# AE/BE Spelling differences.



## gaer

Here are a few words that are spelled differently:

manoeuvre, maneuver
travelled, traveled
colour, color

There are many more. I'm interested in how many words all of you have run across that are spelled (spelt) differently in books, depending on where the books are published. 

Gaer


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## Benjy

gauge | gage
grey | gray
ye olde |  old


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## gaer

Benjy said:
			
		

> gauge | gage
> grey | gray
> ye olde | old


We also write "gauge". You've stumbled across another word, I think:

gage 
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French, of Germanic origin; akin to Old High German wetti pledge -- more at WED
1 : a token of defiance; specifically : a glove or cap cast on the ground to be taken up by an opponent as a pledge of combat
2 : something deposited as a pledge of performance

"Grey" is so common, it's one of the words I had trouble learning to spell correctly—"gray".


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## Benjy

gaer said:
			
		

> We also write "gauge". You've stumbled across another word, I think:
> 
> gage
> Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French, of Germanic origin; akin to Old High German wetti pledge -- more at WED
> 1 : a token of defiance; specifically : a glove or cap cast on the ground to be taken up by an opponent as a pledge of combat
> 2 : something deposited as a pledge of performance
> 
> "Grey" is so common, it's one of the words I had trouble learning to spell correctly—"gray".



i'm glad you didn't take my ye olde seriously  as for gauge, i swear i have seen it written down as gage in us texts. or maybe i just saw it in my oxford wich definiately has gage (us) = guage in it. of course, i trust people over dicos  the word gage as what you have i didn't know existed in english.. it's the same in french 

edit: 
"what do you do when you have to move from standard gage rail to barges...you could also load preloaded narrow gage cars on standard gage cars and just roll them off at the railhead or onto a barge that will take them to the forward log base."

now i don't know if this is lazy spelling and not an american standard spelling but it seems to be pretty widespread.


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## Whodunit

favor / favour
flavor / flavour
parlor / parlour
aërie / aerie (I'm not sure)


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## Sharon

marvelled / marveled
marvelling / marveling
neighbour / neighbor
harbour / harbor
favourite / favorite

  I think AE  is interchangeable in the use of the double l in travel and marvel words. I use the double l.

Sharon.


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## abc

This thread reminds me of Mrs. _Bouquet_ (Bucket) in _Keeping up Appearances_.


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## cuchuflete

A dusty old favorite from my days as an antiquarian bookman:
gilt (AE) and guilt(BE) meaning covered with gold leaf.

We used to joke that our British colleagues had volumes that belonged in jail [gaol]:
AEG   (all edges gilt/guilt/guilty)


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## Artrella

*American/British*

aluminum/aluminium
analyze/analyse
catalog(ue)/catalogue
center/centre
check/cheque
jewelry/jewellery
program/programme
tire/tyre
traveler/traveller
labor/labour
meter/meter
theater/theatre
defense/defence
pajamas/pyjamas

Cheers!!


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## Paulina

How about the following:

yogurt/yogourt
favorite/favourite
donut/doughnut

-Paulina


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## garryknight

Paulina said:
			
		

> yogurt/yogourt



I've never see 'yogourt'. Over here we spell it 'yoghurt'.


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## gaer

garryknight said:
			
		

> I've never see 'yogourt'. Over here we spell it 'yoghurt'.


I just ran "yogourt" through my spellchecker in Word, set to UK spellings, and it corrected it to "yoghurt".

Gaer


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## gaer

Benjy said:
			
		

> i'm glad you didn't take my ye olde seriously  as for gauge, i swear i have seen it written down as gage in us texts. or maybe i just saw it in my oxford wich definiately has gage (us) = guage in it. of course, i trust people over dicos  the word gage as what you have i didn't know existed in english.. it's the same in french
> 
> edit:
> "what do you do when you have to move from standard gage rail to barges...you could also load preloaded narrow gage cars on standard gage cars and just roll them off at the railhead or onto a barge that will take them to the forward log base."
> 
> now i don't know if this is lazy spelling and not an american standard spelling but it seems to be pretty widespread.


Benji,

"Googling" does not necessarily prove anything, but I think this may give us the answer this time:

4,680 for "standard gage". 
162,000 for "standard gauge"

We have to remember how many wrong things are written. This might shock you. I mentioned it somewhere else:

31,700 for "for my wife and I". 
11,600 for "for my wife and me"

The WRONG way is almost three times as common. That might explain why we hear some very intelligent people, who in general speak English well, make that mistake.


