Grammar and mechanics

Spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and formatting guidelines for the content in your app.

These guidelines are for American English, which Shopify uses as a base before translating to other languages. Dates, numbers, and measurements are often formatted automatically according to a merchant’s local preferences, and they might be formatted differently in other languages.

Anchor to AddressesAddresses

Lay out address forms in the following order:

“Optional” in Apartment, suite, etc. (optional) means that the field is optional for customers to complete. Always include it in the form.

Anchor to Country, province, and state namesCountry, province, and state names

Use a nation’s proper name when you refer to it as a noun.

When you use a country as an adjective, such as when you refer to currency, use the abbreviated form without punctuation.

Watch out for the following:

• Don’t use colloquial forms of a nation or state name, such as “America” instead of “the United States.”
• Search online to check whether a nation commonly uses “the” before its name, such as “the Philippines” or “the Falkland Islands.”

Anchor to CapitalizationCapitalization

Use sentence case, where you capitalize the first word only, for headings, subheadings, buttons, card titles, and email subject lines.

Capitalize proper or trademarked nouns, such as the names of products, brands, countries, and people. Capitalize product names unique to Shopify, and job titles when they come before or after a person’s name.

Use lowercase for features or product terms that aren’t unique to Shopify, job titles without an associated name, and the first letter following a slash.

Anchor to ContractionsContractions

Use contractions. They’re short and conversational.

Anchor to BoldBold

When in doubt, don’t bold. Use bold sparingly and only where strong emphasis is required. Don’t use bold to create a heading, and don’t bold proper nouns, merchant input, or checkbox titles.

Anchor to HeadingsHeadings

Headings and subheadings are titles and subtitles that refer to sections of the interface. They should be informative, descriptive, concise, and scannable.

Highlight the most important concept or piece of information, and help merchants understand what they’ll find in the section below. Use simple, clear language, keep headings to a single sentence, and avoid punctuation such as periods, commas, or semicolons.

Anchor to Conversational headingsConversational headings

Whether to use articles, such as “the,” “a,” and “an,” depends on the type of message. For more conversational areas of your app, such as home cards, sell pages, and empty states, use articles. Articles make the language more approachable and help merchants understand new or complex concepts.

Anchor to LinksLinks

Avoid links where you can. Links add clutter and make your app feel less like software and more like an old-fashioned webpage. Merchants are already in the habit of visiting the help center when they have questions, so building links into the interface is rarely necessary.

If you have to point merchants to added information, then follow these guidelines:

• Never use “click here” or “here” as link text.
• For added information that’s essential for most merchants to know, use an info icon for short, stand-alone information, an embedded link within the flow of an existing sentence, or a “learn more” link for longer, multi-faceted information.
• If you have to include “learn more” links, then avoid having more than one per screen.
• Keep punctuation outside the link, unless the link is a stand-alone sentence. Question marks are an exception.

Anchor to ListsLists

Anchor to Bulleted listsBulleted lists

Use a bulleted list when items are related but sequence or priority doesn’t matter. Introduce the list with a full sentence and a colon, and capitalize the first word of each bullet.

If at least one bullet needs a period because it has two sentences, then punctuate every bullet. Avoid lists that mix single words and full sentences.

Anchor to Numbered listsNumbered lists

Use a numbered list when sequence or priority does matter. Introduce the list with a full sentence and a colon, and capitalize the first word of each item.

Anchor to Actions in a menuActions in a menu

Menu lists give merchants a set of actions when space is limited. The order of actions is often based on logic, such as the most popular actions first.

Actions in a menu follow a {verb} + {noun} pattern. If there’s enough context, then only a verb might be required.

Anchor to Nouns in a menuNouns in a menu

Menu lists give merchants a set of nouns when space is limited. The order of nouns is often based on logic, such as the most recent orders first.

Nouns in a menu should be concise, but still give merchants enough information to find and accurately select the item that they want.

Anchor to Capitalization in listsCapitalization in lists

List items always start with a capital letter. Capitalization and punctuation rules apply to both bulleted and numbered lists.

