Ha'aretz
Israeli newspaper

Haarlem
the Netherlands; Harlem New York City

habeas corpus

Haberdashers' Aske's school

Habsburg
not Hapsburg

haemorrhaging
is best avoided, even if you manage to spell it correctly, as it has become a cliche - in expressions such as "haemorrhaging cash" - and completely wrong as an adjective meaning big, eg "in the face of haemorrhaging financial losses"

haemorrhoids

Hague, The
always cap up "The"

Hair, Darrell
Australian umpire who officiated at the abandoned Test between England and Pakistan at the Oval in 2006

hairbrush, haircut, hairdresser, hairdryer, hairstyle
all one word

Haiti
is not an island: Haiti and the Dominican Republic make up the Caribbean island of Hispaniola

hajj
pilgrimage to Mecca; a Muslim who has made such a pilgrimage is a haji

haka
Maori war dance, as performed by the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team

Hale-Bopp comet
its appearance in 1997 prompted mass suicide in the Heaven's Gate cult

half
no hyphen when used adverbially: you look half dead; half wine, half water; his trousers were at half mast; the scores were level at half time.
hyphen when used adjectivally: a half-eaten sandwich; a half-cut subeditor; hard-hearted Hannah; half-time oranges.

The boy is six and a half; a six and a half-year-old boy

half a dozen, half past six

half-life
(radioactivity)

halfway, halfwit

Hallé orchestra
founded in Manchester by Karl Hallé in 1857

Halley's comet

Halloween
no apostrophe

halo
plural haloes

Hambros bank

Hamed, Prince Naseem
former boxer; Hamed at second mention

Hamilton Academical
not Academicals; nickname the Accies

Hamleys

handbill, handbook, handbuilt, handheld, handmade, handout
no hyphens

handicapped
Do not use to refer to people with disabilities or learning difficulties

hangar
aircraft; hanger clothes

hanged, hung
the woman was found hanged; the sheet was hung out to dry

hanging participles
An unfortunate example from a leading article in the paper: "Due out in January as a white paper, Ms Kelly may be unable to overcome Mr Blair's apparent determination to stick with A-levels ..."
see dangling participles

Hanover

Hanukah

happy-clappy
avoid

hara-kiri
known less vulgarly in Japan as seppuku

harass, harassment

hardcore
one word, whether noun or adjective and whether you are talking about music, rubble, a hardcore of rebels or hardcore pornography

hardline
adjective, hard line, hardliner nouns

harebrained
not hairbrained

hare lip
never use: say cleft lip or cleft palate

Haringey
north London borough, one ward of which is Harringay

Hariri, Rafik
former prime minister of Lebanon, assassinated in Beirut in 2005

Harley-Davidson

HarperCollins

Harper's Bazaar
US fashion magazine marketed as Harper's Bazaar UK in Britain, where it was known as Harpers & Queen from 1970 to 2006

Harpers Bizarre
60s US harmony group and exponents of "cotton candy rock", named after the magazine

Harrods

Hassidic
not Chassidic

hat-trick

Haverfordwest
in south-west Wales, not "Haverford West" as we managed to say

Havisham, Miss
(not Haversham) in Dickens' Great Expectations

Hawaiian

Hawk-Eye
(not Hawkeye) tracks the ball in cricket and tennis

Hay
the Guardian Hay festival takes place at Hay-on-Wye

hay fever

hazard or risk?
Scientists use hazard to mean a potential for harm and risk to mean the actual probability of harm occurring; though headline writers may feel more at home with risk than hazard, the distinction is worth bearing in mind

HBOS
(not HBoS) created in 2001 by the merger of Halifax and Bank of Scotland

HD DVD

head-butt
but butt should normally suffice

headdress, headhunter, headroom
but head-on

headquarters
can be used as a singular ("a large headquarters") or plural ("our headquarters are in London"); HQ, however, takes the singular

headlines
Use active verbs where possible, particularly in news headlines: "Editors publish new style guidelines" is much better than "New style guidelines published". Avoid tabloidese such as bid, brand, dub, and slam, and broadsheet cliches such as insist, signal, and target.

