Truncations and contractions

Truncations and contractions generally form their plurals by adding a final lowercase s. Note that the plural of a truncated word is still considered a truncation and thus still takes a full stop. Examples:

Some common exceptions to this rule include:

Follow each initial in a person's name with a full stop and a space. Examples:

Remember to use a single letter only when abbreviating a person's name, even if it begins with a consonant cluster that produces a different sound from that of the first letter alone. Examples:

Use both initials for compound first names. Examples:

Although full stops may be used with the abbreviations of ordinal numbers in Catalan (e.g. 1r., 2n.), they are not used with such abbreviations in English. Thus: 1st, 2nd, etc.

Please note that, for formatting reasons, the UOC prefers that the suffixes for ordinal numbers not be written in superscript.

Auxiliary verbs in English (be, do, have, will, etc.) can be abbreviated when used in less formal registers. Examples:

The UOC recommends avoiding these contracted forms in texts that need to maintain a very formal tone. However, we do recommend their use when addressing people directly, as in the case of email messages or notifications. This tends to lend the text a more personal feel. Examples: