Comments on: Do You Use American English, British English or do you Swing like the Canadians?

By: rainmakerrain

rainmakerrain — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 08:50:53 +0000

Just to make it clear. There’s only one language called English language, and two main written styles of this language: British (not English) English and American English.

The two writing styles differ mainly in

idiomatic expressions (ticked off Br E; hacked off Am E),

words used (lorry Br E; truck Am E),

usage (holiday means vacation in Br E and )

grammar (group is used with plural verb in Br E, singular in Am E)

spelling (travelling Br E; traveling Am E)

Don’t mix those two styles – pick one and make the web more comprehensible.

By: rainmakerrain

rainmakerrain — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 08:23:41 +0000

I disagree with many of the comments. The most logical approach to this problem is to master one of the styles – American English or British English, and to use it consistently in your writing (and of course speech).

Stylistically, it is not correct or logical to mix these two styles.

If you know well enough the differences, you have to consider your audience and subject.

By: stopitknow

stopitknow — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 23:41:29 +0000

I’m afraid to say American English does not exist; it’s either English or English spelt incorrectly, I can’t suddenly go to France and then spell the word Bonjour a different way, i.e. Bonjor and then say that’s the right way because it’s English French.

Americans speak English, there is no such thing as the American language.

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 17:22:56 +0000

The British spelling of words don’t really trip up Americans who are reading one’s work. I really don’t think it matters much :P What catches one’s eye are the grammatical differences between American English and British English such as the ones on the following webpage http://www.perfectyourenglish.com/writing/american-and-british.htm

By: Carl

Carl — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 17:03:23 +0000

I’m from Buffalo, NY which is literally right next to Canada.. It’s like Canada 2 over here because half the people that are in the area everyday are Canadian. We also get all the major Toronto based radio, TV stations, and newspapers too. I also visit Canada a lot, so I tend to find myself using both. I will normally use American spelling but tend to slip every now and then and use the British way. I’m a flip flopper. ;)

By: Paul

Paul — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 16:08:44 +0000

As an Australian I’ve always used standard British spelling forms and usage for the most part, both at home and overseas. However Australians, like Canadians, do use some American terms in preference to British terms, some examples are: ’station wagon’ instead of ‘estate car’, ’sedan’ instead of .’saloon’, ‘billboard’ for ‘hoarding’, ‘hardware store’ for ‘ironmongers’, ‘kerosene’ for ‘paraffin’. In many instances, too, both the British and American term are used interchangeably in Australia, for example: ‘CV’ or ‘curriculum vitae’ and ‘resume’, ‘lift’ and ‘elevator’, ‘flat’ and ‘apartment’. Personally, given a choice between British and American terms, I would mostly opt for the British term as being the more familiar as I am older; many American terms that are now used in Australia have only been current here over the last 20 to 25 years and are usually used by Australians that are considerably younger than me.

By: Schmendrick

Schmendrick — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 02:22:34 +0000

I am an American living in the United States, but I spell like an Englishman. I have always thought British orthography to be more proper (more aesthetically pleasing as well) and taught myself to use it as an adolescent. It became natural after a while.

By: Eric Collinson

Eric Collinson — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 13:49:10 +0000

I am sure American English is right for our American cousins but a British English spellchecker option would be welcome as I am trying to improve my spelling and American spelling adds to my confusion.

By: biofuelsimon

biofuelsimon — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 12:31:08 +0000

English is the new Latin

By: Linda R. Moore

Linda R. Moore — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 12:49:02 +0000

I’m a Brit living in the USA. I blog in American English, simply because the blog stands behind a book I published which is also written in AE, and because I live in the USA. Therefore, AE spellings and idiom, after ten years, now seem more familiar.

