Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

**Yoggy** · Mar 15th, 2006, 10:23 PM

Here's another thread that may belong in "Chit Chat", but it does apply only to Canadians, so here it is. When you spell certain words such as colour, centre, organise, or aluminium, do you generally adopt the American or British spelling? I've noticed more and more Canadians using the American spelling these days. I spell most words the British way, but words like jail/gaol, or airplane/aeroplane, I tend to spell the American way. Also, I pronounce "aluminium" the American way but spell it the British way. I just say there's a silent "i"

.

**Tigerlily** · Mar 15th, 2006, 11:44 PM

It depends on the word. I write neighbour, favour, flavour, savour, etc but then I go and write color.

**Yoggy** · Mar 15th, 2006, 11:51 PM

LOL! What about "centre"? I also found out recently that Americans spell "cheque" as "check". That surprised me, as I had never really noticed another way to spell "cheque". Oh and my roommate (who's from Georgia) said that she's seen the word "toque" spelled "tuke" in the States

**Tigerlily** · Mar 15th, 2006, 11:54 PM

Oh yeah! I use center for things like, "Draw a line in the center of the page" but I use centre for things like "The Sports Centre"...Weird?

I only use cheque!

And I didn't even know they knew what toque was!

What about meter/metre? I use either one, depends.

**Yoggy** · Mar 15th, 2006, 11:57 PM

It's true, most Americans don't know what toques are. My friend saw it spelled like "tuke" in Maine or somewhere else near the border where many people use the word.

**xwitchymagicx** · Mar 16th, 2006, 12:05 AM

I'm English and live in England obviously and I sometimes spell things the american way. I have to be careful as the teachers wouldn't be too happy. I guess i'm picking up on it on message boards or something.

**Tigerlily** · Mar 16th, 2006, 12:10 AM

Tsk, tsk.

**xwitchymagicx** · Mar 16th, 2006, 12:11 AM

I'm thinking I spend way too much time on the internet!

**Tigerlily** · Mar 16th, 2006, 12:12 AM

*in an annoying, grouchy motherly voice* Get offline and go do your homework!

**xwitchymagicx** · Mar 16th, 2006, 12:17 AM

I'd rather go to bed i think homework is for those 3am i can't sleep times.

**rach71** · Mar 16th, 2006, 01:53 AM

This thread is so funny!! I tend to spell things the Canadian way (colour, favour, cheque of course), but some things I am super Americanized. I took a test last week and you had to say what words were spelled incorrectly, so I said that odour was incorrect b/c of my Americanized 'odor' thinking (I feel like a bad Canadian after that one).

And I didn't think americans knew what a toque was either, I've never met any who've known what it is!

I feel like as I get older and am out of school longer and longer (thus not really writing anything), I become much more Americanized. Maybe I shouldn't have withdrawn from grad school last September!!

**Yoggy** · Mar 16th, 2006, 02:03 AM

The Canadian spelling of "Americanized" is "Americanised"

Here's an interesting web page about some other differences in spelling. I know I spell "encyclopedia" the American way, but I didn't realise there was another way to spell "medieval"!

**rach71** · Mar 16th, 2006, 02:07 AM

OMG, I spelled it wrong

, I am sooooooo bad!!!!

OK, I'm going to check out that link now!

**rach71** · Mar 16th, 2006, 02:10 AM

skilful is 1 l? I thought it was skillful; and the ze, se, I'm definitely American on. OK, I got manoeuvre wrong on that english test too!!! banque? OK, that's it, I'm not reading anymore right now, I feel like a really bad Canadian.

**Tigerlily** · Mar 16th, 2006, 03:15 AM

Yoggy

The Canadian spelling of "Americanized" is "Americanised"

Here's an interesting web page about some other differences in spelling. I know I spell "encyclopedia" the American way, but I didn't realise there was another way to spell "medieval"!

I always used "s" and my English teacher last year always marked my papers wrong.

Geoff · Mar 16th, 2006, 09:49 AM

rach71

OMG, I spelled it wrong

, I am sooooooo bad!!!!

Re your avatar. Shouldn't it be 'leaves,' not 'leafs'

(I'm a saucy pedantic wretch)

**rach71** · Mar 16th, 2006, 10:21 AM

Geoff

(I'm a saucy pedantic wretch)

I can guess what that means but huh?

