This tag is for questions concerning the written representation of the English language, especially spelling and word breaks (including hyphenation).
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Why Isn't Citizen 'Citisen' in British English?
In British English vocabulary, most words with 'z's are replaced with 's's. For example, capitalization to capitalisation. Industrialization to industrialisation.
But for some words, like citizen, ...
9
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1answer
260 views
What's the point of omitting the “e”, as in “sceptered” going to “scepter'd”, in English poetry?
These are a few of my favorite lines of Shakespearean poetry:
Methinks I am a prophet new inspir’d,
And thus expiring do foretell of him:
His rash fierce blaze of riot cannot last,
For ...
9
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4answers
776 views
Is there a good rule of thumb for plurals from words ending in “o”?
The following words and their plurals seem to be somewhat inconsistent:
combo / combos
concerto / concertos
grotto / grottos / grottoes (?)
hero / heros (?) / heroes
potato / potatos (?) / potatoes
...
9
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3answers
250 views
When quoting speakers of another English dialect than your own, should you spell things their way?
I realize (or realise?) I may be splitting hairs here, but I find this question interesting, and I’ve never heard or seen it discussed before.
I was about to post a quote from Rich Hickey outside my ...
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2answers
6k views
Correct spelling: Updatable or Updateable?
Which is the correct spelling of the word?
For example, "The file is not updat(e)able.".
Btw, I did go to google and ref.dic.com for this first, and they both seem to indicate that they are both ...
9
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2answers
13k views
Why is “happyness” spelled with a Y in the movie title “The Pursuit of Happyness”?
I just noticed that the word in the movie title The Pursuit of Happyness is spelled with a y instead of an i. But my spell checker highlights "happyness" as a mistake. Why is it spelled differently ...
9
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3answers
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“grammar nazi” or “grammar Nazi”?
Should Nazi be capitalized in the phrase grammar nazi/Nazi?
While I can't think of any other examples right now, I would like to extend the question to ask if the words which are historically nouns ...
9
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1answer
253 views
Is “civillians” correct?
Wikipedia has a lot of occurrences for the word "civillians", such as:
At least 35 civillians were killed at the incident
I began fixing them to "civilians", but then had a doubt. Is ...
9
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2answers
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Why is the spelling of “pronounce” and “pronunciation” different?
Why is the spelling of pronounce and pronunciation different? If one originally did not know the spelling of pronunciation, one would when hearing it verbally deduce its spelling to be pronounciation, ...
9
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3answers
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“Practise” vs. “practice”
As an Australian, I like to follow British forms of words such as license/licence and practise/practice. I have no problem with licence the noun and license the verb, but I find it hard to keep ...
9
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2answers
787 views
Apostrophes in contractions: shan't, sha'n't or sha'nt?
I came across the word sha'n't when reading Winnie the Pooh the other day and it cast me into a Thoughtful Mood concerning the Appropriate Spelling of this word.
This word is a contraction of "shall ...
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4answers
345 views
“Dance macabre” or “macabre dance”
The role is the kind of high-wire dare certain types of actors and
directors cannot resist. T. Scott Cunningham, who has created a number
of lovable losers onstage in the last decade, lets the ...
8
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5answers
4k views
Spelling of “moustache”
This has always confused me. I've always spelled it "moustache", but my browser's spell checker claims the correct spelling is "mustache". From what I've seen around the Internet, people seem to use ...
8
votes
2answers
4k views
Is the proper spelling “judgment” or “judgement”?
I always thought the proper spelling was judgment, but I see judgement all the time, even in articles, news, etc. Merriam-Webster lists judgement as a variant spelling for judgment.
But is the ...
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3answers
1k views
“Advise” vs. “advice”
In what contexts are those two words used?
It's been a while since I've read the grammar books and I don't exactly remember the definitions of a few terms like adjective, so I would really appreciate ...
8
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3answers
982 views
Term for words with identical spelling but different meaning and different pronunciation
What do you call words with identical spelling but different meaning and different pronunciation? A couple examples are bass and resume.
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3answers
394 views
Different syllabic boundaries in various dictionaries?
Consider, for instance, the word "university":
American Heritage: u·ni·ver·si·ty
Collins Cobuild: uni|ver|sity
Merriam Webster: uni·ver·si·ty
As you see, syllabic boundaries differ.
I read ...
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1answer
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“Philippines” vs. “Filipino”
Why is Filipino spelled with an F? Philippines is spelled with a Ph. Some have said that it's because in Filipino, Philippines starts with F; but if this is so, why did we only change the beginning of ...
8
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3answers
345 views
Is 'compatriate' really an English word?
I recently saw the word 'compatriate' used in a newspaper article. Upon looking it up, suspecting a typo (or even an eggcorn: it is easy to see how compatriot would be mixed-up with expatriate etc.), ...
8
votes
2answers
227 views
Pedlar vs. peddler
The etymonline entry for peddler reads:
late 14c. (c.1300 as a surname, Will. Le Pedelare), from peoddere, peddere (c.1200, mid-12c. as a surname), of unknown origin. It has the appearance of an ...
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3answers
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Free stuff - “swag” or “schwag”?
My company gives out free promotional items with the company name on it. Is this stuff called company swag or schwag?
It seems that both come up as common usages—Google searching indicates that the ...
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2answers
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Are there any other English syllables without vowels, besides “thm”?
As far as I knew*, all English syllables have a vowel sound and all of them are spelled accordingly, except for "thm" as in rhythm and algorithm. Are there any others? And are there any etymological ...
8
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3answers
177 views
“Invoke” and “invocation”
We invoke something using an invocation.
Is the use of a k and a c in words of the same root like this unusual? Might I reasonably expect invocation to be spelled invokation?
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1answer
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When should a singular word ending in “y” end in “ies” plurally?
Words like "sky" and "money" have "ies" as a plural suffix (i.e. "skies" and "monies") but other words like "monkey" and "Emmy" do not ("monkeys" and "Emmys"). Is there a rule dictating the use of ...
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3answers
224 views
Are vowel ligatures common in any disciplines these days?
Are there any areas of writing, literature or science where æ or œ are still used? Are there contexts where they are still considered mandatory?
8
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1answer
1k views
Why is “gauge” spelled with a 'u'?
I was rather old before I realized "gauge" is pronounced (and sometimes spelt) "gage". The etymology doesn't reveal too much:
mid-15c., from Anglo-Fr. gauge (mid-14c.), from O.N.Fr. gauger, from ...
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3answers
598 views
meaning and usage of 'teh'
“I wouldn’ say no teh a bit o’ yer birthday cake, neither.”
“He usually gets me ter do important stuff fer him.”
—Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
Hagrid’s ...
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4answers
14k views
“Pricey” vs. “Pricy”
I've recently encountered these two variations of the spellings for the informal word for "expensive." My dictionary and the online dictionary seem to indicate that both of these spellings are ...
7
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3answers
4k views
“Checking” vs. “chequing” vs. “chequeing” with regards to types of bank accounts
I came across this little dilemma when looking up the incorrectly spelled word "chequing" in my web browser's dictionary (Opera). According to the different dictionaries you can select in Opera:
EN ...
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2answers
13k views
How do you spell “Aye Yai Yai”
The phrase that's spoken when someone is hand-wringing about a thorny problem.
Speaker One: Uh-oh -- we have to reformat ALL THE DOCUMENTS!
Speaker Two: Aye Yai Yai, that's a lot of work!
"Aye ...
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2answers
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Is the word “representativity” possible?
I found natural to use the word "representativity" (with regard to a sample population of a survey), but my dictionary does not agree with me.
Is "representativity" a valid construction?
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1answer
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Why is “great” pronounced as “grate”, but spelled with “ea”?
Great is one of the few common English words in which "ea" is pronounced /eɪ/ (ay). Why is this pronunciation associated with this spelling?
As an aside, I remember from researching for my answer to ...