Take care over ambiguity: "Landmine claims dog UK arms firm", which appeared in the paper, contains three words that can be a noun and a verb; as a result, you have to read the headline several times to work out what it means.

Also to be avoided are quotation marks, unless essential to signify a quote or for legal reasons. And resist the temptation to replace "and" with a comma: "Blair and Brown agree euro deal" not "Blair, Brown agree euro deal".

Be careful when making references to popular culture: "Mrs Culpepper's lonely hearts club banned" works, because most people are familiar with Sgt Pepper's, but allusions to your favourite obscure 70s prog-rock album are likely to pass over most readers' heads. Long after everyone had forgotten the 60s movie Charlie Bubbles, tabloid sports subeditors continued to mystify readers by using the headline "Charlie bubbles" whenever Charlie Nicholas (or any other Charlie) scored a goal.

Puns are fine - "Where there's muck there's bras", about a farmer's wife who started a lingerie business, was voted headline of the year by our staff - but do not overuse, or resort to tired puns such as "flushed with success" (this story has got a plumber in it!). In the 70s, the Guardian suffered from a reputation for excruciating puns; today, we want to be known for clever, original and witty headlines

headteacher
one word, not headmaster, headmistress; but Association of Head Teachers

Health and Safety Executive
HSE on second mention

healthcare

hear, hear
exclamation of approval that we have misspelt as "here, here" on more than one occasion

heartbroken, heartfelt, heartsearching, heartwarming
but heart-rending, heart-throb

Heart of Midlothian
Edinburgh football club commonly known as Hearts; said to be named after a dancehall that in turn took its name from Sir Walter Scott's 1818 novel The Heart of Midlothian

Heathrow airport
or simply Heathrow; not "London's Heathrow"

heatwave

heaven

hectares
Convert to acres in brackets at first mention by multiplying by 2.47, so 10 hectares is 24.7 acres; to convert acres to hectares, multiply by 0.4, so 10 acres is 4 hectares (we get this the wrong way round embarrassingly often)

height
in metres with imperial conversion, eg 1.68 metres (5ft 7in)

heir apparent
someone certain to inherit from a deceased unless he or she dies first or is taken out of the will; don't use to mean "likely successor"

hell, hades

hello
not hallo (and certainly not "hullo", unless quoting the Rev ARP Blair)

Hells Angels
no apostrophe

help
help to decide or help decide, not "help and decide"

helpline

hemisphere
northern hemisphere, southern hemisphere

herculean

here
generally avoid if what you mean is "in Britain"

Hergé
pen name of Georges Remi (1907-83), Belgian creator of Tintin

Heritage Lottery Fund

Hermès
scarf people; Hermes Group fund manager

Hewlett-Packard
or HP

Hibernian
Edinburgh football club commonly known as Hibs

hiccup
not hiccough

hi-fi
how we listened to music in the days before iPods (short for high fidelity)

highchair

high commissioner
sent from one Commonwealth country to another (rather than an ambassador)

high court

highfalutin

high flyer
noun; high-flying adjective

highland fling

Highlands, the
(Scotland)

high street
lc in retail spending stories: "the recession is making an impact in the high street"; capped only in proper name: "I went shopping in Walthamstow High Street"

Highways Agency

hijab
covering for the head and face worn by some Muslim women

hijack
of movable objects only, not of schools, embassies, etc

hike
a walk, not an increase in interest rates; "Motorists face new petrol hike" (not one of our better headlines) suggested a long walk to a garage rather than simply a price rise

