Here’s a question that I get asked a lot – particularly by non US bloggers who find themselves writing primarily for US audiences:
“I am English so of course spell words such as ‘colour’ the English way. However, I also know that my largest audience is likely to come from America.
My question is this – would I be better off using English or American spelling on my site? My first instinct is to ‘be myself’ and use English spelling, but I was wondering if I would be better off from an SEO and audience point of view using American spelling.” Submitted by Pete
This is a problem that I face constantly in my own blogging. I find that no matter which I go with I tend to get ‘corrected’ by readers. If I use the Australian spelling I find US readers tell me that I’m wrong, but if I use the US spelling I get picked up by Aussies, the English and readers from other countries.
Colour is just one example:
In Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the UK it’s spelt ‘colour’. In the US it’s color and in Canada it’s both (they tend to swing quite a bit over there).
Another common one that I get picked up on are any words with ‘ise’ or ‘ize’ at the end. Recognise or Recognize? Analyse or Analyze?
Center or Centre, Gray or Grey, Catalogue or Catalog, Defence or Defense, Aluminum or Aluminium? The list goes on….
And of course the most confusing one:
- it’s fulfil in ‘English’ and fulfill in ‘American’
- but – fulfilling in ‘English’ and fulfiling in ‘American’
- and to further confuse it – it’s fulfilment in ‘English’ and fulfillment in ‘American’
My spell checker doesn’t know what to do with this post!
What spelling do I use?
To be perfectly honest I don’t have a policy on it. If anything I probably take the Canadian route and swing back and forth (after-all I’m a cofounder of a Canadian company and pay income tax over there – so I figure I’m entitled to).
What spelling do you use?
I’d be interested to hear how different bloggers approach this and want to open it up as a reader question. Which spelling do you use? The spelling of your own country, your readers or some combination of both?
I see the rest of the world isn’t included in this debate. Those who don’t even have english as a mother tongue, but acquired it over time. Africans for example have range of spellings for various english words, but tend to swing British or American in written form. The irony is that the content of your message still gets understood no matter how you spell it. Its a beautiful world we live in. I dont even consider it when i write. I just write of the bat and let it breathe
I see the rest of the world isn’t included in this debate. Those who don’t even have english as a mother tongue, but acquired it over time. Africans for example have range of spellings for various english words, but tend to swing British or American in written form. The irony is that the content of your message still gets understood no matter how you spell it. Its a beautiful world we live in. I dont even consider it when i write. I just write of the bat and let it breathe
I nearly always write in British English regardless of my audience, though the bulk of my work is aimed at a UK audience, and house style dictates it.
I rarely, if ever, find anyone correcting this kind of spelling, which is good. I can only presume that most readers are used to reading both British and American English.
Perhaps more of a problem is when the same word means something completely different in the US to the UK. Fortunately, this doesn’t come up much in the subjects I write about.
FInally, here’s an interesting post about the origins and usage of “-ise” versus “-ize”
Since I am American I use American English because it is what comes naturally to me. I haven’t had any complaints even though I know that I have readers from all over the world, including in Great Britain.
Interesting question!
Here in Canada, when I went to school anyways, we learned how to spell words the British English way and the American English way. Apparently other countries don’t do this as I have also noticed that people who spell the British English way are corrected by those who learnt the American English way.
I spell the Briish English way.
I’m American so I use the American spelling. It’s probably the only one I could use, because I’m not too sure on all of the spellings they use in England, etc. For me it doesn’t matter as much anyway, because most of my readers come from the United States. And for those that don’t, I’m sure they know what I mean. I’ve never been corrected on it before. :)
Great post though, I never really gave much thought to this topic before.
Well, I’m an American from Texas and although I have a pretty harsh Texan/Southern accent I tend to use English grammar and spelling in my writing and blogs. I don’t know why, except that it makes more sense than most of the American rules. I think you should write however your most comfortable. I understand why bloggers want to go the distance for their readers and future readers, and that we want our writing to be easily read; I just think that your writing is an extension of yourself, don’t change that. :) I love your blog.
I’m not a native English speaker. I’ve learnt in school the British English. However, taking into consideration that most of my traffic comes from US, I use mainly the American English.
Well… That’s a tough one for me as I’m Spanish (but writing in Spanish and into something that wants to be English :-)).
In my particular case, Google Analytics says my audience comes primarily from spanish-speaking countries and a few from the US so I use us-english-alike (as I say, It’s something that wants to be english :-)).
I just want to keep my English working (and also ’cause I have some friends outside Spain and I want them to visit my blog :-)).
So “US-English-alike” would be my answer :-)
Regards from Spain,
Paquito.
http://paquito4ever.blogspot.com
May be you forgot ‘International English’: It’s the one spoken by people around the world but it’s not their mother tongue. There are a lot of people speaking English daily in their jobs, but we don’t speak english afterwards. Our english is very limited in terms of verbs and vocabulary in general. But we can communicate. It’s very common in technical profiles.
