Editing Encyclopedia:Manual of Style (section)

==Grammar and usage ==
{{short|MOS:GRAMMAR}}

===Possessives===
{{Shortcut|MOS:POSS|MOS:'S}}
{{For|the apostrophe character|#Apostrophes}}
{{For|thorough treatment of the English possessive|Apostrophe}}

====Singular nouns====
For the possessive of singular nouns, including proper names and words ending in ''s'', add ''&apos;s'' ({{xt|my daughter's achievement}}, {{xt|my niece's wedding}}, {{xt|Cortez's men}}, {{xt|the boss's office}}, {{xt|Illinois's largest employer}}, {{xt|the US's partners}}, {{xt|Descartes's philosophy}}, {{xt|Verreaux's eagle}}). Exception: abstract nouns ending with an /s/ sound when followed by ''sake'' ({{xt|for goodness' sake}}, {{xt|for his conscience' sake}}). If a name ending in ''s'' or ''z'' would be difficult to pronounce with ''&apos;s'' added ({{xt|Jesus's teachings}}), consider rewording ({{xt|the teachings of Jesus}}).<!--From googling around, this bit about "s or z" is (a) something on which there's split opinion, and (b) part of a larger set of rules on similar edge cases. See https://data.grammarbook.com/blog/apostrophes/apostrophes-with-names-ending-in-s-ch-or-z/ . So I'm not sure why we're discussing just this one.-->

====Plural nouns====
{{Shortcut|MOS:PLURALNOUN}}
*For a normal plural noun ending with a pronounced ''s'', form the possessive by adding just an apostrophe ({{xt|my sons' wives}}, {{xt|my nieces' weddings}}).
*For a plural noun {{em|not}} ending with a pronounced ''s'', add ''<nowiki />'s'' ({{xt|women's careers}}, {{xt|people's habits}}, {{xt|mice's whiskers}}; {{xt|The two Dumas's careers were controversial}}, but where rewording is an option, this may be better: {{xt|The career of each Dumas was controversial}}).

====Official names====
Official names (of companies, organizations, or places) should not be altered. ({{xt|[[St Thomas' Hospital]]}} should therefore {{em|not}} be rendered as {{!xt|St Thomas's Hospital}} or {{!xt|St. Thomas Hospital}}, even for consistency.)

===Pronouns===
{{shortcut|MOS:PRONOUN}}
{{See also|Wikipedia:Writing better articles#Use of pronouns}}

====First-person pronouns<span class="anchor" id="First-person pronouns"></span>====
{{Shortcut|MOS:I|MOS:OUR|MOS:PERSON|MOS:WE}}

To maintain an objective and impersonal encyclopedic voice, an article should never refer to its editors or readers using ''I'', ''my'', ''we'', ''us'', ''our'', or similar words: {{!xt|We note that some believe that bats are bugs}}. But some of these words are acceptable in certain figurative uses. For example:
*In historical articles to mean the modern world as a whole: {{xt|Only portions of ''De re publica'' have come down to us.}}
*The [[author's we|author's ''we'']] found in scientific writing ({{xt|We construct {{mvar|S}} as follows}}), though [[English passive voice|passive voice]] may be preferable ({{xt|{{mvar|S}} is constructed as follows}}).{{efn|name=passive|1={{anchor|passive|Passive|PASSIVE}}The [[English passive voice|passive voice]] is inappropriate for some forms of writing, but it is widely used in encyclopedia articles, because the passive voice avoids inappropriate first- and second-person constructions as well as tone problems. The most common uses of encyclopedic passive are to keep the focus on the subject instead of performing a [[Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not#Wikipedia is not a newspaper|news-style]] shift to dwelling on a non-notable party. Contrast {{xt|The break-in was reported to police the next morning}}, versus {{!xt|Assistant manager Peggy Plimpton-Chan reported the break-in to police the next morning}}.}}

====Second-person pronouns<span class="anchor" id="Second-person pronouns"></span>====
{{Shortcut|MOS:YOU|MOS:YOUR|MOS:BAIT|MOS:PEDAGOGY|MOS:SOCRATIC}}
{{redirect|WP:YOU|"Wikipedia is not about {{em|you}}"|WP:NOTYOU|"A picture of you"|WP:APoY}}

