Canadian VS American English (theater, live, military)

[Belinda_Cooperstone1]

I am just curious if other Canadians feel the same as me on this.

First, before I get started, let me just say I have nothing against American English. It is just a little different from ours and I want to get others thoughts on this. Ours is based on British English.

Canadians, have you found that since you have been on the internet posting to forums and message boards, to people in USA that your spelling has adjusted? For example; we spell this word colour, the Americans spell it color. or another example; favour and favor. Even spell checker sees the way we spell it as wrong. It is not wrong, just different. But I have, over the years been lightly "abused" by my spelling. So sometimes I find I may spell a word as the Americans would. I have also found that even at work some of my employees will write words the American way.

To the American's reading this, has your spelling changed based on our spelling? Have you found yourself altering how you spell?

I am NOT intending this as a debate, hence the reason it is here. I am just curious about how interacting with Americans has affected our spelling. (and not just Americans, any Country really. But we seem to interact more with our friendly neighbours/neighbors)

Here is a link I found that shows some of the different spelling and found it interesting. We are not so different, but it seems Canadians and British use the letter "u" more often, and other differences. British, Canadian and American Spelling

[ckhthankgod]

Another difference is offense versus offence. Even how those words are pronounced varies depending on who is saying them.

[trailerguy]

American spelling has been standard for about a century or longer, mostly the things you note, the o/ou, also er/re (theater/theatre), some words borrowed from the French (program/programme). Theodore Roosevelt was a terrible speller and campaigned for phonetic spelling for American English. His favorite bugaboo was the ough monster and tried to introduce all new spellings (thru/tho/coff/ruff). Most of it didn't get very far, but has survived in the American military and has occasionally filtered into the internet. There are a few unusual ones that don't follow a fixed rule, but aim at simplification, such as jewelry/jewellery. Then there are some spelling changes that don't seem to make any difference at all such as curb/kerb, tire/tyre.

You should be able to download a Canadian/British dictionary for your spell-checker to cut down on the annoyance factor.

[grmasterb]

On the other hand, Canadians use the "z" instead of the British use of "s" in words like "realize," just like Americans. Generally, no, I don't think you'll find Americans adjusting their spelling to match Canadian or British versions of English. We tend to be too culturally assertive for that. We may pick up on words, however.

[KevK]

Originally Posted by Belinda_Cooperstone1

I am just curious if other Canadians feel the same as me on this.

First, before I get started, let me just say I have nothing against American English. It is just a little different from ours and I want to get others thoughts on this. Ours is based on British English.

Canadians, have you found that since you have been on the internet posting to forums and message boards, to people in USA that your spelling has adjusted? For example; we spell this word colour, the Americans spell it color. or another example; favour and favor. Even spell checker sees the way we spell it as wrong. It is not wrong, just different. But I have, over the years been lightly "abused" by my spelling. So sometimes I find I may spell a word as the Americans would. I have also found that even at work some of my employees will write words the American way.

To the American's reading this, has your spelling changed based on our spelling? Have you found yourself altering how you spell?

I am NOT intending this as a debate, hence the reason it is here. I am just curious about how interacting with Americans has affected our spelling. (and not just Americans, any Country really. But we seem to interact more with our friendly neighbours/neighbors)

Here is a link I found that shows some of the different spelling and found it interesting. We are not so different, but it seems Canadians and British use the letter "u" more often, and other differences. British, Canadian and American Spelling

I spell using European English. Today I went to the town centre and wrote a hot cheque at my favourite store because they have my the summer colours on sale!

[KevK]

One thing I have noticed about Canadians is the way they say "in hospital" where we in the USA say "in THE hospital". We get all the Canadian TV stations via satellite and my wife watches CITY in the morning and the news people always say "and he remains in hospital in good condition".

[Vichel]

Spell how you spell, don't adjust.

What I do find myself adjusting when I post on a predominantly American forum, is some expressions and words which I feel Americans wouldn't understand. (I'm Australian, btw, and I lived in Canada for many years.) Like the word 'jumper' which is Aussie for 'sweater'. Just to avoid confusion.

Canadian English isn't as British as Australian English is. Here, our cars have tyres, boots and bonnets and we fill them up with petrol. And we eat biscuits, not cookies.

And we prioritise and maximise, not prioritize or maximize. Those were especially weird for me at first; it always looked like Australians were bad spellers .

[f1000]

Originally Posted by Belinda_Cooperstone1

First, before I get started, let me just say I have nothing against American English. It is just a little different from ours and I want to get others thoughts on this. Ours is based on British English.

Terminology wise, Canadian English is more like American English than British English. Regarding spelling, Canadian English has derived from British-English spelling forms but there are many American spellings as noted such as "realiZed". And nobody in their right mind is going to flip out if you spell it otherwise.

I don't think that British English is necessarily considered the most 'proper' so it doesn't irritate me when a Canadian spells "color" the American way. Canadians live next to the US, not the UK, so it's not going to be surprising that some Canadians will lean more towards that despite what educators say.

[Fred Derf]

Originally Posted by trailerguy

You should be able to download a Canadian/British dictionary for your spell-checker to cut down on the annoyance factor.

I'd echo this. If you are using a browser like Firefox (with its internal spell checker) then you can download a regionalized version with the proper language rules.

[Belinda_Cooperstone1]

Oh I am not looking to download a different spell checker. That is not what this is about. But I do hear what you are saying and yes one could do that if they wanted, it is good advice.

Yes, I suppose we do lean more towards the American way as oppose to the British way, and yes Australia is way more "British" with their spelling. I suppose because our education here has a base of the British way, that is why I said that. A lot of times I think that Canadian's have changed their way of spelling because of our neighbours.

Vichel, I know what you mean. It took me a while to figure out what a jumper was, I always thought it was overalls. I was wondering why so many Brits and Aussies wore a lot of overalls LOL. But now I know what it means.

I just find it interesting how that in today's day, we communicate a lot through typing; whether it be online or texting on your phone. So I started thinking if others found a difference in how they spell as well.