8 ms·

Having grown up in the US with what I would consider a higher than average exposure to the early 2000s internet, at least compared to other peers my age, much o

by yesco 2y ago

Having grown up in the US with what I would consider a higher than average exposure to the early 2000s internet, at least compared to other peers my age, much of my ability to read and write actually came directly from social media, instant messengers and online games rather than books. This meant I often found myself struggling with spelling errors in English class which sadly resulted in deducted points from my essays. I eventually came to realize many of my spelling "errors" were actually due to my exposure to the British spellings for many common words I would see online, like color/colour or behavior/behaviour for example. Unfortunately my teachers were a little unreasonable about this and would still deduct points when I pointed this out... To this day I still inconsistently use all spelling variants, and curse Noah Webster for his half assed attempt at regional spelling reform. In practice my phone just auto corrects them without me noticing though.

1659447091 2y ago
> I eventually came to realize ... At least you use the "ize" suffix, so all else should have been forgiven! I prefer the "u" in colour/behaviour as I find it more aesthetically pleasing. But I absolutely despise the "ise" spelling of realize (realise) and am not entirely sure why. Though, I vaguely remember spelling all words with "ise" and getting some wrong some right and not understanding why (I'd learn later I'm dyslexic so I chalked it up to that and called it a day)
hanniabu 2y ago
I can never remember if I should use grey or gray
- kirubakaran 2y ago
  I prefer #666
- jcbrand 2y ago
  The first vowel tells you from which country it comes. Grey is UK English, so think "e" for England. Gray is American English, so think "a" for America.
  - ghaff 2y ago
    Somewhat oddly, "grey" has ended up pretty normalized in the US so either works. There are a few other examples; theatre comes to mind. In a way that lots of other British spellings really have not.
- diggan 2y ago
  > I can never remember if I should use grey or gray Become a web/CSS developer and it won't matter anymore.
o11c 2y ago
Don't blame Webster. For a lot of the well-known differences, he actually preserved the original. In particular, the British added the "u" when French was in fashion, and likewise for "-ise" (in fact, "-ize" dates all the way back to Ancient Greek!) One thing that Americans do get wrong is misspelling "-lyse" which comes from a different Greek root, so should not follow the same pattern as "-ize". But even then, Webster didn't invent the error.
- yesco 2y ago
  To me it's about consistency. I don't really care what is or isn't "correct", I care that the spelling can sometimes be different depending on the region. It would be one thing if there was some unified body for English, like the French have, but we don't, so it's just another competing standard. Ultimately I think changes like this should be more grassroots than top down whims of private dictionary publishers. Not to mention that all this focus on the phonetics fundamentally misunderstands that the phonetics of English spelling are closer to a mnemonic than a rule. I suspect this will become gradually more obvious as languages world wide evolve to be more keyboard friendly in the coming century. But this all just my take on the situation.
bloqs 2y ago
I find it fascinating that anyone in the US has this issue, as a Brit this was an issue for anyone with early internet exposure, but I hadn't considered the volume of British/Canadian/Aussie English to have an impact the other way round!
- Lio 2y ago
  I remember in the 1980s entering a computer program into my BBC Micro after watching The Computer Programme[1] and finding out that it had dual spellings of key words like COLOUR/COLOR in its BASIC. So even before the internet was widely used people in the UK we’re aware of the problem. 1. See how I slipped that one in there?
- diggan 2y ago
  > as a Brit this was an issue for anyone with early internet exposure Same here as a Swedish person who grew up with American media + eventually getting into Internet communities. English exams felt great when I took them, I knew all the answers after all. But then getting the results back was always disappointing, as Swedish schools teach "British English", not "American English", so you better use the British spelling and pronunciation, otherwise it's completely wrong obviously and you deserve punishment.
  - ghaff 2y ago
    Companies, for example, have very detailed style guides about usage to enforce consistency. Obviously we don't "punish" people for doing things differently but we do correct them and, by implication, ask them to do it differently next time.
dataflow 2y ago
> Unfortunately my teachers were a little unreasonable about this and would still deduct points when I pointed this out... I can see the teacher's perspective here. I don't think it's unreasonable for teachers to mark this down, though I don't think your request to get back the points was unreasonable either. Communicating effectively with your particular audience (the local American audience one in this case) is arguably a skill they're trying to teach you. Using language constructs that are unnatural for your audience can distract them and disrupt their flow. You don't want your reader to see "enrol" and spend the next 5-10 seconds pondering if you're illiterate or unable to run a spellchecker instead of spending that time digesting your actual point. This friction gets in the way of your point, thus ultimately hurting your own cause in addition to wasting their time. So when you keep doing that on your assignments and exams, you're effectively showing that you haven't mastered this skill -- and so it's not unreasonable for your grade to reflect that.
- onemoresoop 2y ago
  I personally don't care much for small misspellings and they add zero friction to my reading, I'm more interested in the message and how it is delivered to some extent. What adds friction are some styles of writing which diverge too much away from the essential.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- Sakos 2y ago
  In Germany, I wouldn't get marked down for using the wrong spelling, because it just didn't matter. Behavior? Behaviour? Who gives a fuck, it's all the same. It's ridiculous that these regional variations are somehow significant that it warrants points being taken away.
  - jimkleiber 2y ago
    I think native speakers of a language have a more visceral reaction to things being spelled wrong or the wrong word order. So in Germany, people may not care so much. I grew up in the US but near Canada so I have maybe more exposure to written British English than most in the US (center vs centre). And I lived in Tanzania where I myself became very confused on how to spell words (grey vs gray?). But there are probably still some words that will make me think the person is not American, like organisation with an s. I read it and it viscerally feels off.

