This tag is for questions concerning the written representation of the English language, especially spelling and word breaks (including hyphenation).
3
votes
1answer
253 views
“s” vs. “z” in BE vs. AE
I have trouble understanding why some words change "s"-es to "z"-s from BE to AE and some not. For example:
analyse -> analyze
characterise -> characterize
hypnotise -> hypnotize
But:
compromise ...
9
votes
3answers
4k views
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
votes
3answers
2k views
“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 ...
15
votes
2answers
380 views
“License” and “licence”
What is the difference between license and licence? Are both variations accepted in US and UK?
12
votes
1answer
536 views
“Defense” or “defence”
Is the only difference that in USA they write it with s and in UK they write it with c, or is there anything more?
2
votes
5answers
10k views
British English: “fantasise” or “fantasize”?
I would like to know which spelling is more common in the UK: fantasise or fantasize?
9
votes
3answers
253 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 ...
11
votes
2answers
747 views
How and when did American spelling supersede British spelling in the US?
Considering that Webster published his first dictionary in 1806, is there a recognised tipping point (year, decade, etc.) that marked the move from traditional British spelling to Webster's American? ...
2
votes
1answer
262 views
Did English use to have capitalization rules similar to German's current rules? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Capitalisation of nouns in English in the 17th and 18th centuries
I was looking up an article of the constitution of the United States of America, and I noticed in the ...
4
votes
3answers
444 views
Spelling protocol (American/British/Canadian) for an International conference
If I'm a Canadian who'll be presenting in an international conference, should I use my country's spelling, which is the Canadian/British spelling like "grey" or the more used American spelling like ...
1
vote
3answers
114 views
1D vs. one-dimensional vs. 1-dimensional?
In much of the scientific literature, the words 1D, one-dimensional, 1-dimensional, and 1-D occur frequently. Which of these is the best practice? Are there general principles for deciding which is ...
2
votes
2answers
291 views
Hyphens after the prefixes “non-” and “anti-” in mathematics
Is there a convention when to attach the prefixes non- and anti- to mathematical terms using a hyphen and when without?
One uses non-zero but also noncommutative.
Likewise for anti-. I no longer ...
4
votes
3answers
503 views
“Favorite” vs. “favourite”
Excuse my stupid question, but do "favorite" and "favourite" mean the same thing?
3
votes
1answer
505 views
Why did Australian English change from spelling words like 'honor' to 'honour'?
I know there are other questions comparing the US and UK usage of o and ou in words like colour. My question is specifically in regard to Australian English. I was always taught that here in Australia ...
51
votes
6answers
2k views
How come 'ou' was reduced to 'o' in the US?
Americans write color and favorite, when others say colour and favourite. How/why did this happen?
5
votes
4answers
335 views
Usage of apostrophe in “baker’s dozen”
In the phrase “baker’s dozen”, why does the apostrophe indicate possession of a (single) baker? Shouldn't it indicate possession of all bakers in general? Shouldn’t it be “bakers’ dozen”?
6
votes
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? ...
1
vote
0answers
36 views
Why is “proceed” spelt “-ceed” and not “-cede” like “precede”? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Origins of the “‑cede/‑seed/‑ceed” suffix
The pronunciation of proceed is exactly like that of precede with the only difference being the o instead of the e.
What rules ...
18
votes
3answers
5k views
When a sentence starts with “e.g.”, should the e be capitalized?
When a sentence starts with e.g., should the e be capitalized?
Neverminding that it might be better to start with "For example," ... Thinking of SE posts and comments, should the starting e be ...
3
votes
2answers
755 views
“Each person's car” vs. “each persons' car”
Which of the following is correct?
Each person's car has four wheels.
Each persons' car has four wheels.
7
votes
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 ...
1
vote
3answers
11k views
How do you write “a class's constructor”? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
What is the correct possessive for nouns ending in s?
I want to write this sentence:
In a singleton pattern, a class's
constructor needs to be private
instead of ...
4
votes
1answer
184 views
Capitalization in “the University has 1000s of students. ”
The University of London is huge. The University/university has 1000s of students.
Is it correct to leave out the capital u in the second sentence?
0
votes
2answers
473 views
The right usage of “basically” [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
“have basically been doing something” or “have been basically doing something”
I'm searching basically for conversation classes"
or
I'm basically searching ...
0
votes
2answers
177 views
“Boys bicycle” vs. “boy's bicycle” [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
User’s Guide vs Users’ Guide
When describing, for example, a bicycle for boys as "a boys bicycle", should it be "boy's" or "boys"? The phrase is not implying ownership ...
0
votes
1answer
71 views
Hyphen for re when doing again [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Hyphens in verb construction containing prefix such as “re”
Adding a prefix "re" to a word, with or without a hyphen?
I have a doubt about the use of the prefix 're', ...
5
votes
9answers
1k views
Just how important are grammar and spelling?
A blog post of mine made it on the Hacker News front page. My blog post was mainly intended for a very, very small audience, but ended up getting around 20,000 views in one day. The most talked about ...
11
votes
3answers
976 views
Why doesn't “ninth” have an “e”, like “ninety”?
Is it just because "ninth" has only one syllable? That wouldn't make sense, though, because saying "NINE-ith" wouldn't be worse than saying "NINE-e-tee". If we were used to "nineth", we would have ...
3
votes
3answers
193 views
Spelling out non-cardinal small numbers
I understand that it's common to spell small numbers in words. However, all examples of this rule I could find use cardinals (i.e. expressing the size of a set of entities) like in:
We met two cats ...
-2
votes
1answer
511 views
What is the origin of the “should of” instead of “should have” mistake? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
How did the use of “could of” and “should of” originate, and is it considered correct?
Recently, I tend to stumble a lot over the mistake that people write should of ...
-1
votes
1answer
122 views
What is the / is there any meaningful difference between the two spellings 'naive' and 'naïve'? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Should you always use the accent in foreign words like “résumé”?
“Whereäs” as an alternative spelling of “whereas”
Is it spelt “naïve” or “naive”?
...
9
votes
2answers
14k 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 ...
1
vote
2answers
3k views
“Indeed/in deed/indid/in did”
I am not a native speaker and get constantly confused which one to use when I would like to approve some statement or someone's sentence.
A really nice one indeed.
A really nice one in deed.
...
2
votes
1answer
2k views
“An other” vs “another”
I just edited this answer on unix.sx. The original sentence was
But it won't transform it to an other format.
I changed this to
But it won't transform it to another format.
The second form ...
0
votes
2answers
2k views
“Dilemma” vs. “dilemna” [closed]
I understand the correct spelling is 'dilemma' but many people I've spoken with, including myself, were convinced the spelling was 'dilemna'.
A quick search on google shows this is not isolated to ...
1
vote
3answers
109 views
Word suggests “advice” in place of “advise” [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
“Advise” vs “advice”
What is wrong with the statement "Please advise on this..."? Word suggests to change it to "Please advice on this...".
2
votes
1answer
508 views
Should I say “3 half days” or “3 half-days” or “3 half-day”?
Should I say "3 half days" or "3 half-days" or "3 half-day"? I mean I want to refer to, for example, the a.m. of Monday, the p.m. of Wednesday, and the a.m. of Friday, together.
9
votes
4answers
3k views
Why is “liquorice” pronounced (or spelt) so strangely?
Liquorice is pronounced ˈlɪkərɪʃ. But every other word I can think of ending with -ice is pronounced differently (such as police or rice). How did liquorice get such a strange pronunciation, or ...
21
votes
4answers
3k views
Why are “sugar” and “sure” pronounced with an SH?
As far as I know, those are the only two. They should be pronounced Soogher and Soor, shouldn't they? I looked them up on Dictionary.com, and their etymologies reveal no trace of an SH, except where ...
4
votes
1answer
142 views
Breaking last word in the lines [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
What are the rules for splitting words at the end of a line?
In printed texts, especially those with narrow columns, it's necessary from time to time to divide the last ...
18
votes
5answers
1k views
What is the standard rule for using or not using hyphen and diaeresis on the words like reelect , reexamine, and cooperate?
I found that diaeresis is used on the word, reelection in the following sentence of the article titled “Rational Irrationality” in the New Yorker magazine (April 27).
“This morning’s news that ...
8
votes
3answers
395 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 ...
10
votes
3answers
308 views
What was going on with “quha”, “quhat” and the like in Scots and English?
From the Dictionar o the Scots Leid:
Quha, Quhay, interrog. and rel. pron. Also: qwha, qha, qua, qwa, wha, vha, hua; qhaa; quhaw; quhai qwhay, whay, quay; quhae, whae; quhe, quhey, qwhey.
...
9
votes
2answers
812 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 ...
19
votes
4answers
1k views
“Whereäs” as an alternative spelling of “whereas”
Wiktionary shows whereäs as a valid alternative spelling of the word whereas (see here).
It gives the following quotations to illustrate the usage:
1 Permanent International Association of ...
3
votes
2answers
1k views
When should you use “then” and when “than”?
As far as I know, then is used in a conjunction and in time-related sentences; than in all other cases. I believe that these are correct:
Because I'm older than she, I should be the first chosen;
I ...
6
votes
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"?
4
votes
1answer
4k views
“Inner” but not “outter”?
in -> inner
out -> outer / (outter?)
What is the history or set of rules behind why 'inner' doubles the 'n' but 'outer' doesn't double the 't'?
1
vote
1answer
320 views
Why is shippable spelled with 2 p's [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
What is the correct spelling: wrapable, or wrappable?
My mother "corrected" me and said "shouldn't shippable be spelled as shipable"? My gut feeling said two p's, but I ...
7
votes
1answer
445 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 ...
