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9/11 is perfectly acceptable, but it may be helpful on occasion to use the full date elsewhere for clarification, eg, "the events of September 11, 2001".

Reference to the 9/11 commission (strictly, the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States) is also acceptable

Naafi the Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes; commonly used as the canteen for Service personnel run by the Naafi

Nabataean

Nafta North American Free Trade Agreement (not Area or Association)

naive, naivety (no diaeresis)

names as a general rule, people are entitled to be known as they wish to be known, provided their identities are clear. Thus Cassius Clay became Muhammad Ali; but in such changes, give both names until the new one is widely known. Note Lloyd's names (l/c). See appellations, Clarke, Kenneth or Ken

names starting stories if the typographical style is to begin a story with caps, then cap both names, as GORDON BROWN said last night ... (not GORDON Brown said ...). Where the name is too long to contain in the first line, reconstruct the sentence to place the name away from the start

narcotics take care to use this word correctly. Narcotics are drugs that produce numbness and stupor, eg, cocaine, heroin, morphine and pethidine. See drugs

narcotrafficker one word; likewise, narcoterrorist

narrow boat two words

Nasa National Aeronautics and Space Administration (US); rarely necessary to spell out nowadays

national avoid as a synonym of citizen, as in a French national

National Air Traffic Services (caps and note plural), or the air traffic control service (informal alternative, l/c). Abbreviate to Nats (not NATS)

National Anthem initial caps for the UK anthem, God Save the Queen

National Archives, the Public Record Office (PRO) and Historical Manuscripts Commission (HMC) joined to form a new organisation at Kew (Apr 2003)

National Association of Schoolmasters and Union of Women Teachers (full title), then NASUWT (no slash)

National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States - an acceptable short form is 9/11 commission. See 9/11

national curriculum (l/c)

national grid (l/c, generic, for pylons, wires etc); National Grid (cap, the power company)

National Health Service the NHS, or the health service (NHS for headlines)

National Institute of Economic and Social Research (not for)

national insurance (l/c, like other taxes), in general context, but caps for National Insurance Fund

nationalist l/c except when referring to name of a political party. Thus Scottish National Party (SNP) and Scottish Nationalists. But in Irish contexts, l/c. See Ireland

National Lottery changed the name of its main game (May 2002) to Lotto, but continue to use the phrase National Lottery, or l/c national lottery as a generic. Note also the National Lottery Charities Board is now known as the Community Fund. See Lotto, rollover

national missile defence (NMD), the US missile defence project (l/c when spelt out)

national parks should be capped only with specific names (eg, Snowdonia National Park; but "the policy applies particularly to national parks")

National Rivers Authority (not River)

National Savings & Investments (NS&I), the savings organisation (no longer simply National Savings)

National Security Adviser cap this top post in US political context. The (US) National Security Adviser is preferable to writing, eg, President Obama's National Security Adviser

National Service (caps)

National Statistics since being formed in June 2000 it incorporated the Office for National Statistics: be careful not to confuse the two. The head of the new agency is the National Statistician; the agency watchdog is the Statistics Commission. See Office for National Statistics

National Theatre (caps); generally omit Royal. See Lyttelton

National Trust operates in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. There is a separate National Trust for Scotland

nationwide no hyphen, but use sparingly as it borders on being a cliché; prefer national or nationally. See -wide

Native American cap the "N" when referring to American Indians

Nato (never NATO). The Secretary-General, in succession to Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, is Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the former Dutch Foreign Minister. At subsequent mention, Mr de Hoop Scheffer. Note that in full it is the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (follow our style on -isation). It was set up in April 1949, and at the beginning of 2009 had 26 member countries. Javier Solana was Lord Robertson's predecessor

Natural England came into being on October 1, 2006, an amalgam of English Nature, the Rural Development Service and the Countryside Agency

Nature cap sparingly, only in the context of personifying the power that creates and regulates the world. Also, Mother Nature. See Man

NatWest is an acceptable abbreviation for National Westminster Bank in text or headlines

naught, come to (not nought, which means the digit 0)

nave is a central space in a church; journalists who misspell the word are knaves

navy, naval the Royal Navy (thereafter the Navy, capped); the Merchant Navy, the US Navy, the Brazilian Navy etc (thereafter the navy, l/c, for all of these); naval is l/c except in titles such as Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) etc. See officers, ships, warships, Armed Forces special section

navy ships classes are capped, but roman, not italic (eg, a Leander Class frigate). See Armed Forces section