Avoid addressing the reader using ''you'' or ''your'', which sets an inappropriate tone {{crossref|pw=y|(see also {{section link||Instructional and presumptuous language}})}}.
*Use a noun or a third-person pronoun: instead of {{!xt|When you move past "Go", you collect $200}}, use {{xt|A player passing "Go" collects $200}}, or {{xt|When a player passes "Go", they collect $200}}.
*If a person cannot be specified, or when implying "anyone" as a subject, the impersonal pronoun ''[[One (pronoun)|one]]'' may be used: {{xt|a sense that one is being watched}}. Other constructions may be preferable if the pronoun ''one'' seems stilted: {{xt|a person's sense of being watched}}.
*The [[English passive voice|passive voice]] may sometimes be used instead:{{efn|name=passive}} {{xt|Impurities are removed before bottling}}.
*Do not bait links, e.g., "{{!xt|Click here for more information}}"; let the browser's normal highlighting invite a click. ("{{!xt|Click here}}" also makes no sense to someone reading on paper.)
*Likewise, "See:&nbsp;..." or "Consider&nbsp;..." (in reference to arguments, principles, facts, etc.) are milder second-person baits, common in academic writing ([[pedagogy]]). This interactive personality is inconsistent with an encyclopedia's passive presentation of objective matter.
**"See" and the like can be used to internally cross-reference other Wikipedia material. Do not italicize words like "see". Such a cross-reference should be parenthetical, so the article text stands alone if the parenthetical is removed. {{tlx|Crossref}} can be used for this: {{tlx|Crossref|(see <nowiki>[[Chicken]]</nowiki>)}}, {{tlx|Crossref|(See <nowiki>[[Dacian language]]</nowiki> for details.)}} It is usually better to rewrite the material to integrate these links contextually rather than use [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Self-references to avoid|explicit Wikipedia self-references]].
*Do not address the reader with the [[Socratic method]] by asking and answering questions. {{!xt|Did [[Francis Bacon|Bacon]] write [[Shakespeare]]? Then who wrote Bacon?}}

====Third-person pronouns====
Refer to a person with pronouns (and other gendered words) that reflect their latest self-identification in recent reliable sources. [[Singular they|Singular ''they/them/their'']] are appropriate in reference to anyone who uses those, as replacements for [[neopronoun]]s, and in generic reference to persons of unknown gender.

{{crossref|pw=y|(For considerably more detail, see {{section link|WP:Manual of Style/Biography#Gender identity}}.)}}

{{shortcut|MOS:SHIPPRONOUN|MOS:SHE4SHIPS}}
Ships (military or private-sector) may be referred to by either [[Grammatical gender|neuter]] pronouns (''it'', ''its'') or feminine pronouns (''she'', ''her''). Both usages are acceptable, but each article should be internally consistent and exclusively employ only one style.{{efn|As usual, direct quotations should not be altered in such a regard, and have no effect on determination of consistency within Wikipedian-authored content.}} As with all optional styles, articles [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style#Retaining existing styles|should not]] be changed from one style to another without clear and substantial reason.{{efn|name=debates|See [[Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Archive (ships as "she")]] – an index of recurrent debates about this subject, from 2004 though 2022.}} Try to avoid close, successive uses of the same referent for a ship, by using different referents in rotation; for example, ''it'' or ''she'', ''the ship'', and the ship's name. The ''she/her'' optional style does not apply to other vessel/vehicle types, such as trains.{{efn|See {{section link|Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Archive 167#WP:SHE for steam locomotives as well as ships}} – concluded with a strong consensus against the practice.}}

{{crossref|pw=y|(See the next section, "Plurals", for singular ''it'' or plural ''they'' in reference to organizations and other collective nouns.)}}

===Plurals===
{{Shortcut|MOS:PLURALS|MOS:SINGULAR}}
{{See also|English plurals|Collective noun}}
{{for|the article title guideline|Wikipedia:Naming conventions (plurals)}}

Use the appropriate plural; allow for cases (such as ''[[excursus]]'' or ''[[hanif]]'') in which a word is now listed in major English dictionaries, and normally takes an ''s'' or ''es'' plural, not its original plural: {{xt|two excursuses}}, not {{!xt|two {{lang|la|excursūs}}}} as in Latin; {{xt|three hanifs}}, not {{!xt|three {{lang|ar-Latn|hunafa}}}} as in Arabic.

