What is up with these spellings? At first I thought they were just honest typos, but I’m seeing them everywhere now. Plug “realise” into the search field and you’ll find 916 threads containing that word! Well, 917 now I suppose.
• Recognise appears in 310 threads
• Sterilise appears in 8 threads
• Sanitise appears in 6 threads
I realize that the last two show up so infrequently they can be written off as typos, but when you consider how infrequently these words show up in the first place you have to wonder.
Did I miss the memo?
I was going to include Authorise & Surprise, but to my dismay I found these entries in the dictionary (never mind the fact that MS spell checker doesn’t like Authorise). I still think that the Z spellings of these words are better looking.
[sub]:carefully scans post for spelling mistakes:[/sub]
US English and UK English have slightly different spellings. “ise” is generally regarded as an acceptable substitute for “ize” in the UK, and in my opinion “ise” is more common here.
If you select TOOLS > Options… > Spelling & Grammar > Custom Dictionaries and hit the drop-down arrow, you can change your S&G to be based on British (or on one of eight other English speaking nations) rather than American English. You may not like the results, but you can see some variants to what you’ll find in Maryland and Virginia.
I don’t have an OED to hand, but my understanding is that it actually recommends the use of -ize rather than -ise, on the grounds of the former being more etymologically correct, at least for words borrowed from Greek or Latin.
I don’t know about it being a horrible letter, but I agree with you that -ise is the way I most commonly see it, that is unless I’m reading some american pop-culture tidbit
I didn’t understand the OP untill after I had read it nearly to the end, just didn’t see what on earth was strange about the spelling. That’s what an english education gets you I suppose. But seeing that the British one came earlier, I would propably favour it as a default.
Of course, US and UK English aren’t the exact same language, so I guess it depends on the standard that you set yourself, whether either is right or wrong.
I assume you would also find some references to both lifts and elevators if you would punch them into the SD search engine, we’re such an international bunch!
— G. Raven
I’m American and I’ve never spelt surprise with a “z”. The proper form of surprise is with the -ise, even in the US. The others, however, are stodgy traditionalisms that only dusty old monarchies retain…
Didn’t you people at some point (perhaps around sixth grade) see in your spelling or English or something textbooks a list of differences between British and American spellings? I did, and the textbook explained how we would be occasionally seeing words spelled in British spellings if we looked at British books, but we were to keep on using American spellings of the words.
I’m astonished when I hear of adults who don’t know of the differences between American and British spellings. Weren’t you paying attention in school? I’m disgusted (and also bored) when Americans and Brits argue about spelling. Get a life.
Handy: I use dictionary.com, one of your perennial favorites. When entering Recognise, it finds Recognize. I’ll change dictionaries if you do.
Thank you for that news flash. I had considered that, but when certain words don’t appear in reference volumes then I begin to ask questions. I was about to say that there is no such thing as a stupid question, but then Wendell came up with this beauty:
Wagner: Sixth grade? Wow that was a long time ago. I’m leaning way back in my chair now and furrowing my brow to see if I can remember an instance where I came upon a misspelled word. Hmmm…
…Nope. Gosh that is really amazing that I can’t seem to recall something so pivotal like that happening to me twenty-seven freaking years ago. I, for one, did not receive this list you speak of. :rolleyes:
And even if I did come across an instance or two of Recognise I probably would have written it off as a typo anyway. What makes you think that just because a word (idea/theory/formula/conjecture/statement/chart/graph/equation/etc…) appears in a text book that it is without error? I do remember sitting in a trig class one year as the teacher pointed out how many typos & simple arithmatic mistakes can appear in any given textbook.
I once had a biology teacher who insisted on marking points off our papers when we used spellings like litre and centre, insisting that the “re” spelling was not foreign, but just plain wrong. Should I also have written that in stone, just because it was leanrt in school?
You are making several assumptions here:
That I went to school.
That I took a class called “The Differences Between American and British Spellings 101”
That, any time I came across a Brittish “-ise” in my American English textbook, I immediately questioned my teacher about it. Why not just as easily accept it as a typo?
