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Post by pjthefey on Jun 12, 2011 5:42:45 GMT -5
I use a mish-mash of American and Canadian spellings, because I lived for 10 years in the States. Old habits. However, my web browsers are constantly giving me the red squiggles for American spellings, so I find myself getting more Canadian as time goes on. I hate the red squiggles. There are... Canadian spellings? I know the accent but I didn't know they actually spelled words differently. |
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Post by KatjevanLoon on Jun 12, 2011 6:07:57 GMT -5
I use a mish-mash of American and Canadian spellings, because I lived for 10 years in the States. Old habits. However, my web browsers are constantly giving me the red squiggles for American spellings, so I find myself getting more Canadian as time goes on. I hate the red squiggles. There are... Canadian spellings? I know the accent but I didn't know they actually spelled words differently. Yep. Canadian English is a hybrid of British and American Englishes that's also influenced by French and various First Nations languages. |
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Post by rockthefetish on Jun 22, 2011 23:12:18 GMT -5
Technically, a lot of English sticklers consider it wrong to use an English from outside of the country in which you're writing, regardless of what your preference or education was. So even though I think British English often looks nicer, I've always felt it's a safer bet as an American to stick with American spelling when writing formally. This does not dictate my conduct in text messages, however. This. I have actually gotten marked down in essays for using British spellings. It's better to be safe with things like that. Any other time, I couldn't care less. |
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adeia
Armadillo Pup
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Post by adeia on Jun 23, 2011 10:17:41 GMT -5
I have heard it said that "theater" is used to describe the building, and "theatre" to describe the art that takes place therein. Personally, I prefer to use the latter for everything -- it simply gives me happy feelings -- but meaning isn't harmed by the interchanging of them, so long as the writer is consistent. My college's theatre department spelled it "theatre," and I think there is general movement towards that spelling in the theatre world. I do generally refer to movie theaters as "theaters," though. I think there is something to be said for theater referring to buildings and theatre referring to the art. I think that stateside, it's moving into theater referring to the movies and theatre referring to the arts, building and all. |
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WhatIf
Armadillo Pup
Posts: 40
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Post by WhatIf on Jun 24, 2011 13:36:20 GMT -5
I prefer to write the British way when possible. I believe it's because America disappoints me.
I would ask if that's okay, though, before turning in an essay written with British spellings.
"Theater" seems wrong when talking about stages and "theatre" seems wrong when talking about movies. The first one is so... impersonal, or something like that. It's a word and it's a building. Theatre, though, is an intimate word. An old word. One that should belong to an art and nothing else.
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badger
Armadillo Pup
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Post by badger on Jul 20, 2011 3:00:47 GMT -5
The annoying thing about Australian English is that we can't seem to make up our minds which spellings to use. I use all British spellings, which seems to confuse people sometimes (I used 'gaol' once and it took a lot of convincing for people to believe it's the same as 'jail',) and the American spellings mostly seem wrong to me. They look wrong and I don't like them at all, but a lot of people have been taught to use them anyway.
It gets up my nose a bit when people use American spellings not because they were taught to, but because they're too lazy to. Is it really that hard to press the 'u' key?
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Post by onlyaworkingtitle on Jul 20, 2011 4:17:35 GMT -5
It gets up my nose a bit when people use American spellings not because they were taught to, but because they're too lazy to. Is it really that hard to press the 'u' key? It gets up my nose a bit when people use British spellings not because they were taught to, but because they think it makes them look smarter. |
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rayyychul
Armadillo
On ne voit bien qu'avec le c?ur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.
Posts: 159
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Post by rayyychul on Jul 20, 2011 13:48:16 GMT -5
If that's the case, I'd be talking to your professor or teacher about it. I wouldn't stand for being marked down for using untraditional spellings. It's not wrong, it's just different - the only way it can be "wrong" is if you use both throughout your paper, which can lead to confusion.
I'm in Canadian, but had an American TA last semester (his first semester in Canada, teaching Canadian History... oh boy). It was a battle to get him to stop taking marks off for spellings that he didn't recognise - anything with double consonants (travelled; counselled; controlling) and words ending in "re" (theatre; centre) were big ones.
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Post by Dodger Thirteen on Jul 20, 2011 13:54:11 GMT -5
Yeah, I spell it "travelled" and I spell it "cancelled", too. The single L just has me staring at the screen wondering if it's correct or not.
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Post by tosney on Jul 21, 2011 15:31:27 GMT -5
I'm in an international program that tends to use British English in papers and procedures and things, so even though we're American, our class has become rather mish-mashy with our spellings and pronunciation (Hey, the British 'aluminium' is just fun to say).
I enjoy playing with language and messing with spelling and pronunciation and ways to say things, so I enjoy absorbing both and have fun with it. It's just learning, evolving, and playing with language. Whatever someone wants!
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