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## gaer

Sharon said:
			
		

> marvelled / marveled
> marvelling / marveling
> neighbour / neighbor
> harbour / harbor
> favourite / favorite
> 
> I think AE is interchangeable in the use of the double l in travel and marvel words. I use the double l.
> 
> Sharon.


Sharon, I think perhaps you read a great deal of books published in AE and BE style. "Travelling" looks just fine to me, but my spellchecker rejects it. We may be fooled because the American way seems illogical, phonetically!

others:

judgement, judgment
aeroplane, airplane 
aluminium, aluminum 
analogue, analog 
analyse, analyze (and many others like this)
encyclopaedia, encyclopedia
aeroplane, airplane 
aluminium, aluminum 
analogue, analog 
analyse, analyze (and many others like this)
encyclopaedia, encyclopedia
ardour, ardor 
armour / armor 
behaviour, behavior 
calibre, caliber
catalogue, catalog
centimetre, centimeter
cheque, check
clamour, clamor
colour 
defence (AmericanEnglish "defense") 
digitise (AmericanEnglish "digitize") 
endeavour 
enrol / enrolled / enrolment 
epicentre 

I've never understood the American spelling there and stubbornly write the English form, "jugement".

Just found a great page!

http://www.peak.org/~jeremy/dictionary/tables/spellcat.php#ph

Gaer


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## mylam

Cool link gaer!  Has anybody ever seen "employe" (one final e) used???  

Myla


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## gaer

mylam said:
			
		

> Cool link gaer!  Has anybody ever seen "employe" (one final e) used???
> 
> Myla


I don't THINK so, but my spelling is so poor, both British and American spellings look equally right to me most of the time. That's not an exaggeration!


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## Panpan

I don't know why British English is so inconsistent when it comes to dropping superfluous 'u's.

E.g. we use colour, but coloration, honour, but honorific.

Panpan


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## Outsider

-ize/-ise
-ization/-isation

P.S. Oh, and of course the famous "jail/gaol".


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## Whodunit

mylam said:
			
		

> Cool link gaer!  Has anybody ever seen "employe" (one final e) used???
> 
> Myla



No, only with é --> employé = employee

Am I right?


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## gaer

whodunit said:
			
		

> No, only with é --> employé = employee
> 
> Am I right?


For a final answer, you'll have to go to the French forum. I've never seen "employé" used in English though!


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## Benjy

gaer said:
			
		

> Benji,
> 
> "Googling" does not necessarily prove anything, but I think this may give us the answer this time:
> 
> 4,680 for "standard gage".
> 162,000 for "standard gauge"
> 
> We have to remember how many wrong things are written. This might shock you. I mentioned it somewhere else:
> 
> 31,700 for "for my wife and I".
> 11,600 for "for my wife and me"
> 
> The WRONG way is almost three times as common. That might explain why we hear some very intelligent people, who in general speak English well, make that mistake.




hehe.. yeah, thats what i meant. thanks for clearing that up. it was esp the dictionary entry that was bothering me. thanks the concise answer


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## Agnès E.

Hello Gaer,

And what about program/programme ?


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## Outsider

And kilogram/kilogramme, meter/metre, center/centre...


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## LV4-26

I think all the BE words ending in -our actually end in -or in AE. (as is obvious in several of the examples given), like harbour / harbor and so on...
But I may be wrong.


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## Crystal84

seen / scene
air / heir
and i'm pretty sure that there are many that no one has discovered yet.


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## Outsider

LV4-26 said:
			
		

> I think all the BE words ending in -our actually end in -or in AE. (as is obvious in several of the examples given), like harbour / harbor and so on...
> But I may be wrong.


Your, sour, pour...


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## gaer

http://www.peak.org/~jeremy/diction...spellcat.php#ph

Some of you may have missed this link. I think it covers all the words we are talking about. 

Gaer


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## Sharon

gaer said:
			
		

> Sharon, I think perhaps you read a great deal of books published in AE and BE style. "Travelling" looks just fine to me, but my spellchecker rejects it. We may be fooled because the American way seems illogical, phonetically.
> Gaer


Yes, Gaer, I do read a lot of books, in both styles. 

As a child, I read a lot of Roald Dahl, which probably influenced my spellings of some words. I _still_ remember being seven years old, and my teacher marking "colour" wrong on a spelling test!  I took "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" in to show her, (-> I'm a little stubborn! ) and she dismissed it with, "Well, but that's the English spelling," which bothered me to no end, as I was of the opinion that we were learning English!! 

