NationStates Jolt Archive

I was reading today and came across the word "realised" Being from the United States, I had to pause at that word and then continue, because I'm so used to seeing the word spelt "realized"

And the thing is that I read the British spelling ("realised") a lot, so I would think that I would be used to seeing it and would not need to pause.

And there are a lot of other wods like that.

Anyone else notice that, or am I crazy?

Not crazy. Drunk perhaps, but not crazy.

I spell it "realized", but I probably wouldn't notice if someone spelled it with an "s".

I always pause at the spelling of "shoppe." I read it as "shoppy." *shrugs*

Well, I think you are crazy, but thats IMO. :p


Naw I that all the time. So, in order to avoid confusion, I Briticize my spelling, except for the words with "z" in it. It seems to akward to change those.

I've been told just to stick to one or the other spelling. So if you are going to spell it 'realise' instead of 'realize' then continue on with specialise, socialise, etc. As long as you're consistant, it shouldn't be a problem. And I'm an 's' rather than a 'z' type speller.

I always pause at the spelling of "shoppe." I read it as "shoppy." *shrugs*

Oh the curse of over-simplified phonetics taught in school.

I actually don't bother its all the same word in fact I’ve never even bothered noticing

Though Z is a far cooler letter to use:cool:

No pause, usually Z

And yeah, I read "shoppy".

Problem can be that, in British English, some words should actually have a 'z', but people have become conditioned into always using 's' in those situations. Although, I agree, consistency is favourable.

No pause, usually Z

And yeah, I read "shoppy".


Ye Olde Shoppe= Ye Oldie Shoppy?

I pause sometimes, but not out of confusion - just to laugh at the inappropriateness of the letter zed being in that word.

Ye Olde Shoppe= Ye Oldie Shoppy?

Yep.

I pause sometimes, but not out of confusion - just to laugh at the inappropriateness of the letter zed being in that word.


Noo!!!!!:gundge: :sniper: :mp5: :D

I pause sometimes, but not out of confusion - just to laugh at the inappropriateness of the letter zed being in that word.

Eh-oh. The barriers between realities are crumbling.

Yep.

You are an odd little man ;)

i never even notice. even when reading books written and published in the UK.

You are an odd little man ;)

*shrug* They just spell things weird.

Problem can be that, in British English, some words should actually have a 'z', but people have become conditioned into always using 's' in those situations. Although, I agree, consistency is favourable.

Yeah, I try to use "z" but my teachers are like "ZOMG TEH EBIL AMERICANISM!" :(

Problem can be that, in British English, some words should actually have a 'z', but people have become conditioned into always using 's' in those situations. Although, I agree, consistency is favourable.

Don't you mean "conziztency is favorable?"

St Jello Biafra;11980467']Don't you mean "conziztency is favorable?"

No, 'conziztenzy iz favorable'.

St Jello Biafra;11980467']Don't you mean "conziztency is favorable?"

The s/z thing only applies to words with specific endings, such as ise/ize.

I bet you don't put a "u" in colour do you? Crazy people.

No, 'conziztenzy iz favorable'.

No no no!

'Counsistencie is favourable.'

Noo!!!!!:gundge: :sniper: :mp5: :D

BETTER ZED THAN DEAD!!!

<Heroic last words/>

Problem can be that, in British English, some words should actually have a 'z', but people have become conditioned into always using 's' in those situations. Although, I agree, consistency is favourable.
That's the nice thing about being Canadian, you can borrow bits of American and British English to suit your needs!

I sorta switch back and forth between US and Commonwealth spelling at random, unless it's for something official in which case I might make more effort to stick to commonwealth. I'm fairly consistent in using color instead of colour though.

In typing I use Realize, in writing I use realise. Just because I hate writing Zs, I have to "draw" them rather than write them.

After highschool I fell out of the habit of writing anything, I'd just type, so when I got a job that required a lot of writing I ended up drawing the letters, I can write them without pause anymore, but not Z. Rarely have occasion to use Z.

I bet you don't put a "u" in colour do you? Crazy people.

Nope, we don't see a need to clutter words with useless letters.:p

In Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand the commonwealth spelling is generally used. Since it predates modern American spellings, it can't really be considered "wrong" any more than the ridiculous inconsistencies of Old English were wrong. Fortunately, the commonwealth rules aren't too complex. Colour and favour instead of color and favor, centre instead of center, 'ise' instead of 'ize'... oh, and also 'gaoler' instead of 'jailer,' but I think the American spelling is going to win out on that one.

Seriously. Gaoler? What the hell is that?

Also, it is American convention to put punctuation inside quotes, whereas in the commonwealth convention punctuation is only included in quotes if it belongs to the phrase being quoted.

American: Why did he say "The one in the center is my favorite?" He should realize that he's the real "poop-head," no matter what ice cream he prefers.
Commonwealth: Why did he say "The one in the centre is my favourite"? He should realise that he's the real "poop-head", no matter what ice cream he prefers.

That's the nice thing about being Canadian, you can borrow bits of American and British English to suit your needs!
Though that doesn't always work. Canadians use the "ise" ending even more than the English do - it's probably borrowed from the French word "iser".

Also, it is American convention to put punctuation inside quotes, whereas in the commonwealth convention punctuation is only included in quotes if it belongs to the phrase being quoted.

American: Why did he say "The one in the center is my favorite?" He should realize that he's the real "poop-head," no matter what ice cream he prefers.
Commonwealth: Why did he say "The one in the centre is my favourite"? He should realise that he's the real "poop-head", no matter what ice cream he prefers.
In most cases, the English punctuation rules lead to much more precise sentences. The misplaced punctuation inside quotations, or the lack of a serial comma often make American sentences ambiguous.

I don't ever recall being taught to place punctuation applicable to the sentence in general inside quotation marks, unless appropriate for what was being quoted.

What you listed as Commonwealth is exactly as I was taught over the course of my education in California (aside from the spelling differences).

i spell it "realise", and consider that to be the only correct spelling of the word.

i spell it "realise", and consider that to be the only correct spelling of the word.

Well that, sir, is incorrect. As much as I think the Brits spell things funny, both spellings used are still correct spellings.

Also, it is American convention to put punctuation inside quotes, whereas in the commonwealth convention punctuation is only included in quotes if it belongs to the phrase being quoted.

American: Why did he say "The one in the center is my favorite?" He should realize that he's the real "poop-head," no matter what ice cream he prefers.
Commonwealth: Why did he say "The one in the centre is my favourite"? He should realise that he's the real "poop-head", no matter what ice cream he prefers.

I've never seen anyone write it that way. Usually, I would see; Why did he say, "The one in the center is my favorite." No question mark used.

And its been he's a real "poop-head", no matter-- See that here all the time too. So I have no idea what you are talking about.

:confused: I use "realize" when writing, being American, but on exclusively British sites, I am quick to change to "realise" (and quick to change back when I leave)


<insert a violent criminal here> :sniper:

:confused: I use "realize" when writing, being American, but on exclusively British sites, I am quick to change to "realise" (and quick to change back when I leave)


<insert a violent criminal here> :sniper:

does that last part have anything to do with

Well that, sir, is incorrect. As much as I think the Brits spell things funny, both spellings used are still correct spellings.

opinions cannot be right or wrong.

opinions cannot be right or wrong.
Of course they can. If it's your opinion that arsenic isn't poisonous (perhaps because your religion told you so), that doesn't mean you can consume arsenic without being poisoned. It just means you're an idiot.

haha! So I'm not crazy! It can be spelled with an s.

I spelled it with an s once and had people jumping all over me to change it to a z.

Though that doesn't always work. Canadians use the "ise" ending even more than the English do - it's probably borrowed from the French word "iser".
We use it more, but, I've also see liberal use of "ize".

Of course they can. If it's your opinion that arsenic isn't poisonous (perhaps because your religion told you so), that doesn't mean you can consume arsenic without being poisoned. It just means you're an idiot.

opinion =/= guess

Ye Olde Shoppe= Ye Oldie Shoppy?

Erm, no.

Ye Olde Shoppe = The old shop.

The letter 'y' was commonly used up to the nineteenth century to denote 'th', simply because it was quicker to write. It's a bastard to read, though, especially when they used 'y' for 'i' as well. Though that doesn't mean they would spell 'this' as 'yys'. It'd be 'thys', or sometimes 'this'.

And I think there was a vague standard whereby a final consonant after a vowel would be doubled and have an 'e' placed on the end, as emphasis. With a final consonant after another consonant, you'd just put the 'e'. Of course, it was frequently left as is, but in the twentieth century people liked to assume superiority over their forebears in anyway they could, and trying to make pre-20th century language seem quaint was one way they did this.

i alwas use 's' unless my spell checker refuses to recognise it and even then i often ignore it, except if i'm quoting something. however, i don't know if there is any spelling rule about where in english english you should use 's' or 'z' so i often hesitate. my english english spell-checker seems to think there are some words that use a 'z' whereas as far as i'm aware and american english spell-checker would always tell you to use 'z'.

