EUROCONTROL

English Style Guide

Edition No 3.0

EUROCONTROL

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Table of Contents
Foreword by the Director General 8
Introduction 9
How to use this Style Guide 9

Key Elements of Good Style 10

House Style: Conventions 15
Abbreviations 15
Acronyms and initialisms 15
Addresses and telephone numbers 16
Annexes and appendices 16
Bibliography 16
Bulleted lists 16
Bulleted lists – punctuation 17
Punctuating list lead-ins 17
Punctuating list items 17
Capitalisation 18
Captions 19
Contractions 20
Dates 20
Emails 20
Email addresses 23
EUROCONTROL bodies: chairmen, presidents, etc. 24
Figures 24
Glossaries 24
Headings 24
Italics 25
Latin expressions 25
Numbers 26
Ordinal numbers 26
Fractions 26
Numbers followed by two nouns 26
Decimal point 26
Singular and plural 26
Numbers of four or more digits 26
Ranges of numbers 27
Currencies 27
Percentages 27
Official correspondence 27
Order of forenames and surnames 27
Overstatements and intensifiers 28
Personal pronouns 28
Photographs 28
Sources 29
Tense 29
Time 29
Units of measurement 30
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Table of Contents
Grammar 31
A/an 31
Because/since 31
By/until 31
Collective nouns 31
Dangling participles and other modifiers 32
Due to/owing to 32
Fewer/less 32
First(ly) 32
Gerunds 33
Its/it’s 33
Less/fewer 33
Plurals 34
Possessives with apostrophes 34
Prepositions at the end of a sentence 36
Since 36
Split infinitives and positioning of adverbs 37
State 37
Subjunctive 38
Until 38
Which/who: the importance of commas 38
Which/who: things and people 39
Whose 39

Vocabulary 40
Accept/except 40
Advice/advise 40
Affect/effect 40
Agree on/to/with 40
Alternate/alternative, alternately/alternatively 40
Ambiguous/ambivalent 41
Among/amongst 41
Anticipate 41
Anybody/any body 41
Anyone/any one 41
Appraise/apprise 41
Approximate 41
As regards/with regard to/concerning/regarding 41
Assist 42
Assure/ensure/insure 42
Attend (to)/assist 42
Authority 42
Backward/backwards and toward/towards 42
Based on/on the basis of 42
Begin/commence/start 43
Belief/believe 43
Biennial/biannual 43
Bi-weekly/bi-monthly 43
Bona fide(s) 43
Can/may 43
Capability 43
Ceiling 44
Centre/center 44
Certainly 44
Chair 44
 5

Classic(al) 44
Commence 44
Compare 44
Complementary/complimentary 45
Comprise/consist/compose/constitute 45
Connection/connexion 45
Consensus 45
Consistent 45
Continual(ly)/continuous(ly) 45
Cooperation/coordination/consultation 46
Council/counsel 46
Credence/credibility/credulity 46
Crisis/critical 46
Currently/now/at present 46
Decimate 46
Defective/deficient 46
Definite/definitive 47
Demand 47
Develop 47
Differ/disagree 47
Different/divergent, differing/diverging 47
Dilemma 47
Direct(ly) 47
Disinterested/uninterested 48
Distinct/distinctive 48
Divergent 48
Doubt 48
E-terms and web words in frequent use 48
Economic/economical/economically 49
Effective/efficacious/efficient 49
Enquire/inquire, enquiry/inquiry 49
Ensure 49
Environment/environmental 49
Equally 49
Equivalent 49
Europe 50
European/pan-European/Europe-wide/trans-European 50
Except 50
Extend/extent 50
Facility/facilities 50
False friends 51
Farther/further 51
Few/a few 52
Flaunt/flout 52
Forego/forgo 52
Foresee 52
Further 52
Guarantee 52
Hard(ly) 53
Historic(al) 53
Homogeneous/homogenous 53
Illegible/unreadable 53
Impact 53
In time/on time 53
Infer/imply 53
Inform 54
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Information technology acronyms and initialisms 54

Inquire/inquiry 54
Insure 55
Issue/problem/subject 55
Key 55
Lay/lie 55
Leisurely 55
Lose/loose, etc. 55
Marginal 56
Materialise 56
May 56
Meet 56
Member State/non-member country 56
Meter/metre 56
Method/methodology 56
Non-member country 56
Note/notice 57
Observance/observation 57
Occur/take place 57
Official/officious 57
On the basis of 57
On time 57
Optimal/optimum/best/ideal 57
Oral 58
Organisation/organization 58
Over/under 58
Partake/participate 58
Partially/partly 58
Participate 58
Personally 58
Planned/planning and planed/planing 58
Please/thank you 58
Politic/political/politics 59
Practicable/practical 59
Practice/practise 59
Precede 59
Prescribe/proscribe 59
Presently/at present 59
Principal/principle 60
Proceed/precede 60
Programme/program 60
Raise/rise 60
Rational/rationale 60
Realistic 60
Recall/remember/remind 61
Respective/respectively 61
Responsible 61
Reticent/reluctant 62
Rise 62
Scenario 62
Sensible/sensitive 62
Shall/will 62
Spectrum 62
Start 62
Stationary/stationery 63
Table 63
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Target 63
Thank you 63
Than/then 63
There/their/they’re 63
Timely 63
Toward(s) 64
Transpire 64
Treble/triple 64
Under 64
Under way 64
Unexceptionable/unexceptional 64
Uninterested 64
Unique 64
Unreadable 64
Use/usage/utilisation 64
Utilise/use 64
Verbal/oral 65
Very 65
Viable 65
Web 65
While (whilst)/whereas 65
Will 65
Worth/worthwhile 66
Your/you’re 66

Punctuation 67
General rules 67
Ampersand (&) 67
Apostrophe (’) 67
Colon (:) and semicolon (;) 67
Comma (,) 68
Ellipses ([…]) 68
Exclamation mark (!) 68
Hyphen (-) 68
Adjectives/nouns plus participles 69
Adverbs 69
Compound nouns 69
Figures 69
Gerunds 69
Noun strings 69
Prefixes 69
Splitting of words 70
Verbal nouns 70
Parentheses ((...)) 70
Quotation marks (“...”) 70
Slash (/) 71
Square brackets 71

Useful References 72
EUROCONTROL reference documents 72
Other style guides and language resources 72

Contacts 73
English-language queries 73
Queries relating to official correspondence and working papers 73
8

Foreword by
the Director General
The world of air traffic management is complicated. At EUROCONTROL we
deal with that world every day, and our Organisation has 39 Member States.
Clarity of expression is therefore essential to the success of our work.

This guide will help you achieve that clarity. Follow its advice and your
papers will be understood, unambiguous and persuasive. I commend it to
you.
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Introduction
This Style Guide is intended as reference material for anyone writing in English at the EUROCONTROL Agency.
It replaces existing style guides produced by individual services within the Agency, and should be used in
conjunction with the “Official Correspondence” section of the EUROCONTROL Administrative Manual.

Please note that EUROCONTROL uses British English rather than US English, and you should thus set your
language in Microsoft Word to “English (U.K.)” to ensure that Word chooses the correct spelling.

Much of the material contained in this Guide has been taken from the Interinstitutional style guide of the
European Union and the Modern Humanities Research Association Style Guide. Information from these sources has
been adapted to the EUROCONTROL context.

If you are writing for the Web, see the EUROCONTROL Guide to Creating Great Web Content.

Where the advice in this Guide is considered particularly relevant to web writing, it is in white on a blue
background and preceded by the Internet Explorer icon, as in this example.

You will also find much valuable detailed information in the English Style Guide of the European Commission’s
Directorate-General for Translation.

If you have any questions relating to written English which are not covered in this Style Guide, please consult
one of the sources listed in the “Useful References” section at the end of this document, or ask the English
Language Section.

This Style Guide is very much a living document which we are working on and improving all the time. Please
let us know if you have any comments on it by contacting one of the people listed in the “Contacts” section at
the end of the document.

How to use this Style Guide

In order to make best use of the hyperlinks in this Style Guide, we recommend that you use it on screen rather
than printing it out.

To find a word or expression, search for it using the Adobe search function:

Type your search query

in the “Find” box.
10

Key elements of good style

This section contains a list of “Six golden rules for good writing at EUROCONTROL” which have been developed
to assist staff writing official documents or providing content for webpages.

Six golden rules for good writing at EUROCONTROL

1. Put your main message first: avoid using too many clauses
2. Make your sentences more direct: use more verbs than nouns
3. Use concrete and direct language: avoid vague formulations, waffle and jargon
4. Use the active voice: avoid overusing passive constructions
5. Keep it simple: make sure sentences and paragraphs are short and easy to navigate
6. Make statements positive: avoid double negatives

1. Put your main message first: avoid using too many clauses

Put the main clause first or immediately after a single short framing clause. Do not force your reader to wade
through many sub-clauses before the point of the sentence becomes clear. Take the following example of bad
style:

A pan-European database of emissions reviewing available data from Member States and the output of
a number of EU projects, together with a scaleable approach to developing an inventory that could be
adapted depending on the available information, and an optional interface to GIS software (Geographical
Information System) that would better describe the location of different emission sources, particularly those
that are dynamic in nature, comprise the main components of this proposal.

Here the reader is confronted with a large amount of very detailed information, but not until the very last clause
does the context (i.e. that the proposal contains all of these components) become clear. Placing the context first,
adding signalling and bullet points, and streamlining in general produces the following revised version:

This proposal has three main components:

n a pan-European emissions database,

n a scaleable approach to developing an inventory, and
n an optional interface with geographical information system (GIS) software.

These components are examined in more detail below: […]

In longer, more complex sentences, a short framing clause may also prove helpful. However, only use one
frame before the main clause; avoid sentences such as the following:

Over the last few years EUROCONTROL, Europe’s Agency for the Safety of Air Navigation, despite having
its executive ATS role under an amended convention limited to the Maastricht centre in the Netherlands,
covering Benelux and parts of Germany, has re-energised itself to become the main European organisa-
tion for air traffic services planning, undertaking major planning tasks considered of great importance to
the future of European air traffic management, and widening its membership considerably to include most
European NATO Member States and a number of others.
 11

This makes life difficult for the reader by cramming as much information as possible into one enormous, clause-
heavy sentence. A quick restructuring produces two sentences, the first with a short framing clause followed by
the main clause, and a direct second sentence:

Over the last few years EUROCONTROL has re-energised itself to become the main European organisation
for air traffic services planning. The Agency has undertaken key planning activities for the future of European
air traffic management, and considerably widened its membership to include most European NATO Member
States and a number of others.

2. Make your sentences more direct: use more verbs than nouns

Simple, plain language reduces the cognitive burden on your readers and helps them understand what you
have written. Badly written sentences tend to be full of passive constructions and nouns where verbs could
be used instead (e.g. determination, completion, accomplishment, achievement, measurement, conversion,
characterisation and combination, instead of determine, complete, accomplish, etc.), typically linked by
prepositions (creating long “in the… of the… to the…” sentences, in which nouns pile up). Take the following
noun-heavy sentence:

An agreement was reached by the Committee to the effect that a study of some description should
be carried out by the consultants into the feasibility or non-feasibility of the provision of funding at
national level.

This reads much better as follows:

The Committee agreed that the consultants would study the feasibility of providing national funding.

Good writing puts the action in the verb, moving the reader along and making your text easier to absorb.
Compare the following noun-heavy examples:

BAD: Noun-heavy GOOD: Replacing nouns with verb

forms

An Environmental Impact Assessment provides An Environmental Impact Assessment evaluates

an evaluation of various risks to humans and the
environment.
The contribution of Member States towards the
project was clear in terms of the determination of
harmonised parameters and in the achieving of the
implementation of the project within the agreed
time frame.
various risks to humans and the environment.
Member States contributed significantly to the
project by determining harmonised parameters
and ensuring that the project was implemented
on time.
12

Key elements of good style

You should also avoid noun strings, whereby many noun modifiers are stuck together in a sentence. These are
often difficult to comprehend, and frequently reflect the writer’s desire to save space. Noun strings are common
in technical writing, but can often be avoided by expanding the sentence, as the example below shows.

BAD: Incomprehensible technical GOOD: Explained at more length

noun string

We propose to develop a cross-market contractor- We propose to develop an e-business implemen-
employer e-business implementation tool. tation tool for contractors and employers, to be
rolled out across all markets.

3. Use concrete and direct language: avoid vague formulations, waffle and jargon

Once you have agreed on the content, you should always allocate time to editing your text. This is particularly
relevant to all writing for the Web, where short, punchy sentences are designed to grab the reader’s attention
and convey messages quickly and effectively. You should minimise the use of vague formulations and waffle
(imprecise language).

BAD: Too many words that add no value GOOD: Concise

The Council took note of current developments The Council took note of current developments
concerning the matter of regulatory amendments. concerning regulatory amendments.

In spite of the fact that most signatories are not in Although most signatories are not in agree-
agreement, the proposal will probably nevertheless ment, the proposal will probably be submitted for
be submitted for approval. approval.

Other phrases which are typical of bureaucratic writing and can often be shortened or avoided include the
fact that, the possibility to, with regard to, with the aim of, in consideration of, on the basis of, in relation to, and
so on.

You should also minimise the use of jargon, i.e. technical terms that only a highly specialised audience will
understand, particularly if your text could have a wider readership (e.g. senior management, external stake-
holders, the general public).
 13

4. Use the active voice: avoid overusing passive constructions

Research shows that readers absorb information much better from sentences written in the active voice than
from ones written in the passive voice.

The passive voice is not considered to be more scholarly or scientific than the active voice; the active voice, on
the other hand, offers a distinct advantage in that it makes technical writing clearer and more direct.

Therefore, try to write more active-voice sentences than passive-voice sentences – in other words, make the
subject of most sentences the “actor” or “agent” (who did it?) rather than an object (“the thing acted upon”).
Compare the following alternative versions:

n Active voice: We tested the apparatus.

n Passive voice plus agent: The apparatus was tested by us.
n Passive voice minus agent: The apparatus was tested.

In cases where somebody has done something (versions 1 and 2), the active voice is usually better than the
passive plus agent. In this particular case, it is probably important to emphasise (and credit) who did the testing.

In the third version, passive minus agent, the reader cannot tell who tested the apparatus. This is an appropriate
option if the only important thing is that the apparatus has been tested; however, it is unhelpful if it is useful or
necessary to know who did the testing.

In addition, the passive voice may be useful if you do not want to name the agent, as in the example below:

n EUROCONTROL has in the past been criticised for developing its own in-house tools.

In this sentence, the writer wishes to stress that criticism has been voiced, but does not wish to specify who has
voiced it.

5. Keep it simple: make sure sentences and paragraphs are short and easy to navigate.

Sentences

Keep sentences short and direct, rather than overloading the reader with excess information. Take the following
overlong sentence:

n At congested airports, intermodality represents a partial solution for capacity problems in that short-haul
feeder flights may be replaced by trains, freeing up slots for long-haul flights that are more profitable for
the airport, and helping reduce congestion in the short term without increasing airport capacity, although
airport expansion may nevertheless be inevitable in the long run, however, given that the number of feeder
flights that can be replaced by trains is typically limited, especially in countries with less advanced rail
networks.
14

Key elements of good style

This draft makes life difficult for the reader, who is forced to unscramble the information before it can be easily
processed. Compare with the following revision:

n Intermodality represents a partial solution for capacity problems at congested airports. The replacement of
short-haul feeder flights with trains frees up slots for more profitable long-haul flights. This solution helps
reduce congestion in the short term without increasing airport capacity. In the long run, however, airport
expansion may nevertheless be inevitable, as the number of feeder flights that can be replaced with trains is
typically limited, especially in countries with less advanced rail networks.