Naypyidaw the new capital of Burma

Nazi, Nazism (caps) see communism

Neanderthal (cap, and not -tal); note Neanderthal Man (cap). See Man

nearby, near by the first is adjectival, eg, “the nearby school was convenient”; the second is adverbial, eg, “he sat on a bench near by”

near-demise hyphenate this and other constructions involving a noun with near

nearly one in three ... is prefer singular to the plural are in these constructions. See one

Needles, The at the western end of the Isle of Wight. See Solent

Neighbourhood Watch

neither takes a singular verb, eg, “neither is ...”, “neither Bert nor Fred has any idea”. Do not use the construction neither ... or ... (must use nor). See none, either

nemesis l/c any agency of retribution and vengeance

neoconservative, neocon no hyphen

neoprene l/c as it is a generic

Nepad the New Partnership for Africa's Development (not African)

Nepalese prefer to Nepali for both people and language of Nepal

nerve-racking (not -wracking) see racked, wrack

Nestlé

Netanyahu, Binyamin (not Benjamin), Israeli politician. See Israel

Net Book Agreement (caps)

Netherlands, the (no longer cap The). Do not use Holland as an alternative except in sporting or historical contexts. See Holland

Network SouthEast no longer exists. See train companies

nevertheless (one word, as nonetheless)

new frequently redundant. Try the sentence without it and see if it really adds any meaning; always omit in “setting a new record”. Avoid employing phrases such as "white is the new black"

New Age travellers (no quotes). See Gypsy/gypsy, travellers

newborn (as in babies, no hyphen)

Newcastle University not the University of Newcastle. See universities; names of all institutions are on the UK Universities website

Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle-under-Lyme. Check UK place names in the Ordnance Survey gazetteer

New Deal caps for Labour's welfare programme

new-found hyphen

Newhaven, East Sussex, but New Haven, Connecticut. See Sussex

new Labour l/c “n”, quotes not usually necessary, except when the writer or speaker is making a particular, perhaps ironic, point. But keep caps in slogans such as “New Labour, New Danger”. See Politics special section

newscaster prefer newsreader

News International Rupert Murdoch is chairman and chief executive of News Corporation (second mention, News Corp), a name changed in November 2004 from The News Corporation Limited after incorporation in the United States; it can be described as "parent company of The Times".

A subsidiary of News Corp is News International (its full title is News International Ltd; was News International plc until June 2003), a British company that owns Times Newspapers Holdings. The operating subsidiary of Times Newspapers Holdings is Times Newspapers Ltd, publisher of The Times and The Sunday Times. Times Newspapers Holdings is chaired by Mr Murdoch and the board includes the independent national directors of The Times and The Sunday Times. It is thus the controlling company.

News Group Newspapers, another operating subsidiary of News International, is the publisher of The Sun and News of the World (and Sunday Magazine).

TSL Education Ltd (formerly Times Supplements Ltd) was another operating subsidiary of News International which published The Times Educational Supplement, The Times Higher Education Supplement, The Times Literary Supplement, Nursery World, TES College Manager and TES Primary magazine. Worldwide Learning Ltd, a subsidiary of TSL Education, is a provider of global distance learning solutions. The Times Literary Supplement is still owned by News International.

The Times Educational Supplement is now better known simply as the (l/c, roman) TES; what was The Times Higher Education Supplement is now Times Higher Education and branded as the (l/c, roman) THE. Both publications, with Nursery World and other publications, are still owned by TSL Education, but that company and its titles were bought from News International by Exponent Private Equity in 2005.

News Ltd is the Australian arm of News Corp.

Twentieth Century Fox (or 20th Century Fox in logo form), Fox News, Fox Sports etc are part of the Fox Entertainment Group, which is 82.1 per cent owned by News Corp.

