If an American deliberately uses British spelling at school or college, is this marked as an error? I can understand American spelling being corrected in the UK or other parts of the English speaking world, because it is an innovation, but can you really consider the traditional spelling of English incorrect?
BrE spelling in the US
Yes, it is considered an error. I have (accidentally) used a British spelling and had it corrected in school multiple times.
<<Yes, it is considered an error. I have (accidentally) used a British spelling and had it corrected in school multiple times. >>
I would have contested that mark if I were you.
I routinely use spellings considered to be "British only", like 'judgement' instead of 'judgment'. Although the teacher/professor makes a comment about the British spelling, I have never had it count against me--nor should it ever have to--it's not incorrect.
The reason I spell judgement this way is in no attempt to appease any Britsh sensibilities--I merely learned it like this and have stuck with it. It just makes more logical sense to include the -e + suffix -ment because the -e is part of the whole word.
I would have contested that mark if I were you.
I routinely use spellings considered to be "British only", like 'judgement' instead of 'judgment'. Although the teacher/professor makes a comment about the British spelling, I have never had it count against me--nor should it ever have to--it's not incorrect.
The reason I spell judgement this way is in no attempt to appease any Britsh sensibilities--I merely learned it like this and have stuck with it. It just makes more logical sense to include the -e + suffix -ment because the -e is part of the whole word.
There is a weekdays daily program on Channel 4 TV here in the UK called "Countdown" in which two contestants compete with each other to find the longest word formed out of nine letters selected in turn by each of the two players who ask Carol Vorderman to put either a vowel or a consonant up on the board. The letter cards are chosen at random from two separte piles - one of vowels and the other of consonants - and it is up to each contestant whether Carol puts up either one or the other on the board each time. Once all nine letters are up the two contestants have 30 seconds to find the longest acceptable word from the jumble which appears in the Oxford English dictionary....the longer the word the more points you score.
One of the rules of the game is that American spellings are accepted.
eg
H E L R A O P S B (I selected these purely at random here - I can only find: Hero, Helps, Brash, Opals, Prose, Lapse, Poser, Sharp, Phase, Slope, Phrase.......can anyone find a niner?
As you would expect the occasional rude or even offensive word appears as Carol puts the selected letters up on the board in which case that particular game is scrubbed and they start up again with a different selection as the program is screened each weekday in mid affernoon.
Amazingly the game goes ahead sometimes even when you think they wouldn't allow it to do so, but if for example a letter T comes up after the letters S H I are up on the board then the game is scrapped. This happened on one occasion so they started up again with another selection. Even more amazingly in this other game the letter F followed the selection P O O. Those three letters alone were enough to send everyone in the studion into fits of laughter but when the F appeared that was it - everyone was helpless with laughter. Game scrapped again after one of the program producers minced up to the board in an exaggeratedly contrived camp manner and removed the four letters from the board.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-3N-AHQ5XA&feature=related
One of the rules of the game is that American spellings are accepted.
eg
H E L R A O P S B (I selected these purely at random here - I can only find: Hero, Helps, Brash, Opals, Prose, Lapse, Poser, Sharp, Phase, Slope, Phrase.......can anyone find a niner?
As you would expect the occasional rude or even offensive word appears as Carol puts the selected letters up on the board in which case that particular game is scrubbed and they start up again with a different selection as the program is screened each weekday in mid affernoon.
Amazingly the game goes ahead sometimes even when you think they wouldn't allow it to do so, but if for example a letter T comes up after the letters S H I are up on the board then the game is scrapped. This happened on one occasion so they started up again with another selection. Even more amazingly in this other game the letter F followed the selection P O O. Those three letters alone were enough to send everyone in the studion into fits of laughter but when the F appeared that was it - everyone was helpless with laughter. Game scrapped again after one of the program producers minced up to the board in an exaggeratedly contrived camp manner and removed the four letters from the board.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-3N-AHQ5XA&feature=related
They also do the numbers game as well as the conundrum. On one occasion Carol failed to get the exact figure in the arithmetical game - but a five year old lad in the audience managed to work it out for her and embarrassed her rotten!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VPwL9tbZ80&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VPwL9tbZ80&feature=related
I haven't tried it much, but I think high school teachers, at least, probably wouldn't be very tolerant of it. (College professors might, though, especially if they're at a college like mine that has a lot of international students.)
