Spelling and Grammar Standards

1. Spelling
• Abbreviations
2. Grammar
• Capitalization

This article is intended to facilitate the correction and spell-checking of all articles that go on site. This list is not exhaustive and is subject to change at any time. Updates are regularly made based on discussion in Contributions and Corrections.

Spelling

• "Super effective" is neither hyphenated nor capitalized.
• Rotom and Deoxys formes, not forms.
• The standards for forme names are as follows: Wormadam-G, Wormadam-S, Shaymin-S, Deoxys-S, Deoxys-A, Deoxys-D, and Rotom-A (where A is C for the lawn mower, H for the toaster, W for the washer, F for the refrigerator, S for the fan, and A for the five formes at large).
• Use "switch-in" when referring to a Pokemon that often switches in on another (Scizor is a common switch-in to Latias.).
• Do not use a hyphen when using "switch in" as a verb.

Abbreviations

• The standard term for the double battle metagame is 2v2.
• Use DPP as an abbreviation of Diamond / Pearl / Platinum.
• "an OHKO", not "a OHKO" (pronounce it oh-aitch-kay-oh and it will make sense).

Grammar

• Smogon uses the serial comma (the comma before "and" in a list). (I went to the store with Bob, Jane, and Mike.).
• For unbracketed asides, use the em dash and no spaces (—). (Mareep—that is to say, the entire evolution family—is extremely cute.)
• Hidden Power Type, not Hidden Power [Type].
• The plural of a Pokemon is identical to the singular of that Pokemon. One Blissey, two Blissey. Never two Blisseys.
• OHKOes as the verb form (Salamence OHKOes Alakazam.) and OHKOs as a plural noun (Salamence scores many OHKOs.). OHKOed is the past tense (Salamence OHKOed Alakazam).
• Always append 's to a noun when signifying a singular possessive (Latias's Soul Dew) or plural possessive that doesn't end in s (Lucario's Swords Dance), and simply a ' when signifying a plural possesive for a word that ends in s (All Latios' Draco Meteor).
• When listing multiple types, use a hyphen after each type (Water-, Flying-, and Normal-types).
• When listing effectiveness of attacks, the number goes before the x ("Earthquake is 2x super effective on Lucario") + ("Ice Beam is 4x super effective on Salamence").
• Pokemon are referred to as "people". Meaning, you use the pronoun "who" instead of "which" or "that".
• Smogon uses the American English spelling of words (favor, minimized, maximized, etc.).
• "Outspeed" is a term generally accepted by the Pokemon community, meaning "to move first in battle".
• The past tense of "to EV" is "EVed".

Capitalization

• Stats (Attack, Special Defense, etc.) are capitalized.
• Pseudo-stats (accuracy, evasion) are not capitalized.
• Types are capitalized; additionally, when a type name is directly followed by the word "type", as in (Normal-type) a hyphen is used.
• "Critical hit" is not capitalized.
• Status (paralysis, sleep, etc.) is not capitalized.
• Pseudo-status (confusion, etc.) is not capitalized.
• "Berry" is always capitalized, even when used without a specific name (The suggested item is a Berry).
• Weather (sun, rain, etc.) is not capitalized.
• "Physical" is not capitalized. "Special" is not capitalized when not referring to a stat (Azelf has 125 base Special Attack but Flamethrower is a special attack.). When saying something is "physically defensive" or "specially defensive", physical and special are not capitalized.
• "Defenses" is not capitalized when referring to a Pokemon's overall defensive ability rather than to a stat.
• "Pokémon" is always capitalized.
• Conditions (Gyarados was Thunderbolted.) are capitalized.
• • Any move or ability that is a single, 12-letter word consisting of two words appended with each other (Thunderpunch, Dynamicpunch, etc.) are written like so in DPP: ThunderPunch, DynamicPunch, etc.
  • Other abilities or attacks that consist of two words but that fit the 12-letter restriction (Sunny Day, Zen Headbutt, Mold Breaker, etc.) are written with a space in between and with both words having an initial capital letter.
  • All attacks having a dash (Wake-Up Slap, X-Scissor, etc.) are written with the word after the dash also capitalized. U-turn is the only exception to this rule.
  • There are further exceptions to the first two rules. The following are the correct way of writing the particular word:
    • BubbleBeam, Compoundeyes, DoubleSlap, Flamethrower, Lightningrod, Selfdestruct, SmokeScreen, Softboiled, SolarBeam, Superpower, Tailwind, Thunderbolt.
• Ho-Oh, not Ho-oh.
• Tiers are capitalized like Ubers, Overused, Underused, etc. The second word isn't capitalized.
• Community-created terms such as "Speed tier" are not capitalized beyond the normal conventions, but Nintendo-created terms such as "Base Power" are capitalized as they would be in-game.
• Set names are capitalized in set comments (Physical Attacker, Nasty Plot Sweeper, etc.).
• "Nature" is not capitalized (Adamant nature, not Adamant Nature).
• Pokemon roles such as sweeper, phazer, staller, special wall, etc. are not capitalized.
• When referring to the combination of Rest and Sleep Talk, use RestTalk.
• "Suspect" is not capitalized when referring to a Pokemon (Garchomp is a suspect.), but it is capitalized when referring to the Suspect metagame.
• "Dual screens" is not capitalized.
• "Bulky" is not capitalized when it prefixes a type (bulky Water-type).

When in doubt, refer to in-game for proper spellings of moves, abilities, and other Nintendo terms.

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