Hague, The
ie both words capped. It is the seat of government in the Netherlands - but not the capital (which is Amsterdam). It is also where bodies such as the International Criminal Court are based - but avoid phrases such as "He will appear at The Hague next month".
Hajj
(the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca) ie initial cap and double "j".
halal
Lower case. Means permissible under Islamic law - usually refers to dietary rules relating to food consumption.
half-time
ie with a hyphen, whether used as a noun (eg: Smith was substituted at half-time) or an adjective (eg: He was notorious for his half-time outbursts).
handicapped
See disabilities/illnesses
hangar/hanger
A hangar is where aircraft are kept. A hanger is for putting clothes on.
hanged/hung
Criminals are hanged, pictures are hung.
Haniya, Ismail
(senior Hamas leader) ie not Haniyeh.
Hanukkah
is our preferred spelling for the Jewish festival.
Haram al-Sharif
(ie lower case "al" followed by a hyphen, and not "the al-Haram al-Sharif"). This is how Muslims refer to the area in Jerusalem that translates from Hebrew as the Temple Mount. The Arabic translates as the Noble Sanctuary.
Haredi
(Ultra-Orthodox branch of Judaism) ie upper case "H".
Haringey/Harringay
The name of the London borough is Haringey (one "r", ending "-ey"). One of its wards is Harringay (double "r", ends "-ay").
Harlem/Haarlem
The district in New York City is Harlem with a single "a"; Haarlem is a Dutch city.
Harrods
ie no apostrophe.
Harvard University
is the correct term. It is not "the University of Harvard".
hat-trick
ie hyphenated.
headlines
Index-level headlines must be 50 characters long or less, including gaps. For features, they can be up to 58 characters. Story-level headlines can be up to 55 characters (a little longer as long as key words are within the 55) and should aim to include key terms to attract search engine referrals.
Avoid the US convention of using a comma in place of the word "and" (eg: "Crowe, Roberts in Oscar triumph").
If the attribution is clear, there is no need for quotation marks (eg: I鈥檝e had enough, says Smith). Any quotation marks in a headline must be single.
Headlines might appear without an accompanying summary, so keep them simple. A cryptic headline, out of context, may be meaningless.
head teachers
The generic head teacher is written as two words (eg: the National Association of Head Teachers) or head for short (eg: the Secondary Heads Association).
But the single-word headmaster and headmistress should be used if that is what they call themselves (eg: the Headmasters鈥� and Headmistresses鈥� Conference).
Some school heads have other titles, such as principal (especially in the college sector), high master, master or warden.
heads of state
are not necessarily the same as heads of government. The US president is both. But it is wrong to speak of a meeting of "Western heads of state" if Britain is represented by the prime minister. The PM is the head of government; the King is the head of state.
healthcare
ie one word.
heart attack/cardiac arrest
These are not synonymous. Cardiac arrest is when the heart suddenly stops beating. A heart attack is when the blood flow to the heart is interrupted (otherwise known as a myocardial infarction). A heart attack can cause cardiac arrest.
Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh
ie one "t" and with a hyphen.
Hezbollah
and not "Hizbollah".
High Street
ie initial caps in such phrases as the High Street banks.
high-tech
ie lower case, and hyphenated. High- not hi-. Also low-tech.
Hinckley/Hinkley
Note the "c" in Hinckley, in Leicestershire. There is no "c" in Hinkley Point, Somerset.
historic/historical
There is a distinction: historic means "memorable", whereas historical means "belonging to history". As an adjective, both take the indefinite article "a".
In terms of historical child abuse, there is a view the word suggests incidents are in the past and therefore forgotten. Sometimes just saying when offences happened can be a useful alternative.
hip-hop
ie hyphenated
His Majesty鈥檚 Opposition
ie initial caps for the full title. But capitalisation is dropped if you refer only to the opposition. The leader of the opposition is capped up only if accompanied by a name.
