Poll: Do you prefer American English spelling or British English spelling?

[AfricanSwallow]

As part of the broader discussion, as a Canadian, I use the Queen's English.

... but I will add that those suggesting the "American" terms of fries, elevator, and chips are misused, you would be incorrect according to the logic contained in the four pages of posts here.

Elevators in their modern form are very much an American invention, as are chips (crisps).
As for fries, the term chips is used only in the UK and Commonwealth countries.
And if you wanted to be correct about it, you would call them fries, or perhaps "potatoes served in the French manner".


All that aside, the English language is filled with words from Latin, Arabic, Greek, and Hindu dialects.
One of my favourite pieces of light reading is Cassel's Dictionary of Foreign Words and Phrases.... it's interesting to see the lineage of all sorts of everyday 'English' words.

For instance, the term "shampoo" is derived from an 18th century Hindu word....

... and who says English isn't a fun language?

 

[fedpayne]

Maybe we should adapt the poll for some perspective: American English or English English. You know, from England.
To think that people might have a personal preference is bizarre. They learned one or the other. Centre, industrialisation, colour.

Dates confuse the shit out of me as well.

 

[Social Pariah]

I use British English but I like American English. The extra 'u's in British spelling are kind of pointless.

Why have a u?!?

Why have a h in "honor"?

Why have a second o in "color"?

Why have an a in "armor"?

Because it's the intricacies and frills that make it a nice written language and not merely grunts and uggs scratched down for the sheer sake of it... pah...

Being a Scot I prefer British English, though with coding etc. I try to keep American English in mind.

Coding is so much of a pain when you're trained to write in British English... everything turns out wrong. *shakes fist*

 

[irishstormtrooper]

Although I'm American, I have to say that British is cooler.

 

[abitterich]

British English is the correct version and the Americans corrupted with bad grammar and spelling mistakes.

Colour not color
Lift not Elevator
Pavement not side walk
Chips not fries
Crisps not chips!

Roundabout not "Traffic Circle"
Boot not Trunk
Armour not Armor
Centre not Center
Sulphur not Sulfer

How can you trust a nation that spells Sulphur with an F?

EXACTLY!!

I asked for Tuna in America once and the waitress just stared at me, had no idea what it was (English pronunciation suggest you say it Tuner) and after pointing at the menu she finally click and says "Ohhhhh! too-na!" I just thought... no... don't correct her... that means she will be here talking to you for longer

YES!
Some of the tutorials I watch often say "Okay, so I'm gunna just dooplicate the layer..."
It sounds a bit retarded!

 

[SnowCold]

American, its shorter

 

[TheMatt]

I've never been able to completely shake the proper Cambridge spelling. Drives me nuts that words like Colour, honour, sabre , etc get flagged as incorrect >.<

You know who invented English? Fucking England. You should probably spell it the way they do rather then arbitrarily removing u's because at one point in the past you hated the queen.

Zippee, you threw some tea in the harbour and run your horse races backwards. good for you.

it's COLOUR! dammit.

 

[Bagaloo]

British, of course.
I loathe the people who want to see "American" as a language.
Loath them.

 

[Piphchan]

I see what you did there.

Congratulations sir. You have bested me, and your internet is underway. You'll have to install your own tubes though.

I'd be lady, my good sir.

No, but isn't French spelling governed by its own (convoluted) version of phonetic writing?

Nope, no phonetic writing in French. In fact, many students fail in French courses BECAUSE of spelling mistakes. The only "logic" that can be applied to French spelling is that there isn't. It's the same as in English; people wanted to make etymological links through spelling and now we're stuck with words like "knight" in English or "temps" in French. When you think that "temps" used to be written like it was pronounced: "tan", things were so much more easier back then!!

In Italia, there are no vocabulary or spelling problems in school since everything is spelled like it is said. It's like a gift from heaven tbh

Nope, it isn't. You've never learned French, eh?

French is quite possibly the second most difficult language to learn how to spell in, after English.

Way too many silent letters that are just sitting there, with no apparent reason.

I agree! I mean, I love my language but darn, ban those silent letters! And fix the spelling!

 

[Spacelord]

It's the Queen's English for me, chaps.

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

I use British English but I like American English. The extra 'u's in British spelling are kind of pointless.

Why have a u?!?

Why have a h in "honor"?

Why have a second o in "color"?

Why have an a in "armor"?

Because it's the intricacies and frills that make it a nice written language and not merely grunts and uggs scratched down for the sheer sake of it... pah...

Honor phonetically is ha-nor, honour phonetically is ha-no-oor. The 'h' is pointless but American spelling is still closer to pronunciation.

Color - kul-or
Colour - kul-uh-oor

Armor - ar-mor
Armour - ar-moh-oor

Also, what's with re- and -re being different? "Ree" makes sense, "er" does not.

And why bring idioms into discussion as these enraged Brits have?

British English is the correct version and the Americans corrupted with bad grammar and spelling mistakes.

Colour not color
Lift not Elevator
Pavement not side walk
Chips not fries
Crisps not chips!

Roundabout not "Traffic Circle"
Boot not Trunk
Armour not Armor
Centre not Center
Sulphur not Sulfer

How can you trust a nation that spells Sulphur with an F?

Particularly when roundabout is used the same in both dialects?

Not to mention the painfully obvious (though minor) problems in using lift and pavement.

And who carries things in a boot anyway?

PS: painfull2006, grammar is the same in both dialects

 

[Xalmar]

British, because that's the way we spell things here in Canada, and things like honour and colour and favourite just look better with that extra u.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

American. We have at least made a half-assed attempt to remove unneeded letters from words.

That said, British english, probably because of my perception of the nation and whatnot, always seems more formal in it's spelling.

Sometimes a british word seems more descriptive of an item. A torch seems to better imply the function of a flashlight than the word flashlight does (and portable electric light seems a bit too awkward). Lift is a simpler way to say elevate, and as such lift is more compact than it's american version of elevator (literally an item that elevates).

Other times, the british word seems even less useful - how does boot better describe the storage space of a car than trunk for example?

The one spelling I consitantly use that is not american is Sabre (Commonly spelled as Saber in American English), because that is, as far as I am concerned the correct way to spell the word.

 

[hopeneverdies]

I'm American but I spell theater as theatre a lot. Really I like -re better than -er.

 

[Yegargeburble]

I use both on and off. It is all English, so why bother sticking with one form?

 

[Nimbus]

Seeing as I'm English (Irish technically but that's just getting into details) I go with the English spelling (colour, armour, honour, axe etc.).

Oh SNAP!

 

[painfull2006]

You are defending a language that is just a cheap rip-off of the original, are Americans so desperate for individuality that they MUST have these differences?

Elephants have a TRUNK

Cars have a BOOT

Don't worry... there wont be another invasion of red coats if we find you speaking the language correctly...

 

[Arcyde]

I'm Canadian.

So, your taught to use British english spelling. So I perfer that.

 

[PayNSprayBandit]

It depends, I use theater over theatre, but through more than thru.
And I think it says something that as I type this I can see that Firefox's spell check agrees with me.

 

[painfull2006]

It depends, I use theater over theatre, but through more than thru.
And I think it says something that as I type this I can see that Firefox's spell check agrees with me.

Your serious? They tried to replace "Through" with "Thru"....

p.s. found some more

Mobile phone not cell phone
Muffin not cup cake XD