Pacific Ocean

PacifiCorp
part of ScottishPower

paean
song of praise
paeon metrical foot of one long and three short syllables
peon peasant

page 1
etc but Page 3 girl

País, El

palate
roof of the mouth; sense of taste
palette used by an artist to mix paint
pallet hard bed; wooden frame moved by fork-lift truck

Palestine
best used for the occupied territories (the West Bank and Gaza); if referring to the whole area, including Israel, use "historic Palestine" (but Palestine for historical references to the area prior to 1948)

Palestinian Authority
the authority on second reference

palindrome
A man, a plan, a canal. Panama!

Palme d'Or
(Cannes film festival)

Palme, Olof
(1927-86) Swedish prime minister who was assassinated in a Stockholm street (not Olaf)

Palmer-Tomkinson, Tara

P&O

panama hat

Pandora's box

panel, panelled, panelling

panjandrum
a pretentious or self-important person in authority

Panjshir valley
of Afghanistan

pantyhose
not pantihose

paparazzo
plural paparazzi; named after a character in Fellini's 1960 film La Dolce Vita

paperboy, papergirl
but paper round

papier-mache
hyphen, no accent

parallel, paralleled, 49th parallel
etc

Paralympic games
or Paralympics

parentheses
see brackets

Parker Bowles, Camilla
no hyphen

Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's law
"Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion"

parliament, parliamentary
but cap up those parliaments referred to by their name in the relevant language, eg Knesset, Folketing, Duma, etc

Parma ham
but parmesan cheese

Parthenon marbles
official name, recognised by both Britain and Greece, for the Elgin marbles

part-time

partwork
one in a series of regularly published supplements or magazines

party
lc in name of organisation, eg Labour party

Pashtuns
(singular Pashtun; they speak Pashtu) make up about 40% of the Afghan population (called Pathans during the British Raj); a significant proportion of Pakistan's population is also Pashtun

passerby
plural passersby

passive voice
Strive for active verbs: compare "the mat was sat upon by the cat" with "the cat sat on the mat"

Passport Agency
now part of the Identity and Passport Service

password

pasteurise

pâté
with accents

Patent Office
now the Intellectual Property Office, responsible for copyright, designs, patents and trademarks

patients
are discharged from hospital, not released

payback, payday, payoff, payout

peacekeeper, peacetime

Peak District

Pearl Harbor
Use American English spellings for US placenames

peccadillo
plural peccadilloes

pedaller
cyclist; peddler drug dealer; pedlar hawker

pedalo
plural pedalos

Pedro Ximénez
white grape grown in Spain (and type of sherry); Pedro Giménez white grape grown in South America

peers
Avoid writing "Lord Asquith's Liberal government", or "Lady Thatcher took power in 1979"; when talking about people before they were given peerages use their names/titles at the time (eg Herbert Asquith, Mrs Thatcher).
Also avoid the construction "Lady Helena Kennedy": in this case we would write Lady Kennedy or Helena Kennedy, or - if really pushed - Lady (Helena) Kennedy (but never Baroness Kennedy)

peewit

peking duck

pendant
noun; pendent adjective

peninsula
noun; peninsular adjective

penknife
one word

pensioners
do not call them "old age pensioners" or "OAPs"; older people is preferable to "elderly people" or (even worse) "the elderly"

peony
flower

Pepsi-Cola
TM; a brand of cola; the company is PepsiCo

per
Avoid, use English: "She earns £30,000 a year" is better than "per year". If you must use it, the Latin preposition is followed by another Latin word, eg per capita, not per head. Exception: miles per hour, which we write mph

per cent
% in headlines and copy

percentage rises
probably our most common lapse into "mythematics": an increase from 3% to 5% is a 2 percentage point increase or a 2-point increase, not a 2% increase; any sentence saying "such and such rose or fell by x%" should be considered and checked carefully

Pérez de Cuéllar, Javier
Peruvian diplomat and former UN secretary general

performance-related pay

Pérez-Reverte, Arturo
Spanish writer

Performing Right Society
not Rights

permissible

Peronists
supporters of the nationalist/populist ideology of the late Argentinian president Juan Domingo Perón

personal equity plan
Pep

persons
No! They are people (can you imagine Barbra Streisand singing "Persons who need persons"?)

Perspex
TM

peshmerga
Kurdish armed fighters (it means "those who face death")

pharmacist
Do not use "chemist" as a synonym for pharmacist, or call a pharmacy a "chemist's shop"

phenomenon
plural phenomena

Philippines
inhabited by Filipinos (male) and Filipinas (female); adjective Filipino for both sexes, but Philippine for, say, a Philippine island or the Philippine president