HIV
stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus. It is tautological to speak of the "HIV virus", and avoid "HIV victims" or "HIV sufferers" - say people with HIV or people living with HIV. The same goes for Aids.
holidaymaker
ie one word, no hyphen.
Holland
is only a part of the Netherlands. So we should say eg: The presidency of the European Union has been taken over by the Netherlands.
Holocaust/holocaust
Initial cap when referring to the persecution of Jewish people during World War Two. Otherwise, lower case.
Home Office
Headed by the home secretary (title capped up if accompanied by name).
homeless
There are many different forms of homelessness, so try to be as specific as possible and avoid language that over-generalises. 鈥渢he homeless鈥� implies a homogeneous group not individuals.
homeopathy
is our favoured spelling for the alternative therapy. However, we should use other spellings when part of organisations such as Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital.
homogeneous/homogenous
Do not confuse homogeneous, which means "of the same kind", with homogenous, meaning "similar because of common descent".
honorifics (updated September 2024)
Mr, Mrs etc should be used in news reports, except for convicted criminals - and also journalists, sports people, politicians, authors, actors, artists, musicians and entertainers in their professional capacity (eg: Throughout the interview, Norton joked with his guests. But: The fraudsters targeted Mr Norton鈥檚 bank account). Court reports, in the UK and abroad, should give defendants an honorific unless and until they are convicted.
In choosing between Miss, Mrs and Ms, try to find out what the person herself uses, and stick to that. Avoid foreign honorifics (eg: Herr, Madame or Signora).
We continue to use other honorifics such as Baroness, Lord, Dame and Sir for politicians, eg. Sir Iain Duncan Smith praised the athlete鈥檚 remarkable win followed by Sir Iain said it was for 鈥渦s all鈥�.
There is no ban on using honorifics with the dead: it鈥檚 a matter of judging what is appropriate eg: A man murdered in front of his family does not immediately become "Smith"; he remains Mr Smith. It would be difficult to defend a court report where the victim was "Smith" and the alleged killer "Mr Jones".
honour killings
We should attribute this phrase, either by use of quotes - "honour killings" - or saying so-called honour killings. The phrase is widely considered to be offensive.
honours
People are appointed CBE, OBE and MBE (they stand for Commander, Officer and Member of the Order of the British Empire), or they become a CBE etc. Peerages, baronetcies and knighthoods are conferred. Alternatively, you could speak of a person being made a peer, baronet or knight - and you can also write of someone receiving or being awarded a peerage or a knighthood (it would also be correct to speak of "receiving a baronetcy"; but it is an ugly phrase, best avoided).
Ranks of Order of the British Empire are:
GBE (Knight or Dame Grand Cross)
KBE (Knight Commander)
DBE (Dame Commander)
CBE (Commander)
OBE (Officer)
MBE (Member).
hopefully
Means "full of hope", but it is often wrongly used to mean "it is to be hoped". Best avoided.
hosepipe
ie single word.
hospital jargon
is often fairly meaningless (eg: the description "comfortable" is unlikely to be true of someone who has just fallen out of a window). Try to persuade the hospital to use meaningful English and, if this proves impossible, distance yourself from the language used by saying, eg: The hospital says he is in a comfortable condition or Doctors describe his condition as comfortable.
Patients are discharged from hospital - not "released".
hotspot
Our style is one word when talking about a place of significant activity or danger, although firefighters might dampen down hot spots. Blackspot is also one word in terms of a place with a particular problem, but the plant disease is black spot.
House of Commons/the Commons/the House
ie initial caps when you use the full title, and also when you abbreviate it to either the Commons or the House. However, any reference to the lower house should be in lower case.