by yesco 2y ago

1659447091 2y ago

> I eventually came to realize ... At least you use the "ize" suffix, so all else should have been forgiven! I prefer the "u" in colour/behaviour as I find it more aesthetically pleasing. But I absolutely despise the "ise" spelling of realize (realise) and am not entirely sure why. Though, I vaguely remember spelling all words with "ise" and getting some wrong some right and not understanding why (I'd learn later I'm dyslexic so I chalked it up to that and called it a day)

hanniabu 2y ago

I can never remember if I should use grey or gray

kirubakaran 2y ago
I prefer #666
jcbrand 2y ago
The first vowel tells you from which country it comes. Grey is UK English, so think "e" for England. Gray is American English, so think "a" for America.
- ghaff 2y ago
  Somewhat oddly, "grey" has ended up pretty normalized in the US so either works. There are a few other examples; theatre comes to mind. In a way that lots of other British spellings really have not.
diggan 2y ago
> I can never remember if I should use grey or gray Become a web/CSS developer and it won't matter anymore.

o11c 2y ago

Don't blame Webster. For a lot of the well-known differences, he actually preserved the original. In particular, the British added the "u" when French was in fashion, and likewise for "-ise" (in fact, "-ize" dates all the way back to Ancient Greek!) One thing that Americans do get wrong is misspelling "-lyse" which comes from a different Greek root, so should not follow the same pattern as "-ize". But even then, Webster didn't invent the error.

yesco 2y ago
To me it's about consistency. I don't really care what is or isn't "correct", I care that the spelling can sometimes be different depending on the region. It would be one thing if there was some unified body for English, like the French have, but we don't, so it's just another competing standard. Ultimately I think changes like this should be more grassroots than top down whims of private dictionary publishers. Not to mention that all this focus on the phonetics fundamentally misunderstands that the phonetics of English spelling are closer to a mnemonic than a rule. I suspect this will become gradually more obvious as languages world wide evolve to be more keyboard friendly in the coming century. But this all just my take on the situation.

bloqs 2y ago

I find it fascinating that anyone in the US has this issue, as a Brit this was an issue for anyone with early internet exposure, but I hadn't considered the volume of British/Canadian/Aussie English to have an impact the other way round!

Lio 2y ago
I remember in the 1980s entering a computer program into my BBC Micro after watching The Computer Programme[1] and finding out that it had dual spellings of key words like COLOUR/COLOR in its BASIC. So even before the internet was widely used people in the UK we’re aware of the problem. 1. See how I slipped that one in there?
diggan 2y ago
> as a Brit this was an issue for anyone with early internet exposure Same here as a Swedish person who grew up with American media + eventually getting into Internet communities. English exams felt great when I took them, I knew all the answers after all. But then getting the results back was always disappointing, as Swedish schools teach "British English", not "American English", so you better use the British spelling and pronunciation, otherwise it's completely wrong obviously and you deserve punishment.
- ghaff 2y ago
  Companies, for example, have very detailed style guides about usage to enforce consistency. Obviously we don't "punish" people for doing things differently but we do correct them and, by implication, ask them to do it differently next time.

dataflow 2y ago

> Unfortunately my teachers were a little unreasonable about this and would still deduct points when I pointed this out... I can see the teacher's perspective here. I don't think it's unreasonable for teachers to mark this down, though I don't think your request to get back the points was unreasonable either. Communicating effectively with your particular audience (the local American audience one in this case) is arguably a skill they're trying to teach you. Using language constructs that are unnatural for your audience can distract them and disrupt their flow. You don't want your reader to see "enrol" and spend the next 5-10 seconds pondering if you're illiterate or unable to run a spellchecker instead of spending that time digesting your actual point. This friction gets in the way of your point, thus ultimately hurting your own cause in addition to wasting their time. So when you keep doing that on your assignments and exams, you're effectively showing that you haven't mastered this skill -- and so it's not unreasonable for your grade to reflect that.

onemoresoop 2y ago
I personally don't care much for small misspellings and they add zero friction to my reading, I'm more interested in the message and how it is delivered to some extent. What adds friction are some styles of writing which diverge too much away from the essential.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
Sakos 2y ago
In Germany, I wouldn't get marked down for using the wrong spelling, because it just didn't matter. Behavior? Behaviour? Who gives a fuck, it's all the same. It's ridiculous that these regional variations are somehow significant that it warrants points being taken away.
- jimkleiber 2y ago
  I think native speakers of a language have a more visceral reaction to things being spelled wrong or the wrong word order. So in Germany, people may not care so much. I grew up in the US but near Canada so I have maybe more exposure to written British English than most in the US (center vs centre). And I lived in Tanzania where I myself became very confused on how to spell words (grey vs gray?). But there are probably still some words that will make me think the person is not American, like organisation with an s. I read it and it viscerally feels off.