# Quoting and British spelling

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quoting-and-british-spelling/228965
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [February 13, 2004, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quoting-and-british-spelling/228965 "2004-02-13T02:14:40Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![quelquechose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/6f9a4e/32.png) [@quelquechose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quelquechose)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2004, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quoting-and-british-spelling/228965/1 "2004-02-13T02:14:40Z")

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If I (an American) were to quote a British person in writing, how would I spell words like “defence” “labour” and “Aluminium”? I’m mainly interested in the third case, since the spelling and pronunciation are different. Also, would it be any different for a British person quoting an American?

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### Author: ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2004, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quoting-and-british-spelling/228965/2 "2004-02-13T02:19:02Z")

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Yes, when you quote you generally quote verbatim, spelling and all. As would the Brit.

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### Author: ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2004, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quoting-and-british-spelling/228965/3 "2004-02-13T03:56:29Z")

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I think that if you’re quoting spoken speech, you need to write it in the language of your audience. If you’re quoting text from an article, of course you should quote it verbatim, and maybe _sic_ would be appropriate since it’s misspelt in your target audience’s version of the language.

Here’s the tricky one: If you’re quoting speech written in a book or article, I would write it the correct way for your target. But if the quote is part of a larger cite, I would leave it as is.

For example, Tony Blair said, “Think of our national defense.”

According to British Tabloid Daily, “…[T]he princess fell from the second storey [sic].”

> [@](#):
>
> And then Parker uttered, ‘Forwith you defenceless fool.’

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