Oxford A-Z of English Usage

Here we have the complete alphabetised guide to tricky questions of English usage, starting with the indefinite articles a and an (should you write ‘a unique feature’ or ‘an unique feature’?) and working through to the use of yourself (would it be correct to ask ‘is this book for yourself?’ or ‘is this book for you?’).

Alongside all these entries are boxes dealing with some of the tricky questions of style that so often cause problems: the correct use of apostrophes, the rules for hyphenation, the practical approach to ‘gender neutral’ language and so forth.

Much of the advice here is supported by examples, taken from published writing, which convert the theory into practice and show you exactly how to handle each phrase or word. And all of it is based on analysis of the Oxford English Corpus, a database of two billion words taken from current English usage.

If you want a handy size guide that will guide you through the pitfalls of correct English usage, here it is.