Both U.K. and UK are used as abbreviations. Although the traditional practice is to use periods in the abbreviations for geographical names, there is a growing trend to drop the periods in such abbreviations.
British English puts commas and periods (full stops) outside the quotation marks unless the quotation is also a complete sentence or the punctuation is part of the quotation. The UWSC says that British people write it "this way".
The period (known as a full stop in British English) is probably the simplest of the punctuation marks to use. You use it like a knife to cut the sentences to the required length.
However, the use of full stops after letters in an initialism or acronym is declining, and many of these without punctuation have become accepted norms (e.g., "UK" and "NATO").
Use UK rather than United Kingdom. Great Britain is England, Wales and Scotland. The UK is Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Great Britain is the official collective name of of England, Scotland and Wales and their associated islands. It does not include Northern Ireland and therefore should never be used interchangeably with 'UK' – something you see all too often.
The USPS prefers that all mail to England, Scotland, or Wales be addressed with GREAT BRITAIN. Northern Ireland should be addressed as NORTHERN IRELAND. (The United States Postal Service has computer systems that use UK as an abbreviation for "Ukraine".)
Period and comma: In British English, the period and comma are placed outside quotation marks. However, if the punctuation mark is a part of the quote itself, then the quotation mark is placed after the period or comma. In American English, the period and comma are always placed inside quotation marks.
The official name of the UK is the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland". What countries make up the UK? The name refers to the union of what were once four separate nations: England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland (though most of Ireland is now independent. Only Northern Ireland is part of the UK now).
According to every major style guide in both academic and business writing, one space is recommended after a period or other punctuation mark at the end of a sentence.
In American English, period is the term for the punctuation mark used to end declarative sentences. In British English, the mark is usually called a full stop. Neither term is right or wrong. They're just different ways of saying the same thing.
The period (known as a full stop in British English) is probably the simplest of the punctuation marks to use. You use it like a knife to cut the sentences to the required length.
It's exactly the same linguistic tic as the one in German where people finish some question sentences with “oder?”. The Brits are asking “What's your answer to that?” and the Germans are saying “Do you have a different view?”, by way of extreme abbreviation.
The Associated Press Stylebook prefers the abbreviation U.S. with periods. However, the Chicago Manual of Style prefers US without periods.
The Oxford comma did not actually originate at Oxford University in England. One can trace its origin in English guides from the early 20th century. The Oxford comma is "correct" in American Standard English but does not exist in other languages, nor is it mandatory in British or International English.
Whichever you use (we prefer three full stops without spaces, except on Twitter), all style guides agree that ellipses are three dots long. Not four, or two (and five is right out). You may see what appears to be a four-dot ellipsis at the end of some sentences (eg 'And then John fell asleep ….).
Why UK is better than USA/Canada/Australia? The UK is a global leader in research and education. UK has more universities than any other country. It has the top academic facilities and instructor, as well as the most up-to-date technology, equipment, and resources.
The War of Independence resulted in a truce in July 1921 and led to the Anglo-Irish Treaty that December. Under the Treaty, the territory of Southern Ireland would leave the UK and become the Irish Free State.
Great Britain was merged into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on 1 January 1801, with the Acts of Union 1800, enacted by Great Britain and Ireland, under George III, to merge with it the Kingdom of Ireland.
Australian and American English both use the Oxford comma like this, but they differ on when it is used: Typically, in Australian English, we only use an Oxford comma when a list would be unclear without one, such as in the example sentence above.
The serial comma (also known as the “Oxford comma” in the UK) is a comma placed before the last item in a list of three or more things.
In American English, the punctuation mark (i.e., the full stop or comma) always comes before the closing quotation mark. Conversely, in Australian English, the punctuation mark will usually come after the closing quotation mark, unless the quotation is also a complete sentence.
For customers born in the UK, certificates produced by UKVI will show the country of birth as either 'United Kingdom' or 'United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland'. You can accept either version.
You need to put down the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland as your country of birth is, in the popular acronym, simply the UK. Wales is a country, it's also a principality, but it's also part of the UK and that's what will be written on the front of your standard EU pinkish purple passport.