Here one meandering sentence is broken up into four logical separate ideas that are easy to read and understand.
See also the advice in Golden Rules 1 (Get your main message up front) and 2 (Make your sentences more direct).

Paragraphs

The paragraph is the main unit of composition in English. A paragraph should:

n express one idea, which should usually be captured in the first sentence, and illustrated in more detail in
the remaining sentences of the paragraph;
n ideally not exceed around eight lines.

On the Web, paragraphs should be even shorter, not exceeding four or five lines in length.

The purpose of treating each topic in a paragraph by itself is to aid the reader. Each new paragraph signals the
start of a new topic/argument in the development of the subject.

Leave a blank line after every paragraph.

6. Make statements positive: avoid double negatives

Readers process information much more effectively if it is expressed in a positive form, as the following exam-
ples show:

BAD: Double negative GOOD: Positive

It is not expected that the tool will be unable to The tool is expected to cover the defined
cover the defined requirements. requirements.

It is not implausible that the post could be filled The post could be filled internally.
internally.

It is not uncommon for pilots and controllers to Pilots and controllers commonly use non-standard
use non-standard phrases. phrases.
 15

House Style: Conventions

This section contains an alphabetical list of specific elements of the EUROCONTROL house style, explaining in
each case the conventions adopted at the Agency.

Abbreviations

See “Acronyms and initialisms”, “Contractions” and “Units of Measurement”.

The use of abbreviations in the body of your text should be kept to a minimum.

Abbreviations are formed by cutting off the end of a word; they are therefore followed by a full stop: etc., ed., rev.
They should be followed by only one full stop if they come at the end of a sentence.

Note that “etc.” should always be preceded by a comma, and followed by a comma if it is not the last word in the
sentence. Do not add it to the end of a list beginning with “for example” or the abbreviation “e.g.” The term “etc.”
is in any case a vague one which should be used sparingly.

The Dutch abbreviation “i.p.v.” (in plaats van) has no equivalent in English. Do not therefore abbreviate the
English term “instead of” to the non-existent and illogical “i.s.o.”; always write out “instead of” in full.

Similarly, the English equivalent of the German abbreviation “usw.” (und so weiter) is “etc.” or “and so on”, not “a.s.o.”

Acronyms and initialisms

See “Abbreviations”, “Contractions” and “Units of Measurement”.

Acronyms and initialisms are specific types of abbreviation formed from the initial letters of other words. An
acronym can be pronounced as a word in its own right (e.g. SESAR, LARA, ICAO), whereas every letter of an
initialism needs to be pronounced separately (e.g. the EEC, the EU, HTML). As in the examples just given, do not
use a full stop between the letters of acronyms and initialisms.

As a general rule, if the full term for which an initialism stands is preceded by “the”, that initialism should also be
preceded by “the”. Acronyms, however, should never be preceded by “the”. To take EUROCONTROL’s trade unions
as an example, write “the FFPE” and “the USSPE” (every letter of which needs to be pronounced separately) but
“TUEM” (pronounced “too-em” and “USEF” (pronounced “yuh-seff”): “The proposal was rejected by the FFPE, the
USSPE, TUEM and USEF”. Do not precede “FFPE-EUROCONTROL” by “the”, because part of this abbreviation can be
pronounced as a single word.

In most cases, write out the name represented by the acronym or initialism in full the first time you use it, followed
by the acronym/initialism in parentheses: International Air Transport Association (IATA); air traffic flow and capacity
management (ATFCM). Thereafter, the acronym or initialism may be used on its own. In a few instances, the acronym
or initialism may be deemed so well known that there is no need to spell it out first: the EU, NATO, the UK, the US.

Please also note that EUROCONTROL, although not an acronym, is always written in upper case.

In texts designed for a wide audience, limit the number of acronyms and initialisms you use. If you use many,
add a list of definitions or a glossary. If you are unsure of a given acronym/initialism, consult the relevant
expert or staff member to see whether there is a generally accepted abbreviation, or consult EUROCONTROL’s
Air Navigation Inter-site Acronym List (AIRIAL).
16

House Style: Conventions

On the Web, avoid the use of acronyms. If you cannot avoid using acronyms, on short webpages, spell
out any acronyms that are used fewer than five times. On long webpages, spell out acronyms that are
used fewer than 10 times.

Addresses and telephone numbers

For guidelines on how to format international addresses, see the website of the Universal Postal Union.

For guidelines on how to format telephone numbers, see Recommendation E.123 of the International
Telecommunications Union.

Annexes and appendices

You can include detailed background or technical information in one or more annexes or appendices. Large,
detailed tables are often placed in an annex or appendix.

If you have more than one annex or appendix, title them as follows: Annex 1, 2, 3, etc. If you have only one
annex, title it “Annex” rather than “Annex 1”.

Bibliography

A bibliography is a list of all the books, articles and other written sources to which you refer in your text, whether
you quote direct from them or simply acknowledge that they have contributed to your argument.

Organise your bibliography as a single unbroken list ordered by author’s surname and, if you include more than
one work by a given author, by year of publication.

For the formatting of individual entries in your bibliography, use the author-date system as explained in the
“Bibliographies” section of the EU’s Interinstitutional Style Guide. This page also explains how to insert biblio-
graphical references into the main body of your text.

Bulleted lists

n Make sure that your bulleted lists contain at least two items.
n Make bulleted lists parallel in construction (that is, make sure all the items in the list begin with the same
part of speech, such as a verb or a noun).
n Make sure that, if the first item is a full sentence, all the other items are also full sentences, and that, if the
first item is not a full sentence, none of the others are full sentences either.
n Use bulleted lists to highlight important items, draw attention to main points, or help readers find information.
n Use numbered or lettered lists instead of bullets if you want to refer to items in a list or procedure elsewhere
in the text.
 17

Bulleted lists – punctuation

The following information on how to punctuate bulleted lists is adapted from the Writer’s Block website. It is
worth remembering that the same list can often be punctuated in more than one way; the most important
aspects to consider are clarity and consistency.

Punctuating list lead-ins

A colon is usually the most appropriate punctuation mark for a list lead-in. For example:

Three buttons then appear on the next screen:

n OK
n Cancel
n Close

Punctuating list items

No punctuation is required for list items if they are part of a short, itemised list (see the example immediately
above).

Use commas or semicolons to punctuate list items when, as a group, they complete the sentence begun
by the lead-in. That is, use the same punctuation that you would use if the list were a single sentence run
together. Use commas when the individual list items are simple and contain little or no internal punctuation.
For example:

The Board accepts:

n technical writing assignments, and

n administrative writing assignments, including
n policies,
n procedures, and
n annual reports.

Use semicolons when one or more of the list items is complex, containing an internal series or several phrases
that also require commas or stronger punctuation marks. For example:

The main activities on which the work of the Service was based in 2010 can be summarised as follows:

n risk and hazard analysis of major work/maintenance safety activities at all sites, identifying a prioritisation of
major safety projects over the next five years;
n organisation of safety training at a number of EUROCONTROL sites (first aid, handling of fire extinguishers,
etc.);
n ongoing work in close partnership with other sections and, in particular, cooperation with the Medical
Service and with infrastructure and internal services;
n replacement of all office chairs, including instructions and a mini-assessment for each working position.

Whether you use commas or semicolons to punctuate the list items, please note that the lead-in and the list
itself should, when taken together, form a complete and grammatically correct sentence, as in the two previous
examples.
18

House Style: Conventions

Capitalise the lead word in a list item only if the item is part of a short, itemised list requiring no punctuation,
such as the one under “Punctuating list lead-ins” above, or if it is a complete sentence ending with a full stop, as
in the example below.

Cover will not be provided in the following instances:

n Travel was undertaken specifically for the purpose of medical treatment.

n An unlawful act was committed.
n Drugs not prescribed by a physician were taken.

Capitalisation

As a general rule, use capital letters sparingly. They should be reserved for the first letter of each word in
proper names and the first letter of sentences or titles.

Use capital letters for proper names of people, titles preceding proper names of people, institutions, programmes,
official projects, formal groups, organisations and companies: Sir Richard Branson, European Civil Aviation Confer-
ence, Airport Operations Programme, EUROCONTROL Agency, etc. Do not use capital letters where terms are
used in a general sense: conferences on civil aviation, committee chairmen, etc.

Capitalise recognised geographical names and political divisions: Northern Ireland, North Rhine-Westphalia,
East Midlands (when referring to the constituency of the European Parliament), the South Pole.

DO NOT as a general rule capitalise compass points (north, west, north-west, north-western, etc.) unless they
are part of an administrative or political unit: South Africa (country) but southern Africa (area); West Germany
(Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) 1949-90) but western Germany (the western part of today’s FRG); Northern
Ireland (official name of province) but northern England (area). Compound compass points are hyphenated
and, in official designations, each part is capitalised (the North-West Frontier).

Capitalise titles of office holders: President of the Provisional Council, Vice-Chairman of the Standing Committee
on Finance.

Capitalise full names of international agreements, conferences, conventions, etc.: Convention on Interna-
tional Civil Aviation, 50th Annual World Conference of IFATCA, ICAO Worldwide Symposium on Performance of
the Air Navigation System.

Figure, Number (Fig., No) and Amendment, Volume, Chapter, Section, Article (Vol., Chap., Sect., Art.) should
always have an initial capital when followed by a numeral; conversely, paragraph, point, line, etc. should not be
capitalised.

The same applies to organisational devices in reports – Annex 1, Section 2, Table 3, but “in the annex”, “in the
next section”, “the table below”, etc.

For publications in English:

n capitalise all main words in the titles of newspapers, journals, periodicals and books: Daily Mail; Aviation Week;
A Tale of Two Cities (such titles should also be italicised);
n capitalise the titles of all other documents as they appear on the title page of each document, if you can
find it: EUROCONTROL Agency Corporate Responsibility Policy; Multilateral Agreement relating to Route Charges;
Report of the High Level Group for the future European Aviation Regulatory Framework, etc.;
n if you cannot find the document and it is not a newspaper, journal, periodical or book, capitalise the first
word and proper names only.
 19

If you have any further questions on capitalisation in English, see the Interinstitutional style guide of the European
Union, on which the information in this section is based.

For capitalisation in languages other than English, follow the standard rules for capitalisation in the language
concerned.

If you are not sure how to capitalise a particular title or subtitle, consult the English Language Section.

Lastly, please note that the individual words of a term do not require initial capitals simply because the corre-
sponding abbreviation is capitalised. In particular, note the capitalisation (or lack of it) in the following terms in
common use at EUROCONTROL:

n air navigation service provider;

n air traffic control;
n air traffic management;
n amended Convention;
n budget/budgetary (with the single exception of the Agency Budget);
n Central Committee for Prevention and Protection at Work;
n enlarged Committee;
n EUROCONTROL Pension Fund, EUROCONTROL Pension Scheme;
n Europa Conference Room (but Europa lobby);
n industry;
n Internet;
n Local Committee for Prevention and Protection at Work;
n Member State (but AIPE member);
n Multilateral Route Charges System;
n nautical mile;
n revised Convention;
n Service for Prevention and Protection at Work;
n session: this should be capitalised when referring to a specific session of an official body: “the enlarged
Committee’s March 2007 Session”, “the 27th Session of the Provisional Council”; otherwise, use lower case;
but note “the ad hoc session of 9 May 2007”;
n stakeholder;
n state (only write “State” when referring to the concept of the State in political theory and in the expression
“Member State”);
n World Wide Web (the Web).

Captions

See “Figures”.

All substantive photos should be accompanied by a caption. Capitalise the first letter of the first word
of a caption, and use lower case thereafter, except for proper nouns and capitalised abbreviations. Omit
the full stop at the end of a caption unless it is a full sentence.
20

House Style: Conventions

Contractions

See “Abbreviations”, “Acronyms and initialisms” and “Units of Measurement”.

Contractions are formed by removing either the interior of a word or the end of one word and the beginning
of the next.

Where a single word is contracted, the interior of the word is removed but the last letter is retained. Such
contractions are not true abbreviations, which are formed by cutting off the end of the word. They are thus not
followed by a full stop unless they are at the end of a sentence: Dr, Mrs, Ltd, No (the contraction of Latin numero;
always write this with a capital N to avoid confusion with “no”, the opposite of “yes”).

Where two words are contracted, they are often a subject pronoun and a main verb. Such contractions are
characteristic of spoken English and are represented in writing by an apostrophe, e.g. “she’s” (she is), “you’re” (you
are), “they’ve” (they have) and “it’s” (it is). This type of contraction should be avoided in documents, other than in
very informal contexts or where reporting the spoken word:

- The controller said “You’re cleared for take-off”.

Dates

See “Numbers”.

A number of possible date formats exist. The practice within the English Language Section is to write either
“21 August 2006” or “21.8.06”.

To avoid ambiguity, specify the date of an event rather than using vague terms such as “next Thursday” or
“last Monday”: “the meeting will take place on Thursday 3.6.10”; “following your visit to Brétigny on Monday 28
July”, etc.

Avoid beginning a sentence with a year. For example, instead of writing “1992 marked the introduction of […]”,
you could write “In 1992 […] was introduced”, or “[…] was introduced in 1992”.

Write decades as follows: the 1990s, the 2000s, etc. Avoid “the nineties”, “the noughties”, etc.

Emails

See “E-terms and web words in frequent use”.

Thanks to Hilary Tresidder and Brian Radcliffe for the material in this section.

Emails are generally shorter than letters. Since they are often written quickly, in response to a request or ques-
tion, they may contain only a few lines. It is often acceptable to use abbreviations and omit the traditional
opening and closing formulas in emails.

First things first: Make sure that email is the best way to reach your target audience. Would a telephone call or
a face-to-face meeting be more effective? Have your potential correspondents already received many emails on
this topic, and, if so, will they tune out?

If you would like a return email from your correspondent or are inviting someone to consult a website, email is
particularly appropriate.
 21

Use a descriptive subject line: Say what the email is about in a few words. Instead of writing “Urgent”, write
“Meeting at 10 a.m. about procurement contract X”. Limit your subject line to 50 characters.

Consider using colons to provide more information after a general introduction, e.g. “Office supplies: new
provider”. Question marks can be used as a shorthand to indicate that you require a reply, e.g. “Meeting minutes
available?”

If an email has more than one subject, name them all, using semicolons (;) or plus signs (+) as separators.

Keep it brief (see “Key elements of good style”): When writing an email, the general rule is to keep your message
clear and to the point. Avoid overly idiomatic expressions. Write short sentences and paragraphs. Consider using
bullet points and underlined headings if this would make your message clearer. Use active forms where possible.

People tend to scan emails, so put the most important information at the top, with the key information in the
upper left-hand corner.

Greetings and sign-offs: There are a number of ways to start your email. If you are replying to a message from
someone else, you can often use the same greeting as them, but if you are composing a new mail, here are a
few ideas.

Business Business Group of people Friend/close

acquaintance acquaintance colleague
(name known) (name not known)

Starting your Dear Mr X, Dear Sir/Madam, (very Dear all, Hello,

email* Dear Ms** X, formal) Dear customers/ Hi,
Dear + first name, (less Good morning, colleagues/directors, Hello/Hi + first name,
formal) Good afternoon, Hello everyone, (less First name only,
formal)
NB: Dear or Dears on its
own is incorrect.