Some [[collective noun]]s{{snd}}such as ''team'' (and proper names of them), ''army'', ''company'', ''crowd'', ''fleet'', ''government'', ''majority'', ''mess'', ''number'', ''pack'', and ''party''{{snd}}may refer either to a single entity or to the members that compose it. In British English, such words are sometimes treated as singular, but more often treated as plural, according to context (but singular is not actually {{Em|incorrect}}). In North American English, these words are almost invariably treated as singular; the major exception is that when a sports team is referred to by its short name, plural verbs are commonly used, e.g. {{xt|the [[Miami Heat|Heat]] are playing the Lakers tonight}}.

Names of towns and countries usually take singular verbs (even when grammatically plural: {{xt|the United States is in North America}}, {{xt|the Netherlands is also known as Holland}}), but exceptionally in British English, typically when used to refer to a sports team named after a town or country or when discussing actions of a government, plural is used. For example, in {{xt|[[England national football team|England]] are playing [[Germany national football team|Germany]] tomorrow}}, ''England'' refers to a [[Association football|football]] team; but in {{xt|England is in the Northern hemisphere}}, it refers to the country. See also {{section link||National varieties of English}} including {{section link||Opportunities for commonality}}.

===Verb tense<span class="anchor" id="Tense"></span><span class="anchor" id="TENSE"></span><span class="anchor" id="VERBTENSE"></span>===
{{Shortcut|MOS:TENSE|MOS:VERB|MOS:ISWAS|MOS:WAS|MOS:COMPNOW}}
{{redirect|MOS:PRESENT|text=For the guideline on words such as "currently", "soon", and "recently", see {{slink|Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Dates and numbers#Statements likely to become outdated}}}}
{{See also|Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Biography#Tense|Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Words to watch#Relative time references|Wikipedia:Writing better articles#Tense in fiction}}

By default, write articles in the [[present tense]], including those covering works of fiction {{crossref|pw=y|(see {{section link|Wikipedia:Writing better articles|Tense in fiction}})}} and products or works that have been discontinued. Generally, use past tense only for past events, and for subjects that are dead or no longer meaningfully exist, such as deceased people or defunct companies. Use [[Past tense#English|past tense]] for articles about periodicals no longer produced, with common-sense exceptions.<!-- RfC that resulted in preceding sentence at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Permalink/974747679#RfC:_Should_"is"_or_"was"_be_used_to_describe_periodical_publications_that_are_no_longer_being_published? -->
*{{xt|The PDP-10 is a mainframe computer family manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation from 1966 into the 1980s.}}
*{{xt|''Earth: Final Conflict'' is a Canadian science fiction television series that ran for five seasons between October 6, 1997, and May 20, 2002.}}
*{{xt|The Gordon Riots of 1780 were several days of rioting in London motivated by anti-Catholic sentiment.}}
*{{xt|The Beatles were an English rock band that formed in Liverpool in 1960.}}
*{{xt|Barack Obama is a former president of the United States}} (not {{!xt|Barack Obama was a president of the United States}}).
*{{xt|Jumbo Comics was an adventure anthology comic book published by Fiction House from 1938 to 1953.}}
*{{xt|''A Prairie Home Companion'' is a radio show that aired live from 1974 to 2016}} (not {{!xt|''A Prairie Home Companion'' was a radio show}}).
*{{xt|''Flappy Bird'' is a mobile game developed by Vietnamese video game artist and programmer Dong Nguyen}} (not {{!xt|''Flappy Bird'' was a mobile game}}).

Tense can be used to distinguish between current and former status of a subject: {{xt|Dún Aonghasa {{strong|is}} the ruin of a prehistoric Irish cliff fort. Its original shape {{strong|was}} presumably oval or D-shaped, but parts of the cliff and fort have since collapsed into the sea.}} (Emphasis added to distinguish the different tense usages; Dún Aonghasa is a structure that was later damaged by an event.)

Always use present tense for verbs that describe genres, types, and classes, even if the subject of the description (e.g. program, library, device) no longer exists, is discontinued, is unsupported or is unmaintained. Present tense is also used for discontinued [[MOS:TVNOW|television shows]].