So that I can say, "No, my writing merely follows MMoS standards!". The ultimate goal of this manual is a synergistic balance between not giving a crap and akshullyism.
Don't know when this would be needed, but here you go. Mostly follows GA, but with the following regular sound changes and irregular cases:
| Rule | Word | MoE | AmE | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| æn/æ̃/_# | man | [mæ̃] | [mæn] | - |
| Vnt/Ṽʔ/_# | went | [wε̃ʔ] | [wεnʔ] | - |
| i/j/_V | sierra | ['sjeɚ.ɹə̥] | [si'ɛ.rə] | - |
| g/ŋ/_n | ignite | [ŋ̩'naiʔ] | [ɪɡ'naɪʔ] | - |
| nj/ɲ(ɲ)/_ | millennium | [ml̩ˤ'lεɲ.ɲm̩] | /mɪ'lɛ.nɪ.əm/ | - |
| ɪ//e_ | bay | [be] | [beɪ] | Monophthongization. |
| ʊ//o_ | bow | [bo] | [boʊ] | |
| ɪ/i/[a|ɔ]_ | buy | [bai] | [baɪ] | Vowel Shift. |
| ɪ/i/_ŋ | bing | [biŋ] | [bɪŋ] | |
| ɔ/ɑ/_ | caught | [kʰɑʔ] | [kʰɔʔ] | /ɔ/ is an allophone of /o/ before /i l r/. Caught-cot merger. |
A quick comparison:
| MoE | AmE | BrE |
|---|---|---|
| advisor | advisor | adviser |
| airplane | airplane | aeroplane |
| alright | alright | all right |
| aluminum | aluminium | aluminum |
| cancelled | canceled | cancelled |
| center | center | centre |
| color | color | colour |
| cooperation | cooperation | co-operation |
| curb | curb | kerb |
| defense | defense | defence |
| grey | gray | grey |
| judgement | judgment | judgement judgment |
| manoeuvre | maneuver | manoeuvre |
| theater1,3-6 theatre2 |
theater | theatre |
| vice | viceEtym. 1 viseEtym. 2 |
vice |
| -ize | -ize | -ise |
| -log* | -log | -logue |
The following:
Abbreviations unmentioned can be assumed to be permissible.
The first letter of each sentence, proper noun, weekday, and month should be capitalized.
Hookworm infection tends to be asymptomatic in the state of Wisconsin.
The first letter of personal titles, such as king or president, when coming just before the titleholder or office, should be capitalized.
The first leader of Emtopia was King Emmanuel I.
Every King of Eremor has the red stain.
The first letter of all nouns, adjectives, regular verbs, and adverbs ending in -ly should be capitalized. In addition, the first letter of the title, regardless of type, should be capitalized.
Venomous Vipers Vex Vax'ildan and Vex'ahlia; More to come tomorrow
As mentioned in the section Pronouns, they should be used when appropriate. Guy should be used in place of man (when meaning an individual). Person, as it is disparaging in this context, must be avoided in favor of the gender-neutral and less-objectionable guy, or even individual if absolutely necessary.
Should always be in SI, or one of the non-SI units officially accepted for use with the SI, or one listed in the following list. However, the prefixes centi-, deci-, deka-, hecto-, and myria- should be avoided.
The world is more than a thousand kilometers wide on its horizon.
= noone.
Percent = 0.01. Per cent = 100. Thus, fifty percent of one is a half, but fifty per cent of one is five-thousand.
Loans taken or words formed from morphemes taken directly from Latin retaining their original spelling are to use their proper Latin pluralization. Loans taken or words formed from morphemes taken directly from Greek are to use their proper Greek pluralization.
Verbs must always agree with their subject in number.
Words like amidst and amongst should be replaced with amid and among.
The chaste can't fuck. The celibate can neither fuck nor have any romance - sad!
I am a chaste judge to a world of pleasures.
The whole comprises the parts and the parts compose the whole.
Life comprises love, passion, and him.
Further should be used in all contexts in place of farther.
I can never go further than friendship with dirty thoughts.
Fewer should be for items with discrete quantities (eg. apples, items, scientists), less should be for items without discrete quantity (eg. bread, milk, money). I can't have two breads (Unless I am referring to bread varieties), but I can have two apples.
Should be replaced with american football or soccer where appropriate to eliminate confusion, but may be used.
Sex is biological; gender is mental. While often the difference is unimportant, one should consider which term is more appropriate for the given application.
A hash is the symbol beginning a hashtag.
Should only refer to situationally ironic situations. If you don't know what that means, you probably shouldn't be using the word. And yes, everyone is looking at you funny.
If you say, "I'm laying in bed.", I'm going to always respond with, "Who are you laying in bed?". You lie in bed and lay people and things in bed.
The hook rose. The chain raised the hook.
Refute = disprove. Repudiate = deny.
No. Just no.
Recognizing that not a single fucking person uses whom, whom is now proscribed.
Should only be used with two list items. The following substitutions should be made with more than two list items:
The state fish of Minnesota has been heavily influenced by both Pizza Bob and the esophagus.
Should be avoided, but are permissible.
Is considered a saracen heresy, and should be burned at the stake.
Are also permissible and shouldn't've been proscribed in the first place.
Are always written in the following order:
Sunday, December 24th, 2017
Are little-endian, and require no periods:
Sun 24 Dec 2017
Should be avoided when a suitable alternative is available. In any case, they may be kept. Example of flat adverb usage:
Drive safe!
Versus:
Drive safely!
Is a-okay, fam.
Can and may both act as permissive modals. The MMoS has no preference, you can use whichever feels most appropriate to the situation. Note that other style guides may proscribe the use of can as a permissive modal.
First-person pronouns should never be used outside personal writing, except the 'royal we' in journalistic and scientific writings.
However, the MMoS, recognizing the enormous preference of English speakers to use you over one, permits and indeed encourages the usage of you in this very certain circumstance.
Third-person pronouns, of course, are always permissible. In gender-neutral contexts, they should be used over other constructions. A simple way to check if this is necessary is if the subject could be male or female.
Are never formed with an apostrophe.
Words ending in an s-sound should omit the extra s, eg. Jones'.
Should be avoided, but are permissible.
Crotch Doctor: advanced scratch-my-balls technology!
Semicolons should only be used between two independent clauses, unless they form part of a list, and commas otherwise.
To separate multiple adjectives:
Love isn't the only means to a drunken, horny, naked beauty.
It's only logical:
My three favorite things are the oxford comma, irony, and missed opportunities.
Hashes should only be used for indicating ordinal positions (eg. #1), but should be avoided anyways.
Should only be used to connect parts of an adjective phrase containing only full words (eg. face-to-face, but not pseudo-scientific) or a name containing a hyphen (eg. Sarah Frobisher-Smythe). In nouns the hyphen should be omitted, eg. pseudoscience instead of pseudo-science, website instead of web-site. In a multipart hyphenation, such as in the following paragraph, hyphens can 'hang'.
As in-sentence punctuation, hyphens should be used instead of em- or en- dashes, but ideally should be avoided altogether in this use, in favor of a comma, or at least an ellipsis.
I never could've imagined the ultimate betrayal to be so... deadly.
Should always be represented with plus (+) and minus (-).
Should be represented with a dot (⋅, html symbol ⋅), or an asterisk (*) if such a symbol is unavailable, but with variables should ideally be omitted altogether. The only time the multiplication sign (×, html sumbol ×) should be used is for the cross product (If you don't know what this is, you don't need it.).
Should be represented with a slash (/) if the capacity to render a fraction is unavailable.
Should be represented with an up-caret (^) if the capacity to render superscript is unavailable.
Can be used if the ability to properly render ⋅10n is unavailable.
The following multi-character substitutions can be made if the proper rendering is unavailable:
Unless the quote starts the sentence, a comma should be placed before the quote. There should be end-of-sentence punctuation inside and outside the quote, unless the quote comprises the whole sentence. Alternate between single and double quotation marks, beginning with double, as you go inter deeper levels of quotation:
But Jane told me you said, 'I can't come tomorrow, but I can today.'!
Should be avoided, except in special cases such as fractions. Backslashes should never be used.
As there are many situations where the phrase would indeed change meaning with the rearranging of the infinitive, the MMoS does not proscribe split infinitives.
To split infinitives as a shirtless bestselling author is to boldly take matters into one's own hands.
While there are not many situations requiring the subjunctive, it should be replaced with the active mood inappropriately. Contrasted are the two following examples:
If I was drunk, I would have knocked over the lamp.
If I were drunk, I would have knocked over the lamp.
While both are grammatically correct, the first sentence implies the speaker does not remember whether they were not drunk. The second sentence implies the speaker knows they were not drunk.
Events that happened in the past must always use one of the present perfect (It has (been) conquered), past perfect (It had (been) conquered), or simple past (It (was) conquered), in either the active or passive voice.
It's couldn't, not could!!!