Mr Murdoch does not "own" any of these companies, though his family is the largest single (though not majority) shareholder in News Corp. See BSkyB, Murdoch, Rupert, The Times

newspapers and journals; use italics for titles and make sure to use The in the title whenever appropriate. The lists that follow, though not exhaustive, should cover the most frequently mentioned (and some that have fallen by the wayside):

In the UK and Ireland with The in the masthead:

The Times, The Sunday Times, The Sun;

The Guardian (formerly The Manchester Guardian), The Observer;

The Independent, The Independent on Sunday;

The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph;

The Mail on Sunday, The People, The European;

The Scotsman, The Herald (formerly The Glasgow Herald); The Sunday Post

The Birmingham Post, The Journal (Newcastle), The Northern Echo, The Argus (Brighton) (no longer Evening Argus);

The Irish Times, The Belfast Telegraph;

The Spectator, The Economist;

The Sporting Life, The Big Issue;

The Lancet, The New England Journal of Medicine

The Illustrated London News

In the UK and Ireland without The in the masthead:

News of the World, Financial Times, Daily Mirror (no longer The Mirror, spring of 2002);

Daily Mail, Daily Express (May 2000), Daily Star, Daily Sport, Sunday Sport, Sunday Mirror;

Sunday Express, Evening Standard;

Scotland on Sunday, Yorkshire Post, Daily Post (Liverpool), Manchester Evening News;

Western Daily Press (Bristol), Western Mail (Cardiff), Western Morning News (Plymouth);

Evening Mail (Birmingham), Evening Post (Bristol), Express & Star (Wolverhampton), Telegraph & Argus (Bradford);

Oxford Mail, Sunday Herald (Glasgow), Sunday Independent (Dublin), New Statesman & Society (although just New Statesman is usually acceptable);

British Medical Journal (the BMJ);

Church Times, Jewish Chronicle;

Which?, Which Car? etc;

Racing Post, Hello!, OK!, Heat, Wallpaper (no asterisk)

TES, THE

North America

The Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle;

The Miami Herald, The New York Times, Daily News (New York), New York Post, The New Yorker;

The Washington Post, The Washington Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal;

International Herald Tribune, The Christian Science Monitor;

The Globe and Mail (Toronto)

Latin America

Granma (Cuba)

La Nación, Clarín (Argentina)

O Globo (Brazil)

Europe

Le Monde, Le Figaro, Le Parisien, Le Canard enchaîné

El País, El Mundo, ABC;

Bild am Sonntag, Stern, Der Spiegel, Die Welt, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Der Tagesspiegel

L'Espresso, Corriere della Sera, Il Giornale;

Svenska Dagbladet;

Izvestia

Middle East

The Jerusalem Post, Haaretz, Yediot Aharonot

al-Ahram (Cairo)

The Daily Star (Beirut)

Africa

The Herald (Harare)

The Star, Sunday Times (Johannesburg)

Asia

The Times of India;

People's Daily (Beijing)

Far Eastern Economic Review (Hong Kong), South China Morning Post (Hong Kong);

The Straits Times (Singapore), New Straits Times (Malaysia)

Australasia

The Australian (Sydney), The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age (Melbourne), Herald Sun (Melbourne);

The Dominion Post (Wellington)

When the journal's name is used adjectivally, omit The, eg, the Times reporter was attacked ...

Always properly attribute material from another newspaper: never say “a report in another newspaper ...” but “a report in The Guardian ...” etc. However, the general phrases media reports or press reports are acceptable when material has been widely disseminated

See editor

news stand two words

Newton Abbot single t for the Devon market town. See Devon

New Year Honours or New Year's Honours List (caps); also the Queen's Birthday Honours. See honours

New Year's Day, New Year's Eve, but the new year, new year's resolutions and Chinese new year

New York City, New York State (caps), to distinguish them; usually New York will be sufficient for the city, and upstate New York is permissible. Normally, l/c state in contexts such as the state of Virginia, but see Washington. Generally write out street names such as Fifth Avenue (not 5th Avenue)

New Zealand never NZ, even in headlines

NHS Blood and Transplant, a special health authority replacing (Oct 2005) UK Transplant and the National Blood Authority. See blood

NHS Plan the Government's 2000 health policy. Italicise only with reference to the document itself, The NHS Plan

NICE use the u/c acronym at subsequent mentions for the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (note Health as an addition to the original name)

Nichols, Vincent the incoming Archbishop of Westminster. See Murphy-O'Connor, Churches special section

Nicolson, Sir Harold; but Jack Nicholson, the actor

Nietzsche

nightclub

nightmare an unpleasant dream; avoid its use as a lazy cliché for something that goes wrong

night-time (hyphen), but daytime (one word)

Nikkei average

Nilsen, Dennis despite considerable claims for other spellings. The Nilsen spelling is as cited by a Court of Appeal document and a chambers involved in his case as well as the author Brian Masters

Nimby(ism) acronym for "not in my backyard", initial cap

Nissan cars, but Nissen hut

nitroglycerin no terminal "e" needed; hence trinitroglycerin. See glycerin

No 1, No 2, No 45 etc for songs in a pop chart, bestselling books etc

No 10, or 10 Downing Street not Number 10 or Downing St. See Downing Street, Politics special section

no noun, plural noes

"no" campaign (note quotes and l/c), the anti-euro lobby group that also believes the UK should remain in the EU; likewise for other campaigns opposed to something

Nobel Prize for Literature, Medicine etc; or Nobel Peace/Literature Prize, but Nobel prize (unspecific), Nobel prizewinner, Nobel laureate (l/c “l”), Nobel prize-winning author etc.