House of Lords/the Lords/the House
As with the Commons: initial caps for the full title, and also when you abbreviate it to either the Lords or the House. But lower case for the upper house.
hoverboard
Although they don鈥檛 hover, it鈥檚 an acceptable term for these two-wheeled forms of transport. Self-balancing scooter also acceptable.
however
Should be followed by a comma when it means "but" (eg: However, his luck did not last). There should be no comma when it means "no matter how" (eg: However hard he pushed, the door stayed closed).
hunting with dogs
And not "hunting with hounds".
hurricanes
In describing the strength of hurricanes, the word category should be lower case and followed by the number spelt out (unless it is 10 or higher) eg: The storm weakened to a category one hurricane.
hyperthermia/hypothermia
Hyperthermia is the condition where the body temperature is greatly above normal. Not to be confused with hypothermia, where the body temperature is markedly below normal.
hyphens
are often essential, if the text is to make immediate sense. The headlines Mother-to-be assaulted and Mother to be assaulted are telling very different stories - just as an easy seal pack and an easy-seal pack conjure up different images and She never gives tips to black-cab drivers is a world apart from She never gives tips to black cab drivers.
There are no universal rules on hyphens in many cases, but in general do not overuse. They are required for compound adjectives, as in: "If I come with you in first class, will you buy me a first-class ticket?" But they are not used when part of the adjective is an adverb ending in -ly: "badly researched report", "severely wounded man", "newly cleaned car".
We would say Jim Smith is a father of two but it鈥檚 father-of-two Jim Smith. Likewise Jim Smith is 25 years old but 25-year-old Jim Smith.
Phrasal verbs are constructions such as build up, turn out, drive in, take over. Some need hyphens when they are used as nouns. Those ending in -in, -to, -on or -up use a hyphen (check-up, break-in, turn-on). Nouns ending in -off have a hyphen (pay-off, turn-off, drop-off) but those ending in -out do not (payout, turnout, dropout, bailout). Nouns where the second part is four or more letters are one word: takeover, clampdown, giveaway, setback, lookahead, runaround. Rare exceptions are where two vowels need to be separated by a hyphen, as in go-ahead, though this isn't always necessary.
In general, use a hyphen to separate repeated letters in a compound word: re-emergence, co-operative, film-maker, night-time. But there are some exceptions, including overrun, override, overrule, uncooperative, underrate, withhold. As usual, consult the Oxford English Dictionary if in doubt.
Examples of words and phrases which do and don鈥檛 need hyphens:
airbase
aircrew
airdrop
air force
airlift
air raid
air strike
A-level - also AS-level, O-level
anti-retroviral
asylum seeker
Ban Ki-moon
best-seller, best-selling
bushfire
by-election
by-law
crash-land
clear-cut
codebreaker
crowdfunding
crowdsourcing
expat
filmgoer (also theatregoer, partygoer etc)
film-maker
fine-tooth comb
flypast
fox-hunting
full-time
fundraising
half-time
handheld
hat-trick
heatwave
holidaymaker
homegrown
home-schooling, home schooling - as an adjective and as a verb it takes a hyphen but the noun is two separate words
homemade
infrared
knifepoint
lamp-post
landmine
lockdown
machine-gun (but sub-machine gun)
multicultural
multimillionaire
net-zero
off-peak
orangutan
peacekeepers, peacekeeping
plane-spotter, train-spotter (but no hyphen in the book/film Trainspotting)
prisoner of war
post-mortem examination
quarter-final
ram-raid
reopen
retweet
right-wing, left-wing - hyphenated if used adjectivally; no hyphen if used as a noun.
rollercoaster
Rolls-Royce
sat-nav
schoolchildren
seabed
second half, second-half - no hyphen in the noun, but there is a hyphen in the adjective.
short-term, long term - as an adjective it takes a hyphen but no need for one for the noun.
smartphone
South East Asia
substation
sunbed
suncream
superspreader
tear gas, tear-gas - the noun is two separate words; the verb is hyphenated.
think tank
touchline
three-quarters (and other fractions)
under age - a child may be under age but is an under-age child.
waterboarding
wellbeing
whistleblower
wildfire
Xbox
X-ray
Zanu-PF