Most of us can read blogs without problems because the articles are normally short and not very complex. Newspapers are harder to understand, normally.
I use UK English because I can’t bring myself not to! No-one has said anything (yet)…
The SEO point is an interesting one though, as obviously people will be searching for ‘their’ spelling (also by mis-spellings… is it a good idea to include those too?!)
Joanna
I always try to use British English. As a Canadian, I’m constantly bombarded with Americanised spellings and default American spell-checking programmes. But I don’t speak American. I speak English. In the end, pragmatism will probably win, but I believe we should try to get it right. The simple fact of the matter is that the correct way to speak English is as the English do, full stop.
I’m an Israeli, and I grew up for 2 and a half years of my childhood in Canada.
I always prefer American English. It usually has less letters, and it’s more straightforward.
Well, it is somewhat hard for me, because I prefer the British culture (especially music) over the American culture…
I’m from Canada, so whatever I way I use I rarely get corrected :-)
I stick to UK English, partly because the original readers of my blog were mainly UK-ers, but partly because I am too, it just confuses so many people.
I try to switch between British and American spelling. Even within the same post, I’ll write “color” and “colour”. I’ve never received a complaint about this.
I agree with Laura, interesting topic! :-)
To correct you one more time. In Canada we use the english spelling of things. i.e. colour, neighbour, and the list goes on. Just had to correct you once more =D
Oh yeah, and Joanna, mispellings are well worth keeping from an SEO point in my opinion. I got a ton of traffic from a James Bond post because I spelt his name “James Bone”:
http://www.gospelrhys.co.uk/2006/12/james-bone-casino-royale-review.html
It’s something like the third highest traffic ever, but look at the google ads, they are all James Bond. I’d love to know how many clickthroughs they achieved.
LOL, I thought I was the only one with this challenge. Anyway, I’m Irish and so naturally spell the English, English way but tended to swing a lot in blog posts. Recently, though, I have decided to go with the American English because my audience is mostly American. Besides I can’t stand all those red lines under my words, even my spell-checker is American!
I write in British English because, well, I feel like it. English being a second language for me, and since Canada uses a combination of both American and British, I don’t feel I’m wrong.
Traditionally though, Canadians have used the British spelling over the American. I guess during the 20th century, with the advent of new telecom technologies, that shifted a bit.
As an example, how many Americans would know what a chesterfield is? :)
Well, I am a New Zealander (we use UK English and the odd NZ-ism and Maori word) but I use American English on my blog since about 85% of my readers are US-based. I think of it like fitting my site to the most commonly used browser version.
I’m French-Canadian but blog in English. Maybe I get some slack because I at least try/practice my English. :D I use Google when I’m not sure about a word. If it gets many search results, I pick that one. Also, I use Firefox to correct me(like now). I never realize of the many small difference in the English language.
But in my mind, it’s the content that is the king and you can’t make everybody happy and people should not that be picky when a blog is international. I could understand if it’s for a specific local market.
Darren: In your case, it’s the Canadian-English that you should take. Hey! You pay you taxes here too. Btw, thank you for those ;)
Steve
Another New Zealander – and I do the opposite :)
I just spell things ‘correctly’* (ie, according to the way I was taught). Anything else would feel like I was trying to hide something, or being less true to myself (in a very, very small way).
Then again, unlike Rich Minx, I’m on a .nz domain, and while my audience is global, I’m blogging to enhance my personal brand within NZ.
[* Well, I try to – sometimes I fail]
I’m from the U.S., so it’s a given for us that we spell “color” with absolutely no “U”. .. and our English is basically out there all by itself.
*=)
-Terra
http://www.BetterForBusiness.com
I try my hardest to use English English although I do slip up using some Yank-ized version of some words. There shouldn’t be any such thing as ‘American English’. It’s our damn language. The Yanks only changed it as one of many petty little things they felt they needed to change to be rid of all ‘Englishness’ after the War of Independence.
British English rules… all the others are petty attempts at trying to establish a culture different to the British.
I use American English on my blog but I like both American and British versions. This is an interesting post, Darren. I just might have to take it up on my blog later……
I’m a Norwegian that is thought British English in school, but after getting the spell checker in Firefox I believe I use more and more American English.
We Canadians swing? ;)
Till I was studying I used British English but now I think m using more of American English coz my Word Doc is set up that way and it gives me error, when I use ‘flavour’ instead of ‘flavor’ . So now I think I’m using more of American English, to keep my write-ups on word doc, less of those red/green marks.
I’m definately a swinger. The problem for me is the damned spell checker. I try as best as I can to write in British English, since I am British. However, I’m not the worlds best speller and my FireFox spell checker only supports American English (it’s a custom build, which I could get to work with the British English dictionary but it would take a lot of fiddling). So when I’m writing posts in FireFox it keeps correcting me which, in turn, causes me to question my spelling and almost always go with the spell checker. I hate myself for it, I really do!
I created a website called ‘My Favourite Beer.’ Based on the Australian spelling of it.
So far, in every blog post about it, the bloggers have corrected the spelling and offered some explaination of why it is different.
One thought I must have been drunk when I bought it, another claimed I must be French.
I did not even think about the spelling at the beginning, but I wish I had!
English – English.
Occasionally I get corrected, I even slip into American english every now and then. I doubt it affects search engines that much.
I blog both in English and German, English being my second language.
I prefer British English but often chat on line with American friends so sometimes I ‘swing’ (… does that make me Canadian?).
I have never had a problem with either spelling – and actually some of my English-speaking readers enjoy ‘unraveling’ the German parts of my blog.
I use British English, I’m too lazy to remember to change my posts.
Personally, I go the Canadian way, mixing up the British English and American English, depending on my mood and the spelling that comes to mind at that very instant.
Sometimes I do find myself looking at a word like “colour”, “favourite” or “center” and trying to decide which spelling to go for and whether I should be consistent in my choices or not; in the end I just mix it up and choose inconsistency.
Being a US blogger I use American spellings but I hope my readers feel free to comment with whatever spelling is typical for them. Having traveled a bit I just go with the flow. I’ve never have a blogger correct my spellings or apologize for theirs.
I make so many spelling mistakes and typos that I don’t think it really matters which version of English I use :D
I use British English, despite most of our readers being in the US.
One of the reasons we have so many American readers is because of the perceived “Britishness”.
I’m from the UK, but I realise that most of my readers are from the US, so I usually just go with their version.
Over time though, I’ve watered down my browser’s dictionary though, with both versions of quite a few words, so I’m sure that I still do a lot of words in English.
I am a Canadian living in England and use English. I have been “corrected”, quite a lot. Usually on ise/ize. The worst to “correct” me were Digg users although luckily someone else has always stepped in and corrected the attempted correction :)
I say write the way that you feel comfortable with and the readers will understand. The spelling police tend to be people that like to rip things apart for spelling and grammar rather than actually read the content. I got my start posting in chat rooms and forums and had to learn to just ignore them or otherwise with my bad habits I would have been driven off the internet more than a decade ago.
British English all the way for me too. I think most people are smart enough to work out spelling differences and differences in meaning.
What worries me more is the cultural references. Sometimes I’ll naturally write a reference that will be obvious to UK readers. Then, when I’m in editing mode, I’ll realise/ize that most people reading it won’t have a blind clue what I’m going on about. I don’t want to alienate readers but I feel that these references give identity and personality to the blog. What’s the best way to deal with them?
I live in the US. My highschool English teacher went to Oxford and insisted that because we were Americans we were to always stick to US spelling.
Still, on my knitting blog, I intentionally spell some knitting terms both ways to get search engine traffic; I also go out of my ways to mention when other countries use a different term: On a single page, my readers will see “stockinet” and “stockinette” and “stocking stitch”, since all three are used by English speakers in different countries. I even go out of my way to mention the differences (which is partly an excuse to get all spellings in.)
No one has ever complained, some have thanked me for mentioning the differences. ( It can be very confusing when you get a pattern in another “venacular”!)
I always try to use British English although that it is at times rather difficult especially when laziness meets an American spell check.
I write in American English when I blog, but I was raised on UK English. I guess there are more US bloggers, so it Yankee Doodle for me while I blog. But, of course, sometimes old habits creep in and the ize goes back to ise. Color changes back to colour.
I use british english because I live in england :D
I say use the English of your home country. Please ignore the people who insist on correcting your spelling. They need to be corrected on their geography.
As for SEO – I’m guessing Google is smarter than some of the complaining commenters. :)
I am Australian and use British English. However, I find that I confuse “centre” and “center” quite a lot as a result of learning to code CSS.
I agree that bloggers should just use their natural home spelling. When people comment, point out where you’re from. If they have any sense, they’ll be embarrassed and will apologize.
As you can see from the “apologize,” I’m American, but I still use certain more British spellings as my mother does–travelling, dialogue, grey, etc. (Firefox’s spellcheck underlined all of that!) I don’t know what HER excuse is, because her side of the family has been in the US for 300 years. But I know other Americans who vary as well, so it’s not just the Canadians who are swingin’. ;)
As for the comment that there “shouldn’t” be any such thing as “American English,” give me a break. Languages grow, spread, and change, or they die. It’s not as though a pure and virginal English evolved fully formed in the British Isles, anyway; it’s a combination of international and intercultural influences itself. In fact, there are many World Englishes. And if you won’t take my word for it as an English teacher who’s from the US, I do hope you’ll defer to the Oxford English Dictionary: http://www.askoxford.com/globalenglish/worldenglish/
I’m a Canadian freelance writer/editor and marketing consultant. There actually are accepted style guides for Canadian spelling. I don’t know many reputable publications that would accept “color”, though.