Finally, with regard to:
I will agree with you here if we change those words to disgusting and boring, and add pompous because those are the qualities you’ve brought with you into this discussion.
> You are making several assumptions here:
>
> 1. That I went to school.
You own a computer. You have an internet connection. You seem to be able to spell well and write grammatical sentences. That makes it pretty likely that you went to school. There don’t seem to be many non-high school graduates on the SDMB, other than the ones too young to have graduated yet.
As I said, I first saw a list of differences between American and British spellings somewhere in elementary school, perhaps about sixth grade. This wasn’t because I went to a particularly good school. In fact, I went to a third-rate rural school.
I am not accusing anybody of being stupid, although perhaps I’m accusing them of laziness. Seriously, do you mean that you got through high school without being told that there are differences between British and American spelling and being given a list of those differences? I consider this a very basic fact. As I said, I’m disgusted that so many Americans and Brits don’t know the differences between the spelling conventions of the two countries. This is something that should be taught (and thoughly memorized) before entering high school. Furthermore, you should be taught how to use a dictionary, so you can look up spellings you don’t recognize and realize that they are variants acceptable in the other country.
I also find it annoying that everytime spells a word using British spelling, somebody else starts making jokes about it. (Occasionally it’s the other way around too.) What’s so funny about the fact that people spell words differently?
I attended the equivalent of the 1st-3rd grades in England. I still have to remind myself of the american spellings of words, especially “color” (not “colour”).
Another thing that differs between the two forms of English is punctuation with quotation marks. The British leave punctuation out, and we Amercins put it in. Personally I think their way makes more sense.
Example:
British way-
When John said that he “couldn’t stand it anymore”, he really meant it.
American way-
When John said that he “couldn’t stand it anymore,” he really meant it.
I work as an editor, and I always have to go back and check to see how I have handled situations like that one to make sure I’m using the American rules.
Er… not sure where you’re coming from aschrott. I’ve had a few opportunities to compare, and to the best of my knowledge, we (Brits) use quotation marks the same way you do. There is certainly no question of leaving out the punctuation.
I guess you were having an off day as an editor when you posted this!
It appears that the Brits put the comma outside the quotes, if the examples are correct. Only difference. In any event neither side of the Atlantic would use quotes with “that.” And if they did, they would capitalize the first letter in the quote. (Or is that “capitalise” in GB?)
As far as paying attention in 6th grade, no I didn’t. I couldn’t afford to pay attention.
Er… not sure where you’re coming from aschrott. I’ve had a few opportunities to compare, and to the best of my knowledge, we (Brits) use quotation marks the same way you do. There is certainly no question of leaving out the punctuation.
I guess you were having an off day as an editor when you posted this!
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If anything, I did not make my point clear. It is my understanding–and I have seen this in a number of style manuals, including the Chicago Manual of Style–that British usage keeps sentence punctuation that is not part of the originally quoted material outside of the quotation, whereas American usage moves the sentence puncuation inside the quote. My example, while unlikely to score creativity (or even grammar) points, does illustrate that.
I learned to use quotes that way in an English school. Perhaps I shouldn’t have generalised from my own narrow experience–but, as I said, I have looked this up in some reliable sources.
[I am not accusing anybody of being stupid, although perhaps I’m accusing them of laziness. Seriously, do you mean that you got through high school without being told that there are differences between British and American spelling and being given a list of those differences? I consider this a *very* basic fact. As I said, I’m disgusted that so many Americans and Brits don’t know the differences between the spelling conventions of the two countries. This is something that should be taught (and thoughly memorized) before entering high school. Furthermore, you should be taught how to use a dictionary, so you can look up spellings you don’t recognize and realize that they are variants acceptable in the other country.]
WTF? I did pay attention in school. I have never seen this list nor was it even mentioned. I am far from stupid and lazy. Yes, the word pompous does come to mind…a few others also.
To the OP, I have to agree.