I was under the impression that "shoppe" was spelt as such because:
i) chaucherian types tended to add and e on the end if they had extra space left at the end of a line in terms of prinint in order to get the maximum amount of ink they could out of the printers. ii) to make clear the "shope" which one would pronounce logically "show (as in a production)-p" meant the shop; the glottal stop indicated by the double consonant would make the pronounciation clearer.

Just a theory. Please don't kill me. :eek: :p

I spell with Z. I'm an American [shrugs]. Of course, I also kinda like the letter Z, as when I'm handwriting it, I always put a dash in the middle, because it well, looks cooler (and it makes it distinct from my very angular "2").

i think i must be alone in initially reading 'shoppe' as 'shoap' with an emphasised 'p' at the end. i realise it's incorrect but that's always how i sound it in my head before i read it. i've always had some difficulty with some pronounciations.

Orthography gets internalized pretty well if a person reads and writes enough, so any variation raises the 'misspelled' red flag in the brain and causes pause.

I had an Australian colleague who used to give me her vocabulary list to make sure she'd used American spellings (my school is in NY). :D

When in Rome....

I had an Australian colleague who used to give me her vocabulary list to make sure she'd used American spellings (my school is in NY). :D

When in Rome....
Makes sense. If I were ever to work in America, I would use American spellings just to make it easy. My language isn't so important to me that I'd refuse to change, and I'd hope that other people would think the same. Although obviously they don't.

I had an Australian colleague who used to give me her vocabulary list to make sure she'd used American spellings (my school is in NY). :D

When in Rome....

one of my tutors in 1st year archaeology seminars was american but she insisted that everyone use british spellings in our essays and would mark us down if we didn't. i was surprised that she was that bothered. but, as you say, when in rome...

I am an American, but generally use the letter "s" rather than "z". This is really only because I find it to be more aesthetically pleasing to spell with an "s".

Meh.
You soon realize its all the same in your mind.

I use the British/Commonwealthe spelling, eg: realise, colour, centre, through, night, etc.

I notice when I'm reading something with American spelling, but it only really makes me pause when I come across "gray" instead of "grey" and "liter" instead of "litre". For some reason, I always read "liter" as "lighter".

I use the British/Commonwealthe spelling, eg: realise, colour, centre, through, night, etc.

I notice when I'm reading something with American spelling, but it only really makes me pause when I come across "gray" instead of "grey" and "liter" instead of "litre". For some reason, I always read "liter" as "lighter".

Then we're even, because 'litre' reads as 'lightray' to me.

Then we're even, because 'litre' reads as 'lightray' to me.

Or it could also be pronounced "lit-chray". :eek:

opinion =/= guess

In this particular case your opinion is, in fact, wrong. If someone spelled the word "realize" and you told them that that was an incorrect spelling, you would be wrong, your opinion nonwithstanding. People need to get over this happy Sesame Street bullshit that everyone is entitled to their opinions and all opinions are equally valid and right. Opinions can be wrong.

Then we're even, because 'litre' reads as 'lightray' to me.
How about we spell it 'leeter'. Or 1337er...

How about we spell it 'leeter'. Or 1337er...

I would say leet-reh.

I use the British/Commonwealthe spelling, eg: realise, colour, centre, through, night, etc.

I'm not aware of any other way to spell those.

I use Commonwealth spellings sometimes, and US spellings other times. It depends, although I make sure to use the US spellings when doing things for school.

I'm not aware of any other way to spell those.

I use Commonwealth spellings sometimes, and US spellings other times. It depends, although I make sure to use the US spellings when doing things for school.

Perhaps 'thru' and 'nite', although 'thru' is more of an abbreviation, and I never saw 'nite' as an American thing...

I use British spelling (as is proper in my location). Amusingly, this led to an angry poster in one exchange (on NSG), 'correcting' (in bold type) my 'errors' when they quoted me. When I ignored this bait they eventually made an explicit remark about my spelling.

Given the boards are hosted in the UK (Brit spelling), owned by an Aussie (Brit spelling) and I'm from NZ, (Brit spelling), I was laughing too hard to point out that changing my (correct) Brit spelling to US spelling isnt in such a context a correction at all.:D

I personally dont mind which spelling people use. It's probably a fifty/fifty split between the Brit published books and the US published books that I read, so neither spelling gives me pause when I'm reading it, but I'm much more comfortable spelling in the Brit way myself.

I prefer "realize" just my style I like....

Perhaps 'thru' and 'nite', although 'thru' is more of an abbreviation, and I never saw 'nite' as an American thing...

Yep, that's what I meant. Are they standard American spelling?

Nope, we don't see a need to clutter words with useless letters.:p

Well there are five in that sentence alone.