Ironically, one time I had a high school English teacher correct me for writing "dialog" rather than "dialogue" - the former being a case of a more-progressive-than-usual spelling that only has partial acceptance in the US.
Ironically, one time I had a high school English teacher correct me for writing "dialog" rather than "dialogue" - the former being a case of a more-progressive-than-usual spelling that only has partial acceptance in the US.
Carol mentioned a P45 right at the end of the clip - in Britain a P45 is a document you get handed to you by a former employer when you leave an employment - it contains details of your National Insurance number, your income tax code and full details of income tax you have had deducted from your salary/wages in the prevailing tax year in that employment. You then hand it into your new employers.
Actually, when you look at that selection of numbers on the board it really hits you right in the face almost immediately doesn't it - getting the 876. I can't believe that those two bloikes failed to get the exact sum worked out and even more amazingly Carol who really is a whizz kid in the numbers game. There must be a lesson there somewhere when a five year old brain is the only one in the whole studio to work out what is really a very easy working out.
<<appease any Britsh sensibilities>>
>>'appeal not appease<<
Eh, you were right the first time, surely?
>>'appeal not appease<<
Eh, you were right the first time, surely?
<<Or maybe you meant 'appeal to'. >>
Yes and no--I had originally typed "appease", but then thought, wait a minute--I don't need to appease anyone, so I went back and changed part of the sentence without re-reading the entire sentence. Typical editing error (that's an oxymoron isn't it?;)
Yes and no--I had originally typed "appease", but then thought, wait a minute--I don't need to appease anyone, so I went back and changed part of the sentence without re-reading the entire sentence. Typical editing error (that's an oxymoron isn't it?;)
Leasnam
Well, have you read about the British Professor who has been in the press recently, because he thinks we should just do away with English spelling altogther? He thinks text messaging spelling is the way to go, and that people should just spell phonetically, i.e. how they (personally) think the word sounds. Imagine how our English language would look on paper, and I say our English language, because I consider the American spelling variations as an extremely minimal alteration. Personally I consider some of the American spellings (few as they are) slightly ugly, but that's probably only because of what I am used to. Anyway I am one of those who thinks, spelling aside, that the American use of the language is at times more elegant. I'm thinking of the subjunctive especially, much discussed here, but I dismay when I read in the English press something like:
'He insisted she went with him' instead of 'He insisted she go with him' (which actually has a totally different meaning). Granted you will sometimes see the subjunctive used, but it's pretty haphazard as to when it is. Limited though the use of the subjunctive is in any English dialect (and it certainly can't be expressed in all persons and tenses), I feel the Americans have preserved a greater clarity by using it consistently. But because English speakers in general are so oblivious to grammar, few BrE speakers even recognise that they have forgone such a significant grammatical feature, they just focus on minor spelling differences.
Well, have you read about the British Professor who has been in the press recently, because he thinks we should just do away with English spelling altogther? He thinks text messaging spelling is the way to go, and that people should just spell phonetically, i.e. how they (personally) think the word sounds. Imagine how our English language would look on paper, and I say our English language, because I consider the American spelling variations as an extremely minimal alteration. Personally I consider some of the American spellings (few as they are) slightly ugly, but that's probably only because of what I am used to. Anyway I am one of those who thinks, spelling aside, that the American use of the language is at times more elegant. I'm thinking of the subjunctive especially, much discussed here, but I dismay when I read in the English press something like:
'He insisted she went with him' instead of 'He insisted she go with him' (which actually has a totally different meaning). Granted you will sometimes see the subjunctive used, but it's pretty haphazard as to when it is. Limited though the use of the subjunctive is in any English dialect (and it certainly can't be expressed in all persons and tenses), I feel the Americans have preserved a greater clarity by using it consistently. But because English speakers in general are so oblivious to grammar, few BrE speakers even recognise that they have forgone such a significant grammatical feature, they just focus on minor spelling differences.