ed or -t?
Use the -ed rather than -t endings for words such as learned, dreamed, spelled, smelled
grammar
fewer or less?
For things you can count off one by one, use fewer; for quantities you can only measure, not count, use less.
There were fewer cars on the roads in the 50s.
Fewer people attended the gig than were expected.
John ate fewer apples than Jane.
I drink less water than you.
There is less sugar in the scones than in the doughnuts.
French
For guidelines on writing in French – for CERN websites and print documents alike – refer to the translation department's "Guide de Typographie".
half-life
Note the hyphen. Plural: half-lives.
his or her
Avoid "his or her" in web texts (it's OK in legal/administrative texts, for example). "Their" is acceptable in informal contexts and quotes if the gender is unclear or ambiguous, but should not be used in formal texts.
hyphens
Too many hyphens make text look cluttered, so avoid them where you can, but they are often necessary to avoid ambiguity. See ndash.
Compound adjectives
Use a hyphen to join the parts of compound adjectives, for example:
Green-belt land, zero-gravity environment, state-of-the-art phones, well-behaved patients, ill-considered attack, better-trained staff, a little-known city.
it's
Shortened form of it is or it has.
It's a particle accelerator. It's got lots of complicated parts.
Not to be confused with its
its
Possessive form of it:
The dog is eating its bone.
CERN is changing its name.
Not to be confused with it's
last or past?
Use "past" rather than "last" in constructions such as "In the past few weeks...". If they were the last few weeks, that would imply that the end of the world is nigh, and you should probably be at home with your family rather than writing for a CERN website
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