Non Americans: Does seeing American English bother you?

[KoalaKid]

My complaint is not in how one spells a word in English, but in how English words are spelled. It's useless to squabble over the spellings of words that refuse to be spelled phonetically, its like arguing over who spells the word the least unreasonably.

 

[Blue Hero]

I use a combination of American English and British English. I use the ou for words like favourite, honour, all that jazz, and I use Z in words like recognize (instead of recognise) because Z is a cool letter and doesn't get enough attention.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

I do find it a little annoying, but not as much as I find the way Americans pronounce some words. I'm an Australian, and I'm sick and tired of hearing yanks pronounce the 'u'. It's a-stralia, not aw-stralia. I do find the red line very annoying. I know what I'm saying, goddamnit!

*ahem*

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/australia

we are taught in a very detailed manner in school on pronunciation, so blame our system, not your average american


i'm sure for far more diverse languages, you butcher the hell out of saying their country name too, trying saying "india" to a local or saying "russia" to a russian in your normal accent, and see how dumbfounded they look at you.

Actually the 'u' words don't bother me.


It's when I see "gray" that I get upset D:<

For the longest time I actually thought those were two separate words. Gray for the color, Grey as a synonym of drab or dull.

actually as a kid growing up i had something similar, but more along the lines i had seen the spelling "grey" used as a last name dozens of times, so i just assumed it was like other last names where they took the color and had it as a last name also just with a different spelling. (my friends last name is braun, but in other languages that is the color brown)

 

[Rad Party God]

Absolutely no, I'm not bothered with it.

What I'm bothered with, is my fellow mexicans that do know english and can't (or don't want to) speak english properly.

 

[Watchmacallit]

The I have to tell them its the Americans that swapped it for god knows what reason.

It dates back to the Revolution. Because the States were originally English colonies they were essentially displaced Englishmen when the war ended. So over the intervening years between the end of the Revolution and the War of 1812, Americans changed spellings and small things to separate themselves from the British and give themselves a unique nationality.

It's actually a pretty interesting piece of history if that interests you.

I understand why they did it but it doesn't excuse the fact that it is stupid. I mean realise/realize...WHY?!?!!? If Australia becomes a republic I doubt that will happen. Even words like armour/armor...They realise that armor should be pronounced ar-mor. Considering English is the formation of several languages (German, Latin, French, Italian etc) and amore (Pronounce A-Mor-E (Italian)) is the closest resemblance to armor therefore armor is just wrong.

I REALISE that most of the English language is made up of inconsistencies and breaks its own rules (i before e except after c) but the Americans didn't have to make it worse.

Do you realise how tortuous it is living in Aus and being confused over how a word is spelt (I JUST HAD TO CHECK THAT I HAD SPELT RIGHT!!!!)? I have to use spell checker on computers just to make sure I'm not using American spelling, it doesn't help that spell checkers are by default set to American. I've lost marks for my Psych Essays because of it.

It is just really petty in my opinion. Changing things like that just doesn't make sense.


I'm sorry, but it was a petty move by the Americans and really doesn't help anyone at all. They just made the English language worse than it was.

 

[Stealthygamer]

what really pisses me off is in Arkansas, according to state law, it is illegal to speak English. The officially recognized language is "American".

 

[microhive]

When it comes to spelling correctly, yes. I prefer to spell colour, armour, anyhow, and so on. These minor changes sound like a pathetic excuse to be a bit different from GB English.

 

[teqrevisited]

A bit, but all languages have their deviations. I'll always use English spellings because that was what I was taught. I'm sure Americans will do the same. There's no problem there. It does bother me that the alphabet is now taught phonetically more often than the traditional method, though.

I never understood the problem with A B C, but more power to them if it helps rid the country of this plague of illiteracy that seems to go hand in hand with tracksuits and thievery.