Anchor to Punctuation in listsPunctuation in lists

• Introduce bulleted lists with a colon or a heading.
• Don’t use commas at the end of list items, in either bulleted or numbered lists.
• If any list item contains two or more sentences, then punctuate all list items.
• If all list items are one sentence or fragments, then don’t punctuate them. This doesn’t apply to procedural steps, which should end with punctuation.
• Never put a comma or semicolon at the end of a bulleted or numbered list item.
• Treat each list item as a self-contained piece of information.

Anchor to Numbers, dates, and currencyNumbers, dates, and currency

Anchor to NumbersNumbers

Use numerals.

Use commas for numbers with four or more digits, and avoid shortening numbers.

Use hyphens when you write phone numbers. Don’t use brackets, spaces, periods, or plus signs.

For number ranges, use an en dash without a space on either side.

For undefined upward ranges, use “and up” or “or more.”

For downward ranges, be specific.

Anchor to DatesDates

Use the month’s full name. If there isn’t enough space, then use three-letter abbreviations. Don’t write dates with numerals only.

Don’t use ordinal indicators, which are words that represent position or rank in a sequential order, such as 1st, 2nd, and 3rd.

Anchor to TimeTime

For all translations, the Intl.DateTimeFormat JavaScript object localizes the time format automatically. When you must format time manually, then follow these guidelines:

• Use the 12-hour clock, followed by am or pm.
• Include a space after the last number, such as Your package will arrive at 12:35 pm.
• Use the browser time of the logged-in merchant.
• To show a time range, use an en dash and include the am or pm after both times, such as 3:00 pm–4:00 pm.
• If you indicate both the date and time, then separate them with the word “at” instead of a comma.

Anchor to Time zonesTime zones

• Include a time zone only if it’s necessary, such as for an event listing.
• Use the time zone’s abbreviation following the am or pm, such as 4:00 pm NZT.
• If your audience is in a single time zone, then don’t include an S for Standard or a D for Daylight, such as 3:00 pm PT.
• If your audience is in a combination of time zones, then include the S or D to avoid confusion, such as 3:00 pm PDT.

Use consistent timestamp formats by following these examples.

Anchor to CurrencyCurrency

When you include a currency with a price, the currency comes after the amount. To learn more about formatting currency for different markets, refer to Localize your app.

Anchor to Units of measurementUnits of measurement

Include a space between the number and the unit.

Don’t pluralize a unit of measurement.

For multiple measurements in a row, put the unit of measurement at the end.

For pricing by measurement, don’t add a space before or after the slash.

Use decimals instead of fractions.

Anchor to Unit of measurement abbreviationsUnit of measurement abbreviations

Use the imperial system for the United States, Liberia, and Myanmar, and the metric system for all other countries. The following table shows the standard abbreviations for commonly used units of measurement.

Anchor to PronounsPronouns

Anchor to Addressing merchantsAddressing merchants

Always refer to merchants as “you.” Don’t speak for merchants with phrases that use “I” or “my.”

In some cases, such as getting merchant consent or granting permissions, refer to merchants as “I.”

Anchor to Referring to your appReferring to your app

On the first reference to your app or company, use its proper name. If you need additional references in the same section, then you can use “we.” This keeps the content concise while staying clear about who’s speaking.

Avoid inserting your app’s name into content more than you need to, except when a person is taking action, such as reviewing a request.

Anchor to PunctuationPunctuation

Anchor to AmpersandsAmpersands

Don’t use ampersands. They attract attention to the least important part of the sentence. Spell out the word “and.”

Anchor to ApostrophesApostrophes

Use apostrophes to represent omitted letters or numbers:

• Omitted numbers, such as ’40s.
• Omitted letters, such as don’t, can’t, and won’t.
• Verb contractions, such as it’s, you’re, and we’re.