Ending your email Many thanks, Thanks,

Kind regards, Cheers, (very informal)
Best wishes,
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely, (name known – very formal)
Yours faithfully, (name not known – very formal)

* If several emails are exchanged, it is not necessary to keep repeating the greetings and sign-offs after the first message.

** If you are replying to a letter from a woman who has written her name as Mrs + surname, then it is acceptable to reply to her using Mrs +
surname; otherwise use Ms.

When referring to colleagues in an email, consider using initials (e.g. “Regarding the proposal made by AR”),
since this can be a quick and useful neutral option, somewhere between the formality of the surname and the
informality of the first name.
22

Capitals, fonts and punctuation: Avoid capitalising groups of words or sentences. This sometimes gives readers
the impression that you are shouting at them (the same can apply to large font or bold). It is also more difficult
to read.

When writing English, remember to use English punctuation. Contrary to French usage, colons, semicolons,
question marks and exclamation marks in English are not preceded by a space (see “Punctuation”).

Bear in mind that professional emails use exclamation marks sparingly, if at all.

Try to make your emails informative and polite: Remember that your reader could forward your email to
other people, so only write what you would be happy for other people to read. Excessively formal phrases are
unnecessary in emails, but it is still a good idea in a business context to use polite expressions (such as “I would
be grateful if” and “Thank you for your prompt reply”), especially if you are asking somebody to do something
for you.

If you feel the red mist of anger descend in an email exchange, do not dash off an email which you might
regret and which might raise the temperature of the exchange. Return to the email later, when you are more
composed, and consider defusing the situation by ringing or visiting your correspondent instead.

Lastly, use the “Reply to All” button with care.

Useful sample phrases for emails

1. Referring to a previous message or conversation

Thanks for the information.
Thanks for your phone call.
Thanks for getting me the figures.

2. Giving brief updates

Just a quick note to tell you…
Just a quick note to let you know…
Just to update you on…

3. Referring to an attachment
Take a look at the attached file.
Have a quick look at the file I’ve attached about…
Thought you might find the attached interesting.

4. Changing plans
Sorry, but I can’t make the meeting tomorrow.
Sorry, but I won’t be able to meet you next week.
Sorry, but something has come up and I can’t meet you for lunch.
 23

Be aware of cultural differences: In certain languages, it is acceptable to refer to a participant in an email

exchange as “he” or “she”. This may be seen as impolite in English, where it is better to refer to the person directly,
or by name, e.g. “As we discussed, John, Ellen will be covering for you during your absence”.

Bear in mind when drafting and reading emails that there are cultural differences between how people express
themselves which can cause tension and misunderstandings. Correspondents from certain cultures tend to
express themselves in a relatively direct style. This should not be interpreted as rudeness. Writers from other
countries might adopt a more formal style, which does not necessarily mean that they are being cold or distant.

Make sure your reader knows what to do next: Help your reader to act on your email. For example, if you want
your reader to find some information for you, write “Please can you find me the safety data statistics for 2009”
instead of the vaguer “I’m going to need the safety data statisics for 2009”.

Check your email before you send it: Use a spelling checker. Then ask yourself these questions:

n Is this clear?
n Does my reader know what to do next?
n Is this polite?

For particularly important emails, it is good practice to ask someone else to read through the email before you
send it.

Email addresses

See “E-terms and web words in frequent use”.

Email addresses should all be clickable on the Web and activate the “mailto” function. If you provide
the name of a contact person on the Web, make sure you always include at least an email address to
contact that person.
24

House Style: Conventions

EUROCONTROL bodies: chairmen, presidents, etc.

See “Chair”.

Below is a list of some of the main bodies at EUROCONTROL, with an indication of whether they are headed by
a chairman or a president. Consider using the gender-neutral term “chair” as an alternative to “chairman”, where
possible (“chairperson” is also used).

Provisional Council (President and three Vice-Presidents)

enlarged Committee (President and Vice-President)
Permanent Commission (President and Vice-President)
Standing Committee on Finance (Chairman and Vice-Chairman)
Performance Review Commission (Chairman and Vice-Chairman)
Safety Regulation Commission (Chairman and Vice-Chairman)
Audit Board (Chairperson)
Civil-Military Interface Standing Committee (Chairman and Vice-Chairman)
International Association of EUROCONTROL Staff (AIPE) (President and Vice-President)
International Association of Former Officials of EUROCONTROL (AIAE) (Chairman and two Vice-Chairmen)
Central Staff Committee (President and two Vice-Presidents)

Figures

Figures can include line drawings, graphs, charts, diagrams, schematics, flow charts, illustrations and photo-
graphs. When using computer-generated figures, you should ensure that they are clear and readable, and that
they can be reproduced easily.

Use the Visual identity guidelines to create figures in official EUROCONTROL publications and for the Web.

Capitalise only the first word and proper nouns. Number figures in a simple sequence (e.g. Figure 1, Figure 2). In
long reports, papers, or book chapters, you may include section or chapter numbers in the figure numbers (e.g.
Figure 1-1, Figure 1-2, Figure 2-1, and so on).

Make sure that the data in your figures correspond to the data in your text and tables.

Glossaries

If you use many mathematical symbols or technical terms in your document or on your webpages,
consider defining them in a glossary. Arrange the list alphabetically, and use the “Glossary” template in
EUROCONTROL’s web content management system.

Headings

Headings and page titles should be relatively short (no more than 10 words). Refer to the
“Capitalisation” section for conventions applied to headings.

Ensure that the title of your page and the navigation item are identical, to avoid confusing the user.
 25

Italics

1. Do not use italics for emphasis

To emphasise a word or phrase, use bold text (both on the Web and in written documents) or underlining (in
written documents only) as appropriate. Take care not to overuse these tools, however, and to be consistent in
what you emphasise.

2. Use italics for foreign words and phrases

Italicise less commonly used foreign words and phrases (e.g. in situ, in vivo), but not words which are considered
to be part of everyday English (e.g. ad hoc, kindergarten), or words or phrases that are commonly used in your
field. The Interinstitutional style guide of the European Union provides a useful list of foreign expressions which
are not usually italicised in English.

3. Use italics to cite published documents

Italicise book titles and the names of journals, newspapers, and magazines in references, footnotes, and
bibliographies:

n Gone with the Wind

n Applied Physics Letters
n Washington Post
n Skyway Magazine

The titles of journal and magazine articles should be written in regular Roman type within quotation marks and
not italicised, e.g. “Capacity crunch: The future of European aviation?” (note the capital letter for the first word
after the colon).

4. Use italics or quotation marks to indicate a word or phrase which you are discussing individually

If you are discussing a word or phrase individually, you may italicise it or enclose it in quotation marks:

n The word footnote is often used in place of reference.

n He wrote “ambiguous”, but I think he meant “ambivalent”.

Avoid italics on webpages as a general rule, because research shows that they are more difficult for
users to read on screen. Use them, as above, purely for foreign words and expressions, and for docu-
ment titles. Quotations by a person or from a publication should be placed in double quotation marks.

Latin expressions

See “Italics”.
26

House Style: Conventions

Numbers

See “Dates”, “Time” and “Units of measurement”.

The numbers one to nine should be spelt out. The numbers 10 onwards and all numbers preceded/followed
by symbols/abbreviations/fractions/decimals should be written as digits, e.g. seven books, but EUR 7, p. 7, 7%,
7 km, 7°C, etc. Where numbers in the same sentence fall above and below this limit, use digits for both, thus 9
to 11, not nine to 11.

Ordinal numbers follow the same pattern, including centuries: ninth century, 19th century.

Avoid the use of superscript in 21st, 42nd, 53rd, 79th, etc.

Fractions: insert a hyphen when a fraction is used as an adverb or adjective (two-thirds complete, a two-thirds
increase), but not when it is used as a noun (an increase of two thirds). Spell out simple fractions in running text,
but write out complex fractions with numerals separated by a slash: 1/64, 23/32, etc.

Numbers followed by two nouns are often used for measurements. The first noun is usually singular even if
the number is plural. It is connected to the number with a hyphen. An engine with four cylinders thus becomes
“a four-cylinder engine”, a plan lasting five years becomes “a five-year plan”, and a round trip lasting 13 hours
becomes “a 13-hour round trip”

Decimal point: in English usage, a decimal point rather than a comma is used to mark the boundary between
a whole number and its decimal fractions: 2.4 children, 8.33 kHz.

Singular and plural: only the number one is considered singular, e.g. For technical reasons, 1 km is the smallest
distance that can be shown on the display.

Decimal fractions smaller or greater than one are considered plurals: 0.95 litres, 1.4 minutes, etc.

“None of”, “neither of” and “either of” take singular verbs, except in informal or spoken English: none of the radars
is working; neither of the trainees knows the answer; has either of the candidates submitted a request?

Numbers of four or more digits (excluding dates) should be separated in English-language texts using either
non-breaking spaces or commas: 4 213.17, 16 000, 2 000 000; or 4,213.17, 16,000, 2,000,000.

The use of commas to separate four-digit numbers, though very common at EUROCONTROL, can be a source
of confusion, since commas are often used in other languages as decimal separators. This can impede clarity;
for example, the number represented as 12,356.93 in English might be represented as 12.356,93 in French. If you
feel that there is a risk of confusion in your text, we strongly recommend that you use non-breaking spaces to
separate numbers of four or more digits.

To produce a non-breaking space on most keyboards, hold down Ctrl and Shift, and press the space bar.
 27

Ranges of numbers may be elided, e.g. page numbers: pp. 7-13, 312-17. Use “from” and “to” or “between” and
“and” in the event of ambiguity, particularly with measurements which may use a descending as well as an
ascending scale: “31-5” may mean “from 31 to 5” or “from 31 to 35”.

Write either “from 50 to 100”, “between 50 and 100”, or “50-100”; but not a mixture of the three (e.g. “from 50-100”).

Currencies: for consistency, currencies are often written using three-letter ISO codes: e.g. EUR 77 million, GBP 2.6
billion (million and billion are always written in full). For a list of ISO codes for the world’s principal currencies, see
the European Union’s Interinstitutional style guide.

For certain well-known currencies, currency symbols may be used: €77 million, £2.6 billion, $900 000.

The currency is always shown before the amount; if you are using ISO codes, separate the code and the amount
with a non-breaking space; if you are using currency symbols, do not separate the symbol and the amount.

Whether you use ISO codes or currency symbols, ensure that you write currencies in a consistent way within a
single document or webpage.

In technical reports and papers, express costs less than EUR 1 as follows:

n EUR 0.25/€0.25;
n EUR 0.06/€0.06 per kilowatt-hour.

Multiples may also be expressed as follows: “k€” for thousands of euros (10 to the power of 3) and “M€” for
millions of euros (10 to the power of 6): k€126.75 (= €126 750); M€45.1 (= €45 100 000). The abbreviations are
particularly suitable for tables and diagrams. In running text, the long forms are often preferable.

Percentages: either use the % symbol, or write per cent, as two words. Be consistent within the same
document. The % symbol should not be separated from the figure preceding it by a space: 76%, 91.2%
(not 76 %).

Official correspondence

A set of EUROCONTROL guidelines on official correspondence can be obtained by contacting the Director
General’s secretariat (ext. 93501/2).

Order of forenames and surnames

With the single exception of data tables, forenames should always come before surnames in English documents.
Note also that surnames are not usually capitalised in English usage, unlike in other languages, e.g. The Director
General, David McMillan, Director Network Management, Jacques Dopagne, and Director CRCO, Adriaan Heer-
baart, were all present at the meeting.

For more examples of correct ordering of forenames and surnames, see the “Contacts” section of this document.
28

House Style: Conventions

Overstatements and intensifiers

Avoid overstatements (e.g. “this represents the most important innovation in this area since…”) or the overuse
of intensifiers (“very”, “extremely”, “vital”, “key”, etc.) unless these are absolutely true, as these may undermine your
argument by lending it an air of exaggeration.

Personal pronouns

Avoid personal pronouns (“I”, “we”, “they”, etc.) in technical and scientific writing, and in general where the
emphasis is on formal, objective assessment. One way of doing this is by replacing “I”, “we”, “they”, etc., with
the name of the body which is the subject of the sentence: “DNM considers that”, “the Business Planning and
Performance Section recently submitted…”.

The reverse is the case when writing letters or emails, when personal pronouns are encouraged to avoid giving
texts an impersonal, bureaucratic feel. Compare the following examples:

n BAD: “Following receipt of your suggestion that … , please be informed that the following steps shall be
taken”
n GOOD: “I would like to thank you for your suggestion that… and inform you that…”

This advice is particularly appropriate for webpages, in particular those which are of a non-technical
nature or aimed at a wide audience. For example, do not write “Each staff member must send in his/
her completed application”, but talk directly to your reader: “You should send your completed applica-
tion…”. In addition, passive constructions may be rewritten using personal pronouns to prevent confu-
sion by clearly and concisely showing who performed a task or procedure:

n Passive: It was agreed that the workshop had been a success.

n Active: We/The participants/The general public agreed that the workshop had been a success.

You should, however, be careful to avoid changing the meaning of a sentence, bearing in mind that the
passive can also be used to avoid stating the subject (see the advice in the “Use the active voice” section).

Photographs

When you use an image that is not the property of EUROCONTROL on a webpage or elsewhere, credit the
photographer or other source as a courtesy or for legal purposes. Also make sure you have the right to use the
picture in question.

Provide a caption when necessary (see “Captions”).

 29

Sources

Include the sources of all figures and tables originally published by others, especially those outside
EUROCONTROL. If figures or tables come from a copyright publication, you may need permission to reproduce
them. Add the source at the end of a figure caption, as in the example below.

n Source: Hansen, W.L.; Pearton, S.J.; Haller, E.E. (1984). Appl. Phys. Lett. 44: 606.

Tense

When summarising events, e.g. the outcome of a conference, the contents of a paper, etc., you should try to
keep to one tense, and avoid shifting from one tense to another, as this can confuse the reader and may give
an impression of uncertainty.

The present is the preferred tense for the Web. Use past and future tenses sparingly, and always in their
simplest forms.

Time

See “Numbers”.

The 12-hour clock is the standard time-keeping system in many English-speaking countries and is entirely
acceptable at EUROCONTROL in most cases, except in certain technical documents. Write times in the
12-hour system followed by a.m. or p.m., e.g. 5.30 p.m. To avoid ambiguity in the 12-hour system, write 12 noon
and midnight.

If you are writing a technical document, the 24-hour clock is often preferable to the 12-hour clock.
Write times in the 24-hour system as follows: 17.30 (without h or hrs), as per the European Union’s Interin-
stitutional style guide, or 17:30 (see advice below). For midnight, either write “midnight” or use 24.00
(for periods ending then) or 00.00 (for periods starting then).

In the 24-hour system, the full hour is written with two zeroes, e.g. 14.00, 12.00, 24.00, etc., but in the 12-hour
system it is not, e.g. 2 p.m. (or 2 o’clock).

Colon or full stop? The European Union’s Interinstitutional style guide recommends that a full stop be used to
separate hours and minutes in both the 12- and 24-hour systems (e.g. 2.30 p.m., 14.30). International standard
ISO 8601, however, stipulates a colon (e.g. 2:30 p.m., 14:30). Both approaches are accepted at EUROCONTROL in
documents in English, but consistency needs to be maintained within the same document or webpage.

