A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
B
BAA
do not call it the British Airports Authority, its former name
BAE Systems
formerly British Aerospace
ballot, balloted
band names
lc the: the Beatles, the Black Eyed Peas, the The; but uc equivalents in other languages, eg Les Négresses Vertes, Los Lobos
bank holiday
barbecue
Barnardo's
children's charity, formerly Dr Barnardo’s; it no longer runs orphanages
Basle
not Basel
BBC1, BBC2, BBC3, BBC4
no spaces
believable
benefited, benefiting
biannual
twice a year, biennial every two years; biannual is almost always misused: to avoid confusion stick with the alternative twice-yearly; two-yearly is an alternative to biennial
big
usually preferable to major, massive, giant, mammoth, behemoth, etc, particularly in news copy
bill
lc, even when giving full name; cap up only if it becomes an act
billion
one thousand million, not one million million: in copy use bn for sums of money, quantities or inanimate objects: £10bn, 1bn litres of water; otherwise billion: 6 billion people, etc; use bn in headlines
blase
no accent
blond
adjective and male noun; blonde female noun: the woman is a blonde, because she has blond hair; the man has blond hair and is, if you insist, a blond
book titles
are italicised; lc for a, an, and, of, on, the (unless they are the first word of the title): A Tale of Two Cities, The Pride and the Passion, etc
bored with, by
not bored of
both
unnecessary in most sentences that contain “and”; “both men and women” says no more than “men and women”, and takes longer
bottleneck
brackets
If the sentence is logically and grammatically complete without the information contained within the parentheses (round brackets), the punctuation stays outside the brackets. (A complete sentence that stands alone in parentheses starts with a capital letter and ends with a stop.)
Britain, UK
These terms are synonymous: Britain is the official short form of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Used as adjectives, therefore, British and UK mean the same. Great Britain, however, refers only to England, Wales and Scotland.
budget, the
lc noun and adj, eg budget talks, budget measures, mini-budget, pre-budget report, etc
bureau
plural bureaus (furniture) or bureaux (organisations)
burned/burnt
burned is the past tense form (he burned the cakes); burnt is the participle, an “adjectival” form of the verb (“the cakes are burnt”)
buyout
but buy-in
byelection, bylaw, bypass, bystander
do not call it the British Airports Authority, its former name
BAE Systems
formerly British Aerospace
ballot, balloted
band names
lc the: the Beatles, the Black Eyed Peas, the The; but uc equivalents in other languages, eg Les Négresses Vertes, Los Lobos
bank holiday
barbecue
Barnardo's
children's charity, formerly Dr Barnardo’s; it no longer runs orphanages
Basle
not Basel
BBC1, BBC2, BBC3, BBC4
no spaces
believable
benefited, benefiting
biannual
twice a year, biennial every two years; biannual is almost always misused: to avoid confusion stick with the alternative twice-yearly; two-yearly is an alternative to biennial
big
usually preferable to major, massive, giant, mammoth, behemoth, etc, particularly in news copy
bill
lc, even when giving full name; cap up only if it becomes an act
billion
one thousand million, not one million million: in copy use bn for sums of money, quantities or inanimate objects: £10bn, 1bn litres of water; otherwise billion: 6 billion people, etc; use bn in headlines
blase
no accent
blond
adjective and male noun; blonde female noun: the woman is a blonde, because she has blond hair; the man has blond hair and is, if you insist, a blond
book titles
are italicised; lc for a, an, and, of, on, the (unless they are the first word of the title): A Tale of Two Cities, The Pride and the Passion, etc
bored with, by
not bored of
both
unnecessary in most sentences that contain “and”; “both men and women” says no more than “men and women”, and takes longer
bottleneck
brackets
If the sentence is logically and grammatically complete without the information contained within the parentheses (round brackets), the punctuation stays outside the brackets. (A complete sentence that stands alone in parentheses starts with a capital letter and ends with a stop.)
Britain, UK
These terms are synonymous: Britain is the official short form of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Used as adjectives, therefore, British and UK mean the same. Great Britain, however, refers only to England, Wales and Scotland.
budget, the
lc noun and adj, eg budget talks, budget measures, mini-budget, pre-budget report, etc
bureau
plural bureaus (furniture) or bureaux (organisations)
burned/burnt
burned is the past tense form (he burned the cakes); burnt is the participle, an “adjectival” form of the verb (“the cakes are burnt”)
buyout
but buy-in
byelection, bylaw, bypass, bystander
