| | AmE | | American English conforms to usage in North America |
| BrE | | British English conforms to usage in England and many other parts of the Commonwealth (sometimes including Canada). |
| Gk | | Origins in Classic Greek language |
| Lat | | Origins in Classic or Late Latin language |
| OE | | Origins in Old English (Anglo-Saxon) language |
| OF | | Origins in Old French language |
| /feys/ | | phonemic transcription (indicates pronunciation of face) |
| 'offer | | syllable just after the accent mark is stressed |
| You | should =ought to | be here. |
| | both You should be here and You ought to be here are acceptable in the example given, without change of meaning |
| | both He does not go and He did not go are acceptable in the example given, but they have a different meaning |
| I said (that) it was so. | | the word in parentheses is optional; there are two examples here |
| cf. | | compare [Lat. confer] |
| e.g. | | for example [Lat. ex gratia] |
| i.e. | | that is [Lat. id est] |
| viz. | | namely [Lat. vide licet] |
| 1 after a sentence | | refers to a footnote |
| * before a sentence | | the sentence is not grammatical |