Use apostrophes to form possessives:

• Singular nouns: add ’s, even if they end in s, such as merchant’s and bus’s.
• Plural nouns that don’t end in s: add ’s, such as women’s and men’s.
• Plural nouns that end in s: add an apostrophe, such as boxes’ and customers’.

Don’t use apostrophes to form possessive pronouns, such as hers or his.

Always use curly apostrophes, not vertical apostrophes.

Anchor to ColonsColons

Avoid colons in sentences. If you need one, then don’t capitalize the first word after it unless the word is a proper noun.

Don’t use colons to introduce radio buttons or checkboxes.

Introduce bulleted lists with a colon.

Anchor to CommasCommas

Use the Oxford comma, also known as the serial comma, in sentences. Include a comma after every list of three or more items, unless you’re using a bulleted or numbered list.

Don’t use commas to separate bulleted or numbered list items.

Anchor to EllipsesEllipses

Use an ellipsis in place of a missing piece of text, most commonly to show the deletion of words from a direct quotation. Avoid ellipses in text.

Use an ellipsis for truncation in the center of a title bar. Don’t use ellipses for placeholder copy or to trail off a sentence.

Always use the ellipsis character, not three periods.

Anchor to TruncationTruncation

Consider the constraints of the space in the interface when you decide to use truncation. Think about what part of the string merchants need most. It’s usually the beginning or the end, which means you might have to truncate the middle of the string.

A button with an ellipsis icon, which isn’t the same as text, expands more actions. It’s typically used in cards, or for horizontal sets of actions when space is limited.

Anchor to En dashes and em dashesEn dashes and em dashes

Use an en dash with no spaces on either side for a fixed range of numbers.

Use an em dash only if you can’t make your message clearer by splitting it into two sentences. Use an em dash without a space on either side.

Depending on the font or appearance, you might want to include a hair space on either side of the en dash or em dash. The HTML entity code for a hair space is   or  .

On macOS, the keyboard shortcut is option + - for an en dash and shift + option + - for an em dash.

Anchor to Exclamation marksExclamation marks

Avoid exclamation marks. Use them only for genuinely exciting things, and limit yourself to one exclamation mark per page.

Anchor to HyphensHyphens

Use hyphens to form compound modifiers, which are two words that combine to modify or describe the noun that follows.

Join prefixes and suffixes with a hyphen only when two vowels sit beside each other. Never use hyphens in the words “ecommerce” and “email.”

Anchor to PeriodsPeriods

Don’t use periods in interface copy. If the text includes two or more sentences, then periods are fine.

Use periods in lists when a list item has two or more full sentences, and add them to the whole list. Use periods for the description or helper text below a bulleted or numbered list item. Don’t use periods when a list has only single sentences or fragments, and don’t use them for lists of links.

Anchor to Question marksQuestion marks

Avoid question marks wherever possible, and reword into affirmative statements where you can.

Question marks are fine when you don’t know the result of the question, such as Did you forget your password? or Do you need to add a shipping rate? Don’t use a question mark when it’s the only option available, such as Reset password, or when it’s an on or off option, such as Show quantity box.

Anchor to Quotation marksQuotation marks

Use quotation marks to define words, such as “growth-hacking”, and to quote text.

When it’s helpful to merchants, use quotation marks to indicate input that a merchant provided, such as a product title or file name. Use this indication only when the input appears in running text.

In general, place commas and periods inside quotation marks. When you work with literal strings, such as typed commands or merchant input, place punctuation outside the quotation marks.

Always use curly quotes, not vertical quotes.

Anchor to SemicolonsSemicolons

Avoid semicolons if possible. If you really need them, then use semicolons to connect two closely related ideas, as long as both are independent clauses that could stand on their own, or to replace a comma or the word “and” between two closely related ideas.

Anchor to SpellingSpelling

Use American spelling for all merchant-facing content. When in doubt, check the Merriam-Webster dictionary for the preferred spelling of a specific term.

Anchor to Next stepsNext steps

• Learn how to apply Shopify’s voice and tone in your app.
• Review the content guidelines for writing product content in your app.