To avoid confusion for a European and/or international readership, it may be useful to state the time of a meeting
or event using universal time, e.g. The workshop starts at 10:00 GMT+1 (i.e. Paris or Brussels time).
For duration use h, min and s, e.g. the time allowed for the test is 2 h 30 min 5 s.
30

Units of measurement

See “Abbreviations”, “Acronyms and initialisms”, “Contractions” and “Numbers”.

Units accepted under the International System of Units (SI) are shortened to symbols rather than abbreviations.
As symbols, they are not subject to grammatical rules and thus are not followed by a full stop in the singular or
by -s in the plural. With a very few exceptions (e.g. °C), use a space to separate the unit of measurement from
numerals: 16 m, 241 kg, 9.7 s, 0.6 A, etc.

For full lists of all SI base units, derived units and prefixes, and the corresponding symbols, see the website of the
International Bureau of Weights and Measures.

In addition to the SI units, note the following units in common use at EUROCONTROL, and their abbrevia-
tions: nautical mile (NM); knot (kn); foot (ft). The plural of “foot” is “feet”. The abbreviations of these units are not
followed by -s in the plural, should follow numerals and should be separated from those numerals by a space:
16 NM, 250 kn, 3,000 ft.

The term “flight level” (FL) should precede numerals, with a space between the abbreviation and the numeral:
flight level 260, FL 320.

Define units of measurement if any possible confusion exists. Spell out the full term first, and follow it with the
abbreviation in parentheses. Thereafter, you may use the abbreviation, e.g. 250 hectares (ha).

Spell out units of measurement in full in running text where they are not accompanied by numbers, e.g.
“The new film was several nanometres thicker than the previous one”.

Do not abbreviate “miles”; always write it out in full (except in the case of “nautical miles” - see above).

Note the difference between one metric ton (which weighs 1,000 kg, is also known as one tonne, and is abbrevi-
ated in the SI system to 1 t) and one imperial ton (which weighs 1,016 kg).
 31

Grammar
A/an

Write “an” before a word starting with “h” only if the “h” is silent. Thus: “a hero”, “a (not “an”: this is now considered
old-fashioned) historic occasion”, “a hostage”, “a horse”, “a hospital”, but “an heir”, “an honest answer”, “an honorary
member”, “an hour”.

For other words, usage is governed largely by ease of pronunciation before the initial letter (either consonant or
vowel), such as: “a eulogy”, “a European”, “a one-sided discussion”, “a unanimous decision”, “a union”, “a university”.

Pronunciation is also your best guide as to whether to use “a” or “an” before acronyms and initialisms (see
“Acronyms and initialisms”), as these depend on the way they are pronounced and not on whether they begin
with a vowel or a consonant: “a HEPA filter”; “an NGO”; “a VLJ (very light jet)”; “a DR/CS memo”; “an ICAO standard”.

Because/since

In general, use “because” to indicate a cause-and-effect relationship, and “since” to indicate either a time relation-
ship or a cause-and-effect relationship:

n Because/since the equipment malfunctioned, the experiment failed.

n Since we began using the new procedures, there have been no more malfunctions.

By/until

These prepositions change in meaning depending on how they are used in a sentence, and are often confused:

n The project needs to be completed by Friday (Friday is the deadline, but the project can be finished before
then), vs. The project needs to be completed on Friday (the project must be finished specifically on that day.
In this structure and with this meaning, “until” is impossible).
n I will work on the project until Friday (I plan to work up to that point but not beyond it).
n I need the files back by Friday (I need them back before then), vs. I need the files until Friday (I do not need
them after Friday).
n By the start of the year, the first phase of the project had almost been completed (“By” in a past-tense
construction; again, “until” is impossible).

Collective nouns

These are usually singular. Companies, firms, countries and most organisations are always singular: “the govern-
ment has proclaimed”, “the United States is to protest”.

The same rule applies to sciences that are written in a plural form: “politics is”, “economics is”, “acoustics is”.

However, collectives such as “staff”, “group”, “council”, “commission”, “committee” and “parliament” should be
regarded as singular when unity is intended and plural when the idea of plurality predominates: “all staff are
requested to assemble at the muster points” (i.e. individual members of staff ), but “the staff is unhappy with the
proposed changes” (i.e. the staff body).

The same logic applies to percentages: “the maximum intake (singular) was 60%; 6% of the aircraft (plural) were
present; more than 10% of that amount (singular) was allocated to planning.
32

Dangling participles and other modifiers

Look at this example:

n Reaching flight level 330, the controller instructed the aircraft to level out.

Who or what is reaching flight level 330? Logically, it must be the aircraft, but the structure of the sentence
makes it sound as if the controller himself is 33,000 ft above the ground, which is very unlikely given the context.

The present participle “reaching” in this sentence is known as a dangling participle because it is not grammati-
cally linked to the intended noun, “aircraft”.

To avoid this error, the sentence can be rephrased as follows: “As the aircraft was reaching flight level 330, the
controller instructed it to level out.”

The problem is not restricted to participles; other grammatical modifiers (words or clauses which modify the
meaning of other words in the sentence) can also lead to ambiguity if they are sloppily used. For example:

n After months of being saved in the wrong folder, Mr Fowler finally found the lost file.

Here, although the most plausible interpretation is that it was the file which was saved in the wrong folder, the
grammar of the sentence leads to the ludicrous possibility that it was Mr Fowler himself who was saved in the
wrong place. Again, some simple rephrasing solves the problem: “Mr Fowler finally found the lost file, which had
been saved in the wrong folder for months.”

Think carefully about exactly what your message is and whether your writing reflects your intentions clearly and
unambiguously. For more tips on how to do this, see “Key elements of good style”).

Due to/owing to

“Owing to” is a prepositional phrase meaning “because of”. “Due to” is often used in its stead but should be used
with care: “due” is an adjective and must refer to a noun:

n “Owing to bad weather, the concert has been cancelled” is correct (here you cannot write “The concert has
been cancelled due to bad weather”, as grammatically “due” must refer to “concert” not “cancel”, and the
concert may be due to a demand for music, but not to bad weather).
n “We reported flooding due to the breach in the river bank” is correct (here “due” correctly refers to the noun
“breach”).

When in doubt, opt for “because of”.

Fewer/less

See “Less/fewer”.

First(ly)

There is no real difference between first or firstly, second or secondly. In a list, you should choose either form and
stick with it (either “First, […] second, […] third, [...]” or “Firstly, […] secondly, […] thirdly, [...]”).
 33

Gerunds

A gerund is a verb in its “-ing” form, used as a noun:

n Smoking is prohibited in buildings at the Haren site.

n Flying was deemed too dangerous in such bad weather.

You must use gerunds rather than infinitives after certain constructions. Here is a list of common constructions
which take a gerund:

Be responsible for The line manager is responsible for assessing the profiles.
Be used to Our controllers are used to working 7.5-hour shifts.
Carry on We will carry on working with our stakeholders to make improvements throughout the
network.
Consider Would the Member States consider endorsing the common position if their reservations
were set out in the final document?
Enjoy We hope that you will enjoy using this forum.
Finish The responses will be posted on the Internet as soon as the team has finished analysing
your contributions.
Look forward to I look forward to meeting you at the conference.
Means of This round of activity and meetings has been important as a means of getting certain
messages across.
Prevent from Maintenance activities are necessary in order to prevent the equipment from failing.
Spend This Task Force needs to spend less time talking and make a decision.
Stop The memo urged staff to stop wasting paper.
Way of It makes sense to provide a way of resolving conflict in the workplace so as to minimise
the loss in human and business terms.
With a view to An internal competition had been opened with a view to replacing those leaving on ETS.

Its/it’s

“Its” is the genitive of “it”; “it’s” is the contraction of “it is” (which is a feature of colloquial speech, in constructions
such as “I’ve” and “we’ll”, and should be avoided except in very informal writing).

Less/fewer

Less is the comparative of little and is used before singular (and especially uncountable) nouns.

n There is slightly less traffic this year than there was last year.

Fewer is the comparative of few and is used before plural nouns.

n Could the Committee hold fewer meetings in the future?

34

Grammar
Plurals

Plurals are usually formed by adding an s at the end of a word, for example “controllers”, “workstations” and
“helicopters”.

The following are exceptions which are in common use at EUROCONTROL and occasionally cause problems:

Singular Plural

aircraft aircraft

foot feet

person people (use “persons” in very formal

contexts only)

volcano volcanoes

Here are some Latinate plurals where confusion often arises:

n “agenda” (singular); “agendas” (plural);

n “antenna” (singular); “antennas” (plural commonly accepted in aviation-related writing) or “antennae” (plural
for non-aviation uses);
n “criterion” (singular); “criteria” (plural);
n “data” is the plural of “datum” and therefore takes a plural verb: “the data are not available”. If you need to specify
a single item of information, use “a piece of data”;
n “forum” (singular); “forums” or “fora” (plural) – both may be used;
n “referendum” (singular); “referenda” (plural), not “referendums”.

Possessives with apostrophes

See also “Apostrophe”.

To form the possessive:

1. Normally, add -’s in the singular and -s’ (i.e. apostrophe following the plural suffix -s) in the plural, e.g.

Bill’s book the Johnsons’ dog

his master’s voice a girls’ school

Nouns that do not form plural in -s add -’s to the plural form, e.g.

children’s books women’s liberation

 35

2. Nouns ending in s add ’s for the singular possessive, except for certain biblical names and names from
classical antiquity (Jesus - Jesus’; Xerxes - Xerxes’, etc.):

boss’s Hicks’s
Burns’s St James’s Square
Charles’s Tess’s
Father Christmas’s Thomas’s

To form the plural possessive, they add an apostrophe to the s of the plural in the normal way, e.g.

bosses’ the octopuses’ tentacles

the Joneses’ dog the Thomases’ dog

French names ending in silent s or x add -s, which is pronounced as z, e.g.

Dumas’s (= Dumah’s) Cremieux’s

Names ending in -es pronounced iz are treated like plurals and take only an apostrophe (following the pronun-
ciation, which is iz, not iziz), e.g.

Bridges’ Moses’
Hodges’ Riches’

Polysyllables not accented on the last or second last syllable can take the apostrophe alone, but the form with
-’s is equally acceptable, e.g.

Barnabas’ or Barnabas’s
Nicholas’ or Nicholas’s

With the possessive preceding the word sake, be guided by the pronunciation, e.g.

for goodness’ sake but for God’s sake

for conscience’ sake for Charles’s sake

After -x and -z, use -’s, e.g. Ajax’s, Berlioz’s music, Leibniz’s law, Lenz’s law.

3. Expressions such as:

a fortnight’s holiday
two weeks’ holiday
two pounds’ worth
a pound’s worth
your money’s worth
contain possessives and should have apostrophes correctly placed.
36

Grammar
4. In I’m going to the butcher’s, grocer’s, etc., there is a possessive with ellipsis of the word “shop”.

The same construction is used in I’m going to Brown’s, Green’s, etc., so that properly an apostrophe is called
for. Where a business calls itself Brown, Green, or the like (e.g. Marks and Spencer, J. Sainsbury) the apostrophe
would be expected before -s. But many businesses use the title Browns, Greens, etc., without an apostrophe (e.g.
Debenhams, Barclays Bank). No apostrophe is necessary in a Debenhams store or in (go to or take to) the cleaners.

5. The apostrophe must not be used:

(a) with the plural non-possessive -s: notices such as TEA’S are often seen, but are wrong.
(b) with the possessive of pronouns: hers, its, ours, theirs, yours; the possessive of who is whose.

n It’s = it is; who’s = who is.

n There are no words her’s, our’s, their’s, your’s.

Prepositions at the end of a sentence

Look at the following two questions:

n Which ACC does he work at?

n At which ACC does he work?

The difference between the two questions is the position of the preposition “at”. In the first example, “at” is at
the end of the sentence. In the second example, “at” has been placed before the noun phrase to which it refers,
“which ACC”. While some grammar experts would argue that the second variant is more appropriate to a formal
style, few would agree that it is more correct. In fact, it would probably sound unnatural in many contexts.

In practice, many sentences can end with prepositions in most registers of English. Even in formal writing, do
not insist on placing prepositions directly in front of the nouns to which they refer if this leads to clumsy or
inelegant sentences.

Since

Note the correct use of tenses in English in since + time constructions:

n Since 2003, the Agency has issued over 100 Office Notices (since + present perfect for actions completed
since a point in the past);
n DR has been working on new templates since the start of May (since + present perfect continuous for
actions ongoing since a point in the past).

See also “Because/since”.

 37

Split infinitives and positioning of adverbs

The following discussion of the split infinitive was originally taken from the AskOxford.com website.

“This is a split infinitive:

“To boldly go where no man has gone before!”

“The infinitive is to go, and it has been “split” by the adverb boldly. Split infinitives have been the cause of much
controversy among teachers and grammarians, but the notion that they are ungrammatical is simply a myth: in
his famous book Modern English Usage, Henry Fowler listed them among “superstitions”!

“Split infinitives are frequently poor style, but they are not strictly bad grammar. In the example above, to avoid
the split infinitive would result either in weakness (to go boldly) or over-formality (boldly to go): either would ruin
the rhythmic force and rhetorical pattern of the original. It is probably good practice to avoid split infinitives
in formal writing, but clumsy attempts to avoid them simply by shuffling adverbs about can create far worse
sentences.”

On the subject of the positioning of adverbs, be aware that an adverb’s position in a sentence can significantly
alter the meaning of the sentence as a whole. An example is the following sentence, which can have a wide
range of meanings depending on where the adverb “only” is placed:

n Only we were asked to work on an overview of the CRCO’s accounts for 2008 (i.e. nobody except us was
asked).
n We were only asked to work on an overview of the CRCO’s accounts for 2008 (i.e. we were asked rather than
ordered or forced).
n We were asked only to work on an overview of the CRCO’s accounts for 2008 (two possible meanings: we
were asked rather than ordered or forced; or, we were asked to work on the overview but not necessarily to
produce its final version).
n We were asked to work on only an overview of the CRCO’s accounts for 2008 (two possible meanings: we
were asked to work on the overview but not necessarily to produce its final version; or, we were asked to
work on an overview as opposed to the detail of the accounts).
n We were asked to work on an overview only of the CRCO’s accounts for 2008 (two possible meanings: we
were asked to work on an overview as opposed to the detail of the accounts; or, we were asked to consider
the CRCO’s accounts as opposed to the accounts of any other part of the Agency).
n We were asked to work on an overview of the CRCO’s accounts only for 2008 (two possible meanings: we
were asked to consider the accounts as opposed to any other aspect of the CRCO; or, we were asked to
consider the 2008 accounts as opposed to those of any other year).
n We were asked to work on an overview of the CRCO’s accounts for 2008 only (i.e. we were asked to consider
2008 as opposed to any other year).
38

State

Capitalise this word only in the expression “Member State(s)” and when referring to the concept of “the State” in
political theory. Otherwise, write it with a lower case initial letter.

Avoid the term “non-Member State”. Instead, use “non-member country”.

Subjunctive

The present subjunctive of English verbs is always the same word as the infinitive: be, say, fly, etc.

It is mainly used today after verbs of suggestion and command, as in the examples below:

“I suggest (or “propose”, “move”, “submit”, “recommend”, etc.) that he be appointed.”

“He decreed (or “ordered”, “commanded”, “required”, etc.) that they be executed.”

The imperfect subjunctive is always the same word as the plural form of the imperfect indicative: were, said, flew.

