"ise" vs "ize"

Good, thanks for that. I was just surmising.

I repeat - the British are not keen at all on the letter "z" for reasons of "foreigness" as I have given. AAMOI the old collective name for the Orkney and Shetland islands, the northern most extent of Scotland and the British Isles generally, is Zetland. Nobody uses it at all....it looks "foreign" because of the "Z". We just don't do zeds...it's not part of the British scene generaly, but of course it's not entirely set in stone is it....the situation can be just a wee bit hazy at times for Language zealots, can't it? Crazy!

Now zealot really does look "foreign", don't you agree?

Interesting you should mention that, because I think most native English speakers would agree that they do tend to cringe a bit at the thought of words like 'sings' or 'songs' ending with a 'z' for the sake of spelling reform. It is a bit of a foreign letter, although not in the case of 'realize' etc. to Americans.

the "-ise" on 'surprise' and 'improvise' are not suffixes like "-ize" is. "-ise" is part of the stem (from the Latin past participle formation). Not apples to apples

hello all thanks fpr your replies! My teacher finally accepted it because i was consistent and i sent her an article that said "ise" is acceptable. She thought that I had made it up.. or that my 12 years in french immersion ruined my english spelling!

<<hello all thanks fpr your replies! My teacher finally accepted it because i was consistent and i sent her an article that said "ise" is acceptable. She thought that I had made it up.. or that my 12 years in french immersion ruined my english spelling! >>

Awesome! I would have done the same thing.

Good for you. :)

As far as I know, "-ize" is preferred but "-ise" is still acceptable in Canada.

Skippy, you mentioned earlier that you were marked down by your lecturers in College for using British spelling - oh if only the same was true here!!!!

Mate I am at University (not studying English as is probably evident!) and I have come to realise that American spelling is now fully excepted here - you ain't going to lose any marks here!!

Just the other day I 'corrected' my teacher when she spelt yoghurt the American way and she just told me that it didn't matter - that both ways were ok!!!!! For me that was a pretty sad thing to say but is very typical of what is happening regarding British English here.

You are just as likely to see my fellow students spell 'centre' the way the Americans do and I have noticed a creeping of the Z where an S will do fine.

Apparently the Oxford dictionary lists either way as acceptable but this is in a way wrong. -ize fell out of use a long time ago here and hasn't been taught in schools or used in Newspapers for decades. But due to the Internet, and an odd refusal by the powers that be to translate American literature to conform to British English, AmE has unquestionably begun to corrupt the way we spell our words in this country. The use of -ize in any classroom can surely only be by way of American influence.

I say odd because I know that British books are given an American face lift during their Transatlantic journey. Why we don't do the same here is beyond me but I can say that pretty much all the books, computer programmes, used during my studies are all geared towards American English (we have even started using 'semester' instead of 'term' to describe when lessons are held!).

Even I am starting to get muddled over which is which, I mean I actually had to google the correct British spelling of yoghurt!! This is not good!!!

Just the way our spoken English has been to a great extent 'Americanised' over the years now so to is our written word and sadly it's only going to get worse.

Apologies there, I do tend to go on a bit, but as is probably clear from previous posts this whole Americanisation business really really irks me. I need counselling (is that spelt with 1 L or two!!).

<Mate I am at University (not studying English as is probably evident!) and I have come to realise that American spelling is now fully excepted here - you ain't going to lose any marks here!!>

Do you mean accepted? Or did you mean that nonstandard spellings are accpeted, but American spellings are excepted from that rule?

<Just the other day I 'corrected' my teacher when she spelt yoghurt the American way and she just told me that it didn't matter - that both ways were ok!!!!! For me that was a pretty sad thing to say but is very typical of what is happening regarding British English here.>

I don't see why anyone would prefer "yoghurt". That h just has no business being there. What's next, are you going to start calling it Heathroeux airport?

<<I don't see why anyone would prefer "yoghurt". That h just has no business being there. What's next, are you going to start calling it Heathroeux airport? >>

Are you trying to be funny mate?? Because it ain't working you knob!! I could rip apart any language phonetically if you want to play silly buggers! Listen you little weastle YOUGHURT IS the British way of spelling things yeah - end off, it doesn't matter if the H is pronounced or not. It is the way it is, the same as there is absolutely no reason to remove the U from 'honour' etc etc.


<<Do you mean accepted? Or did you mean that nonstandard spellings are accpeted, but American spellings are excepted from that rule? >>

Erm.. it's quite obvious that I am referring to American English as being accepted. A. B. C ..yeah that's it. Left foot goes in-front of the right. Good boy - now you're getting it.

Are you a yank 'Another guest' ??

Mate, your a twat and I am going to waste the last of my Beer buzz on you. Adieu you wally.

And before any Americans start giving me gip - I am not dismissing the way you lot spell things just that there is no reason why we should change the way we spell our things to your things and that it makes me laugh that an American will get marked down for spelling the British way and that a British person won't get marked down for spelling things the American way. Neither is better or worse than the other of-course blah blah blah ...oh sod it.

I am British and I use the 'ize' spelling, not because I have any special attachment to America but simply because it is hilarious watching touchy people like Pub Lunch squirm.

>> it makes me laugh that an American will get marked down for spelling the British way and that a British person won't get marked down for spelling things the American way. Neither is better or worse than the other of-course blah blah blah ...oh sod it. <<

Honestly, it really depends on the teacher. Some teachers will mark you down, others (the large majority) will not. I tend to spell things the British way actually, if that spelling is older than the American spelling. If a teacher marks me down for it (has only happened once, and the teacher was from Thailand), and they refuse to see reason, I drop the class. End of story. If the teacher is that petty and picky, I figure that we will probably not get along very well, and that it would be best to find a better teacher. The same goes for teachers that must have everything done "just so". I have very little patience for that kind of thing. If I absolutely must take the class, I simply continue to do things my way (ignoring the teacher--what can they do?), and if they mark me down a quarter of a point on a homework assignment, so be it. I'll end up with an 3.9 at the end of the term, rather than a 4.0.

It really is a symptom of the current British (mainly English) social malaise when the influence of alcohol becomes so apparent in the postings from some of my fellow countrymen in here. If you are visiting these shores at any time and are brave enough to witness the effects of chronic British misuse of booze (mostly affecting to my own age group and even younger) then just wander round the average town and city centre in the UK (again, especially in England) late at night, especially at weekends. I assure you it is not a pretty sight, and both genders are as bad as each other.

It is now almost a plague in this country.

As a still young Scot who enjoys a good night out I know where I am at any given point in time and know full well what my limits are. The same goes for all the friends I am happy to associate with. We have a really good time without the need to feel we have to get blootered out of our skulls first or at any time at all when we are out having fun. And that's in a country which produces whisky - the best golden nectar in the word! Shame I'm not too keen on it, but there you go!

It really is sad for this forum when some people feel it necessary to insult other contributors in here, and use abusive terms directed at others.

Putting aside the use of their own spelling forms, one thing is quite apparent in this Forum is that on average the Americans express themselves very well in our Language, and their posts are often better presented and contain far fewer errors of spelling and syntax than those of some of my own countrymen.

The same goes for their verbal expression during random interviews in the streets of the USA we see on TV - generally quite fluent compared with the stumbling, faltering and sometimes almost inarticulate efforts of their equivalent over here. Perhaps that may be down to intoxication....... ;-(

burglarize RIGHT
burglarise WRONG

<burglarize RIGHT
burglarise WRONG >

Correct. Only because the word 'burglarize' doesn't exist in the British English lexicon.