- Use phonetic spellings on auxiliary words:
- אַף, אַפֿן
- באַ, באַם
- List of nonstandard spellings that should be followed unless canonical source text spells them to YIVO standard:
- זענען, זענט, etc
- קענען, קענט, etc
- Always use וואו and וואוי instead of וווּ and וווי
- Spell Hebrew words as they are spelled in Hebrew, and including the final letter form when there's a Yiddish suffix
- Spell vocabulary words, including words with detachable prefix, according to dictionary (to facilitate lookup)
- Nonstandard compounds (ex: דעמזעלבן), follow the source text, but spell components according to the normal rules.
- Use horizontal bar (―) with a space on either sidefor dialogue, „ציטאַט־צייכנס“ for quotations, Makaf (־) for hyphenation, and Geresh (׳) and Gershayim (״) for contractions and acronyms, respectively.
- Use Geresh for contractions in the beginning of words (ex: כ׳האָב) but not for standard דעם contractions (ex: מיטן).
- Use rafe on פֿ and בֿ where necessary.
- Always use compound characters: אָ, אַ, יִ, פֿ, פּ, בֿ, ײַ.
- Never use compound characters: וו, וי, יי