The main use of the imperfect subjunctive in modern English is after “if”, “as if” and “as though”, where the hypoth-
esis is unlikely to be true. The imperfect subjunctive most frequently used in these constructions is “were”, from
the verb “be”, as in the following examples:

“If I were you, I would go.” (A purely hypothetical situation, as I cannot be you.)
“If I were interested, I would apply.” (Hypothetically, because I am not interested.)

Until

See “By/until”.

Which/who: the importance of commas

Look at these two sentences:

n The ANSPs of the Member States which had lowered their unit rates were congratulated.
n The ANSPs of the Member States, which had lowered their unit rates, were congratulated.

The first sentence, without the commas, means that some Member States’ ANSPs were congratulated, specifi-
cally the ones which had lowered their unit rates. You do not need commas when the clause following “which”
defines the individual or group you are talking about.

The commas in the second sentence change the meaning. The second sentence means that all of the Member
States’ ANSPs were congratulated. The “which”-clause between the commas provides the additional information
that all of these ANSPs had also lowered their unit rates (a very uncommon occurrence, unfortunately). This type
of “which”-clause can be left out without changing the basic meaning of the sentence; it simply gives extra
information.
 39

Here are more examples:

n The managers who arrived late were embarrassed.

(Not all of the managers were embarrassed, only those who arrived late.)
n The managers, who arrived late, were embarrassed.
(All of the managers arrived late and all were embarrassed. If you remove “who arrived late”, the basic
meaning does not change, you simply take away the additional information about their punctuality.)
n A car arrived for the delegation which was in a hurry to get to the airport.
(There was more than one delegation, but only one of them needed to get to the airport quickly. If you
remove “which was in a hurry to get to the airport”, you imply that there was only one delegation in the first
place, thus changing the meaning.)
n A car arrived for the delegation, which was in a hurry to get to the airport.
(There was one delegation, and it needed to get to the airport in a hurry. If you remove “which” and the
words after it, the meaning stays the same: there was only ever one delegation.)

In the examples where “which” is used without commas, you can replace it with “that” in less formal contexts.
Note, however, that “that” is wrong in sentences with commas, so it is safer to use “which” (or “who” if you are
talking about people; see “Which/who: things and people”).

Which/who: things and people

Note that you should use which for inanimate bodies, and who only for people/people’s titles:

n The Council, which last met in July, issued the following statement.
n The President of the Council, who was appointed following…, issued the following statement.
n This initiative was supported by Mr Smith, who stated that…

Whose

Strictly speaking, “whose” means “of whom”, and should refer to people and not to things. This means that a
sentence such as “The pilot, whose English was excellent, understood perfectly” is correct, whereas “Documents
whose metadata are updated are easy to find” is incorrect: since “whose” in this second example refers to things,
it should be replaced by “of which”. However, this would give the very clumsy sentence “Documents of which the
metadata are updated”. In order to avoid awkward sentences like this, use “whose” to refer to both people and
things, or rephrase the idea (in this case, “Documents containing updated metadata are easy to find”).
40

Vocabulary
This section consists of an alphabetical list of specific vocabulary points which often cause problems in English.

Accept/except

Do not confuse the verb “to accept”, which has a wide range of uses, with the similarly pronounced “to except”,
meaning “to exclude”; or with the conjunction “except”, meaning “apart from”:

n He accepted the task.

n Certain air services are excepted under the Agreement (i.e. excluded: “accepted” here would mean the
opposite).
n States shall refrain from initiating proceedings except in cases of gross negligence.

Advice/advise

Do not confuse “advice” (noun) with “to advise” (verb):

n For further advice, click on the documentation below.

n Operators are advised to consult the relevant manual.

Affect/effect

Avoid confusing the verb “to affect”, meaning “to act on or produce an effect on”, with the less commonly used
verb “to effect”, meaning “to bring about something”. The most commonly occurring related noun is “effect”,
meaning “result or outcome”.

n Affect (verb): The new deposition process affected the efficiency of the device.
n Effect (verb): The Directorate effected the transfer of Mr X in May 2007.
n Effect (noun): We measured the effect of the new process on the efficiency of the device.

Agree on/to/with

Distinguish between these three prepositions when using “to agree”:

n Agree on: The Task Force agreed on Terms of Reference (i.e. reached a common decision).
n Agree to: The Task Force agreed to the proposal (i.e. consented to it).
n Agree with: Mr X agreed with Ms Y that … (i.e. he shared her opinion; if “agree with” is used with a thing
rather than a person, it means “support”: “I do not agree with the use of force”).

Alternate/alternative, alternately/alternatively

Avoid confusing “alternate/alternately”, which means “succeeding in turns”, with “alternative/alternatively”, which
means “one of two possibilities” or, more broadly, “another option”. Note also, in the context of committee work,
that an “alternate” (noun) is a “substitute”:

n Alternate channels will be used (i.e. every other one).

n Alternative route scenarios have been devised (i.e. other route scenarios).
n If unable to attend, Committee members should designate an alternate (“alternate” as a noun).
 41

Ambiguous/ambivalent

Do not confuse “ambiguous”, which means “having more than one possible meaning”, with “ambivalent”, which
means “having mixed feelings about something”:

n The wording of the draft Rule of Application is ambiguous (i.e. it could be interpreted in different ways).
n The reaction to the proposed new policy was ambivalent (i.e. mixed).

Among/amongst

“Among” is recommended over “amongst”, since it is more common in modern English.

Anticipate

See “Foresee”.

The word “anticipate” is often used instead of “expect”, which is shorter and sometimes more to the point. If you
“expect” a problem, you simply think that it will come about. If you “anticipate” a problem, you think that it will
come about and prepare to deal with it. Consider replacing “anticipate” with “expect”.

Anybody/any body

“Anybody” means “any person”. “Any body” can mean a number of things depending on the context, including
“any group/committee”, “any human body”, etc.

Anyone/any one

“Anyone” means “any person”. “Any one”, in constructions such as “any one of them”, means “any of the individual
persons or things within a given group”.

Appraise/apprise

Avoid confusing the verb “to appraise”, which means “to form a judgement about the value of something/
someone” (as in “The Working Group needs to appraise the magnitude of the problem”), with the much rarer
verb “to apprise”, which means “to inform someone about something”.

Approximate

The adjective “approximate” actually means “very close or reasonably accurate”. It should not be used to indicate
a rough guess. Avoid therefore writing “very approximate” when you mean “very rough”, as it in fact logically
means the opposite, namely “almost exact”.

As regards/with regard to/concerning/regarding

Avoid “as regards”, as the term is potentially ambiguous. Use “with regard to”, “concerning” or “regarding” instead.
42

Vocabulary
Assist

See “Attend (to)/assist”.

Assure/ensure/insure

While the meanings of these three verbs overlap, they are not completely interchangeable. The following main
distinctions can be made: “to assure” means “to state confidently” or “to make (a person) sure or certain of some-
thing”; “to ensure” means “to make certain”; and “to insure” means “to obtain or provide insurance”:

n The manufacturer assured the group that the equipment would work properly.
n Ensure that the lid is fitted properly before starting the experiment.
n The laboratory must insure the new equipment before it can be used.

Attend (to)/assist

Without a preposition, “attend” means “to come to an event in order to participate in it”. When followed by “to”,
however, it means “to turn one’s energies to, look after”:

n Representatives of the Agency and all the Member States attended the meeting.
n The Head of Unit asked her secretary to attend to the user’s request.

Note also that “attend” in the first example above is the direct English equivalent of the French verb assister and
Spanish asistir. It should not be confused with he modern English verb “assist”, which has the rather different
meaning of “to help” or “to aid”.

Authority

Note the difference in meaning between “an authority on” something, i.e. an expert, and “authority over” someone
or something, which means “the power to enforce obedience”.

Backward/backwards and toward/towards

Use “backwards” and “towards”: in both instances, the alternative forms are American English.

Based on/on the basis of

“Based” is an adjective and therefore needs to refer directly to a noun.

n The report was based on incomplete data.

In the above example, the adjective “based” refers to the noun “report”.

“On the basis of” is an adverbial expression which describes how something is done. It gives the reader more
information about the action of a verb.

n The Agency received the mandate on the basis of its experience and expertise.

Here, “on the basis of” refers to the verb “received” - it tells us how the Agency came to be given the mandate.
 43

Begin/commence/start

Note that the verbs “to begin” and “to start” are less formal than “to commence”, although all may be used as
synonyms within a text.

Belief/believe

Do not confuse “a belief” (noun) and “to believe” (verb):

n The paper describes the attitudes and beliefs of controllers.

n The Task Force believes that further research should be conducted into fuel burn.

Biennial/biannual

These two terms are often confused, although their meaning is quite distinct: “biennial” means “every two years”,
while “biannual” means “twice a year”. If in doubt, avoid any potential confusion by writing out “every two years”,
“twice a year”, etc.

Bi-weekly/bi-monthly

Unlike biennial/biannual, these terms are ambiguous, meaning either twice a week or month, or once every two
weeks or months, and should therefore be avoided. Replace with “two-monthly”, “fortnightly” or “twice-weekly”.

Bona fide(s)

Note the difference between the Latin term “bona fides” (meaning credentials), which should be treated as a
singular noun (e.g. “His bona fides appears to be satisfactory.”), and its more common adjectival form “bona fide”
(meaning good faith, as in “The complainant had a bona fide case.” In both cases, these expressions are mainly
useful in legal texts.

Can/may

“Can” means “to be able”, and should not be confused with “may”, which means “be allowed to”, even though the
two are increasingly used interchangeably in colloquial contexts. Note also that “may” can be a source of ambi-
guity: for example, the sentence “The Committee may vote tomorrow” could mean either “The Committee is
allowed to vote tomorrow” or “it is possible that the Committee will vote tomorrow”. See the following examples:

n Content on OneSky Online can be accessed by staff only (i.e. only staff are able to do this).
n Staff may access the relevant information on OneSky Online (different focus: here the stress is on the fact
that they are permitted to do so).
n The signatories may propose additional points or amendments at a later stage (“may” in a legal context,
where it is commonly used).

Capability

This is often used to mean “potential ability”, and care should be taken not to overuse it; “is capable of” proba-
bly means “can”.
44

Vocabulary
Ceiling

You can raise, lower or remove a ceiling, but you cannot waive it. Note that if you increase a ceiling, this implies
making it more powerful or giving it wider range, whereas to raise it implies reducing its effect.

Centre/center

Use the UK spelling “centre” in almost all cases, in particular if you are writing about the EUROCONTROL Experi-
mental Centre in Brétigny.

The US spelling “center” is used only where the official name of the body in question is spelt in this way, e.g. Ann
Arbor Aviation Center.

Certainly

Avoid using “certainly” in writing, as it occurs more often in spoken language, when a speaker is seeking to
strengthen or intensify a statement (e.g. to avoid overemphasis, you should omit “certainly” in the sentence “This
is certainly a matter of great concern”).

Chair

See “EUROCONTROL bodies: chairmen, presidents, etc.”.

Use the noun “chair” in preference to “chairman”, “chairwoman” or “chairperson” unless the official title of the
person in question is one of the latter, and this fact needs to be emphasised.

Classic(al)

“Classic” means “of the highest class” or “historically memorable”, and often refers to something being a typical
example of its kind. “Classical”, on the other hand, describes a specific style associated with antiquity, or with
long-established notions (e.g. “The Acropolis in Athens is a classic example of classical architecture”). In most
cases, “classic” is the more likely option. The adverb “classically” applies to both adjectives.

Commence

See “Begin/commence/start”.

Compare

Note the difference in meaning between “to compare to”, which points only to the likenesses between the
things compared, and “to compare with”, which notes both the likenesses and the differences:

n The speaker compared UHF to the S band, pointing out that their frequency ranges overlapped (i.e. the
speaker pointed out a similarity).
n If we compare this year’s figures with last year’s, it is clear that despite the fall in traffic growth the number
of delays has remained constant (the comparison illustrates both differences and similarities).
 45

Complementary/complimentary

Do not confuse “complementary”, which means completing or matching, with “complimentary”, which means
free of charge or full of praise:

n The role of the two organisations should be complementary, not competitive.

n As part of the course, you will receive a complimentary copy of “Difficult Decisions”.
n The participants were very complimentary about the quality of the training.

Comprise/consist/compose/constitute

These four verbs are all similar but have different structures. A body comprises (or consists of ) its elements (e.g.
“The table consists of a plastic top and four metal legs”). Use “consist in” plus a gerund to define the object or
concept in question (“the work consists in carrying out secretarial duties”). The verb “to constitute” is similar in
meaning, and denotes “to make up, form or compose”. “To compose” in the sense of the above verbs is usually
only encountered in the passive: “to be composed of” (not “composed by”, which refers to the act of artistic
composition), and is a synonym of “to comprise/consist of”.

Connection/connexion

Use “connection” rather than “connexion”. Although both spellings are acceptable in British English, “connection”
is now more common in most senses.

Consensus

Avoid overusing “consensus”. Consider using an alternative such as “agreement” instead.

Consistent

“Consistent” means having the same consistency throughout, and can therefore be taken to mean
“constant”, “compatible” or “harmonious”. It implies giving the same level of performance or observing the same
principles over a length of time, and is the opposite of “contradictory”. Beware confusing it with the French word
consistant, which means “substantial”.

Continual(ly)/continuous(ly)

Do not confuse “continual/continually”, which mean recurring constantly/doing something on a regular basis,
and “continuous/continuously”, which mean occurring without interruption:

n EUROCONTROL is continually adapting to the changing aviation environment (the Agency makes regular
adjustments, but is not doing so constantly).
n The system ensures continuous data logging (i.e. non-stop).
46

Vocabulary
Cooperation/coordination/consultation

Note the specific differences in meaning between these three nouns. “Cooperation” is the act of operating
together to one end. It is a concurrent effort or labour.

“Coordination” is the organisation of diverse elements into an integrated and harmonious operation.

“Consultation” is the act of consulting or conferring; it is a deliberation between two or more people on a matter,
with a view to a decision.

Council/counsel

When describing an advisory or deliberative assembly, “council” is the usual term in modern English, rather than
“counsel”. The latter has slightly different meanings, including “an interchange of opinions”, “advice”, and certain
specific legal senses. “Council” exists as a noun only, while the verb “to counsel” means “to advise”.

Credence/credibility/credulity

These three words look similar but have different meanings:

n “Credence” means belief or trust.

n “Credibility” means the quality of being believable.
n “Credulity” means the quality of being ready to believe anything.

Crisis/critical

A “crisis” (noun) denotes an unstable period of extreme trouble or danger. If what you mean is a crucial stage or
turning point, use “critical” (adjective), as in “critical point”, “critical mass”, etc.

Currently/now/at present

In the sense of “now” with a verb in the present tense, “currently” is usually redundant (as in “we are currently
working on”, in which “currently” adds no extra value). If greater emphasis is desired, add a more precise time
reference, e.g. “this month” (“This month we started working on…”). There is no difference between “currently”,
“now” and “at present”, but see “Presently/at present”.

Decimate

Note that while “to decimate” is often used to mean “to destroy a large amount of something”, its original sense
is “to reduce by just one tenth”, and not “to reduce to one tenth of an original value”. The verb cannot in any
case be qualified: you cannot “badly decimate” or “largely decimate”; and a single entity cannot be decimated (a
sentence like “TWA decimated Pan Am’s transatlantic monopoly” would be incorrect, for example). See also the
similar “to devastate”.