I no longer trust my spellchecker! It wouldn't accept the word "lieu" and insists that I must use "saber-toothed" in lieu of "sabre-toothed."   

Sharon.


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## mylam

Crystal84 said:
			
		

> seen / scene
> air / heir
> and i'm pretty sure that there are many that no one has discovered yet.


 

Sorry, Crystal, but your example are homophones (words that sound the same, but have different meanings), not differences between AE and BE spellings.   

Myla


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## abc

mylam said:
			
		

> Has anybody ever seen "employe" (one final e) used???
> 
> Myla


 
Yes, I have seen it several times.  The first time that I saw it I nearly fainted.  Nah, I was just kidding, but the form really threw me off balance.  I had to go home and looked it up in the dictionary to be certain that the form *employe* did exist.  Sometimes I wonder why the feminine forms of many French words, especially the adjectives that end in *-ive* were retained instead of the masculine form that ends in *-if*.  

Who,

No, I've not seen *employé* used like the way employee and employe are being used.  I don't think diacritics are that popular in the English language.  

Gaer,

I agree that *judgement* looks better than *judgment*, but phonetically speaking, there are only two syllables in the word.  The dropping of the *e* couldn't be very irrational then, right?  Having said that, I still constantly use *judgement*.

P.S.  Thanks for the links!  Great sites!


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## Nick

gaer said:
			
		

> I've never seen "employé" used in English though!


No, becuase that word would be pronounced with a long "a" at the end because of the accent (employé = em-ploy-ay; passé = pa-say).


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## Nick

Personally, I always notice the "ise"/"ize" difference.


You can find A LOT of informaiton on this topic at Wikipedia:
American and British English differences

Also:
List of British English words not used in American English
List of American English words not used in British English
List of words having different meanings in British and American English


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## Whodunit

abc said:
			
		

> Who,
> 
> No, I've not seen *employé* used like the way employee and employe are being used.  I don't think diacritics are that popular in the English language.



And if so, what about "fiancé(e)", "passé(e)", "née (AE: nee)", "manœuvre (AE: maneuver)" ?

All of them have diacritics and I think they're popular, ain't 'em?


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## cuchuflete

Thanks. These are good lists...but don't believe everything you read.  Some of the list of BE words not used in AE are used here:  banger, toad in the hole, and a couple of others.  But for the most part, it's accurate.

C.



			
				Nick said:
			
		

> Personally, I always notice the "ise"/"ize" difference.
> 
> 
> You can find A LOT of informaiton on this topic at Wikipedia:
> American and British English differences
> 
> Also:
> List of British English words not used in American English
> List of American English words not used in British English
> List of words having different meanings in British and American English


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## gaer

whodunit said:
			
		

> And if so, what about "fiancé(e)", "passé(e)", "née (AE: nee)", "manœuvre (AE: maneuver)" ?
> 
> All of them have diacritics and I think they're popular, ain't 'em?


I've seen all the words you mentioned EXCEPT for "employé". 

Gaer


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## Benjy

i have to admit that i have always seen employee written with the double e never à la française. unless of course the language was actually french in which case... blah blah blah.


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## gaer

Benjy said:
			
		

> i have to admit that i have always seen employee written with the double e never à la française. unless of course the language was actually french in which case... blah blah blah.


Exactly. Strangely, English seems to be consistent about keeping letters but not accents, and if you know a word in another language, it really seems strange.

I'm sure you've seen doppelganger, and that's simply wrong. It's doppelgänger, and the wrong spelling causes the word to be mispronounced.


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## Whodunit

gaer said:
			
		

> Exactly. Strangely, English seems to be consistent about keeping letters but not accents, and if you know a word in another language, it really seems strange.
> 
> I'm sure you've seen doppelganger, and that's simply wrong. It's doppelgänger, and the wrong spelling causes the word to be mispronounced.



Good example. But it's the same with the capitalization of German-English words. It looks wrong to see 'lederhose' with a small letter, but it looks fine to an English eye. In German, we usually keep the French accents, like Déjà vu and à la française (benjy, why not au français?) but we mostly capitalize them. Funny thing ...


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## Whodunit

One more a question of accents: Do you really use 'ampère'? I found it in my dictionary, but even we Germans who keep the accents don't use it with.


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## Outsider

> In German, we usually keep the French accents, like Déjà vu and *à la française (benjy, why not au français?)* but we mostly capitalize them. Funny thing ...