Philips
electronics company; Phillips auctioneers, screwdriver; Phillips & Drew since 2002, part of UBS Global Management

philistine

Phnom Penh

phone
no apostrophe

phoney

phosphorous
adjective; phosphorus noun

photocall, photocopy, photojournalist

photo-finish

photo opportunity

pi
the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, as every schoolgirl knows

picket
noun (one who pickets), not picketer; picketed, picketing

piecework

pigeonhole
verb or noun

pigsty
plural pigsties

Pilates

pill, the

pillbox

Pimm's
the most popular version is Pimm's No 1 cup, which has gin as its base (the others are or were No 2, whisky; No 3, brandy; No 4, rum; No 5, rye; and No 6, vodka

pin or pin number
not Pin or PIN number

pinstripe
suit etc, not pinstriped

pipebomb

pipeline

Pissarro, Camille
(1830-1903) French impressionist painter; his son Lucien (1863-1944) was also an artist

pixelated
an image divided into pixels, the basic unit of representation on a television or computer screen, or to display a person or object in pixels to disguise their identity

pixilated
drunk

PKK
Kurdistan Workers party

placename

plane
a higher plane, not a higher plain (unless literally)

planets
cap up planets of our solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune; note that Pluto is now classified as a dwarf planet, along with Ceres and Eris; the sun and Earth's moon are lc, but named moons are capped up: Europa, Io, etc

planning
not "forward planning"

Planning Inspectorate
handles planning inquiries and appeals in England and Wales; the equivalent for Scotland is the Scottish Executive Directorate for Planning and Environmental Appeals

 


plaster of paris

plateau
plural plateaux

plateglass

playbill, playgoer, playwright

Play-Doh
TM but you can say play-dough

playing the race card
an overused phrase

play-off

PlayStation

plc
not PLC

plea, pledge
words used all the time by journalists (particularly when writing headlines), but only rarely by normal people

pleaded
not pled

plebeian
not plebian, one of our most common errors

pocketbook, pocketknife
but pocket money

poet laureate
lc, currently Andrew Motion (for a 10-year period that ends in 2009)

poetry
separate the lines with spaces and a slash; italics are acceptable: I struck the board and cry'd, 'No more; / I will abroad.' / What, shall I ever sigh and pine? / My lines and life are free; free as the rode, / Loose as the winde, as large as store.

pointe
(ballet): on pointe, not on point or en pointe

point-to-point

Pokemon
no accents

Polari
A form of language used mostly by gay men and lesbians, derived in part from slang used by sailors, actors and prostitutes and popularised in the 1960s BBC radio comedy Round the Horne by the characters Julian and Sandy. Example: "vada the dolly eke on the bona omee ajax" (look at the gorgeous face on that nice man over there); "naff" is an example of Polari that has passed into more general use, as are "butch", "camp" and "dizzy"

pole position
or on pole means starting from the front row in a motor race, so be careful if using metaphorically

police forces
Metropolitan police (the Met after first mention), West Midlands police, New York police department (NYPD at second mention), etc; but note Police Service of Northern Ireland

police ranks
PC on all references to police constable (never WPC), other ranks full out and initial cap at first reference; in leading articles abbreviation plus surname: Sgt Campbell, DC, Insp, Ch Insp, Det Supt, Ch Supt, Cmdr, etc (or just Mr, Ms or Mrs); otherwise just surname

police units
lc: anti-terrorist branch, flying squad, fraud squad, special branch, vice squad

politburo

political correctness
a term to be avoided on the grounds that it is, in Polly Toynbee's words, "an empty rightwing smear designed only to elevate its user"

political parties
lc for word "party", eg Labour party

Abbreviate if necessary (for example in parliamentary reporting) as C, Lab, Lib Dem (two words), SNP (Scottish National party, not "Scottish Nationalist party"), Plaid Cymru, SDLP (Social Democratic and Labour party), SF (Sinn Féin), UUP (Ulster Unionist party), DUP (Democratic Unionist party), Ukip (UK Independence party)

pollack
(fish) not pollock

poncey
not poncy

pop art

Pope, the
but papacy, the pontiff; normally no need to give his name in full

poppadom

Portakabin, Portaloo
TM; say portable building, portable toilets

Porthmadog
not Portmadoc

portland cement, portland stone

Port of London authority
PLA on second mention

postal workers
not postmen

postcode

Postcomm
UK postal services regulator; its full name (which you do not need to use) is Postal Services Commission

postgraduate

Post-it
TM

postmodern, postmodernist

postmortem

Post Office
cap up the organisation, but you buy stamps in a post office or sub-post office

postwar

Potters Bar
no apostrophe

PoW
abbreviation for prisoner of war

Powergen

powerpop
one word; musical genre defined by nostalgia for the 60s, in the form of chiming electrical guitars and vocal harmonies. Its proponents often profess to being inspired by the Beatles and the Byrds, but are never as good as either

practice
noun

practise
verb

practising homosexual
do not use this expression, or the equally grotesque "active homosexual"; where it is necessary to discuss someone's sex life, for example a story about gay clergy, it is possible to use other expressions, eg the Anglican church demands celibacy from gay clergy but permits the laity to have sexually active relationships

pre-
redundant in such newly fashionable words as pre-booked, pre-reserved, pre-ordered, and even pre-rehearsed

precis
singular and plural

predilection
not predeliction

pre-eminent

prefab, prefabricated

premier
use only when constitutionally correct (eg leaders of Australian states or Canadian provinces), therefore not for Britain - do not use in headlines for British prime minister

