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Guitarist Posted 17 years ago
Grammar

Question on space usage when using "no."

Hi. I have a question on the usage of spaces when using the abbreviation "no." for number. I know it's not "proper" to use it in most cases, but I am trying to figure out the correct way to use it when referring to works of classical music.

For example, I'll list a composition in the two formats I have been debating.

Caprice No.24 in A minor

Caprice No. 24 in A minor

Please notice that the only difference between the two is that the first example does not have a space after "no."

I have searched for nearly thirty minutes in the attempt to find out more about this, but I have been unable to succeed.

I'm leaning towards the second one, but a friend thinks the first one is right. Neither of us are all that great at English, so our opinions probably don't matter much here.

Thank you for this great forum, and thanks for answering the question.

  

Top answer

Hi, Welcome to the Forum. I, too, would favour leaving a space. Just because you abbreviate a word, it does not seem appropriate to then remove the space that would follow the full word 'number'.

— Clive

  • Hi, Welcome to the Forum.
  • I, too, would favour leaving a space.
  • Just because you abbreviate a word, it does not seem appropriate to then remove the space that would follow the full word 'number'.
  • However, I'm not sure what actual convention the music industry follows.
  • Perhaps you should look at some 'musical writing' that contains this kind of thing.
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4 Answers
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Hi,

Welcome to the Forum.

I, too, would favour leaving a space. Just because you abbreviate a word, it does not seem appropriate to then remove the space that would follow the full word 'number'.

However, I'm not sure what actual convention the music industry follows. Perhaps you should look at some 'musical writing' that contains this kind of thing.
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Thank you for the very quick response!

Part of how this came up is inconsistency. I generally see a space in musical sheet music, but on many Internet sites I will find no space.

For example, here is a link to a site:
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I have found that the conventions used on the internet are different from those used in hard-copy publishing. (For example, some people advise only one space after the period that ends a sentence when writing "electronically". I was always taught that two spaces were required there in hard-copy manuscripts.)

This is probably the reason for the inconsistencies you are finding.

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I guess that does make a lot of sense.

Thank you for your time!
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