Defective/deficient

Distinguish between the adjective “defective”, which is used to describe malfunctioning equipment (as in “a
defective printer”), and “deficient”, which means “lacking in some element” (“owing to absence, the coordina-
tion proved deficient”). Do not confuse “deficient” with “inadequate”, meaning “insufficient and often failing as a
result” (“in trials, the early warning system proved to be inadequate”).
 47

Definite/definitive

Avoid confusing “definite”, which means “certain, precise”, and “definitive”, which means “conclusive, final”. A “defi-
nite offer” is a firm offer, whereas a “definitive offer” is the last one that will be made.

Demand

As a verb, this means “to ask for something urgently or with authority”, or “to claim something to which you are
legally entitled”. Use “request” if you are looking for an alternative to “ask” or “ask for”.

n He demanded further checks (i.e. he insisted that more checks take place).
n He requested further checks (i.e. he asked for more checks).

Develop

Use this verb to give the idea of something gradual unfolding or building up (“The team is developing a set of
evaluation criteria”). Try to avoid using “to develop” as a synonym for “to arise, occur, happen”, etc.

Differ/disagree

You can “differ with” or “disagree with” someone, while something can “differ from” (i.e. be different from) some-
thing else.

Different/divergent, differing/diverging

Distinguish between “different/differing”, which mean “unlike in form or characteristics”, and “divergent/
diverging”, which mean “moving in different directions”.

Use also “different from” rather than “different to” (avoid “different than”, which is American English).

Dilemma

Note that the correct meaning of “dilemma” is “a choice between two (and only two) courses of action which are or
appear equally unfavourable”. Do not confuse this with a mere difficulty, i.e. when you face some form of problem:

n The problem facing China is how to cope with rapid aviation sector growth given the shortage of trained
pilots (this is not a dilemma).
n The country faces a major dilemma in that expanding oil exploration, which would bring valuable foreign
resources, entails a heavy ecological burden on the country and its population; yet curtailing exploration
would mean less foreign resources and thus less money to assist in development (a true dilemma in that
both options are problematic).

Direct(ly)

Note the difference in meaning between “directly”, which tends to mean “immediately”, and “direct”, which
means “without deviation”. “He is going to London directly” means that he will leave without delay; “he is going
to London direct” means that after he leaves, his first stop will be London.
48

Vocabulary
Disinterested/uninterested

The opposite of “interested” is “uninterested”. This should not be confused with “disinterested”, which means
“neutral, unbiased or impartial”:

n Respondents were initially uninterested in the matter (i.e. it was of no interest to them).
n The Middle East peace process requires engaged and disinterested observers (i.e. unbiased ones).

Distinct/distinctive

“Distinct” means “clear, precise or different”, whereas a “distinctive” aspect or feature is one which is particularly
striking or characteristic:

n The course offers participants two distinct benefits.

n The livery of Ecuatoriana aircraft used to be highly distinctive.

Divergent

See “Different/divergent, differing/diverging”.

Doubt

This requires “whether” or “if” after a positive statement and “that” or “but that” after a negative.

E-terms and web words in frequent use

See “Web”.

You should spell the words below as follows:

audiovisual e-mail/email e-newsletter

full-text (adjective) homepage the Internet

log on (verb) log in (verb), log-in (adjective), multimedia

login (noun)

offline/online the Web webpage

website web author/web editor webmaster

Note that spelling conventions in English are often subject to change, particularly on the Web, where many
common e-terms may be found spelt differently (e.g. “e-mail” or “email”). You should in any case be consistent
within a single document or webpage.

Write the phrasal verbs “log on” and “log in” as two words, the adjectival form with a hyphen (e.g. “log-in name”),
and the noun as “login” (“You need a login to access the site”). Avoid the forms “log-on” and “logon”.
 49

Economic/economical/economically

“Economic” and “economical” are both adjectives, but with different meanings. “Economic” refers to economics
or to the economy in general, whereas “economical” refers to the avoidance of waste or expense, or to the appli-
cation of money-saving measures. So an “economic issue” is an issue whose economic implications need to be
considered, whereas an “economical use of time” refers to using time in the least wasteful way possible. However,
the adverb of both is “economically”, e.g. “the most economically significant factor is [...]” (from “economic”), vs.
“we have implemented several economically advantageous measures” (from “economical”).

Effective/efficacious/efficient

All three relate to the production of desired results, but they are not synonyms.

n “Effective” means “producing results or able to produce results”, as in “an effective safety oversight function”.
n “Efficacious” means something very similar but is usually applied to things rather than people, as in “This
hinders the efficacious functioning of RVSM operations”.
n “Efficient” describes the way in which the result or process is achieved rather than the result itself; as in “DNM
ensures that air traffic flow is safe and efficient”.

Enquire/inquire, enquiry/inquiry

Both spellings are accepted at EUROCONTROL. Note that while both forms are interchangeable, “enquiry” tends
to imply a question in British English, while “inquiry” implies an investigation.

Ensure

See “Assure/ensure/insure”.

Environment/environmental

Do not confuse “environment” (noun) and “environmental” (adjective). Say either “the impact on the environ-
ment” or “the environmental impact”.

Note that “environment” must be preceded by “the” in sentences such as “Our main concerns are safety, effi-
ciency and the environment.”

Equally

Beware of “equally as”. Write “equally good”, not “equally as good”.

Equivalent

You can say that A is equivalent to B, or that A is the equivalent of B; but you cannot say that A is the equivalent
to B.
50

Vocabulary
Europe

Note that the term “Europe” can be used to refer to various different groupings of countries, e.g. the Europe of
the EU (27 States), the Europe of the European Civil Aviation Conference (44 States), the ICAO Europe and North
Atlantic Regional Office (54 States), and EUROCONTROL’s Europe (39 States). Therefore, avoid using “Europe” as
shorthand to refer to any one of these groupings; where possible, be explicit about which one you mean.

European/pan-European/Europe-wide/trans-European

“European” means “of or relating to Europe”.

The meaning of “pan-European” is “relating to all European countries” or “advocating cooperation between
European countries” , e.g. “the pan-European ATM system”. Where the context is less technical and the idea of
cooperation is less important, consider using “Europe-wide”: “the current Europe-wide traffic problems”. Do not
use “European-wide”, which is grammatically incorrect.

The meaning of “trans-European” is always “across Europe”; note the difference in the usage of “trans-” in the
term “transatlantic”, which means “passing or extending across the Atlantic Ocean”, or “from the other side of the
Atlantic Ocean”.

Except

See “Accept/except”.

Extend/extent

Do not confuse the verb “to extend” (past tense: “extended”) with the noun “extent”:

n I would like to extend our appreciation to today’s presenters.

n The tool measures the extent to which the measures comply with EUROCONTROL standards.

Facility/facilities

The noun “facility” is often used in English to denote physical means, equipment or a service. The plural, “facili-
ties”, is also common with this sense:

n An additional facility provided is that of automated stock management.

n Click here for general information on our facilities.

Where appropriate, it may be clearer to use a more precise term, such as “office”, “plant”, “premises” or “factory”.
 51

False friends

English has many words of Latin origin derived from the French of the Middle Ages/medieval Latin, since when
some of the meanings have shifted and now have meanings different from those of their apparent counterparts
in other (especially Latin) languages.

Typical false friends include:

achieve exonerate petulant

actual and actually extravagant phrase

affluence fastidious physician

alter formidable prejudice

candid genial presently

commodity gratuity profane

comprehensive grief pugnacious

content injure remark

convene lecture sensible

demand loyal sentence

deputy malicious sympathetic

disagreement mundane trivial

eventual and eventually onerous truculent

Farther/further

Avoid confusing these two terms: use “farther” to describe distance, and “further” to describe time or quantity or
additional aspects:

n The beam of the antenna widens the farther the aircraft is from the antenna. (Distance.)
n Click here for further information on … (Quantity.)
n These conditions will be subject to further consultation … (Additional aspects.)
n The Directorate worked further on proposals to… (Time.)
52

Vocabulary
Few/a few

Both “few” and “a few” mean “a small number of”, but reflect a different attitude to the quantity referred to. “Few”
reflects a negative attitude to the quantity described, while “a few” reflects a more positive attitude:

n Few newspapers picked up on the DG’s comments. (Hardly any newspapers reported the comments; the
implication is that the comments were largely ignored.)
n A few newspapers picked up on the implications of the DG’s comments. (Some newspapers reported on
the comments; the implication is that the comments received a certain amount of coverage.)

Flaunt/flout

Beware of confusing “to flout”, which means to disregard something (a rule, law, or authority) with “to flaunt”,
which means to parade something ostentatiously. Both are strong in meaning, however, and should be used
carefully:

n Rendition flights have regularly flouted the national laws of a number of European countries.
n Many drug barons flaunt their immunity from prosecution.

Forego/forgo

“To forgo” means “to abstain from, relinquish”, and may also be spelt as “forego”. This should not be confused with
the rarer verb “to forego” (past tense: foregone), which means “to precede”, and outside legal texts is mostly only
found in the form “foregone”, as in “a foregone conclusion” (meaning an inevitable result):

n Compensation may be due to passengers who decide to forego/forgo their flight;

n Unanimity is never a foregone conclusion in Europe.

Foresee

See “Anticipate”.

This verb means “to see beforehand, have prescience of”; it can sometimes be replaced by “predict”, “expect”
or “anticipate”. It is not a translation of the French prévoir and thus does not mean “provide for”, “make
provision for”, “plan” or “stipulate”.

n CORRECT: The unions had foreseen this problem and taken steps to prevent it [i.e. they had expected that
this problem would occur].
n INCORRECT: The allowances under discussion had been foreseen in a Rule of Application [since
EUROCONTROL cannot predict the future, the allowances had not been “foreseen” but rather “provided for”
or possibly “stipulated”].

Further

See “Farther/further”.

Guarantee

Note the “u” between the “g” and the “a”.

 53

Hard(ly)

Avoid confusing “hard”, which can be both an adjective and an adverb (e.g. “The bat was hard” (adj.); I hit him
hard with it.” (adv.)), and “hardly”, which is a completely different adverb that means “scarcely”:

n It is hard to for operational staff to agree on this issue (i.e. it is difficult but not impossible).
n It is hardly possible for operational staff to agree on this issue (i.e. it is virtually impossible).

Historic(al)

Do not confuse “historic”, which means “famous, of lasting importance” (as in “a historic agreement”) and
“historical”, which means “belonging to history” (note also “historical data”, i.e. older data which have been
archived). Thus “a historical event” is one that actually happened, whereas “a historic event” is one considered to
be memorable.

Homogeneous/homogenous

If you wish to express the idea of being “similar in kind or nature, uniform”, use “homogeneous”; the similarly spelt
“homogenous” is a technical term from biology (meaning “sharing common ancestry and thus similar structur-
ally”), and is thus unlikely to be applicable at EUROCONTROL.

Illegible/unreadable

“Illegible” refers to the visual quality of writing or printing. “Unreadable” refers to style or content: “The report was
so full of jargon that it was unreadable”.

Impact

The noun “impact” is often overused and can often be replaced with “effect” or “influence”. In modern usage, it
has become increasingly popular to use “impact” as a verb, e.g. “The add-in factor impacted negatively on staff
costs”. This is jargon and should be avoided as much as possible (in this case, it would be better style to say “The
add-in factor caused staff costs to rise”).

In time/on time

Note that “in time” means “in time for something to start”, whereas “on time” means “punctual”:

n Several new applications will be developed in time for the next simulation (i.e. they will be ready at some
time before the simulation starts).
n The project was delivered on time and within its approved budget (i.e. it was completed in accordance with
its deadline).

Infer/imply

Note that a writer or speaker may imply something, while the reader or listener may infer from what the writer/
speaker has said:

n The delegation implied in their comments that major changes were required.
n Are we to infer from the delegation’s comments that major changes are required?
54

Vocabulary
Inform

Note the grammatical structures used with “to inform” (meaning “to impart knowledge to, instruct, guide”): you
can “inform” someone of or about something, but you cannot use “inform” with an infinitive (“I have informed
him to resubmit the application” is wrong). Furthermore, note that “to inform on” strictly means “to provide
authorities with accusatory material” (e.g. “The suspect informed on a number of his former colleagues”). See the
following examples:

n The conference participants were informed that work on a common website was under way.
n The Director General informed Member States that ….
n Mr X informed on one of his colleagues (i.e. he reported suspicious activities).
n We will keep you informed of/about any further developments in this area.

Information technology acronyms and initialisms

CD compact disc
CD-ROM compact disc – read-only memory
dpi dots per inch
DVD digital video disc/digital versatile disc
DVR digital video recording
FAQ frequently asked questions
FTP file transfer protocol
GIF graphic interchange format
GIS geographic information system
GPS Global Positioning System
HTML hypertext markup language
HTTP hypertext transfer protocol
JPEG joint photographic experts group
kB kilobyte
LAN local area network
MB megabyte
MP3 MPEG-1 audio layer 3 file
MPEG movie picture experts group
PDA personal digital assistant
PDF portable document format
PNG portable network graphics
ppi pixels per inch
RSS really simple syndication
RTF rich text format
URL uniform resource locator
Wi-Fi wireless fidelity
XML extensible markup language

For a more extensive list of EUROCONTROL acronyms, please refer to the Air Navigation Inter-site Acronym List
(AIRIAL).

Inquire/inquiry

See “Enquire/inquire, enquiry/inquiry”.

 55

Insure

See “Assure/ensure/insure”.

Issue/problem/subject

An issue is a “point or matter in contention between two parties” or a “choice between alternatives, a dilemma”.
It should therefore be clearly separated from the nouns “matter”, “question”, “topic” and “subject”, which are more
neutral ways of referring to an item under discussion. Neither should “issue” be used to avoid words such as
“problem” or “difficulty”.

n The issue here is whether these activities fall within the “support to regulation” pillar or the “service provision”
pillar (“issue” is used correctly in this case because there is a choice between two clear alternatives).
n Item 4 concerned the subject of ATCO certification (since there is no dilemma or conflict between different
parties, what is under discussion is simply the matter of certification).
n The problem is that the current air traffic control system cannot cope with the growth in traffic volumes
(again, since there is no dilemma or choice here, and no undecided point, there is no issue but rather a
problem).

Key

Avoid overusing “key” to qualify decisions, people, things, etc. (as in “a low-key event”, “key player” – these can be
considered clichéd if used to excess).

Lay/lie

These two verbs are often confused. “To lay” means “to set out, place or establish” (imperfect and perfect: “laid”).
“To lie” can mean either “to occupy a horizontal position” (imperfect: “lay”, perfect “lain”), “to say something that is
untrue” (imperfect and perfect: “lied”), and “to be situated” (usually only present tense, but perfect “lay”):

n The invention of radar laid the foundations for further advances in aviation technology.
n The man injured in the accident was lying on his back in the middle of the room.
n I hesitate to say that the government is lying, but it is certainly not telling the whole truth.
n The aerodrome lies 30 km to the north-west of the town.

Leisurely

See “Timely”.

Lose/loose, etc.

Note that the commonly used verb “to lose” and the noun “loser”, meaning “a person or entity that fails or is
incompetent”, should not be confused with the verb “to loosen” (comparative: “looser”), meaning “to make less
tight or restrictive”:

n The main loser is Brussels-Zaventem, with 250 fewer daily movements.

n Airlines would appreciate a looser interpretation of the rules.
n Heathrow will lose traffic to other European hubs unless capacity is improved.
56

Vocabulary
Marginal

This is often used where “small” would do just as well. Its proper use is as an economic term or analogy in which
a small change is highly significant.