Hindi
language; Hindu religion

Hip
home information pack

hip-hop

hippopotamus
plural hippopotamuses

hippy
plural hippies

Hirst, Damien

His Master's Voice
TM (picture of Nipper the dog with phonograph)

historian, historic
use a not an, unless in a direct quote

HIT Entertainment

hitchhiker, hitchhiking
no hyphens

hi-tech

HIV
a virus, not a disease, but do not call HIV "the Aids virus" or an HIV test an "Aids test"; an HIV-positive man (hyphen) is HIV positive (no hyphen)

Hizbullah
not Hezbollah; it means "party of God"

HM
or Her Majesty for the Queen, not HRH

HMS
Her Majesty's Ship: does not need the definite article, so it is "HMS Pinafore" rather than "the HMS Pinafore"

hoard or horde?
a hoard of treasure; a horde (or hordes) of tourists

Hobson's choice
a "choice" between taking what is offered and nothing at all

Ho Chi Minh City
formerly Saigon

Hoddle, Glenn

hoi polloi
common people, the masses; "the hoi polloi" is acceptable, even for speakers of ancient Greek

holidaymaker

Holland
Do not use when you mean the Netherlands (of which it is a region), with the exception of the Dutch football team, who are conventionally known as Holland

Holocaust
Do not trivialise by comparing piles of cattle during the foot-and-mouth outbreak to the Holocaust, or through phrases such as "Belsen-skinny" which, incredibly, found its way into a story about Kate Winslet

holy communion

holy grail

Holy Land

Holyrood
home of Scotland's parliament, in Edinburgh

Holyroodhouse
the Queen's official residence in Scotland

homebuyer, homeowner

home counties

home in
not hone in

homeland
but home town

homemade

Home Office
but home secretary (although the official title is "Secretary of State for the Home Department")

homeopathy

homeowner, homepage

homogeneous
uniform, of the same kind; homogenous (biology) having a common descent; the latter is often misused for the former

homosexual rape
Do not use; say rape (or male rape if necessary)

honeybee

Hong Kong names
like Taiwanese and Korean names, Hong Kong names are written in two parts with a hyphen, eg Tung Chee-hwa (Tung after first mention)

hon members
of parliament

honorarium
plural honorariums

honorary knights
are not given titles, so it is still plain "Geldof" rather than "Sir Bob"

honorifics
Use just surname after first mention, except in leader columns. This means that news stories, in the paper and on the web, now follow the style adopted by features and sport several years ago.

So: Gordon Brown at first mention, thereafter Brown; Harriet Harman at first mention, subsequently Harman; Sir Richard Branson at first mention, thereafter Branson; Lord Adonis at first mention, subsequently Adonis; Prof John Wells, at first mention, thereafter Wells; Dr Bill Bailey (and all other medical and scientific doctors and doctors of divinity) at first mention, subsequently Bailey; the Rev Clifford Richard at first mention, thereafter Richard, etc.

As always, use common sense: in a story where two people have the same name (eg a court case about a husband and wife or brothers), it may be necessary to use Mr and Mrs or Ms, or forenames.

Follow traditional Guardian style in leading articles (but not other comment pieces and columns on leader pages): use honorifics after first mention, unless writing about an artist, author, journalist, musician, criminal or dead person; use Ms for women on second mention unless they have expressed a preference for Miss or Mrs.

So: at first mention Gordon Brown, Harriet Harman, Sir Richard Branson, Lord Adonis, Prof John Wells, Dr Bill Bailey, the Rev Clifford Richard; thereafter Mr Brown, Ms Harman, Sir Richard, Lord Adonis, Prof Wells, Dr Bailey, Mr Richard, etc

"honour" killings
always use quotes; as a reader says: "There is no honour involved in these murders and calling them honour killings belittles the victims and plays down the crime"

hoodie
a hooded top, as well as someone who wears one

Hoover
TM; say vacuum cleaner unless you are sure it is a Hoover (uc); but lc for figurative hoovering up (eg "the Guardian website hoovered up all the awards")