It’s short for “à la manière française”, I think.



> One more a question of accents: Do you really use 'ampère'? I found it in my dictionary, but even we Germans who keep the accents don't use it with.


The unit’s name is based on the name of a French gentleman called André Marie Ampère. I don't think you miss much if you leave out the accent mark, though.


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## Whodunit

Outsider said:
			
		

> It’s short for “à la manière française”, I think.



Thanks.



> The unit’s name is based on the name of a French gentleman called André Marie Ampère. I don't think you miss much if you leave out the accent mark, though.



Okay, but let's see how the natives would spell it.


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## MadTomVane

What an interesting thread.  A few years ago I tried to document all these differences.  What some people seem to miss is that there are exceptions.  For instance "glamour" still has its "u" even in the USA.  And some American spellings coexist with their British versions rather than replacing them.  For example: theater/theatre, ax/axe, gray/grey, archeology/archaeology.  I've seen both versions used in US-printed books.

Here's something interesting.  One thing I found out back when I was researching this stuff is that the American variants didn't appear at the same time.  It started in the early 1800s with our/or: in the Declaration of Independence (1776) you can find "honour," and in the Constitution (1787) "behaviour," but most books published after 1830 use "or" rather than "our."  But the re/er change didn't happen until later.  Read a book published in the mid-1800s, like "The Scarlet Letter" (1850) and you will find "centre" and "fibre" right along side "color" and "neighbor."  At the US Navy Historical website you can find the 1864 Uniform Regulations, which still used the word "centre." 

And it seems the South didn't follow the new standards.  At the time of the Civil War (or "War of Northern Aggression") Southerners still wrote "colour" and "honour," and other apparent Britishisms like "to-day" and not putting a period after titles like "Mr."  My sources for this were some documents I read for a US History class, and a book of Virginia State Legislature records from 1861 I found lying in a college library.  There is today (to-day?) an organization called The Southern League, dedicated to the members' Southern heritage, and they make it a point to use British orthography, as this was how it was done before the war.

At some website (I forget where) I found some old maps of various states at various points in the 1870s.  By looking at how "Centerville"/"Centreville" (there are several US towns with that name) was spelled, I figure that the re/er change happened around the mid-1870s.

In one class I had to read a short story called "The Yellow Wallpaper," written around 1895 or so.  In that one I found "center" but the story referred to a gust of wind as a "draught" (today that would be "draft").

The reason for the or/our change was Noah Webster's dictionary, first published sometime in the 1820s.  I don't know about what caused the other changes, though.

That's about all I know.  I hope someone found this useful.  I've been waiting for almost 4 years for an excuse to write all this somewhere.


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## gaer

cuchuflete said:
			
		

> Thanks. These are good lists...but don't believe everything you read. Some of the list of BE words not used in AE are used here: banger, toad in the hole, and a couple of others. But for the most part, it's accurate.
> 
> C.


Cuchu, I meant to mention this the other night: "banger", "toad in the hole", what do these mean? Have you thought about the fact that "New England" may be more accurate than you think? 

Gaer


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## gaer

whodunit said:
			
		

> Good example. But it's the same with the capitalization of German-English words. It looks wrong to see 'lederhose' with a small letter, but it looks fine to an English eye. In German, we usually keep the French accents, like Déjà vu and à la française (benjy, why not au français?) but we mostly capitalize them. Funny thing ...


Who, as you well know, I'm bothered by the lack of capital letters when using German nouns, but I follow the custom in English. If I'm not careful, I WILL type: Doppelgänger. It's also hard for me to prounounce American names in the American way when they appear to be German, for example, "Spielberg". 

As for accents, it is not standardized. Sometimes French words have them, other times not. I haven't figured out why. Probably because most of us don't uderstand what the accents in French do, so we are going to prounce things the same, with or without them. Same may be true with Doppelgänger. Think of our word "gang". But I would prefer to see the proper accents when available!

Gaer


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## Whodunit

gaer said:
			
		

> Who, as you well know, I'm bothered by the lack of capital letters when using German nouns, but I follow the custom in English. If I'm not careful, I WILL type: Doppelgänger. It's also hard for me to prounounce American names in the American way when they appear to be German, for example, "Spielberg".
> 
> As for accents, it is not standardized. Sometimes French words have them, other times not. I haven't figured out why. Probably because most of us don't uderstand what the accents in French do, so we are going to prounce things the same, with or without them. Same may be true with Doppelgänger. Think of our word "gang". But I would prefer to see the proper accents when available!
> 
> Gaer



Hum, I know why and where to put accents in French, because of its pronunciation. We can't talk about this in writing, only orally.

