Grammar Snacks: And vs. Ampersand

11:03 - 27 Mar 2011
Posted at 11:50 by Joe Ehrbar

Grammar Snacks: And vs. Ampersand

In this era of texting, tweeting and Facebooking, we resort to using shorthand to get our point across, typically in the form of abbreviations, acronyms, initialisms (yes, it’s a word even if spell check doesn’t recognize it) or symbols. Communicating in shorthand isn’t necessarily wrong, but it’s not always appropriate. We’ll tackle this subject in a future post. Today, let’s narrow our focus to a puny three-letter conjunction we like to condense to one character: and. So enormous is its presence, so strenuous is it to peck out a-n-d on the typer, that we favor its relative, ampersand, or &. In most cases, choosing ampersand over and is faulty.

The ampersand symbol is a logogram (think hieroglyphics) dating back to the first century A.D., where it evolved from the ligature of letters e and t in Roman cursive. The e and t formed the word et, meaning and in Latin. So if & is so old, how can it be so wrong? That’s because & actually means ampersand, not and. And ampersand, according to Wikipedia, “is a corruption of the phrase ‘and per se and’, meaning ‘and [the symbol which] by itself [is] and’.” Therefore, ampersand’s symbolic manifestation is only meant to represent and, not replace it.

Confused? Don’t fret. Let the following be your guide.

It’s OK to use an ampersand (&) if:

  • It’s a common term or abbreviation such as R&D (research and development), A&R (artist and repertoire), R&R (rest and recreation), Y&R (“Young and the Restless”—what, you thought I was referring to a rival agency?), etc.
  • It’s a brand, company or band name (M&Ms, Procter & Gamble, Booker T. & the MGs).
  • Space constraints leave no alternative (e.g., a graphic).
  • It’s a Twitter update, text message or similar context.
  • It’s a citation of a source in a report or text (Eddy & Eddy, 1993).

It’s not OK to use an ampersand (&) to mean and:

  • In the body copy (i.e., phrases and sentences) of all written communications (even in e-mail or a list of short bullet points).
  • In headlines, subheads or subject lines.
  • In presentation decks (unless space constraints make it impossible to do so).

And if you’re still in doubt, spell it out.

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and vs, ampersand

Submitted by Anonymous on 08:04 - 24 Apr 2011.

Great bit of information. I have used it in a faulty way in the past, and will try to correct myself. Thank you.

Roy

Great snack! Thank you!

Submitted by Anonymous on 09:04 - 02 Apr 2011.

I read this and realized I used 5 ampersands in a bullet point list on my LinkedIn profile. I have since corrected myself. I feel much better.

Stephan

Interesting piece

Submitted by Anonymous on 11:04 - 13 Apr 2011.

I'm certainly the odd person that this was meant for, because I find etymology fascinating.

I'm going to have to disagree with a bit of what you said, because you say that the symbol "&" means "and per se and" (or "ampersand"); it does not mean this, it was pronounced this way when read as an individual character outside of any context. The symbol "&" used to be an actual character in the alphabet, was placed after "Z" and was only pronounced "and per se and" (later slurred into "ampersand") because that rule was used for any character that could stand on its own as a word (e.g. "A per se A" or "I per se I").

So "&" actually means "and" because, as you noted, it was simply the ligature that was formed from "et". As for how it should be used, the rules / guidelines you stated really only apply in any formal type of writing, and apply to the ampersand because it is an abbreviation, and most formal writing guidelines discourage the use of any abbreviations (e.g. using "etc." instead of "et cetera").

Personally, I like the aesthetic of the ampersand in titles and bullet points, but not in body copy; so I would use "web design & development" instead of "web design and development" as a title or bullet point, but would use the latter if it were in body copy. You could argue that the use of the ampersand is acceptable when space is a concern (that's why it's allowed in citations and references), and that titles or bullet points should be kept short -- so space is always a concern in those uses.

& that's my 2ยข