Halopedia:Grammar guide

This Grammar Guide outlines the grammatical style used by Halopedia all its articles, categories and templates. It must be followed whenever contributing to the wiki. Although it is not enforced, it is also recommended that you also follow this guideline in social areas such as talk pages, message walls, the forums and the Discord.

Additionally, this guide highlights common grammatical errors made by editors to Halopedia, in the hopes of preventing them from occuring again in future.

Language

Halopedia exclusively uses English everywhere on the site and on its Discord. Unless directly quoting from a piece of Halo media, languages other than English should never be used on the wiki; Halopedia is a strictly English wiki, and other wikis such as Halopedia Español (Spanish Halopedia) exist to document the Halo franchise in other languages.

Spelling

For the wiki itself, American English spellings should be used. Please use a spell checker while editing to ensure that you don't make any spelling errors, which someone else would then be forced to correct. Furthermore, if you're unsure of the spelling of a particular word, please look it up before submitting your edit!

Grammar

General Rules

Generally, Halopedia follows the standard grammatical rules of American English. As a rule of thumb, if this page doesn't specify a particular Halopedia convention for a certain situation, then the usual grammatical rule applies.

Capital Letter Usage

The standard rules about capital letter usage apply on Halopedia. However, Halopedia also uses capital letters in some other contexts. As usual, titles (such as military ranks) and names of people, places and events should all be written with the first letter in capitals. However, Halopedia also chooses to capitalise the first letter in the names of video games, levels and maps, gamemodes, species, weapons, vehicles and languages. Finally, some words are written in all capitals, to mirror how they are written in pieces of Halo media. These include (but aren't limited to) MJOLNIR, SPARTAN, codenames (e.g. Codename: COALMINER) and operation names (e.g. Operation: JOVIAN WHISTLE).

Here are some examples:

	Incorrect		Correct
	"Among the ranks of the spartan-Is was sergeant avery johnson."		"Among the ranks of the SPARTAN-Is was Sergeant Avery Johnson."
	"Codename: Surgeon was involved in operation: hypodermic."		"Codename: SURGEON was involved in Operation: HYPODERMIC."
	"The united nations space command were woefully underprepared for the discovery of the covenant at harvest."		"The United Nations Space Command were woefully underprepared for the discovery of the Covenant at Harvest."
	"The fall of reach was extremely significant, as it meant there was now very little standing between the covenant and earth."		"The Fall of Reach was extremely significant, as it meant there was now very little standing between the Covenant and Earth."

Abbreviations

If an uncommon abbreviation is to be used in an article, it must first be specified in that article what the abbreviation is short for. This is to ensure that readers can understand the text without having to look up the meaning of an abbreviation. Here is an example:

	Incorrect		Correct
	"An HEV is a type of drop pod. HEVs are capable of dropping from a ship in orbit to a planet's surface, while keeping their occupant relatively safe."		"An Human Entry Vehicle (HEV) is a type of drop pod. HEVs are capable of dropping from a ship in orbit to a planet's surface, while keeping their occupant relatively safe."

Acronyms

An acronym is an abbreviation of a multi-word name or phrase, which takes only the first letter from each word. For example, UN is an acronym for United Nations. Most pieces of Halo media do not write acronyms with full stops separating each of the letters. In keeping with this, nor does Halopedia:

	Incorrect		Correct
	"An O.D.S.T. is an elite soldier within the U.N.S.C. Marine Corps, who typically deploys to the surface of a planet in an S.O.E.I.V..		"An ODST is an elite soldier within the UNSC Marine Corps, who typically deploys to the surface of a planet in an SOEIV."
	"Seven years after their creation, all human-made A.I. are doomed to become rampant."		"Seven years after their creation, all human-made AI are doomed to become rampant."

Common Errors

Apostrophes

Apostrophes are only necessary in two situations: to denote ownership, or to signify a contraction. They should only be used in these cirumstances, and none others. They are not necessary in plurals (even plurals of acronyms).

	Incorrect		Correct
	"UNSC forces on Camber werent prepared for the Fleet of Particular Justice, and so the Covenant didnt have trouble overrunning their defences."		"UNSC forces on Camber weren't prepared for the Fleet of Particular Justice, and so the Covenant didn't have trouble overrunning their defences."
	"Ignatio Delgados pistol was named Señora Sies."		"Ignatio Delgado's pistol was named Señora Sies."
	"Initially, there were 100's of SPARTAN's, but by the end of the war, only a handful remained."		"Initially, there were 100s of SPARTANs, but by the end of the war, only a handful remained."
	"Most Halo games released before 2018 take place in the 2550's, excluding Halo Wars."		"Most Halo games released before 2018 take place in the 2550s, excluding Halo Wars."

Possessives of Plurals

When taking the possessive form of a plural (or, in fact, any letter ending in "s"), it is not necessary to append an additional "s" to the word. For example:

	Incorrect		Correct
	"Anders's curiosity can sometimes get the better of her, but she is invaluable to the crew of the UNSC Spirit of Fire nonetheless."		"Anders' curiosity can sometimes get the better of her, but she is invaluable to the crew of the UNSC Spirit of Fire nonetheless."
	"Major Silva complained that John-117 and his comrades had taken more than their fair share of weapons. He claimed that they weren't the SPARTANs's to take."		"Major Silva complained that John-117 and his comrades had taken more than their fair share of weapons. He claimed that they weren't the SPARTANs' to take."

"it's" versus "its"

This mistake is prevelant with new users to the wiki. The word "its" is the possessive form of the pronoun "it". Meanwhile, "it's" is a contraction of "it is". This can be confusing, as normally possessives are made by appending " 's" to the end of a noun, so a good way to remember is to compare it with the other pronouns' possessive forms; you wouldn't say "your's", "hi's", "her's", "our's" or "their's", so nor should you say "it's" as a possessive.

For example:

	Incorrect		Correct
	"When the Unggoy saw John-117 spontaneously teleport into the council chamber, it threw it's Needler into the air in surprise."		"When the Unggoy saw John-117 spontaneously teleport into the council chamber, it threw its Needler into the air in surprise."
	"This time, when Cortana declared "Truth, the Covenant, the Flood... its finished", John agreed."		"This time, when Cortana declared "Truth, the Covenant, the Flood... it's finished", John agreed."

Placing Emphasis

Often, new users write text underlined, in capitals or in bold to denote emphasis. This is not accepted on Halopedia. Instead, any text upon which emphasis is placed should be written in italics, as follows:

	Incorrect		Correct
	"Ha! MY ASS! Well, you can forget about those adjustments to your A2 scope!"		"Ha! My ass! Well, you can forget about those adjustments to your A2 scope!"
	"That's not going to happen..."		"That's not going to happen..."