I still apparently throw in an Anglicism from time to time. ;)

By: britgirl

britgirl — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 02:04:40 +0000

I’m British and I live in Canada. I’m glad I don’t have to spell “colour” as “color” as that would make it very uncomfortable for me to blog. My audience though mostly American has always had a sizeable amount of British readers. Since I introduce myself as a Brit who lives in Canada I think people know what to expect. I blog in UK English, which is my mother tongue and I blog conversationally. I will though often provide American eqivalents alongside English words, such as films/movies, lift/elevator, pavement/sidewalk, trousers/pants, cinema/theatre… etc. Most Americans are quite savvy about what I’m talking about so I don’t feel it’s a “must”

I also use British expressions from time to time, which my American readers also seem to enjoy… like naff.. or gobsmacked :)

By: Talia Mana, Centre for Emotional Well-Be

Talia Mana, Centre for Emotional Well-Be — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 23:49:07 +0000

I spell in British English. It’s a bigger issue for me as I have named my organisation Centre for Emotional Well-Being, which probably looks like a typo to the US-based audience

By: Eric Giguere

Eric Giguere — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 17:06:29 +0000

I'm a little late with this thread, but as I point out in How to write like a Canadian, eh?, there's a great resource that lists the primary differences between Canadian English and other varieties of English: Cornerstone's Canadian English Page.

By: CatherineL

CatherineL — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 06:20:51 +0000

I’m from the Uk. Most of the time I’ll use UK English, but often I just use whatever comes out.

Since I started using the Internet a lot my spelling has got pretty bad anyway. And I’m always making typos.

By: j7labs

j7labs — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 12:43:00 +0000

I’m an Australian living in Melbourne, Australia. In normal writing I unconsciously switch between U.S and Australian spelling – I don’t know why. I think I used Microsoft Word with U.S spellcheck on since primary school.

However, when I’m blogging or writing for a website, I always use U.S spelling for international sites, and Australian spelling for local sites. E.g. instead of bonnet, I’d write hood and vice versa. (as in the hood of the car)

It makes sense.

By: Pete

Pete — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 19:21:39 +0000

I’m an Australian living in Canada. The Australians have developed their own mix of spellings. The Canadians swing between the British and US spellings. I tend to vary my spelling according to the intended audience, and pretty much anything goes, it seems. In 7 years in Canada, not a single person has even commented on my choices of -ize versus -ise or aluminium versus aluminum. In truth, the general level of spelling in most written documents I see (whether e-mail, newspapers, technical documents or, sadly, even some books) is so poor that minor differences between fulfill and fullfil or gray and grey are insignificant. As for punctuation….

By: Erica

Erica — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 21:10:08 +0000

As a Canadian I was taught primarily the English spellings and I’ll use them no matter how much a spell checker may yell at me. Colour, honour, valour, personally I find the -or ending quite unattractive, -our seems more “grown-up”.

It’s also always centre, grey, cheque (banking).

I find as far as -ze vs. -se if the ending starts with an “i” it’s -ize otherwise -se. So with the examples it would be recognize but analyse.

By: Jen / domestika

Jen / domestika — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 00:41:11 +0000

Just another Canadian swinger here…

I used to try to spell the American way, to avoid getting nagged by ScribeFire’s spellchecker – and I had been told (incorrectly, I now believe) that search engines would slap my wrists for non-American spelling. But it all just felt so contrived…

Now I just color / colour it up whichever way my fingers feel like typing, and let the chips fall where they may.

By: Brad V.

Brad V. — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 22:59:19 +0000

Hi Darren! You bring up an interesting point in this post. Personally, I use American English, but only because I was born and raised in the US.

With that said, I studied English Literature in college, write a good amount of fiction and a little poetry, and maintain a blog about literature/writing. I don’t think what type of English you use really matters. Each “version” is unique and colorful in its own way. The only problems arise when one uses “local jargon” that is usually only understood within his/her own locality.

A good example is the British word “fag”. For Britons, this simply means a cigarette. But here in the US, someone who doesn’t know any better might interpret it totally different.

Other than that, whether you spell “color” as “colour” matters very little.

By: plonkee

plonkee — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 11:15:39 +0000

I use British English spellings, because otherwise it looks wrong. Some of my choices of expressions and so on are a bit Americanised because I read a lot of US based blogs and I tend to absorb them and lose my natural voice.

I’ve found that most of my readers that comment on it are aware that British English spells things differently to American English. I’ve even had people deliberately comment using British spellings.