Geoff · Mar 16th, 2006, 10:51 AM

It's a quote from John Donne, the famous Australian poet, from his poem called, I think The Sun Rising:

Busy old fool, unruly Sun,
Why dost thou thus,
Through windows, and through curtains, call on us ?
Must to thy motions lovers' seasons run ?
Saucy pedantic wretch, go chide
Late school-boys and sour prentices,

**luvzsunshine** · Mar 16th, 2006, 03:11 PM

Okay, I'm curious. What is toque or "tuke" as we American's spell it?

FR · Mar 16th, 2006, 04:16 PM

It seems Canadians and Europeans spell Totalling as Totaling, whereas here in the USA, I mostly see it as Totalling.

**Tigerlily** · Mar 16th, 2006, 07:06 PM

In both Canada and the US, we have the grade system to rank school years. But I noticed Americans generally say "Fifth Grade" while a Canadian would usually say "Grade Five". Anyone notice that?

**Yoggy** · Mar 16th, 2006, 07:38 PM

LOL Tigerlily, yes! I noticed it on TV shows a lot as a kid, and now that I live in the States, I've never heard anyone say "grade five", etc., they always say "fifth grade". I've even started doing it too, because people here look at me weird if I say it the Canadian way!

**Tigerlily** · Mar 16th, 2006, 08:29 PM

Yeah! I ALWAYS thought it was my faulty Maritimer English dialect whenever I said "Grade Five" or something because in books and TV, they say it the American way. Then yesterday I was reading an article in a women's magazine about kids dropping out...and they said "Grade Ten", "Grade 7", etc.

**xwitchymagicx** · Mar 16th, 2006, 08:40 PM

rach71

skilful is 1 l? I thought it was skillful

It looks a little strange with one "l"

I've never seen anyone spell "Bank" "banque"

**Tigerlily** · Mar 16th, 2006, 11:51 PM

Yeah, me neither. Banque is bank in French.

**Darth Veg** · Mar 24th, 2006, 05:33 PM

I ALWAYS spell thing the British way, and always pronounce the letter Z as Zed. I get teased a lot at work because of it too.....

**Yoggy** · Mar 24th, 2006, 06:04 PM

It took me a while to stop saying "pop" instead of "soda" when I moved to Hawaii. Now it seems weird to say "pop". Same with z, I say it "zee" instead of "zed" now. I'm such a bad Canadian

Yst · Mar 24th, 2006, 06:13 PM

You get teased at work in Ottawa about pronouncing it "zed"? Here in Toronto, my experience has been the reverse, in that I know at least two American individuals living in Toronto who have adopted the "zed" pronunciation in order not to be ridiculed by those around them.

As far as my own linguistic traditionalism goes, only some of which is grounded in Commonwealth usage, I insist on...

Differentiating -ice nominal endings from -ise verbal endings:
- Practice: a noun
- Practise: a verb

Uniformly using -ise verbal endings rather than -ize verbal endings where they are well-attested in Commonwealth English:
- Realise
- Satirise
- etc.

Retaining -ue nominal endings in cases where their deletion was merely a 19th century American invention:
- Dialogue
- Catalogue
- etc.

Prefering a plural form original to the language from which a word is derived if it is well-attested in English and recognised by the Oxford English Dictionary:
- Mythos (s), Mythoi (pl)
- Schema (s), Schemata (pl)
- Phalanx (s), Phalanges (pl)
- etc.

**Darth Veg** · Mar 24th, 2006, 06:13 PM

Yoggy

It took me a while to stop saying "pop" instead of "soda" when I moved to Hawaii. Now it seems weird to say "pop". Same with z, I say it "zee" instead of "zed" now. I'm such a bad Canadian

I know what you mean about say "soda" instead of "pop". As a kid we went to NY on vacation and I asked for a "pop". The guy looked at me like I was from Mars or something. It is kinda cool the differences between our two countries.

I'm rather jealous that you moved to Hawaii and managed to escape winter!

**rach71** · Mar 30th, 2006, 11:40 AM

After reading through this thread again, I don't even know what's American and Canadian half the time, except of course for the obvious cultural ones like toque and zed

.

Although, I've heard lots of Americans pronounce roof as ruff. The first time this happened I was having a conversation with someone who was talking about redoing their 'ruff' I was like, your what? and they said ruff. what? ruff... finally after about 5 minutes I realized he was saying roof. It was ridiculous!

FR · Mar 30th, 2006, 11:45 AM

Americans pronounce British as BriTish. Brits pronounce it as Bri ish, no T, hahaha. I'm dead now.

saucyvegan · Mar 30th, 2006, 11:47 AM

FR I can see im going to have to keep my eye on u today. What u having for lunch? Falafels?

