-
Nabokov, Vladimir
(1899-1977) Russian-born author of Lolita; not Nabakov -
nailbomb
-
naive, naively, naivety
no accent -
Nakba
the Palestinian "catastrophe" -
names
Prominent figures can just be named in stories, with their function at second mention: "George Osborne said last night ... " (first mention); "the chancellor added ... " (subsequent mentions)
Where it is thought necessary to explain who someone is, write "David Weir, the Sheffield United manager, said" or "the Sheffield United manager, David Weir, said", etc.
In such cases the commas around the name indicate there is only one person in the position, so write "the Tory leader, David Cameron, said" (only one person in the job), but "the former Tory leader Michael Howard said" (there have been many).
Do not leave out the definite article in such constructions as "style guru David Marsh said ... " It should be "The style guru David Marsh" (if there are other style gurus) or "David Marsh, the style guru, ... " (if you feel only one person merits such a description) -
Nanjing
not Nanking -
narrowboat
the popular type of British canal boat, 7ft wide and up to 70ft long – do not call it a barge. A wider version (typically 10-14ft wide) is a broadbeam narrowboat -
Nasa
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, but no need to spell out -
nation
should not be used to mean country or state, but reserved to describe people united by language, culture and history so as to form a distinct group within a larger territory.
Beware of attributing the actions of a government or a military force to a national population ("the Israelis have killed 400 children during the intifada"). Official actions always have opponents within a population; if we don't acknowledge this, we oversimplify the situation and shortchange the opponents -
national anthem
-
National Archives
the former Public Record Office, now merged with the Historical Manuscripts Commission -
National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers
(NASUWT) call it "the union" after first mention if you want to avoid using these unlovely initials; note that an "and" seems to have gone missing somewhere -
National Audit Office
NAO or audit office after first mention -
national curriculum
-
National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts
Nesta after first mention -
National Grid
transmits gas as well as electricity -
National Health Service
but NHS or health service is normally sufficient -
National Hunt
horseracing over fences and hurdles -
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence
Nice after first mention -
national insurance
lc; abbreviate national insurance contributions to NICs after first mention -
nationalists
(Northern Ireland) -
national lottery
-
National Offender Management Service
formed in 2004 from a merger between the prison and probation services, it moved from the Home Office to the Ministry of Justice in 2007; Noms after first mention (but note that in the US, Noms stands for national outcomes measurement system) -
national parks
lc, eg Peak District national park, Yellowstone national park -
National Savings & Investments
may be abbreviated to NS&I -
national service
peacetime conscription in the UK lasted from 1949 until 1960 -
National Theatre
the Royal National Theatre, commonly known as the National, comprises three auditoriums: the Olivier, the Lyttelton, and the Cottesloe (to be renamed the Dorfman in 2014), and a temporary structure, the Shed -
Native Americans
Geronimo was a Native American (not an American Indian or Red Indian); George Bush is a native American -
Nato
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, but no need to spell out -
Natural England
formerly English Nature -
naught
nothing; nought the figure 0 -
navy
but Royal Navy -
naysayer
a "neighsayer", as we have been known to spell it, would be a horse -
Nazi, neo-Nazi
but nazism -
'Ndrangheta
Calabrian version of the mafia -
Neanderthal man
scientific name and style is Homo neanderthalensis. While it may be tempting to describe certain attitudes or, say, politicians as neanderthal, we should bear in mind that archaeologists have known for many years that Neanderthal man was not stupid. British Archaeology magazine has complained about the media's use of neanderthal as a term of abuse -
nearby
one word, whether adjective or adverb: the pub nearby; the nearby pub -
nearsighted
-
nemesis
an agent of retribution and vengeance, not a synonym for enemy -
neocon, neoconservative, neoliberal
-
neophilia
Even if you have always wanted to appear in Private Eye, resist the temptation to write such nonsense as "grey is the new black", "billiards is the new snooker", "Barnsley is the new Tuscany", etc -
Nepalese
not Nepali -
nerve-racking
-
Nestlé
-
Netanyahu, Binyamin
not Benjamin -
Netherlands, the
not Holland, which is only part of the country; use Dutch as the adjective. Exception: the Dutch football team is generally known as Holland -
Never Never Land
or simply Neverland (JM Barrie used both in his Peter Pan works) -
nevertheless
-
new
often redundant, as in "a new report said yesterday" -
new age travellers
-
newbie
-
Newcastle-under-Lyme
hyphens -
Newcastle upon Tyne
no hyphens -
New Deal
capped up, whether you are talking about Franklin D Roosevelt's job creation policies in the 1930s or Gordon Brown's 1990s version -
newfound
-
New Labour
but old Labour -
news agency
-
newsagent, newsprint, newsreel
-
newspaper titles
the Guardian, the Observer, the New York Times, etc, do not write "the Sun newspaper", etc: people know what you mean -
New Testament
-
Newtownards
Northern Irish town pronounced, and frequently misspelt, as Newtonards -
New Wave
initial caps for the film movement known in French as the Nouvelle Vague -
new wave
lowercase for music of the late 70s and early 80s (the likes of Talking Heads); also for any other new wave (eg the Moroccan new wave in cinema) -
new year
lc; but New Year's Day, New Year's Eve -
New Year honours list
-
New York City
but New York state -
New Zealand
People live in (not "on") the South Island or in the North Island; note definite article -
next door
she lives next door (adverb); nextdoor she's my nextdoor neighbour (adjective) -
NHS
National Health Service, but not normally necessary to spell out; health service is also OK -
Nichpa
National Infection Control and Health Protection Agency -
Nietzsche, Friedrich
(1844-1900) German philosopher; occasionally misspelt, even in the Guardian -
Nigerian names
surnames do not exist in the north of Nigeria: a typical name would be Isa Sani Sokoto (Isa the son of Sani who comes from the town of Sokoto); so best to write in full -
nightcap, nightdress, nightfall, nightgown, nightshirt
but night-time -
Nile delta, Nile valley, river Nile
-
nimby, nimbys, nimbyism
it stands for "not in my back yard" -
Nineteen Eighty-Four
not 1984 for Orwell's novel -
Niño, El
-
niqab
veil that covers the face apart from the eyes -
Nissan
cars -
Nissen
hut -
No 1
in the charts, the world tennis No 1, etc -
No 10
(Downing Street) -
no
plural noes -
Nobel prize
Nobel peace prize, Nobel prize for literature, etc -
no-brainer
means something along the lines of "this is so obvious, you don't need a brain to know it" not "only someone with no brain would think this" -
no campaign, yes campaign
not No campaign, "no" campaign or any other variant -
no doubt that, no question that
are opposites: "There was no doubt that he was lying" means he was lying; "There was no question that he was lying" means he wasn't; the two are routinely confused
-
Noel
no accent on Noel as in Christmas (The First Noel, not Nowell); use an accent if that's how the person spells his or her name: Noël Coward had one, Noel Edmonds doesn't -
no-fly zone
-
no man's land
no hyphens -
noncommissioned officer
-
nonconformist
-
none
It is a (very persistent) myth that "none" has to take a singular verb: plural is acceptable and often sounds more natural, eg "none of the current squad are good enough to play in the Premier League", "none of the issues have been resolved" -
nonetheless
-
no one
not no-one -
Nordic countries
Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland -
north
north London, north Wales, north-west England, the north-west, etc -
North America
-
north-east England
Tyneside (Newcastle), Wearside (Sunderland), Teesside (Middlesbrough); we often confuse these or get them wrong in some way that makes it look as if the farthest north-east Guardian journalists have ventured is Stoke Newington -
northern hemisphere
-
northern lights
also known as aurora borealis; the southern hemisphere counterpart is aurora australis -
north of the border
avoid this expression: we work on national newspapers -
north pole
-
Northumbria
an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, a university and a police authority; the county, however, is Northumberland -
North-West Frontier province
one of the four provinces of Pakistan, now known as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa -
North York Moors
national park; but North Yorkshire Moors railway, 18-mile heritage line between Pickering and Grosmont -
nosy
not nosey -
notebook, notepaper
-
noticeboard
-
Nottingham Forest, Notts County
the former should never be abbreviated to "Notts Forest" -
Notting Hill carnival
-
now
occasionally useful for emphasis, but is now used far too often -
npower
retail arm of RWE npower; nothing to do with nuclear power -
numbers
Spell out from one to nine; numerals from 10 to 999,999; thereafter use m, bn or tn for sums of money, quantities or inanimate objects in copy, eg 5m tonnes of coal, 30bn doses of vaccine, £50tn; but million or billion for people or animals, eg 1 million people, 25 million rabbits, the world population is 7 billion, etc; in headlines always use m, bn or tn -
numbskull
-
numeracy
Numbers have always contained power, and many a journalist will tremble at the very sight of them. But most often the only maths we need to make sense of them is simple arithmetic. Far more important are our critical faculties, all too often switched off at the first sniff of a figure.
It's easy to be hoodwinked by big numbers in particular. But are they really so big? Compared with what? And what is being assumed? A government announcement of an extra £Xm a year will look far less impressive if divided by 60 million (the British population) and/or 52 (weeks in the year). That's quite apart from the fact that it was probably trumpeted last week already, as part of another, bigger number.
Never invent a big figure when a small one will do. Totting jail sentences together ("the six men were jailed for a total of 87 years") is meaningless as well as irritating. Similarly, saying that something has an area the size of 150 football pitches, or is "eight times the size of Wales", is cliched and may not be helpful. -
Here is an easy three-point guide to sidestepping common "mythematics" traps:
1 Be careful in conversions, don't muddle metric and imperial, or linear, square and cubic measures. Square miles and miles square are constantly confused: an area 10 miles square is 10 miles by 10 miles, which equals 100 square miles.
2 Be extremely wary of (or don't bother) converting changes in temperature; you run the risk of confusing absolute and relative temperatures, eg while a temperature of 2C is about the same as 36F, a temperature change of 2C corresponds to a change of about 4F.
3 When calculating percentages, beware the "rose by/fell by X%" construction: an increase from 3% to 5% is a 2 percentage point increase or a 2-point increase, not a 2% increase -
Nuremberg