Materialise

Avoid this verb. Use “happen”, “take place” or “occur” for things which take place relatively quickly, and “emerge”
for more slowly developing topics.

May

See “Can/may”.

Meet

In British English, you can meet a person, a deadline, etc., or meet with approval, opposition, scepticism, enthu-
siasm, etc. However, you cannot meet with a person (American English only).

Member State/non-member country

Refer to countries which are not EUROCONTROL Member States as non-member countries or non-
EUROCONTROL countries.

Meter/metre

A “meter” is a measuring instrument, whereas a “metre” is a unit of measurement.

Method/methodology

A method is a procedure for carrying out an activity or business; the word can be used more generally to mean
a way of doing something, especially in accordance with a regular plan.

Methodology, on the other hand, is the analysis and study of the methods used in a particular field, or of method
in general. It refers not only to the method itself but to the logical or philosophical principles underpinning it.

Scientific papers often contain a section entitled “Methodology”, in which various methods for testing a
hypothesis are compared and the optimum chosen. Since, in certain papers, the “Methodology” section describes
only one method, confusion can arise. Nevertheless, try and maintain the distinction between the two concepts.
In particular, avoid using “methodology” instead of “method” simply because it sounds grander.

n Various methods, including data recordings and interviews, were used to collect the information (the
methods here are simply ways of gathering information).
n The users objected to the methodology of the study, arguing that the assumptions concerning the increase
in staff numbers were too conservative (the users’ objection is to the hypotheses on which the study method
is based, i.e. to the methodology, rather than to the method as such).

Non-member country

See “Member State/non-member country”.

 57

Note/notice

These two words are commonly confused, and should be used as follows:

n NOTE (noun): “Further guidance and explanations may be provided in the form of a briefing note” (a brief
comment, a memorandum, a short letter; the noun “note” may also be used in legal texts to add further
comments).
n NOTICE (noun), 1: “EUROCONTROL shall give notice of any planned outages or disruptions” (an official
warning or announcement).
n NOTICE (noun), 2: “Staff will be informed via a new Office Notice” (a written or printed announcement).
n TO NOTE (verb): “The DG noted that airport capacity is a major obstacle to growth” (to comment, remark).
n TO NOTICE (verb): “I clicked on the online Staff Regulations and noticed that the edition was the 2007 one,
not the revised 2008 one” (to observe or become aware of something, often when spotting an error or
unusual fact at the time of observation).

Observance/observation

Do not confuse “observance”, which means “obedience to a law or tradition”, with “observation”, which means “the
act of watching or noticing”:

n The non-observance of a rule can be considered an incident in the legal/operational sense.

n Many countries have set up automated weather observation broadcast channels.

Occur/take place

Do not confuse “to occur”, which means “to happen, particularly by chance” (as in “the accident occurred at
night”), with “to take place”, which means “to happen as a result of planning” (as in “the web editorial board
meeting will take place tomorrow”).

Official/officious

Do not confuse “official” (adjective), which means “done by someone in authority” or “pertaining to authority” (as
in “job applications may be submitted using EUROCONTROL’s official e-recruitment tool only”), with the negative
and rarely used adjective “officious”, which means “eager to meddle, offering unwanted advice”. The respective
adverbs are “officially” and “officiously”.

On the basis of

See “Based on/on the basis of”.

On time

See “In time/on time”.

Optimal/optimum/best/ideal

The adjectives “optimal” and “optimum” both denote the most favourable outcome given certain restrictions,
and should not be confused with “best” or “ideal”. “The optimal/optimum solution” represents the best bet in the
circumstances, but is less positive than “the best/an ideal solution”. Similarly, the optimum speed of a car is not
its best speed but the one which most satisfactorily reconciles its owner’s wishes for speed, economy, safety,
and so on.
58

Vocabulary
Oral

See “Verbal/oral”.

Organisation/organization

Write “organisation” (standard British spelling) rather than “organization” (US and academic English), except when
the full name of the organisation in question is officially written with a “z”, e.g. International Civil Aviation Organi-
zation (ICAO).

Over/under

In cases involving quantity, use “more than” rather than “over” and “fewer than” or “less than” rather than “under”
(e.g. “More than 500 people attended the conference, about 100 fewer than last year”.)

Partake/participate

Do not confuse the verb “to partake”, which means “to take a share of” (often food or drink), with “to participate”,
which means “to take part in” (see “Participate”).

Partially/partly

The meanings of these two words overlap: “partially” means “incompletely, to a limited degree”, whereas “partly”
means “to some extent, not completely, in part”:

n The number of partially detected anomalies has increased (not fully detected ones).
n This is an attractive approach to safety, partly because it involves concrete safety issues, and partly because
it also shows individual projects how they can improve safety in real terms (split between two parts).

Participate

Note that the correct preposition to use with this verb when describing the object of the participation is “in”, as
in “30 controllers participated in the RADE-1 project”; “ANSPs which are sub-contractors of the NSP are allowed
to participate in the PENS governance processes” (“with the participation of someone” is also correct, but you
cannot participate to a meeting, conference, etc.).

Personally

This adverb is often unnecessary, as in “I personally consider”, and may in many cases be omitted without any
loss of meaning.

Planned/planning and planed/planing

Note that the commonly used verb “to plan” takes a double consonant in the past and gerund forms (“planned/
planning”); if you omit an “n”, you will be left with “planed/planing”, the past tense/gerund of the verb “to plane”,
meaning to make even or smooth.

Please/thank you

Note the difference between these two expressions.

 59

Use “please” to ask someone to do something, e.g. “Please return the forms to DR/PM/PS/PE by registered post”.
(Do not use “thank you” by analogy with French merci when you are asking someone to do something.)

Use “thank you” to express your gratitude for something which has already been done in the past, e.g. “Thank
you for your contribution to this project over the last year”.

Politic/political/politics

Use “political” (adjective) to refer to affairs of state, government, and the ways in which people organise them-
selves to promote policy and actions (e.g. “a political issue/appointment/crisis”, etc.). “Politics” (noun) refers to the
art/science of governing and related activities. Do not confuse either with “politic” (adjective), which is rarely
used, and means judicious or expedient (for actions) and prudent (for persons).

Practicable/practical

Do not confuse the commonly used “practical”, which means “adapted to actual conditions/capable of being
used easily”, and “practicable”, which means “capable of being carried out or put into practice”. The negatives are
“impractical/unpractical” and “impracticable”:

n We delivered a practical and effective process for integrating human factors into ATM.
n Where beneficial and practicable, national authorities may define mandatory RNAV routes (meaning “where
this could be carried out”: “practical” would also work here, but with a slightly different meaning – “where this
could easily be done”).

Practice/practise

Do not confuse the noun “practice” and the verb “to practise” (note that in US English, both are “practice”):

n NOUN: The study identified best practice in ATM contingency planning.

n VERB: This tool enables ATC students to practise basic radar skills tasks.

Precede

See “Proceed/precede”.

Prescribe/proscribe

Do not confuse “to prescribe”, which means “to advise or order”, with the completely different “to proscribe”,
which means “to ban or forbid”:

n The charges prescribed in the specification are payable in euros to EUROCONTROL (i.e. the charges are
legally required).
n Click here to see the list of air carriers proscribed by the EU (i.e. ones that are banned).

Presently/at present

Do not confuse “presently”, which means soon/in the near future, and “at present”, which means the same as
“currently, now”:

n DF is analysing your request and you will receive an answer presently (i.e. soon, without saying when).
n At present there is no consensus among Member States (i.e. at the time of writing).
60

Vocabulary
Principal/principle

As an adjective, “principal” means “main or leading”. It should not be confused with the common noun
“principle”, which means “a general rule”:

n The Commission has proposed that SESAR be divided into three principal phases (adjective).
n One of the principles of the system is that almost all flights are subject to route charges (noun).

Proceed/precede

Avoid confusing “to proceed”, which means “to begin and/or continue to do something”, and “to precede”, which
means “to go before something”:

n The UK believes it is important to proceed with the ratification of the revised Convention (i.e. to go ahead
with).
n The conference was preceded by a one-day seminar entitled “The Essence of HR” (i.e. the seminar took place
before the conference).

Programme/program

Use “programme” (British spelling) for plans, outlines, etc., in most contexts. The only exception is in the field of
computer software, where the correct spelling is “program” (in US English, “program” is used for both).

Raise/rise

Do not confuse “to raise”, a transitive verb that requires someone to raise something (e.g. “His boss raised
his salary”), and “to rise”, which is usually intransitive – something can rise of its own accord (e.g. “We do not
think that salaries will rise”). Both verbs denote the idea of upwards movement or an increase, but are used
differently:

n Participants raised various concerns with regard to training (someone has to raise something; see also
expressions such us “to raise money” and “to raise one’s hand”).
n Very light jet demand has risen in line with corporate profits.
n The safety levels of ANSPs and national regulators are rising steadily.

Rational/rationale

These terms are often confused: “rational” (adjective) means “reasonable”, whereas “rationale” (noun) means
“rational basis or justification”:

n Safety net policy must rest on a clear and rational treatment of integrated ATM.
n The rationale behind the proposal was the firm belief that skills and expertise from key disciplines are
essential to generate a multiplicity of perspectives.

Realistic

The adjective “realistic” is sometimes overused; consider replacing it with “sensible”, “reasonable”, “likely” or
“practical”.
 61

Recall/remember/remind

Use “to recall” in more formal texts, such as high-level speeches or meeting minutes, to mean “to bring to mind,
draw attention to, recollect”; use “to remember” to mean either “to recall personally” or, more formally, “to keep in
mind”; and use “to remind” to bring something to the attention of others (note that “remind” requires an object):

n At this juncture, I should like to recall our achievements to date in terms of the reorganisation of the Agency
(recall used in the sense of “to draw your attention to”).
n I recall that when I was a child in the 1940s, European unity was a distant dream (recall used to mean “to
recollect”).
n Mr X recalled that the Working Group had previously opposed this option (recall used to mean “to draw
attention to the fact that”).
n It should be remembered that individual national policies should complement harmonisation measures
across the Member States (passive use of remember to mean “kept in mind”; again, more commonly found
in formal texts).
n It is worth remembering that the outcome of this pilot could impact the functioning of the SESAR JU
(remember + that).
n Dr Y reminded the Task Force that the data series were as yet incomplete, and that these findings should
therefore be treated as provisional (you remind someone that xyz is something, or you remind someone
about something).

Respective/respectively

Only use “respective” to mean “relating separately to each individual or group in question”.

n After the meeting, the controllers went back to their respective workstations (i.e. each controller went back
to his/her own workstation).

The same goes for the adverb “respectively”:

n The three new Directorates (DNM, DSS and DSR) are respectively responsible for the performance of
network functions, the Agency’s contribution to the implementation of the Single European Sky, and and
the provision of ATM expertise to the SESAR programme and other research projects. (Here, the Directorates
are listed first, followed by their functions, with “respectively” indicating that DNM is responsible for network
functions, DSS for SES implementation, and DSR for SESAR and research).

If you are referring to only one relationship between two people or things, rather than a number of separate
relationships, use “corresponding”, “associated” or “related” instead.

n “The Committee discussed the Regulation and the corresponding/associated/related Implementing

Rules.”

Responsible

People or bodies can be responsible for things (as in “The DG is responsible for leading the Agency”, or “MUAC
is responsible for air traffic control in the upper airspace of…”); however, things cannot be responsible, so you
should avoid writing sentences like “The IT system is responsible for various system outages” (instead, rephrase:
“Various system outages can be attributed to faults in the IT system”).
62

Vocabulary
Reticent/reluctant

“Reticent” means “uncommunicative or reserved” (e.g. “The Minister was reticent about the proposed legisla-
tive changes”), whereas “reluctant” means “unwilling or disinclined” (e.g. “Member States are reluctant to make
changes”).

Rise

See “Raise/rise”.

Scenario

A scenario is a representation of a possible future, as in “scenario planning”, or “in a best-case scenario”. In other
instances, “scheme”, “plan” or “programme” may well be more appropriate. Do not confuse with a “forecast”,
“expectation” or “prediction”.

Sensible/sensitive

Do not confuse “sensible”, which means “showing good sense” or “practical”, with “sensitive”, which means “requiring
careful treatment”, “highly responsive emotionally”, or “showing concern in relation to a difficult matter”:

n “The number of incidents is bound to rise unless held in check by sensible, pragmatic solutions,” stated
the Director.
n The candidate appeared unduly sensitive to criticism (i.e. s/he had strong emotional reactions to criticism).
n EUROCONTROL will treat all data submitted as commercially sensitive (i.e. requiring careful treatment).
n All structural changes to the buildings shall be made in an environmentally sensitive way (with due concern).

Shall/will

Use “shall” to express obligation, typically in legal drafting in the third person, where it means “must/is obliged
to”, as in “The ANSPs shall be responsible for the application of this Regulation in the Member States”.

A further use, primarily in British English, is to ask for decisions, offer services or make suggestions – this is,
however, largely restricted to spoken language and to the first person singular (I) or plural (we), in examples such
as “Shall I call in the next candidate?” or “Shall we start the meeting now?”. Avoid this in writing.

Use “will” for all other future constructions.

Spectrum

Do not confuse “spectrum”, which means a full range of values (as in wavelengths of light), and “range”, which
means a non-comprehensive list. Compare:

n In 1997 EUROCONTROL set up an ATM2000 Strategy Board, consisting of some 100 senior managers, repre-
senting the full spectrum of airspace users (i.e. all of them).
n This development tool can be used for a wide range of applications (i.e. it has broad applicability, without
being fully comprehensive).

Start

See “Begin/commence/start”.
 63

Stationary/stationery

“Stationary” means not moving, as in a “stationary detection unit”. “Stationery” means paper, envelopes, etc. (e.g.
“you can obtain stationery from the Office Supplies & Stock Management Section”).

Table

The verb “to table” means very different things in the UK and the US. In the UK, if a delegate tables a proposal at
a meeting, he or she is presenting it for formal discussion. In the US, however, tabling a proposal means post-
poning discussion on it, often indefinitely. Avoid the US usage at EUROCONTROL.

n The Board discussed a number of proposed amendments to its Rules of Procedure, all tabled by the Fund
Executive Officer (this sentence means that the Fund Executive Officer put the amendments on the table for
discussion, not that he/she shelved them or postponed discussing them).

Target

Remember that this is a metaphor. You may “hit” a target, “overshoot” it, or “miss” it; but to “achieve” it, “fight for”
it, or “obtain” it are best avoided.

Thank you

See “Please/thank you”.

Than/then

These two words are commonly mistyped/confused. Remember that “than” is a comparative (“Frankfurt airport
is much larger than Brussels airport”), whereas “then” is used to denote a sequential event (“The GMD endorsed
the draft policy in October 2002; DHR then started work on [...]”).

There/their/they’re

Make sure to differentiate between these three words, which are sometimes confused.

“There” means “in/at that place”, e.g. “Notify the security staff when you arrive there”.

“Their” means “of/belonging to them”, e.g. “Staff are requested not to leave their vehicles on site while on leave”.

“They’re” is a contraction of “they are”, and should as a rule be avoided (see “Contractions”).

Timely

“Timely” is an adjective, not an adverb, despite its ending. So you can write “There is a need for accurate and
timely aeronautical information” (adjective), but you cannot write “EATM responded timely to the suggestion”;
here, you would have to rewrite the sentence to give “EATM responded to the suggestion in a timely way/
fashion”, as there is no adverbial form for this adjective.

“Leisurely” is a similar though less common case. You can write “The term “retirement” evokes a more leisurely
pace of life”, but you cannot write “The deadlines allowed staff to work leisurely”; you would have to rephrase this
sentence, giving “The deadlines allowed staff to work at a leisurely pace/in a leisurely way”.
64

Vocabulary
Toward(s)

See “Backward/backwards and toward/towards”.

Transpire

This means to “become known”, as in “During the investigation it transpired that the pilot believed that he had
been below his cleared flight level”. Do not use “transpire” when you mean “happen” or “occur”, as in “the first
incursion happened at midday” (here “transpired” would be wrong).

Treble/triple

There is no difference in meaning between these terms, both of which denote “three times as much”, and they
are used interchangeably at EUROCONTROL.

Under

See “Over/under”.

Under way

Write as two words (“under way”): “underway” is incorrect.

Unexceptionable/unexceptional

Avoid confusing “unexceptional”, which means “ordinary” or “normal” (as in “noise levels recorded over the
summer were unexceptional”, with “unexceptionable”, which means “beyond criticism or objection” (as in “the
Court found the witnesses unexceptionable”, i.e. “absolutely correct”, not “ordinary”).

Uninterested

See “Disinterested/uninterested”.

Unique

This adjective is absolute, and means “without like or equal”. There are thus no degrees of uniqueness, so you
should avoid writing expressions like “fairly unique in this regard” or “practically unique”.

Unreadable

See “Illegible/unreadable”.

Use/usage/utilisation

See “Utilise/use”. These nouns are synonymous, but, where possible, write “use” rather than the longer forms: “the
use of this tool” is preferable to “the usage/utilisation of this tool”, “in use” is better than “in usage”, etc.

Utilise/use

See “Use/usage/utilisation”. “Use” is the shorter, more commonly used verb and should where possible be used
instead of “to utilise”. However, note set expressions such as “underutilised”.
 65

Verbal/oral

Any statement or agreement is said to be verbal, which means that it consists of words, spoken or written. This
adjective is used in a variety of common constructions, such as “verbal contract”, “verbal agreement”, “verbal
skills”, etc. “Oral”, on the other hand, only applies to the spoken word, as in “he delivered an oral report to the
Management Team”.

Very

Use this intensifier sparingly in formal writing as it is more a feature of colloquial speech, and may in many
instances simply be deleted as superfluous. For example, instead of “a very large investment”, write “a huge
investment”; instead of “it is very important” simply “it is important/vital/crucial”, etc.

Viable

This means “capable of separate existence” and should be reserved for assessing whether projects and plans can
be realised, as in “supersonic air travel is no longer financially viable”. Do not use “viable” when you wish to say
that something is “achievable”, “durable”, “lasting”, “effective” or “profitable”.

Web

See “E-terms and web words in frequent use”.

“Website”, “webpage” and “homepage” are written as one word.

“Web” in the sense of “World Wide Web” should always be capitalised when used as a noun, but not as an adjec-
tive: “the Agency’s web editors”.

The term “web presence” (or “Internet presence”) refers to a business or company’s established existence on the
World Wide Web in the form of websites, emails, Internet advertising, blogs, social media, or collections of web files.

n The communications team discussed the use of social networking sites to improve the Agency’s web
presence.

While (whilst)/whereas

Use “while” and “whereas” to link observations that are slightly at odds with each other, but avoid “whilst” (an old-
fashioned alternative form of while). “Whereas” implies a greater degree of contrast than “while”:

n Outsourcing allows EUROCONTROL to reduce costs while retaining software quality (two goals achieved
simultaneously).
n While taxiing, the crew should obtain information about their destination airport (using “while” to balance
clauses with the sense of “in addition to”. “Whereas” can start a sentence in legal texts only).
n Charter operators fly up to 1,200 hours per year, whereas owners tend to fly a maximum of 250 hours.

Will

See “Shall/will”.
66

Vocabulary
Worth/worthwhile

When not used as a noun, “worth” is a preposition, i.e. it needs an object. Something can be worth the effort,
it can be worth money, it can be worth doing, and it can be worth time (or worthwhile). Note that although
you can say “worth my while” and “worth doing”, you should not write “worth my while doing,” or “worthwhile
doing”. “Worthwhile” is an adjective in its own right and a different construction, as in “a second Trial Complexity
Workshop would be worthwhile”.

Your/you’re

Make sure to differentiate between these two words, which are sometimes confused.

“Your” means “of/belonging to you”, e.g. “Please do not leave your vehicle on site while on leave”.

“You’re” is a contraction of “you are”, and should as a rule be avoided (see “Contractions”).
 67

Punctuation
General rules

Follow the punctuation guidelines given in the European Union’s Interinstitutional style guide. The list below
shows a number of differences between European Union and EUROCONTROL usage, and mentions one or two
other common problems.

Please note that contrary to French usage, colons (:), semicolons (;), question marks (?) and exclama-
tion marks (!) in English are not preceded by a space. Quotation marks should be written as “…”, with
no space between the quotation marks and the text they enclose, unlike French, which uses guillemets
(known in English as chevrons or double angle quotation marks, «...»).

Ampersand (&)

Use “&” to replace “and” in navigation items, but not in page titles, headings, subheadings or running text,
except when it is part of an official title or name. The symbol can be used in charts, tables or lists.

Apostrophe (’)

Apostrophes should appear in the same way as “straight quotes” (or “smart quotes” if you are using them – see
“Quotation marks”) within your text. See also “Possessives with apostrophes”.

Note that forms such as VLJs, NGOs, 1990s, etc., are plurals and do not require apostrophes.

An apostrophe can also be used in informal documents such as emails but never in formal documents such as
reports to show that one or more letters or figures have been omitted from a word or number (e.g. “can’t” for
“cannot”, “it’s” for “it is”, etc.).

Colon (:) and semicolon (;)

Use a colon to introduce information, either as a list, quotation, or explanation. A capital letter is normally not
used after a colon except in bullet points.

n LISTS - Reform is necessary in the following areas: pensions, taxation and performance management.
n QUOTATIONS - At the March Press Conference, Mr McMillan said: “This marks the start of a long dialogue.”
n EXPLANATIONS - Some non-EU European countries have managed to keep unemployment low: Switzerland
is a case in point.

In each of these examples, the clause after the colon directly illustrates the preceding statement.

A semicolon differs from a colon: whereas colons introduce or illustrate information, semicolons separate linked
ideas which are grammatically discontinuous. This often entails redirecting the reader’s attention via signalling
words (“by contrast”, “however”, “nevertheless”). For example:

n Errors should be corrected in the month they are identified; this must be reported to Accounting three
working days before the end of the month.
n The current high oil prices are having a negative impact on airlines’ balance sheets; however, this could have
a beneficial impact by forcing operators to identify efficiency gains.
68

Punctuation
In these examples, the clause after the semicolon modifies, redirects or elaborates on the meaning of the
preceding statement. Semicolons may also be used to separate items in a series which already has commas
within categories:

n This risk can be divided into event risk, which impacts a specific issuer; sector risk, which relates to an entire
financial or industrial sector; and political risk, which refers to government actions.

Note that making a new sentence (or bullet points) is often preferable to avoid overcomplicated lists.

Comma (,)

Use a comma to:

n separate a set of three or more terms linked by a single conjunction (e.g. “and”, “or”). A comma should be
placed after every term except the last one (“the nose, wings and tail of an aircraft”);
n separate two or more independent clauses linked by a single conjunction (“the files have vanished, and the
record of the meeting can no longer be reconstructed”).

Do not use a comma to:

n separate independent clauses not linked by a conjunction: instead, when using two or more clauses that are
grammatically complete, the proper punctuation mark is either a semicolon or a new sentence (“The project
was finished; it had been a great success”, or “The project was finished. It had been a great success”, but not
“The project was finished, it had been a great success”).

Ellipses ([…])

See also “Square brackets”.

Use ellipses when you want to indicate that you have omitted part of the textual material you are quoting. The
correct form is three dots enclosed in square brackets in the middle of a sentence; it is not necessary to use
ellipsis marks at the beginning or end of quotations:

n A participle is “a word having the characteristics of both verb and adjective; an English verbal form that [...]
shows such verbal features as tense and voice”.

Do not use ellipses at the end of a list of items to indicate that the list is incomplete. Instead, use “etc.”: “Proofs of
residence can include utility bills, mortgage documents, letters from your employer, etc.”; do not write “Proofs of
residence can include utility bills, mortgage documents, letters from your employer...” (see also “Abbreviations”).

Exclamation mark (!)

This is a purely colloquial device and should not be used apart from in private/informal emails.

Hyphen (-)

Strict rules on hyphenation are difficult to formulate, but some general principles apply. The material in this
section is drawn from the MHRA Style Guide and the Interinstitutional style guide of the European Union. If you are
unsure of whether or not to hyphenate an expression in a particular context, please consult the online version
of the Oxford English Dictionary, or ask the English Language Section.
 69

Adjectives/nouns plus participles

Adjectives/nouns plus participles generally take a hyphen: state-owned provider; web-based information.

Adverbs
Adverbs modifying the following adjective or participle do not take a hyphen: “newly industrialised developing
countries”; “highly paid staff”. Beware, however, if the adverb might be mistaken for an adjective: “a little used car”
is a small used car, whereas “a little-used car” is one that is rarely driven (see “Noun strings”).

Compound nouns
Never hyphenate phrasal verbs (to set up), but hyphenate most compound nouns (a set-up). However, other
common compound nouns may be written together (cutback, setback, spillover).

Compounds which create a new idea are often hyphenated (cross-border, risk-averse); however, they may also
be written together (login) or separate (call sign, data link, time limit, value added). EUROCONTROL also writes
“Director General” without a hyphen (as opposed to the European Commission’s “Director-General”), but “vice-
president” with a hyphen. If in doubt, consult the resources referred to above.

Figures
Use hyphens to separate ranges of figures: 12-16; 319-27.

Gerunds
Phrases with gerunds often take a hyphen: decision-making, decision-making bodies; fast-changing environment.

Noun strings
If two or more words precede and qualify a noun (i.e. if they are used attributively), a hyphen is often used, e.g.
full-time employee, real-time information.

Note that the presence or absence of hyphens can alter the meaning. Compare:

n two-year-old aircraft (the aircraft are two years old) and two year-old aircraft (there are two aircraft, both of
which are a year old);
n a deep-blue lake (the lake is deep blue in colour) and a deep blue lake (the lake is both deep and blue).

However, usage sometimes renders such hyphenation unnecessary: e.g. air traffic control, aerodrome flight
information service.

Prefixes
Prefixes take a hyphen – anti-American, non-cooperative, co-located, self-employed – unless the prefix has
become part of the word through usage: coordination, cooperation, subsection, reshuffle.

Note that you should respect the hyphenation in titles of documents or organisations in which spellings such
as “co-operation” and “co-ordination” are still found: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development,
EUROCONTROL International Convention relating to Co-operation for the Safety of Air Navigation.

If you are unsure of whether or not to hyphenate a given word, check in a good dictionary such as the Oxford
English Dictionary.
70

Punctuation
Splitting of words
In general, do not split words at the end of a line using hyphens or by any other means. In Microsoft Word, open
the document you are working on, select Tools/Language/Hyphenation, and ensure that the “Automatically
hyphenate document” checkbox is unticked.

If you must split a word, however, ensure that the hyphen falls between two syllables rather than within a
syllable. To check where the divisions are between syllables in a word, look it up in a dictionary which shows
syllabification. The most well-known such dictionary online is the (US English) Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

Verbal nouns
Nouns composed of a participle and a preposition must be hyphenated: the setting-up of committees.

Parentheses ((...))

Use parentheses as required for explanatory material in running text, or to provide additional information such
as acronyms or abbreviations: Central Flow Management Unit (CFMU); $1 580 (€998).

Quotation marks (“...”)

Enclose words, phrases and sentences from a clearly identified source in quotation marks. Do not use them to
indicate ironic usage.

n POOR: There is no suspicion that the Board is trying to “rip off” the Club’s members.
n BETTER: There is no suspicion that the Board is trying to steal from the Club’s members.
n POOR: The new, “quiet” air-conditioning system was so loud that it disrupted our work.
n BETTER: The new air-conditioning system, which was supposed to be quiet, was so loud that it disrupted
our work.

Formal quotations cited as documentary evidence should be enclosed in double quotation marks, as should any
quotations within those quotations.

n According to the Director General, “the regulatory process is very important.”

If your quotation is longer than about 40 words or consists of more than one paragraph, you could consider
presenting it on an indented separate line (where technically possible) for emphasis. If you do this, you do not
need to put quotation marks at the start and end of the quotation.

n Mr and Mrs Allen said:

We refuse to use that pesticide because it might pollute the nearby wells, which are absolutely essential to
our livelihood, not to mention the preservation of the surrounding area in its current state.

We are resolved to make every effort to oppose any farming methods liable to jeopardise the natural balance
in this area.

Whether you use “straight quotes” or “smart quotes”, you should be consistent within a given document. To
change between these two types of quotation mark in Microsoft Word, go to the “Tools” menu, select “AutoCor-
rect Options” followed by the “AutoFormat As You Type” tab, and tick or untick the “Replace “Straight quotes” with
“smart quotes” as you type” box (see “Apostrophe”).
 71

Slash (/)

Use the slash (also known as an oblique stroke) to denote alternatives (and/or), to mean “per” (km/day) and for
fractions (19/100).

Note that the slash should not be preceded or followed by a space: Atrium entrances/exits, climbing/
descending aircraft.

Square brackets

Use square brackets to indicate the size of a file available for downloading from your website:
European Safety Programme brochure [564 kB]. See also “Ellipses”.
72

Useful references
The following sites contain useful reference information.

EUROCONTROL reference documents

For the presentation of EUROCONTROL correspondence, please see the “Official Correspondence” section of the
Administrative Manual.

If you are writing a working paper for any of the bodies administered by the General Secretariat (DR/CS/SEC),
please consult the SEC Guide to formatting working papers.

Other style guides and language resources

If you need more advice on English editorial conventions, see the Interinstitutional style guide of the European
Union.

The MHRA Style Guide, published by the UK’s Modern Humanities Research Association, also contains much
useful information.

All staff at EUROCONTROL now have access to the online version of the Oxford English Dictionary, the largest and
most comprehensive English-language dictionary.

Don’t want to repeat the same word twice in the same sentence? Try this the online Thesaurus.
Contacts
If you have any further questions about anything in this Style Guide or any matters relating to written English,
please contact one of the following people:

English-language queries

Tom Caldin, DR/CS/LING/EN (ext. 93659)

Stephen Fairhurst, DR/CS/LING/EN (ext. 93484)

Queries relating to official correspondence and working papers

Wendy Gordon, DR/CS/SEC/PC (ext. 93201)

The Style Guide team wishes to thank Lynn Koch and Simon Scott-Kemball for their very valuable suggestions
regarding the structure and content of this document.
EUROCONTROL

© September 2011 - European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation (EUROCONTROL)

This document is published by EUROCONTROL for information purposes. It may be copied in whole
or in part, provided that EUROCONTROL is mentioned as the source and it is not used for commercial
purposes (i.e. for financial gain). The information in this document may not be modified without prior
written permission from EUROCONTROL.

www.eurocontrol.int