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When using "favorite" in a computer technology sense (for example, bookmarking a question on Stack Overflow), do British English speakers still use "favourite" (the traditional spelling in British English), or "favorite" (the spelling they'd probably see on their computer)?

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2  
Well, I use "bookmark", but if I had to choose which of the "favo(u)rite"s I wanted to use as a verb, I would choose "favourite", of course. (Actually, perhaps that "of course" is a little unfair, because there are interesting examples of this: it's a "dialog box", not a "dialogue box", for instance.) – Billy Nov 4 '12 at 3:51
I too would 'bookmark'. I have never heard 'favourite a page', but if I were to do that, it would be 'favourite' rather than 'favorite'. – Roaring Fish Nov 4 '12 at 5:04
I believe that the OP is alluding to the fact that the (ubiquitous) Internet Explorer browser uses Favorites regardless of locale and is asking whether this has affected the spelling habits of BrE speakers. – coleopterist Nov 4 '12 at 7:44
@Close voters, can you explain why you feel the question is "not constructive"? – Andrew Grimm Nov 4 '12 at 9:10
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It's not constructive because you are asking for opinions. For example, I would use favourite everywhere except in a computing context, which would be favorite precisely to distinguish that situation. In the same way, it's dialog box but a dialogue between two people, and an electric clock is an analog device (as opposed to digital) and analogue is reserved for "analogy". But that's just me; others may be different -- it looks like Barrie is -- and so it cannot be a constructive question as it is. Even asking for concrete evidence is likely to produce opposing examples. – Andrew Leach Nov 4 '12 at 9:37

closed as not constructive by Carlo_R., cornbread ninja 麵包忍者, Zairja, Roaring Fish, Andrew Leach Nov 4 '12 at 9:37

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2 Answers

up vote 1 down vote

I believe that Favourite is used by Australia, Canada, South Africa & New Zealand as well as Great Britain, whereas only in the US is it spelled as Favorite.

However, looking at their website, it appears as though Microsoft has decided to use the American variation in all of their localized English versions of Windows 8:

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I am a New Zealander. I would never write "favorite", even as a verb. The "u" is mandatory. – user16269 Nov 4 '12 at 8:55
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(as is the second S in "customise") – user16269 Nov 4 '12 at 10:13
up vote 0 down vote

In British English the spelling is always favourite. I have not seen or heard the word used as a verb in any context.

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-1 "I have not seen or heard the word used as a verb" - Two posts at twitter.com/Baralbion/favorites should have "favorited" beneath them. – Andrew Grimm Nov 4 '12 at 8:28
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I don't look at Twitter much. – Barrie England Nov 4 '12 at 8:35

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