Writing Tips
http://www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca
Common menu bar links
Institutional Links
-
Translation Bureau
Language Portal of Canada
-
TERMIUM Plus®
-
Index S
- Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day
- Saint John
- Saint Johner
- Saint John River
- Salish
- Salishan
- Salish Sea
- same
- Sami
- sanction
- Sask.
- Saskatchewan
- Saskatchewaner
- Saskatchewanian
- satisfaction in
- satisfaction of
- satisfied with
- Saultite
- Sault Ste. Marie
- Scando-
- sceptic
- Scoto-
- scrutiny
- seasonable
- seasonably
- seasonal
- seasonally
- secure against
- secure from
- secure in
- seem
- segue
- Segway
- seismo-
- seldom
- seldomly
- semi-
- semi-annual
- semicolon
- sensual
- sensuous
- sentence fragment
- septic
- Serb
- Serbian
- Serbo-
- Serbo-Croatian
- serial commas
- serif fonts
- serve
- serve to illustrate
- service
- serviceable
- sesqui-
- set
- several different
- sex
- sharp
- sharply
- signed at
- signed in
- simile
- simple sentence
- sink
- sink down
- Sino-
- sit
- SK
- skijoring
- slippery slope
- so as an adverb
- socio-
- solstice
- somber
- sombre
- some
- somni-
- son-
- soni-
- sono-
- Sons of the Clergy Islands
- Soo
- sort of
- sorts of
- spacing
- spacing with periods
- spans of time
- speak
- specific example
- specter
- spectre
- speculate about
- speculate in
- speculate on
- speculate upon
- spelling: able/ible and ative/itive endings
- spelling: combinations with all
- spelling: final consonants doubled before a suffix
- spelling: frequently misspelled words
- spelling: international variations
- spelling: plurals of foreign nouns
- spelling: SI/metric units
- spelling: spell-checking
- spelling: verbs ending in ie
- spelling: verbs ending in sede
- spelling: words ending in a silent e
- spelling: words ending in c
- spelling: words ending in -ise and -ize
- spelling: words ending in n
- spelling: words ending in y
- spelling: words with ei and ie
- spring
- square brackets
- Stampede City
- standard time
- stanza
- start
- stationary
- stationery
- stay-at-home
- steal
- St. John’s
- St. John’san
- St. John’ser
- strata
- stratum
- streets and buildings: abbreviations and numbers
- sub-
- subject (1)
- subject (2)
- subject area
- subject complement
- subjected to
- subject predicate order
- subject to
- subordinating conjunctions
- subsequent
- subsequent to
- substitute for
- successful achievement
- successfully achieve
- sucr-
- sucro-
- sudden impulse
- suggest that
- suited for
- suited to
- summer
- summer time
- sum total
- super-
- supposably
- supposedly
- surprise
- surrounded
- surrounded on all sides
- Swedo-
- sym-
- sympathetic to
- sympathetic toward(s)
- sympathize with
- sympathy between
- sympathy for
- sympathy with
- syn-
Proactive Disclosure
Important notice
Writing Tips has been archived and won’t be updated before it is permanently deleted.
For the most up-to-date content, please consult Writing Tips Plus, which combines content from Writing Tips and The Canadian Style. And don’t forget to update your bookmarks!
Search and Functionalities Area
seldom, seldomly
Because most adverbs end in ly, some people mistakenly add ly to the adverb seldom. However, seldomly is non-standard English and should be avoided.
Instead, use seldom, the correct adverb form:
- Ontarians seldom (not seldomly) have such warm weather in October.
In more formal constructions, the adverb seldom can be used at the beginning of a sentence, with the helping verb before the subject:
- Seldom do we learn from a first mistake.
[Here, the helping verb do is placed before the subject we.]
© Public Services and Procurement Canada, 2025
TERMIUM Plus®, the Government of Canada's terminology and linguistic data bank
Writing tools – Writing Tips
A product of the Translation Bureau
