Australian Spelling

Question

What's the rules between Australia and American English...i.e. mechanized versu
mechani(b:166c8b6b67)s(/b:166c8b6b67)ed. How many words are ou there that Americans like to add the daring 'z' to versus th reliable 's' of the British and Australian English... Any experts out there in international English, lol

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]What's the rules between Australia and American English...i.e., mechanized versus mechani(b:166c8b6b67)s(/b:166c8b6b67)ed.[/nq]
No word in English, American or Australian, is spelt 'mechani(b:166c8b6b67)s(/b:166c8b6b67)ed'.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]What's the rules between Australia and American English...i.e., mechanized versus mechani(b:166c8b6b67)s(/b:166c8b6b67)ed. How many words are out there that Americans like to add the daring 'z' to versus the reliable 's' of the British and Australian English.. Any experts out there in international English, lol?[/nq]
The "z" spelling is strongly preferred for the appropriate words (e.g. "apologize") by the Oxford English Dictionary (British, of course). So to use that spelling doesn't seem very daring. But in any case the "s or z?" question is more complicated than broad national customs.

Alan Jones

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]What's the rules ...[/nq]
That's Australian - right?
David

Usenet · Answer

Well, there's a difference..spelt versus spelled. mechanised. no such thing? hmm lo

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]That's Australian - right? David[/nq]
In Britain, we say, "What are the rules ...">

Usenet · Answer

In general, British spellings are favoured in Australian English. For instance, it's "colour" rather than "color", "haemophilia" rather than "hemophilia", and "centre" rather than "center". And I'm fairly sure that pronunciation is closer to British English (to the point that Australians are sometimes mistaken for Brits).
Regards,
VI

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Daniel JameswroteIn article AgedTreachery wrote What's the rules between Australia and American English...i.e. mechanized versu mechanised. How many words are ou there that Americans like to add the daring 'z' to versus th reliable 's' of the British and Australian English...[/nq]
That's a quaint way to express emphasis ..
Read Fowler. "Mechanized" is correct BrE, but "mechanised" is mor commonly
found. The OED prefers the 'z' version, and the Times newspaper use always
to use 'z' forms until that obnoxious fellow Murdoch took over. There are words in which the 's' is mandatory ("revise", "devise", "advertise", "merchandise", etc...) but those words that are formed b adding an "-ize" suffix and "mechanize" is one of them should b spelt with a 'z'. It's all to do with the "-ize" suffix originall having
been Greek, and the Greek letter Zeta usually being translated to 'z rather than 's' in English. Although "-ize" is to be preferred, th "-ise"
spellings are common enough in BrE that they will raise no eyebrows (indeed, the "-ize" spellings are just as likely to do so); and the have
the advantage that one doesn't have to remember the etymology of word to
know how to spell it
The Americans borrowed our language at a time when 'z' was in vogue and
apply that spelling indiscriminately. I would hope that Australian have
better taste (ducks for cover)
Cheers
Daniel.(/quote:f6d3cfd419
Cheers, yourself, Daniel
A mighty thank you too
That was informative. You're right, everyone in Britain, it woul be, 'what are the rules'..I goofed. I should've said 'what're th rules.

ops:
Americans love contractions and the 'what's the rules' is th grammatically incorrect way of showing a growing phonetic habit i the States of really singularly contracting a contraction singularl incorrectly. Whew
Now where did that 'spelt' thing come from versus spelled. Doe British usage rely on phonetic with that one...

Usenet · Answer

So tell us Davyboy , are you going to use a different name on every post you make?

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]What's the rules between Australia and American English...i.e., mechanized versus ... versus the reliable 's' of the British and Australian English..[/nq]
Where does New Zealand stand on the issue of "ise" versus "ize"?

Franklin

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]What's the rules between Australia and American English...i.e., mechanized versus ... Australian English.. Any experts out there in international English, lol?[/nq]
[nq:1]The "z" spelling is strongly preferred for the appropriate words(e.g. "apologize") by the Oxford English Dictionary (British, of course).So to use that spelling doesn't seem very daring. But in any case the "s orz?" question is more complicated than broad national customs. Alan Jones[/nq]
A few words are always spelt one way or the other e.g. capsize, Synthesizer, advertise, compromise, televise.
In other cases I think the use of -ize vs. -ise is a matter of house style. Most British (or Australian) newspapers use -ise but some publishers, e.g. Oxford University Press, prefer -ize. I also get the impression that some UK publishers would normally use -ise but don't change -ize when editing American books for the British market.

On the other hand, there is a clear Pondian divide with -yze vs. -yse: -yze left-of-pond (analyze), -yse right-of-pond (analyse).

Australian Spelling

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions