NationStates Jolt Archive

In the following sentence, "defence" is not the correct spelling.

The large government juggles the competing demands of Religion & Spirituality, Law & Order, and Defence.

The correct spelling should read "defense."

Just like "The US Department of Defense" (http://www.defenselink.mil)

Uh ... Adam Doyle, mate, there's a great big world out here, and large portions of it don't use American spelling.

Among them, Australia. And since the site was started by an Australian, who also wrote many of the early issues, you'll find quite a bit of perfectly correct Australian spelling. For example, "defence". And "flavour". And "realise". We even use "practise" as a verb and "practice" as a noun.

What's more, in their wilder moments, the Brits do the same sort of thing. The NZedders, too. And who knows what English-speaking Indians or South Africans get up to in the privacy of their dictionaries?

There are typos in the game, though. That's just not one of them.

Uh ... Adam Doyle, mate, there's a great big world out here, and large portions of it don't use American spelling.

Among them, Australia. And since the site was started by an Australian, who also wrote many of the early issues, you'll find quite a bit of perfectly correct Australian spelling. For example, "defence". And "flavour". And "realise". We even use "practise" as a verb and "practice" as a noun.

What's more, in their wilder moments, the Brits do the same sort of thing. The NZedders, too. And who knows what English-speaking Indians or South Africans get up to in the privacy of their dictionaries?

There are typos in the game, though. That's just not one of them.

Good one. :D Adam Doyle, it is strange that your first post to these forums points out a typo (which actually wasn´t one). Though there´s nothing bad with strange. :rolleyes:

It's interesting I didn't catch that Max Barry was Australian. I read quite a bit of C.S. Lewis and see British alterations (yes, I realize it was actually us, the Americans who altered it) very often. I take it Australian deviations in spelling are very similar to British ones. Believe it or not, I actually knew that "defence" was an alternate spelling, but the presupposition I held that Barry was American caused me to assume the deviation a typo. I apologize for my limited, American scope.

(and for the record, the only reason I'm participating in this game is because my Government teacher is making me - it's a graded assignment - and the only reason I posted that [non]-typo is because typos make me cringe...)

Sorry I was snide. We do get an awful lot of "But sensible people do it the Amurrican way!" posts, because American posters outnumber the rest of us. That means they overwhelm the "But why can't you do it properly, like Australians/Canadians/NZedders/Pommies?" posts. But I shouldn't have taken my cultural cringe out on you.

Especially when I sympathise with your automatic wincing at typos; I suffer the same disability.

Anyway, bear with it. You might even come to find us tolerable.

NZedders, is that only used on the east side of OZ ?

I hate typos.

As an American who uses British spellings in my writing, (mainly to annoy my old teachers who could not mark me wrong on Colour, Honour, and Defence since I did consistantly spell it thus and could back up my consistancy on the matter.) I do find it interesting that most people do not realize that Americans spell many words wrong. Along with driving on the wrong side of the road.

NZedders, is that only used on the east side of OZ ?

I dunno what the crow-eaters call 'em, but I couldn't use the sheep-related term we actually use here in the convict states without starting an online brawl, and I didn't want to condemn them to being "N-Zeers". :D

Yes I locked it. Yes that's mean. New Year's "I will not spam" resolution.

Americans spell many words wrong.Er. No. Differently, not wrong.