**rach71** · Mar 30th, 2006, 11:48 AM

We pronounce it as British too! I loooooove British accents though, gotta marry a Brit so I can listen to the accent all day long

FR · Mar 30th, 2006, 01:02 PM

rach71

I loooooove British accents though, gotta marry a Brit so I can listen to the accent all day long

Yeah, that's what I'm going to do.

FR · Mar 30th, 2006, 01:03 PM

saucyvegan

FR I can see im going to have to keep my eye on u today. What u having for lunch? Falafels?

Actually, I have a stir fry mixture containing, brown rice, some veggies, spike seasoning, Bragg Liquid Aminos, and black beans.

**Yoggy** · Mar 30th, 2006, 07:53 PM

My roommates still make fun of me for pronouncing "been" like "bean" instead of "bin". I usually pronounce it like "bin" in the middle of a sentence, but at the end of a sentence it always sounds like "bean".

Geoff · Mar 30th, 2006, 09:41 PM

FR

Americans pronounce British as BriTish. Brits pronounce it as Bri ish, no T, hahaha. I'm dead now.

Only the lower orders pronounce British wivaht the 't'. People from Harrow, such as I, pronounce it properly.
I speak excellent English and am currently available.

**Tigerlily** · Mar 30th, 2006, 09:46 PM

Yoggy

My roommates still make fun of me for pronouncing "been" like "bean" instead of "bin". I usually pronounce it like "bin" in the middle of a sentence, but at the end of a sentence it always sounds like "bean".

You know what? I never ever noticed! I say that too. What part of Canada did you grow up in?

**rach71** · Mar 30th, 2006, 09:58 PM

You say bin or been? I've never even heard of 'bin' pronouncing before!!

**Yoggy** · Mar 30th, 2006, 10:42 PM

I usually say it like "bin" in the middle of a sentence, as in "Yeah, I've bin there before". But at the end of a sentence it's always "bean", as in "Where have you been?" Basically whenever the emphasis is on "been", I pronounce it the second way. But my roommate (who's from Georgia) always pronounces it as "bin". She also pronounces "pin" and "pen" exactly the same!

Tigerlily, I never noticed the been/bin thing either until I started living with Americans! I grew up in Southern Ontario. We easterners pronounce a lot of things differently than in the west, I've noticed during my time in Victoria.

Geoff · Mar 30th, 2006, 10:51 PM

You should try listening to a Kiwi. They pronounce 'ten' as 'tin' and 'sex as 'sucks' (which could lead to all sorts of misunderstandings)

**Tigerlily** · Mar 31st, 2006, 12:02 AM

I onced watched a movie from New Zealand--they even had subtitles! The two main characters were kids too (it was a serious adult movie, though) and I'm sure they spoke in a lot of slang terms.

Geoff · Mar 31st, 2006, 12:13 AM

They even subtitle some ENGLISH films for the US market 'cos they can't understand anything that not 'mericun.

**rach71** · Mar 31st, 2006, 12:29 AM

Geoff

They even subtitle some ENGLISH films for the US market 'cos they can't understand anything that not 'mericun.

veggiesosage · Mar 31st, 2006, 12:38 AM

rach71

We pronounce it as British too! I loooooove British accents though, gotta marry a Brit so I can listen to the accent all day long

I have a perfect BriTish accent, don't you know, by George

**rach71** · Mar 31st, 2006, 12:45 AM

veggiesosage

I have a perfect BriTish accent, don't you know, by George

I swear one day I'll just get on a plane and move there (I actually almost did once-I was in London and almost didn't leave!!), that way I guess everyone will have an accent

My British passport is my only valid one anyways now, so I guess on paper I'm more Brit than Canadian right now!

veggiesosage · Mar 31st, 2006, 12:47 AM

Rach, you got dual nationality then?

**rach71** · Mar 31st, 2006, 12:52 AM

Yep, it's the best. Whenever I go to Europe you just wave your passport-no lines. I'm the only Canadian in my family. The rest are British and German (Grandparents and up are mostly German, few Brits). My mum was born and raised in London. But I don't know anyone in Europe, my entire family is dead (to be blunt) except my mum and I.

**rach71** · Mar 31st, 2006, 12:53 AM

Well my mum and late grandmother became Canadian after being here for a long time, but I"m the only one to be born and raised here.

veggiesosage · Mar 31st, 2006, 12:55 AM

Cool for you. A way into 'fortress Europe' when you want!

Thread: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Thread Tools

Search Thread

Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Re: Canadians: do you spell things the American or British way?

Similar Threads

British vegan treats you cant get in the USA

Being a Fairtrade British vegan

Bookmarks

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions