# What's the preferred spelling of resume? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 6, 2008, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-preferred-spelling-of-resume/448260 "2008-05-06T04:30:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-preferred-spelling-of-resume/448260/21 "2008-05-07T03:56:50Z")
[QUOTE=aldiboronti] The accent over both es is correct as the word is the past participle of the French résumer. [/QUOTE] Not any more. Now it’s an English word, we stole it fair and square. “English does not borrow from other languages, but follows them down dark alleys, knocks them down and goes through their pockets for loose grammar.” No silly little marks anymore. 😃 Do you spell beef= _boef_? It’s a French word also, you know. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-preferred-spelling-of-resume/448260/22 "2008-05-07T12:58:51Z")
Or, as someone has pointed out already, do you talk about Montréal? Québec? ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2008, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-preferred-spelling-of-resume/448260/23 "2008-05-11T17:17:37Z")
[QUOTE=TimeWinder] In loan words to indicate that the letter still has it’s nonstandard pronunciation. See also: fiancé, café, sauté, creme brulée, etc. [/QUOTE] So from what language is “it’s” on loan, with that accent for the “t”? Perhaps **ascenray** should start using it- [QUOTE=acsenray] Either both are accented or neither are. A single accent is just wrong. If its truly an English word and no longer a loan word, it needs no accents. [/QUOTE] Still fighting… ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2008, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-preferred-spelling-of-resume/448260/24 "2008-05-11T17:36:52Z")
If an HR person really cares, you might want to look for a different job. However, if you’re dying to get this job, find a was to figure their preferences. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2008, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-preferred-spelling-of-resume/448260/25 "2008-05-11T18:16:20Z")
[QUOTE=Polycarp] All right, I’m a recent convert to the two-accent contingent. But there’s a remarkably good reason for using the final accent: the English verb “to resume”, with forms of which your summary of skills and experience can be easily confused in many a sentence. There’s a time honored **English** custom of using the acute and grave accents and the diaresis to indicate that what might otherwise be a silent e is to be sounded, and how to sound it. “Time’s wingèd chariot…” the poet wrote, indicating that one should say “wing-ed”, not “wing’d”. Tolkien’s Elf-fathers were Ingwë, Finwë. Elwë, and Olwë, each a two-syllable name ending in an -eh sound. And a shield in a checkerboard pattern is chequé, as opposed to a British or Canadian draft on one’s bank account (check-ay, vs. check in pronunciation). Ergo, there **is** a logical reason for using only the terminal accented E. “He did resume writing for a living.” After taking time off following his last book’s unexpectedly high royalties? Or did he make a career out of preparing CVs for others? It’s that sort of confusion that using one or both accents is intended to avoid. [/QUOTE] As acsenray said “It’s more like an unusual, increasingly vanishing, usage for certain highly specialized areas, such as poetry and fantasy.” Polycarp, I think you did well to find any examples of accents in English! However you use ‘wing-ed’ to show how ‘wingèd’ was pronounced and I think that is how the poet should write it, since ‘wingèd’ is not in the Oxford English dictionary. Similarly ‘cheque’ is in the dictionary as an order to a bank, while ‘chequer’ - also spelt ‘checker’ - is a pattern of squares alternately coloured. No sign of your ‘chequé’. ‘Résumé’ - also spelt ‘Resumé’ - is given in the same dictionary as a **French** word, used in \*\*North America \*\* to mean **CV**. I think that settles it from the UK point of view! Which means that your example “He did resume writing for a living.” would be written in the UK as either: “He did CV writing for a living.” “He did resume writing for a living.” ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2008, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-preferred-spelling-of-resume/448260/26 "2008-05-11T19:49:49Z")
[QUOTE=Ignatz] So from what language is “it’s” on loan, with that accent for the “t”? Perhaps **ascenray** should start using it- [/QUOTE] You do know the difference between an accent mark and an apostrophe, right? ---
**Author:** ![Mbossa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@Mbossa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mbossa)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2008, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-preferred-spelling-of-resume/448260/27 "2008-05-11T23:37:11Z")
[QUOTE=mnemosyne] or apostrophe-e to get é (versus apostrophe-space-e to get 'e) if you use the US-International keyboard layout, which is basically the US one, with the accent capability. You just end up hitting space a bit more often. [/QUOTE] Or if you’re using MS Word, ctrl+apostrophe, followed by e. This one works with an ordinary US keyboard layout, but AFAIK it’s specific to MS Word. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2008, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-preferred-spelling-of-resume/448260/28 "2008-05-12T00:11:15Z")
I am having a big problem following this thread. As both a many time job applicant and a hiring manager, the term is simply “resume” in American English. I never seen anyone spell it otherwise and I think people in this thread are going off on bizarre tangents. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-preferred-spelling-of-resume/448260.md?page=1)