Grammar and syntax

Telegraph

17-07-2025

Tenses
Whenever we are reporting something that has already happened we use the past tense. This includes official reports, surveys and studies.
'The report said that if nothing was done, things would get worse'. Not 'The report said that if nothing is done, things will get worse'.
Similarly, in reported speech we should use 'had' instead of 'has' and so:
He said: 'Nothing has been done.' Becomes: He said that nothing had been done
If the report is published today (the same day as the published story) we should say 'the report says that if nothing is done, things will get worse' etc. Switching tenses in a story is confusing and sloppy.
Please note that we use 'he/she said' in News but 'he/she says' in Features.
Moods
Contrary to popular belief, the subjunctive has not died completely. The mood is typically used with verbs of volition and command 'he ordered that he be brought in' and 'she wishes she were at home' and with conditional clauses 'He agreed provided he be not quoted'. Usages like 'I order that he come' are perhaps a little rarefied for modern times: use this mood only when it seems natural.
Note that the imperfect of the subjunctive 'were' is 'was', so you would write 'she wished she was at home'.
May and might
May is the present and future tense: might is the imperfect, perfect and pluperfect, so use in reported speech. I may go: he said he might go. 'He may have been on the plane that crashed' means he could be missing: 'He might have been on the plane that crashed' means that chance intervened and he wasn't.
Dangling modifiers
This is a grammatical error where a word or phrase fails to connect to the subject it is meant to be describing. This standfirst is a classic example: 'After defeating Venus Williams in straight sets, Joanne Smith asks who is Cori 'Coco' Gauff, and what can we expect from Wimbledon's wunderkind?'.
It suggested the writer Joanne Smith should have given up journalism and pursued a career as a tennis pro. Instead, we should have written something like: 'After 15-year-old Cori 'Coco' Gauff defeated Venus Williams in straight sets, Joanne Smith reveals all about the tennis wunderkind and what we can expect from her at Wimbledon'
Commas
Commas impede the flow of a sentence, but omitting them may change its meaning. Omitting the commas in 'The minister's wife Mary was there' suggests polygamy. If he has only one wife, make it 'The minister's wife, Mary, was there.'
Commas are needed before 'and', 'but' and 'for' in compound sentences, unless the clauses they precede are very short (John was hungry, but his hostess insisted on reading a book before cooking lunch. He ate but his wife fasted). Commas are used between pairs or series of adjectives, but should be dropped if the words cannot properly be joined by 'and' (A cold, grey dawn greeted the awakening old prisoner).
Prepositions
Prepositions should be avoided if they are pointless. Meet with is perhaps the most egregious example, but there is also sell off, tie up, free up, fence off, close down, fuse together, infringe upon, duck down, send off (a letter), rifle through, sell off, shut up (a building) and so on ad nauseam. Always ask whether your preposition is really necessary. 'Up until' is an abomination, as are 'outside of' and 'inside of'.
Prepositions at the end of sentences are inelegant and should be avoided. Do not, though, avoid them at the cost of sounding ridiculous: remember Churchill's dictum about 'this is the sort of English up with which I will not put'.
Hyphens and Dashes
Hyphens are frequently misused. A rough and ready test is to speak the words. Where hyphens are used there is a quickening of pace. As an example: 'He was a member of the middle class', but 'He belongs to a middle-class club.'
Do not use a hyphen after adverbs ending in -ly (newly married couple), and note that adverbs and verbs used after nouns remain separate (a well-oiled machine, but the machine was well oiled). Note that a person earns £57,000 a year and so has a £57,000-a-year job.
Latin terms are not hyphenated and so we have in vitro fertilisation, post mortem examination.
Hyphens can be useful to avoid confusion or unwanted hilarity. Use 'small-business men' to make it clear that they are not diminutive traders.
Dangling hyphens should be avoided (his two- and four- year-old children). Rewrite the copy: (his children, two and four).
Dashes should not be used as routine replacements for commas, but they are useful to indicate the written equivalent of a change of tone in speech (The attack was unexpected – it came at noon instead of dawn – and the enemy outnumbered them). And we always do en dashes (–). Never em dashes (—) or hyphens (-).
Dashes also help to avoid confusion by enclosing a series of words punctuated by commas. 'Reporters face many problems – censorship, the pressure of time, shortage of space – when they work overseas.'
None
We treat the word 'none' as singular (because it is short for 'not one'), even though it is usually followed by a plural noun. So we would write 'None of the men was willing to testify in court', not 'None of the men were willing to testify in court'.
That and which
Make special note of the importance of the word 'that', which the tabloids have all but removed from the English language in its role as a conjunction, as in: 'He claimed the prize but he claimed that he was the winner.'
This applies to all those words like 'propose', 'recommend', 'suggest' etc. Taking the 'that' out makes the reader stumble over the sense. It is not needed after the verb 'said' (She said she was tired)
Use which in clauses that add incidental, but not essential information. Note the difference between 'the dog that I saw was black' and 'the dog, which I saw, was black'. The first refers specifically to a dog that I saw - distinct from a dog anyone else saw - being black. The second emphasises the fact that I saw a dog.
Adjectives
Other than the purely and basically descriptive have little place in news stories, and little more (other than occasionally for comic or ironic effect) in feature writing. Highly adjectival writing is a mainstay of tabloid journalism.
Quotes and Attribution
Use double quotes except in headlines, captions or crossheads. Quotes within quotes are single; quotes within quotes within quotes are double.
Punctuation goes inside the quotation mark only if it is part of the quote: He said: 'It's over.'
Capital Letters
Use capitals sparingly. Lower case is preferred unless a term is a proper noun or uniquely identifiable. The Queen, the Church of England, the Army (as a UK-specific institution)
At second mention, use upper case for royalty and ex-royalty (e.g. 'the Prince', 'the Duchess'). Generic institutions or roles take lower case: a queen, a church, a police force
Cap office holders at first mention (e.g. 'The Archbishop of York'), then lower case ('the archbishop').
Use caps for geographic regions when used as proper names ('the North'), lower case for directions ('he moved north'). Cap 'Eastern Europe' (political); lower case 'east London' (geographical)
Abbreviations
Avoid unexplained abbreviations unless they are universally recognised: BBC, UN, Nato, EU – no need to spell out
On first use, explain less familiar abbreviations: The Office for National Statistics (ONS). However, if the abbreviation is never used again there is no need to use it in the first place
Gender, Titles and Inclusive Language
Gender is a grammatical classification; sex is biology. 'Gender identity' is a concept of how people present themselves.
What pronouns we use for transgender people is an incredibly sensitive area and merits consideration on a case-by-case basis. We must avoid giving an assumed pronoun to people who have not legally changed gender and the reporter may need to clarify this issue. If someone has legally changed gender, then we should do them the courtesy of saying Ms or Mr.
Use 'they' as a singular pronoun only when someone has asked to be referred to that way or when gender is unknown and unimportant: Each student should bring their own laptop
Use the term transgender not transsexual and do not use trans as a noun.