Note that the Nobel Prize for Literature is awarded for a body of work, not an individual novel etc

Noël use the diaeresis in the synonym for Christmas. See Coward

noes noun, plural of no

no-fly zone

no man's land

no-no

no one two words, no hyphen

nonagenarian (not nono-)

noncommittal no hyphen

nonconformist, but the Nonconformist Church and Nonconformist churches (buildings). See Churches special section

non-cooperation see co-operate

none almost always takes the singular verb, eg, “none is available at present”. However, very occasionally a plural is permissible, eg, “None of them are better singers than the Welsh” or “none of them have done their best” (where the inelegant alternative would be “none of them has done his or her best”). See neither

nonetheless (one word)

non-existent

nonfiction one word

non-profitmaking

non-stop (hyphenate)

noon (not 12 noon); and never say 12am or 12pm. See midnight

normalcy avoid; say normality instead

Norris, Steve prefers this designation to Steven Norris

north, north east, northern etc; for when to cap, see compass points

northerner, southerner (l/c) in most contexts; but Southerner (cap) in the United States

Northern Ireland see Ireland

Northern Ireland Assembly members are abbreviated MLAs; AMs for the Welsh Assembly; MSPs for Scottish Parliament.

Cap A for Assembly at second mention in Wales and Northern Ireland; cap P for Parliament in Scotland

northern lights (aurora borealis) l/c; similarly aurora australis, the southern lights

North Korea note that Korean names are rendered as three capitalised words, no hyphens. Take care to differentiate between people with the surname Kim, which is extremely common, not least in the ruling dynasty. Kim Jong Il is the unwell "Dear Leader". He is the son of Kim Il Sung, the founder and "Great Leader" of North Korea, who died in 1994 and is designated in the Constitution as Eternal President. Kim Jong Un, the third son of Kim Jong Il, emerged in 2009 as the anointed successor to lead what is officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The older brothers of Kim Jong Un (born in 1983 or 1984) are Kim Jong Nam (1971) and Kim Jong Chul (1981). Note also the spelling of Chang Sung Taek (preferred to Jang Song Taek and other variants) for the brother-in-law of Kim Jong Il

Northumberland, the county; Northumbria is a health, police or tourist authority

North West Frontier Province, in Pakistan (NWFP acceptable after first mention); note initial caps, no hyphens. See Pakistan

Northwest Passage

North York Moors (not North Yorkshire Moors); but also note North Yorkshire Moors Railway. See Yorkshire

nosey

notable (no middle “e”)

Note cap in the diplomatic sense

not only ... to be followed by but (and usually) also; often better to say simply both ... and

“no” vote, “yes” vote

no-win, no-fee legislation/agreement etc (no longer quoted). See Courts special section

nuclear terms should be used with precision. Take special care not to confuse fission and fusion

Nuits-St-Georges two hyphens for the Burgundian wine town

nul points for the British-invented cod French phrase applied to the Eurovision Song Contest when no points are scored. The phrase has no meaning for regular French-speakers, who would write and say zéro points or zéro pointé

number one, Number 10 use No 1, No 10

numbers write from one to ten in full, 11 upwards as numerals except when they are approximations, eg, “about thirty people turned up”.

Try to keep consistency within a sentence: say “the number injured rose from eight to fourteen”, and do not mix fractions and decimals.

At the start of a sentence, write all numbers in full.

For ordinals, write out up to twentieth, then 21st, 33rd, 95th etc.

But birthdays and anniversaries, write out up to tenth, then 11th, 45th etc. Note 42nd Street, 38th parallel etc.

See birthday, currencies, fractions, millions

numberplate (on vehicles etc; one word). See motoring terms

Nuremberg (not -burg)

Nursing, Royal College of (not Nurses)

NVQ National Vocational Qualification (caps when spelt out)

Last edited: August 12, 2009