British spellings in the US (or why color/colour?)

[Slartibartfast]

Oh forgot to add, some spellings are used in different situations. Spanky used programme, now this is the UK spelling which is used in the UK for a TV programme or a finance programme etc. But a computer version is a program, spelt the US way. Same goes for disc and disk. A CD is a compact disc. A hard drive is a hard disk. It's actually useful to put context into the words so you know what you're dealing with.

I absolutely hate when people spell disK for any flat round thing, like a CD or vinyl record. Disk is short for diskette (and they are rarely circular!), disC is for any flat round thing.

[Boba Fett]

In our country:

2001.09.11.

Strange isn't it? But who cares until it's understadable...

[Zaia]

This has come up in a few other threads and I was curious:

Why do some members, specifically Americans living in the US, choose to use the British spellings of words?

It's a little piece of Australia.

If you do use "colour" rather than "color", do you also use British words in place of American words, like crisps instead of chips? post instead of mail? ring instead of phone?

Yes I do, when I feel like it. Some of my American friends tease me about that, actually.

[Sir Sirius]

About Aluminium and spelling http://www.vanderkrogt.net/elements/elem/al.html.

[Admiral Valdemar]

About Aluminium and spelling http://www.vanderkrogt.net/elements/elem/al.html.

So really it's just America being different again.

[RedImperator]

I use "sabre" and "grey", but other than that I stick to American spellings (so far as I'm aware of). And I picked up writing the date as "6 February 2003" instead of "February 6, 2003" from an ex girlfriend of mine who happened to be in the Navy ROTC program, where they used the day/month/year format.

[InnerBrat]

dd/mm/yyyy just makes more sense. It's in a specific order of timespan.

[Ted]

As to the spelling itself, I prefer American spelling, because it's closer to the phonetic pronunciation of the word.

Do you then pronounce colour as COLON with an r replacing the n?

If you pronounce it as it's spelt, the yankee way is literally anal. Colon with an r.

[InnerBrat]

Back to aluminium: Not to mention the fact that _*/_*/_ is a much more pleasing rhythm than *_/**

[Kuja]

Why do some members, specifically Americans living in the US, choose to use the British spellings of words?

If you do use "colour" rather than "color", do you also use British words in place of American words, like crisps instead of chips? post instead of mail? ring instead of phone?

Nope. I bastardize the British language every chance I get.

[ArmorPierce]

I sometimes use s instead of z, depends on my mood

[Admiral Valdemar]

Freshers week last year, was on a bus back from town and a group of Americans asked me which mobile (read: cellphone) company they should go with. I told them O2 or Orange, and then they asked why everyone here uses Nokia phones.

Knock-ia. That is how you pronounce the Finnish name. Not Know-kiA. AARGH! Sorry, I had to stifle a snicker when I heard the guy say it first time, he was otherwise a normal Yank and very polite. Or was he Canadian? Bah, they all sound the same.

*Hides from thrown missile*

[Keevan_Colton]

In our country:

2001.09.11.

Strange isn't it? But who cares until it's understadable...

Its a logical structure....

Day month year a sort of ascending way....
Year month day is similarly logical...descending.....
Month day year is somewhat stupid....but thats a matter of personal taste....

I only use the american saber when referring to lightsabers since that is the spelling used in star wars and doesnt refer to a real sword....sabre is the real word for the real world.

[Admiral Valdemar]

The international timecode is year/month/day I believe, but date/month/year works for me. I only ever say the date like February 6th rarely, it's usually 6th February and so on.

[Cyborg Stan]

Uhhh..... I think that it's actually lightsabre in Star Wars, and both spellings can be used IRL.

See A Brief Note on Spelling on Robert Brown's site.

[Keevan_Colton]

Uhhh..... I think that it's actually lightsabre in Star Wars, and both spellings can be used IRL.

See A Brief Note on Spelling on Robert Brown's site.

In all the star wars books and the novelizations its lightsaber....at least all the ones I have....though my friend matt informs me that the DVD subtitles use a sabre ending to the word which is much much better....

[Admiral Valdemar]

Uhhh..... I think that it's actually lightsabre in Star Wars, and both spellings can be used IRL.

See A Brief Note on Spelling on Robert Brown's site.

In all the star wars books and the novelizations its lightsaber....at least all the ones I have....though my friend matt informs me that the DVD subtitles use a sabre ending to the word which is much much better....

yeah but the novels are all done by Americans who have no real input from Lucas on the way he spells things.

[Keevan_Colton]

Uhhh..... I think that it's actually lightsabre in Star Wars, and both spellings can be used IRL.

See A Brief Note on Spelling on Robert Brown's site.

In all the star wars books and the novelizations its lightsaber....at least all the ones I have....though my friend matt informs me that the DVD subtitles use a sabre ending to the word which is much much better....

yeah but the novels are all done by Americans who have no real input from Lucas on the way he spells things.

Of course....it hasnt really anything in common with a sabre....so.....

Except for Doku's horrible one and his horrible style (which is really an american style so saber would be right) there's nothing much to do with a real sabre's there....

A sabre is a cavalry weapon...usually slightly curved with a decent knuckle guard, and single edged except for at the tip......

[TheDarkOne]

I beleive its written month/day/year, as short hand because thats the order its(generally) writen it out in long. EX Feburary 6, 2003

[Keevan_Colton]

I beleive its written month/day/year, as short hand because thats the order its(generally) writen it out in long. EX Feburary 6, 2003

Or today is the sixth of feburary two thousand and three......

The full logical way of writing it out is that.....the Feburary 6, 2003 is just a slightly longer shorthand version.

[Admiral Valdemar]

In all the star wars books and the novelizations its lightsaber....at least all the ones I have....though my friend matt informs me that the DVD subtitles use a sabre ending to the word which is much much better....

yeah but the novels are all done by Americans who have no real input from Lucas on the way he spells things.

Of course....it hasnt really anything in common with a sabre....so.....

Except for Doku's horrible one and his horrible style (which is really an american style so saber would be right) there's nothing much to do with a real sabre's there....

A sabre is a cavalry weapon...usually slightly curved with a decent knuckle guard, and single edged except for at the tip......

I believe Dooku's more akin to a fencing arm, since Lee is an avid fencer he can use the special hilt to disable opponents easier in close combat than normal sabres.

[Keevan_Colton]

yeah but the novels are all done by Americans who have no real input from Lucas on the way he spells things.

Of course....it hasnt really anything in common with a sabre....so.....

Except for Doku's horrible one and his horrible style (which is really an american style so saber would be right) there's nothing much to do with a real sabre's there....

A sabre is a cavalry weapon...usually slightly curved with a decent knuckle guard, and single edged except for at the tip......

I believe Dooku's more akin to a fencing arm, since Lee is an avid fencer he can use the special hilt to disable opponents easier in close combat than normal sabres.

It has a fencing sabre style grip which is descended from the cavalry sabre of years gone by...but...the style he was using in the film smacked mostly of West Point the most god awful style of sword use on the planet....though I dont hold it against Lee in the least given his age his performance was impressive....but....I do hold it against Dooku....he's supposedly one of the greatest lightsabre duelists in the galaxy....outclassing Obi-wan who was supposed to be ebhind only Yoda and Mace Windu in his abilities....with a technique that is so well....useless....

[Darth Yoshi]

I beleive its written month/day/year, as short hand because thats the order its(generally) writen it out in long. EX Feburary 6, 2003

BBC writes it 6 February 2003. And I generally use American spellings, 'cause that's what I was raised with, but for dates I use the dd/mm/yy method.

[Perinquus]

As to the spelling itself, I prefer American spelling, because it's closer to the phonetic pronunciation of the word.

Do you then pronounce colour as COLON with an r replacing the n?

If you pronounce it as it's spelt, the yankee way is literally anal. Colon with an r.

Sorry, but this complaint is just stupid. I could equally well argue that if you pronouced colour as it's spelt, you'd end up pronouncing it as though the last syllable rhymed with flour or sour. Besides, American spelling of words like honor and favor and color, etc. simply returns them to the exact same spelling as the Latin originals which we English speakers borrowed, with no useless, extra, silent letters. I suppose you think the Romans were just "anal" for spelling color "color".

American spelling is closer to the phonetic pronunciation. Deal with it. Program needs no extra m and silent e. Centre, if you pronounced it phonetically as it's spelled would come out just like sentry, so center is more logical.

[HemlockGrey]

I use 'grey' and have been known to speak of a 'flat'. That's about it.

The British language holds all sorts of nasty suprises. Like 'black pudding' which may not be black but is definetly not a pudding. -shudder-

Same goes for Yorkshire pudding, but I actually like Yorkshire pudding, despite it's being a pastry, not a pudding.