As to the ize/ise - it depends on the market for the text I am writing/translating.

If it is for the US i use ize, otherwise I use ise.

Well there are five in that sentence alone.

As to the ize/ise - it depends on the market for the text I am writing/translating.

If it is for the US i use ize, otherwise I use ise.
The 'e' at the end of nop is not useless, it changes the sound of the 'o' (so that nope rhymes with dope instead of mop), there are two 't's in clutter because the word is clut-ter' not clu-ter or clut-er.

The 'e' at the end of nop is not useless, it changes the sound of the 'o' (so that nope rhymes with dope instead of mop), there are two 't's in clutter because the word is clut-ter' not clu-ter or clut-er.

try nôp for size then, and I for one have never referred to the clut-ter in my study. The word clutter is pronounced clut-er.

try nôp for size then,

Why would I when I have the letter 'e'. You signalled it as useless in the sentence it was used in, it served a purpose so it's not useless, even if some other thing could serve the same purpose were it used instead.

and I for one have never referred to the clut-ter in my study. The word clutter is pronounced clut-er.
That may be how you pronounce clutter, but it is not how I pronounce clutter. I pronounce clutter as it is spelled - 'clut-ter'.

Why would I when I have the letter 'e'. You signalled it as useless in the sentence it was used in, it served a purpose so it's not useless, even if some other thing could serve the same purpose were it used instead.


That may be how you pronounce clutter, but it is not how I pronounce clutter. I pronounce clutter as it is spelled - 'clut-ter'.

The e is useless in the sentence it was used in, as it is not pronounced. It is an 'unnecessary' letter in exactly the same way that the u in neighbour is unnecessary. (It changes the final syllable from an or sound to an ur sound). This is the point I was making. That apparently unnecessary letters are there for a reason (usually).

And I can not be held responsible for you pronouncing clutter in an idiosyncratic manner.

Yep, that's what I meant. Are they standard American spelling?

Not at all. Dictionary.com says they're shortened, informal spellings. I've only seen "nite" on TV and "thru" on road signs when space is at a premium. I've never thought of them as proper spellings for the words.

The e is useless in the sentence it was used in, as it is not pronounced.
Non-sequitor. You have not demonstrated that things or letters are only useful if they are prononced. What next, capitalisation serves no purpose because we dont pronounce it? It serves a purpose in the sentence, things that are serving purposes are not being useless.

It is an 'unnecessary' letter in exactly the same way that the u in neighbour is unnecessary. (It changes the final syllable from an or sound to an ur sound).
If it changes the pronounciation, then it isnt unnecessary.

This is the point I was making. That apparently unnecessary letters are there for a reason (usually).
Really? Well I dont think anyone but you realised you were making that point. I'm at a loss to understand how your last post fits with such a point. Seems in fact we are making the same point....although I'd never have known based on your earlier two posts, or the first sentence of this post either.
Is that the same point you are making with 'clutter' which you still insist (contrary to such a point) includes an unpronounced t that apparently doesnt effect the pronounciation at all (as you pronounce the word)?

And I can not be held responsible for you pronouncing clutter in an idiosyncratic manner.
I pronounce it as it is spelled. I cannot be held responsible if you pronounce it in an idosyncratic and lazy manner.

I once stood dumbstruck looking at a sign that was clearly marked "library". I stumbled over it, labouring under the sudden misapprehension that this room had something to do with astrology and the signs of the zodiac. Took me the better part of a minute to twig to what should have been plain as day.

Not at all. Dictionary.com says they're shortened, informal spellings. I've only seen "nite" on TV and "thru" on road signs when space is at a premium. I've never thought of them as proper spellings for the words.

Thanks, my mistake then.

Given the boards are hosted in the UK (Brit spelling), owned by an Aussie (Brit spelling) and I'm from NZ, (Brit spelling), I was laughing too hard to point out that changing my (correct) Brit spelling to US spelling isnt in such a context a correction at all.:D

I didn't know that!

Yep, that's what I meant. Are they standard American spelling?

If they aren't now they will be soon.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y223/GermanNightmare/Realized.jpg

Guess NSG gives the answer eventually by itself?

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y223/GermanNightmare/Realized.jpg

Guess NSG gives the answer eventually by itself?
It's been like that again and again for two days now, it's driving me crazy!

It's been like that again and again for two days now, it's driving me crazy!
I'm so glad you've admitted to that... So it's not only me! Phew. :fluffle:

The e is useless in the sentence it was used in, as it is not pronounced.
English is not a phonetic language. Whether a letter is pronounced is irrelevant to its use in spelling.