little significant difference between British and American English in written texts. In practically all circumstances, any text written in standard British English will be comprehensible to an American reader, and vice versa.

Historically, in British usage both the ise and ize spellings have been accepted in verbs like organise/organize and recognise/recognize and other parts of speech derived from them (organisation/organization and recognisable/recognizable). The ise spelling is used more frequently in a broad range of publications. Therefore, we recommend that the ise, yse and isation forms be used, except where the context specifically requires American spelling.

As we stated in Section 1.1 above, some universities within the Vives Network have opted to use British English with Oxford spelling. In the following paragraphs, we will highlight the spelling differences and similarities between British English, with and without Oxford spelling, and American English.

The Greek root lys, found in British English verbs like analyse, is also conserved in Oxford spelling. American English equivalents (analyze) are again the result of standardisation reforms. Some other verbs that follow this pattern are listed below.

Remember, however, that British English, Oxford spelling and American English all spell certain words always with an s or with a z. In the case of s, this happens when ise is not a complete suffix but a fragment of a longer component like cise, mise, prise or vise, often from French past participles. Some of the more relevant ones are listed below.

In the case of the letter z, this happens with a small number of words including prize and size.

The following summary lists other well-known and now commonly accepted distinctions between British and American spelling.

Also, note that British usage has the form programme (as opposed to the American program) except when referring to computer code, in which case program is preferred.

1.1.2 Ligatures

Although the æ/œ spelling (known as a ligature, in which two or more letters are graphically combined) for more technical words (e.g., œstrogen, cæsium, hæmatology or orthopædics) is still in use in British English, this is now not universally the case for most other words that were traditionally written with a ligature; these words now have a single written vowel that substitutes the older æ form (medieval and encyclopedia being well-known examples). Opt for the simplified spelling for all such non-technical words.

1.1.3 Double consonants before suffixes

Where consonants are doubled for monosyllabic words (basically, after a short vowel and immediately before a suffix beginning with a vowel such as ing, er, est or ed), British and American English spelling is the same.

For words of more than one syllable, however, differences between British and American usage can differ.

i) The letter l

As an indication for when to double this final consonant in British English, we replicate the explanation given in Section 1.5 of the English Style Guide of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Translation (see Bibliography): “In British usage, a final l is doubled after a short vowel on adding ing or ed to verbs (sole exception: parallel, paralleled) and adding er to make nouns from verbs”.

Examples would include the following:

In American English, except for words ending in al (final/finally; minimal/minimally), l is usually not doubled before a suffix.

Finally, there are certain words ending in l in British English which double this consonant in American English:

Note that the l is accordingly doubled or not in derivatives ending in ment:

ii) Other consonants

Usage may vary considerably between British and American English in the doubling of a consonant other than l at the end of a word. If in doubt, consult a reliable English dictionary. However, the following observations generally hold for both variants. The consonants t and r double before ed and ing if the last syllable of the root word is stressed.

In contrast, for two-syllable words whose first syllable is stressed, the final consonant is not doubled.

In British English, the exception to this are two-syllable words ending in p, where the final consonant is doubled even when the principal stress is on the first syllable.

1.2 Diacritics

Diacritics are marks added above or below a letter (or sometimes within or between letters). In the Roman alphabet, they are basically used to indicate a modification in the pronunciation of the letter in question.

Unlike other European languages, which make use of a large number of diacritics, modern English does not have any. However, some borrowed words may be written in English with their original non-English diacritic. The most common diacritics are the so-called grave (`) or acute (´) accents, the cedilla (¸), the umlaut/dierisis (¨), the tilde (˜) and the circumflex (ˆ), but they rarely affect pronunciation (for exceptional cases, see Section 1.2.1 Ambiguity). Overall, borrowed words tend to lose their diacritics over time because of processes of simplification and assimilation, and the fact that diacritics are not easily typed on an English keyboard.

1.2.1 Ambiguity

Use diacritics when their absence could result in ambiguity. For example, exposé, résumé and rosé, when unaccented, look like different words (in this case, expose, resume and rose, respectively). In many cases, when there is no possible ambiguity, you do not need to use the original diacritic (for example, facade, deja-vu or doppelganger). In other cases, however, assimilated foreign words, including some borrowed from French (for example, attaché, communiqué and soufflé) and, increasingly, from Spanish (jalapeño and piñata), often keep the original diacritic.

1.2.2 Names

With names in other languages, use all the diacritics correctly and consistently. Therefore,

1.2.3 Other words

When an English text uses foreign words or phrases that are not names but that have diacritics in the original language, you should either keep all such marks or else use none at all. Be consistent. If you decide to use them, remember that they should also be used on capital letters.

1.3 Italics

Italics are often used to draw attention to words or phrases.

However, we generally recommend restricting their use to the following cases.

1.3.1 Titles of books, journals and other publications

Unless following specific editorial guidelines, write the titles of books, journals and other published materials such as dictionaries and reference works in italics, to distinguish the titles from the rest of the sentence.

Be aware, however, that conventions for indicating the title of a book or journal may vary depending on the publication or academic field. You will therefore have to bear these factors in mind, depending on the purpose of your text and where it will be published. For additional comment, see section 3.2.2 Publications and the Bibliography.

1.3.2 Words and expressions in other languages

Italicise foreign words or expressions from other languages that are not common in English (that is, words not included in a reliable English dictionary) and that may therefore not be readily understood.

Other expressions of this kind are the Latin terms for academic distinction, cum laude, magna cum laude and summa cum laude (meaning “with honour”, “with great honour” and “with highest honour”, respectively), which should always be italicised.

But note that foreign words that have now become common in English do not require italics.

Note also that, in the event of using a non-English form for the official name of an organisation (universities, companies, governmental bodies, etc.) these names are not written in italics.

1.4 Hyphens

The use or non-use of hyphens is a complex issue. The same words may sometimes be considered correct with or without hyphens, such as is the case with email and e-mail. The general tendency, however, is to use them less, especially due to the influence of electronic and social media, where hyphens are often considered superfluous or untidy. There are thousands of examples of recently disappearing hyphens, such as the following recommendations taken from the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary.

Formerly hyphenated words split in two:

Formerly hyphenated words written as one:

To avoid unnecessary difficulties, we will give only certain basic guidelines.

1.4.1 Prefixes

Many words beginning with a prefix are written with a hyphen (co-payment); many are not (overproduction). Confusingly, there are also cases where both forms are considered acceptable (British: pre-school / American: preschool). As can be seen from this last example, the tendency in American English is to hyphenate less than in British English. In any event, if in doubt about whether a prefix should be followed by a hyphen, consult a reliable dictionary. However, the following observations generally hold.

Words beginning with a common prefix (such as un, dis or re) are often written without a hyphen.

Nevertheless, make sure to hyphenate when the prefix re precedes a word beginning with e, such as re-evaluate, or when the hyphen can help avoid confusion, such as re-sent vs resent or re-sign vs resign.

Hyphenate all words formed by a prefix and a word beginning with a capital letter.

But note that words like transatlantic, transpacific or subarctic are normally written as single words with no capitalisation.

1.4.2 Compound adjectives

Hyphenate compound adjectives before a noun to indicate that the adjectives should be read as a unit, thereby avoiding ambiguity.

Although hyphens are only sometimes needed to avoid misunderstanding, hyphenate compound adjectives even when confusion is unlikely.

However, do not hyphenate compound adjectives in which the first element is an adverb ending in either ly or in y.

Similarly, do not hyphenate compound adjectives in which the first element is a comparative or superlative.

1.4.3 Phrasal verbs

i) Nouns formed from phrasal verbs

Nouns formed from phrasal verbs are often written as a single word and may or may not be hyphenated. If in doubt, consult a dictionary.

ii) Adjectives formed from phrasal verbs

When a phrasal verb is used as an adjective, it is usually hyphenated.

1.4.4 Word breaks

Hyphens can be used to break words up into their component parts to facilitate reading by avoiding doubled letters.

But note that certain high-frequency terms are no longer hyphenated.

Words that are part of a name may be exceptions to this rule.

1.4.5 Compounds with the same root and different prefixes

When a noun is preceded by more than one hyphenated prefix, write the prefixes as follows.