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4answers
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Syllable division of VCV pattern in words such as “salad” and “lemon”
In words such as salad /sæləd/, you have a VCV pattern (vowel-consonant-vowel), in which the first vowel is short. The syllable division of such words is generally done after the consonant, i.e, as ...
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2answers
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Adjective form of “collide”—“collideable” or “collidable”?
I need to name an interface in a program I'm writing as being able to collide, but I've seen use of both collideable and collidable in projects with a similar type. Both of them look right in some ...
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3answers
47k views
Which spelling is correct: “benefiting” or “benefitting”?
Which spelling is correct: benefiting or benefitting?
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4answers
6k views
What is the possessive of “you guys”?
Most people seem to stumble over this. The problem can arise with any multi-word phrase that needs a possessive but ends in S, and so sounds awkward using the clitic apostrophe-S. I've heard this ...
7
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1answer
430 views
Why is “fulfil” spelt as “fulfill” in American English?
In this answer, simplification is stated as one reason for spelling variations in American English. But unlike in color and favorite, the number of letters to spell the word in fulfil increases in ...
7
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1answer
450 views
How did the “double consonant to shorten vowel” thing come about? (“furry” vs. “fury”)
In English, a doubled consonant most commonly means "shorten the previous vowel", where "shorten" means map phonemes like this:
[aɪ] -> [i]
[oʊ] -> [ɔ]
etc
For example, fury is pronounced [fjʊri] ...
7
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2answers
155 views
Term for written paralanguage?
Is there a term for words filling in for body language (*sigh*) and/or for typography being used to express tone or intonation (THIS IS SHOUTING)?
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2answers
17k views
Successfull/successful - is this a UK/US difference?
I would tend to write double-l, but Google gives me more single-l, so I'm guessing it's an Atlantic divide thing.
And I guess all the other *full words.
6
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2answers
433 views
Why is it “serviceable” but not “servicable”?
I came across this word in the answer provided by Robusto for the question about Thank you.
Because the last e in service is not pronounced, I thought it should be deleted when service is appended by ...
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votes
6answers
481 views
What is the term for neglectful spelling of words such as “you” as “u”?
The age of texting and instant messaging as we all know has created a phenomenon of using shorter versions of words to save on keystrokes. On tiny keypads or phone buttons this obviously can be a time ...
6
votes
5answers
257 views
“Geteth the tax”?
I was driving today, and I saw this billboard:
The tax man cometh. Geteth the health insurance.
Is this spelling correct? I'm not used to -eth, so I am not sure. Should it be "getteth"?
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5answers
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“Miniscule” vs. “minuscule”
Does the former have a typo or are they synonyms? Do they always have the same meaning? Please enlighten me as I am confused on this matter.
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3answers
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Does one capitalize “communism” and “communist”?
Suppose I have the following sentence:
I lived in a communist country during the fall of communism in 1989.
Should "communist" and "communism" be capitalized?
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2answers
370 views
Why is “eye” pronounced so strangely?
This is either a spelling or a pronunciation anomaly; I'm not sure which. Why is "eye" pronounced as the letter "I"?
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3answers
5k views
Which is the proper spelling: “disfunction” or “dysfunction”?
Is this word spelt dysfunction or disfunction?
Are there any correct spellings at all for this word?
The reason I asked is because I've always learned to spell it as "disfunction" until recently, ...
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1answer
1k views
Origins of the “‑cede/‑seed/‑ceed” suffix
Somewhere in the back of my mind I seem to remember cedere meant “to go or yield” in Latin. Presumably this gives us the words concede and accede. (?)
But what about the words supersede and proceed? ...
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2answers
936 views
“Sign in”, “signin” or “sign-in”
Which is correct: sign in, signin or sign-in when used as a noun and also as a verb?
6
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3answers
940 views
Inquiry vs. enquiry
I received an email today with "a simple inquiry." I responded that her "enquiry" was quite reasonable before I realized that we were spelling the word differently. Dictionary.com has enquiry as an ...