the Chinese traditionally give their prime ministers the title of Premier, eg Premier Wen Jiabao

premiere
no accent

Premier League
(no longer FA Premier League or Premiership) in England; in Scotland it was briefly the Premierleague, now the Scottish Premier League or more commonly SPL

premises
of buildings and logic

premium bonds

prenuptial
or (if you must) prenup

prepositions
appeal against, protest against/over/at, not "appealed the sentence", "protested the verdict", etc

schoolchildren used to be told (by English teachers unduly influenced by Latin) that it was ungrammatical to end sentences with a preposition, a fallacy satirised by Churchill's "this is the sort of English up with which I will not put"

Take care after phrases following "to": the subheading "to we Conservatives, Labour looks as if it's heading back to the old horrors of the winter of discontent" drew numerous protests from readers pointing out that it should have been "to us Conservatives ... " (The mistake belonged to us, not to the shadow cabinet minister who wrote the piece)

prepubescent

pre-Raphaelite

presently
means soon, not at present

president
lc except in title: President Bush, but George Bush, the US president

press, the
singular: the British press is a shining example to the rest of the world

Press Complaints Commission
PCC on second mention

Press Gazette
formerly UK Press Gazette

pressured/pressurised
use put pressure on or pressed to mean apply pressure, ie not "the Baggies pressured [or pressurised] the Wolves defence"

prestigious
having prestige: nothing wrong with this, despite what wise old subeditors used to tell us

Pret a Manger
food

prêt à porter
fashion

preteen
no hyphen

pretext
by its nature false, so while it may or may not be true that Tony Blair went to war on a pretext, it is tautologous to say he did so on a false one

prevaricate
"to speak or act falsely with intent to deceive" (Collins); often confused with procrastinate, to put something off

preventive
not preventative

prewar

price-fixing

PricewaterhouseCoopers
or PWC; note that PwC Consulting has become Monday

prima donna
plural prima donnas

prima facie
not italicised

primary care trusts
lc, eg Southwark primary care trust

primate
another word for archbishop
Primate of All England: Archbishop of Canterbury
Primate of England: Archbishop of York
but "the primate" on second reference

primates
higher mammals of the order Primates, essentially apes and humans

prime minister
write "Gordon Brown, the prime minister, said ... " not "prime minister Gordon Brown said ... "; never use the American English style "prime minister Brown"

primitive
do not use to describe tribal people see stone age

Prince of Wales
first mention; thereafter Prince Charles or the prince

Prince's Trust

principal
first in importance; principle standard of conduct

principality
do not use to describe Wales

prise
apart, open (not prize)

prison officer
not warder, a term that the Prison Officers' Association regards as "degrading, insulting and historically inaccurate" (the Home Office changed it from warder in 1922)

Prison Service
but immigration service lc (it is properly called the Immigration and Nationality Directorate)

Pritt Stik
TM

private finance initiative
PFI on second mention

private member's bill

privy council
but privy counsellor

prize
Booker prize, Nobel prize, Whitbread prize, etc see awards

prizefighter, prizewinner
but prize money

proactive
do not use this hideous jargon word with a hyphen. Or without one

probe
a dental implement, not an inquiry or investigation

pro-choice
not pro-abortion

procrastinate
to delay or defer; often confused with prevaricate

procurator fiscal
Scottish public prosecutor; the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), in Scotland, more wide-ranging than the Crown Prosecution Service in England and Wales, is responsible for the prosecution of crime, investigation of sudden or suspicious deaths, and investigation of complaints against the police

prodigal
wasteful or extravagant, not a returned wanderer; the confusion arises from the biblical parable of the prodigal son. A very common mistake

profile
a noun, not a verb

program
(computer); otherwise programme

prohibition
lc for US prohibition

pro-life
do not use to mean anti-abortion unless in a direct quote

Proms
concerts; proms seafronts

prone
face down; supine face up

proofreader, proofreading

propeller

prophecy
noun

prophesy
verb

pros and cons

protege
male and female; no accents

protest
against, over or about; not, for example, "protest the election result" which appeared on our front page in March 2002

protester
not protestor

proved, proven
Beware the creeping proven, featuring (mispronounced) in every other TV ad; proven is not the normal past tense of prove, but a term in Scottish law ("not proven") and in certain English idioms, eg "proven record"

province
avoid using this term to refer to Northern Ireland, described as "ugly and erroneous" by a reader

proviso
plural provisos

Ps and Qs

public schools
are actually private schools, so that is what we should call them

publicly
not publically

public-private partnership
PPP on second mention

Public Record Office
merged with the Historical Manuscripts Commission in 2003 to form the National Archives

Puffa
TM; say padded or quilted jacket

pundit
self-appointed expert

purchase
as a noun, perhaps, but use buy as a verb

put
athletics; putt golf

Pwllheli

pygmy
plural pygmies: lc except for members of Equatorial African ethnic group

pyjamas

pyrrhic victory