Telegraph Style Book: H

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• Telegraph Style Book: Introduction

hang: people are hanged but pictures are hung.

H-bomb: but nuclear weapon is often the better term. Habsburg not Hapsburg.

Hague, Ffion

Haider, Jörg

hairdryer, not drier.

Hallowe'en: with the apostrophe.

Hallyday, Johnny: French chanteur.

Hamleys: no apostrophe

Hammarskjold, Dag

Hamnett, Katharine

handover: no hyphen.

Hannah, Daryl

harass

hardliner: be very selective in its use.

hard-pressed is becoming clichéd and ubiquitous. Use only if all else fails.

hare-brained, not hair

Harley-Davidson

Harman, Harriet: Miss. Her married name is Mrs Dromey.

HarperCollins: one word.

Harper's Bazaar

Harpers & Queen

Harrods: no apostrophe.

Harvey Nichols

hawks and doves: use sparingly - do not use when referring to the IRA or other terrorist groups.

head-butt: tautological. Use butt.

headmaster, headmistress: lower case; some schools (such as St Paul's) have high masters. Eton has a Head Master. Radley has a Warden and Wellington a Master. Never call the headmaster of a boys' public school the head teacher: this term should only be used about mixed-sex schools that might be as likely to appoint a headmistress as a headmaster.

health care, not healthcare.

heartbreak: tabloid, avoid.

heart failure, heart condition: every heart has some condition and heart failure is often a sign of death, not its cause.

heart-rending, not heart-wrenching.

Heathcliff

Hello! magazine

Helmand

hero: should not be used except in cases where it is demonstrably correct, as with winners of the VC or GC. Its use in lesser contexts debases it.

hiccup: not hiccough.

Hi-De-Hi!

High Commissions, High Commissioners: the equivalent of embassies and ambassadors within the Commonwealth. They are capitalised according to the same rules.

hijack: the seizure of any vehicle - land, sea or air - without lawful reason. The original meaning of criminals stealing from criminals is too restrictive. Skyjacking may still be used.

hike: a long walk, not a rise in prices.

Hindi (language), Hindu (religion), Hindustani was a pidgin Hindi used by British soldiers in India.

Hinkley Point: no "c".

history: phrases such as "history was made last night" are to be avoided, because in one sense history is being made every night, and in others it is hardly ever being made at all.

hi-tech

Hizbollah: not Hezbollah.

hoard is a store of food or treasure: horde is a multitude.

Hobson's Chioce is not the lesser of two evils. It is not a choice at all.

hoi polloi: the people. Hoi is the definite article, so don't say "the"

hold-up for delays or crimes, but hold up as verb.

Holiday, Billie

Holy Communion takes caps.

home owner, not homeowner.

homoeopathy, thus. Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital, but Homeopathic Trust and Faculty of Homeopathy.

homogeneous: having the same constituent elements throughout, used for people, communities etc that have homogeneity. Do not confuse with: homogenous, which is a form of milk.

homophobic: avoid unless you are talking about those who fear something that is the same as them.

Homosexual is an adjective, not a noun.

Hooray Henrys

hopefully: another ignorant Americanism. Do not misuse for "it is hoped that". Its correct use in English is as an adverb: "to travel hopefully".

horrify: use only literally, and therefore sparingly.

Horse Guards Parade

horse riding: just say "riding".

horsy

hosepipe

hospitalised is a vile Americanism: use "taken (or admitted) to hospital".

hospital trust names: at first use cap up as follows - St George's Healthcare NHS Trust, then subsequently the trust. St Bartholomew's Hospital and The Royal London Hospital are both run by Barts and The London NHS Trust: the The must be capped.

hosting: see staging

Howards End

Howerd, Frankie

HRH/HM as the abbreviations for His/Her Royal Highness and His/Her Majesty are styles, not titles. Of living British royalty, only the Queen is HM.

huge things rarely are.

humble: do not use it in coy phrases such as "the humble sixpence". If an object is so mundane or prosaic as to call the concept to mind, the adjective is redundant. It's perfectly all right when properly describing a person's demeanour.

hummus

Humphrys, John

huntsman: each hunt has one, usually a paid hunt servant. Other people who hunt with the aid of hounds (never dogs) are members of the hunt or the field. Shooting is not classed as hunting. Use wildfowling, rough shooting, game shooting, stalking, etc as appropriate.

Hyannisport

hyperthermia: condition of having body-temperature much above normal. hypothermia: condition of having body-temperature much below normal.

hyphens. Compound words increasingly lose their hyphens as they are accepted as normal usage, and reference to a newly edited dictionary is often necessary. With most prefixes and suffixes the compound is written as a single word, but ex-, neo-, non-, pro- and self- usually need hyphens, but note selfsame and unselfconscious. Co- meaning fellow, as in co-driver, takes the hyphen.

Hyphens are also used to mark the difference between similar words (reform, reform), to separate identical vowels (pre-empt, co-operate, but uncooperative), before stems beginning with a capital letter (pro-British) and with -like when it follows words ending in -1 (eel-like) or words of more than one syllable (reporter-like). The suffix -less needs the hyphen after stems ending with - ll (hill-less).

Hyphens are normally used in compound adjectives formed from a noun and a participle (cloud-filled sky) or from an adverb and a verb (well-written prose). But do not use the 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 man earns £17,000 a year and so has a £17,000-a-year job. Hyphens are to be avoided in sporting terms: wicketkeeper, scrum half etc.

Use hyphens with care to avoid confusion or unwanted hilarity. Use "small-business men" to make it clear that they are not diminutive traders.

Note motor-cycle, motorcyclist, machinegun, sub-machinegun.

Avoid dangling hyphens (his two- and four- year-old children).

Fractions are not hyphenated: e.g. two thirds of all acrobats, three quarters etc; except when adjectival, as in a two-thirds majority.

No hyphens in Latin: in vitro fertilisation, post mortem examination (Oxford dictionary for writers and editors is inconsistent on this, so ignore).

• Telegraph Style Book: Introduction