 

[Kolby Jack]

I don't see the big deal over whether or not a completely superfluous "u" belongs in a word. The UK does not own the English language despite inventing it, nor do they own the United States. What seems more petty to you: a country that has removed itself from its former nation evolving its language along a separate path as a result, or some guy insisting that despite it being this way for 200 YEARS now, Americans are still "doing it wrong"?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the UK's way of spelling the words is better or worse than America's. I'm just wondering why anyone gives a fuck about this outside of the occasional uneducated doof who apparently has never met a Brit.

 

[siffty]

Not really it just pisses me of whe some redneck says " they speek English in Australia" No fucking shit. Nut no the spelling dosnt bother me.

 

[spectrenihlus]

When it comes to spelling correctly, yes. I prefer to spell colour, armour, anyhow, and so on. These minor changes sound like a pathetic excuse to be a bit different from GB English.

Wait there is another way to spell anyhow? Btw auto correct is redlining colour and armour...just saying

 

[Silent Anima]

Actually the 'u' words don't bother me.


It's when I see "gray" that I get upset D:<

It's kind of weird. I'm an American, yet I've always spelled it "grey." "Gray" just doesn't look, or feel, right to me.

So it isn't usually spelled "grey" in America? Weird... I've always spelled it like that.

 

[Laser Priest]

No, and frankly I find anyone who it does bother to be ridiculous.

It bothers me when they choose to destroy grammar entirely.

 

[AdumbroDeus]

It's a different dialect, deal with it.

Brits have no right to complain cause british english is no less horrible then american english anyway.

 

[Odbarc]

I use the americanized spellings (color, armor) because I see them much more often than the alternatives.
I never consider colour, armour (favourite???).

When I DO see them, it's weird. It makes me feel alienated.

 

[GoldenFish]

Actually, one that I would like to add, probably the only difference in spelling/pronunciation that I actually have a preference for:

Aluminium

I've always spelled and pronounced it as the US, "Aluminum," but I much prefer the UK, "Aluminium." To me, it just sounds better.

I hate the american pronunciation. The first time I heard that on a science video I was using to revise I had to check with other people to see if it was what I thought it was. Sounds funny to me.

 

[LordOmnit]

I wonder how often these discussions crop up where people complain about the form of dialects/accents/whatever-you-wanna-call-them that developed in places removed from the language's origin in other languages? Like, do Spain-Spanish speakers dislike Mexican-Spanish? If so, is it from a perceived 'bastardization' of their language like the worst of the non-American English speakers feel about American-English? Or is it more like the, "Why do they spell it that way when it was already spelled this way?" Or maybe even just, "We are ostensibly speaking the same language, but I can't fully understand what they are saying! I am enraged/offended/discouraged!"

Honestly, considering that the US broke away violently, what surprise is there in some aspects of the language being altered?

The truth of the matter is that silly differences like "colour vs color" shouldn't illicit such a strong reaction in people because the language branched slightly at that point; so those saying colour is correct and those saying color is correct are both right and wrong to precisely equal degrees. Colour is the current spelling from the language's origin and color is the form used in a place that isn't the origin. This really shouldn't surprise people beyond the point where they understand that's how somewhere else spells/uses the word and after that any anger/distaste is just being either elitist in the former's case and boorish in the latter's.

Also, as for the little red line issue, that should be from your browser's dictionary rather than the site's text box. At the very least Google Chrome is using a dictionary from within the browser as "Sarest" isn't underlined for me after I added it to the dictionary on another site.

 

[Doctor Brobotnik]

I've always said "Zee" as opposed to the proper "Zed", but other than that, it irks me when I see the word Armor, though. It's just lazy :\

 

[Throwitawaynow]

like when i spell mum and people insult me for spelling it wrong or go on about what the hell is a mum.

Mum's the word when talking about the spelling or meaning of the word mum.

 

[Jodah]

(American here) I personally have no problem with basic spell differences such as color or colour. Granted thats a big hint that the person typing isn't American, where such a differentiation may matter. I just cringe when massive mistakes are made and the english language is butchered. Which is odd because my best friend is terrible at spelling/grammar. I swear I bumped his papers up 2 letter grades when he had me proof read them.