 


hopefully
like many other adverbs, such as frankly, happily, honestly and sadly, hopefully can be used as a "sentence adverb" indicating the writer's view of events - "hopefully, we will reach the summit" - or as a "manner adverb" modifying a verb - "we set off hopefully for the summit". Why some people are upset by "hopefully we will win" and not "sadly we lost" is a mystery

horrendous
sounds like a rather ugly combination of horrific and tremendous, but is in fact from the Latin for fearful; horrific is generally preferable

horticulturist
not horticulturalist

hospitalised
Do not use; say someone was taken (never "rushed") to hospital

hospitals
cap the placename, eg Derby district general hospital, Great Ormond Street children's hospital, Royal London hospital

hotdog

hotel
a hotel not "an"; do not cap up "hotel": the Dorchester, the Ritz, the Grand hotel, Brighton, etc (but don't be daft and lowercase Hotel California)

hotline, hotspot

hot-water bottle

houseboat, housebreaker, housebuyer, householder, housekeeper, housemate

househusband, housewife
Use with care; avoid sexist stereotyping such as lower food prices being "good news for housewives" (it's good news for shoppers)

House Un-American Activities Committee (Huac)
anti-communist investigating body of the House of Representatives, often associated with "McCarthyism", although Joseph McCarthy was in fact head of the Senate permanent subcommittee on investigations

Housing Corporation

hovercraft

Hubble space telescope

Hudson Bay
but Hudson's Bay Company

Human Genome Project

humanity, humankind
not man, mankind
see gender issues

hummus
you eat it; humus you put it on the garden

humour, humorist, humorous

hundred years war

hunky dory

Huntington's disease
formerly known as Huntington's chorea

huntsman
a paid servant of the hunt, so do not use to mean hunters or hunt followers

hurricane
lc, eg hurricane Katrina

Hutchison Telecommunications International
Hutchison Telecommunications International (not Hutchinson) part of Hutchison Whampoa; Hutchison Essar in India, known as Hutch

hydroelectric

hyperbole
Don't overegg stories: strive instead for straight and accurate reporting; Guardian readers prefer the unvarnished truth
see sexing up

hyperthermia
hot; hypothermia cold

hyphens
Our style is to use one word wherever possible. Hyphens tend to clutter up text (particularly when the computer breaks already hyphenated words at the end of lines).

This is a widespread trend in the language: "The transition from space to hyphen to close juxtaposition reflects the progressive institutionalisation of the compound," as Rodney Huddleston puts it in his Introduction to the Grammar of English.

Inventions, ideas and new concepts often begin life as two words, then become hyphenated, before finally becoming accepted as one word. Why wait? "Wire-less" and "down-stairs" were once hyphenated.

Words such as handspring, madhouse and talkshow are all one word in the Guardian, as are thinktank (not a tank that thinks), longlist (not necessarily a long list) and shortlist (which need not be short).

Prefixes such as macro, micro, mega, mini, multi, over, super and under rarely need hyphens: examples are listed separately. Follow Collins when a word or phrase is not listed in this guide.

There is no need to use hyphens with most compound adjectives, where the meaning is clear and unambiguous without: civil rights movement, financial services sector, work inspection powers etc. Hyphens should, however, be used to form short compound adjectives, eg two-tonne vessel, stand-up comedian, three-year deal, 19th-century artist, etc.

Also use hyphens where not using one would be ambiguous, eg to distinguish "black-cab drivers come under attack" from "black cab-drivers come under attack".

Do not use hyphens after adverbs ending in -ly, eg politically naive, wholly owned, but when an adverb is also an adjective (eg hard), the hyphen is required to avoid ambiguity- it's not a hard, pressed person, but a hard-pressed one; an ill-prepared report, rather than an ill, prepared one.

Use hyphens with short and common adverbs: much-needed grammar lesson, well-established principle of style (note though that in the construction "the principle of style is well established" there is no need to hyphenate)