A-Z House Style Guide

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last/past #

Say ‘in the past two years’. Only use ‘last’ if saying eg ‘in the last two years of her life…’

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Latin America #

Capitals. Latin America refers to the countries of South America and Central America plus Mexico. Compare Central America.

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lb/kg #

See units.

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learnt #

Not ‘learned’. He had certainly learnt his lesson… A learnt behaviour. Only use ‘learned’ (pronounced learn-ed) when you mean wise: a learned professor. Compare burnt.

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less/fewer #

Less is used before a singular (uncount) noun. Fewer is used before a plural noun. Yes: less money; less time; fewer people; fewer countries. No: ‘less people’; ‘less countries’. Yes: Fewer than one-fifth of the population were involved; less than one-fifth of the population was involved.

But: He weighed less than 40kg (where fewer would sound silly). Fewer than half the people voted in favour (people only come in whole numbers). But: Less than 50 per cent of people voted in favour (because it could be 48.5 per cent, not just 48 or 49 per cent).

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letters #

Use a comma at the start and end of a letter, eg ‘Dear Salutation,…’ ‘Yours sincerely,…’

Where appropriate, use one at the end too, eg ‘Yours sincerely, …’

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like/such as #

Like means ‘similar to’ and is general. Such as is specific. We discussed issues like climate change implies you discussed those that were similar to it, but not climate change itself. If you discussed climate change plus globalisation and desertification, say: We discussed issues such as climate change.

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long-term (adjective) #

Hyphen: the long-term effects. But: in the long term (adverb).

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longer-term (adjective) #

Hyphen: our longer-term vision. But: in the longer term (adverb).

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Lord/LORD #

The caps are not needed, even if a Bible passage you are quoting uses them. Include a capital L on Lord, but keep the rest of the word lower case, eg ‘The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.’ (Psalm 23)