The name "Steven Spielberg" is easy because I know the forename is pronounced in English and so the surname too. But I had to read Spielberg without the context, I would try to read it in German.


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## cuchuflete

from a not very politcally correct website:

Note: If you are humorless or easily offended, or both,

do NOT read this post.




If you choose to read it, and are then tempted to complain, please direct those complaints, in perfect English, to http://www.tealdragon.net/humor/compares/cultures.htm

thanks,
Cuchuflete






Americans: Spell words differently, but still call it "English."
Brits: Pronounce their words differently, but still call it "English."
Canadians: Spell like the Brits; pronounce worse than the Americans.
Aussies: Add "G'day", "mate" and a heavy accent to everything they say in an attempt to get laid.

Brits: Shop at home and have goods imported because they live on an island.
Aussies: Shop at home and have goods imported because they live on an island.
Americans: Cross their southern border for cheap shopping, gas, liquor and cigarettes in a backwards country.
Canadians: Cross their southern border for cheap shopping, gas, liquor and cigarettes in a backwards country.


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## gaer

cuchuflete said:
			
		

> from a not very politcally correct website:
> 
> Note: If you are humorless or easily offended, or both,
> 
> do NOT read this post.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> If you choose to read it, and are then tempted to complain, please direct those complaints, in perfect English, to http://www.tealdragon.net/humor/compares/cultures.htm
> 
> thanks,
> Cuchuflete
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Americans: Spell words differently, but still call it "English."
> Brits: Pronounce their words differently, but still call it "English."
> Canadians: Spell like the Brits; pronounce worse than the Americans.
> Aussies: Add "G'day", "mate" and a heavy accent to everything they say in an attempt to get laid.
> 
> Brits: Shop at home and have goods imported because they live on an island.
> Aussies: Shop at home and have goods imported because they live on an island.
> Americans: Cross their southern border for cheap shopping, gas, liquor and cigarettes in a backwards country.
> Canadians: Cross their southern border for cheap shopping, gas, liquor and cigarettes in a backwards country.


 
That's about as politically INCORRECT as you can get. But personally I think it's very funny too. 

Gaer


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## gaer

whodunit said:
			
		

> Hum, I know why and where to put accents in French, because of its pronunciation. We can't talk about this in writing, only orally.
> 
> The name "Steven Spielberg" is easy because I know the forename is pronounced in English and so the surname too. But I had to read Spielberg without the context, I would try to read it in German.


The pronunciation of French is something I still do not understand at all, so I would like to learn French words with correct spelling in case I ever figure out the pronuncation!

There is a guy where I work with the name "Stefan". His mother was born in America but married a German and lived in Germany for many years. As you might imagine, it's hard for me not to pronounce his name in the German manner. 

Gaer


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## mjscott

I would imagine some French-speaking people don't put accent marks on stuff for the same reasons Spanish people don't put accent marks on stuff. You have to write it in WORD, copy and paste it into the reply box in order for it to transfer on a posting. When in Argentina, there were high school students who decided that accent marks were not that important (unless you want someone to be clear about what you're saying!)

AE = Ampere


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## gaer

mjscott said:
			
		

> I would imagine some French-speaking people don't put accent marks on stuff for the same reasons Spanish people don't put accent marks on stuff. You have to write it in WORD, copy and paste it into the reply box in order for it to transfer on a posting. When in Argentina, there were high school students who decided that accent marks were not that important (unless you want someone to be clear about what you're saying!)
> 
> AE = Ampere


I think you're 100% right! As I mentioned in the German forum, Word comes with a spellchecker for Spanish and French, but none for German. You can get one, but it costs money.

So it's ironic that I have something to correct my spelling in two languages I don't dare WRITE in. 

Gaer


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## te gato

cuchuflete said:
			
		

> from a not very politcally correct website:
> 
> Note: If you are humorless or easily offended, or both,
> 
> do NOT read this post.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> If you choose to read it, and are then tempted to complain, please direct those complaints, in perfect English, to http://www.tealdragon.net/humor/compares/cultures.htm
> 
> thanks,
> Cuchuflete
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Americans: Spell words differently, but still call it "English."
> Brits: Pronounce their words differently, but still call it "English."
> Canadians: Spell like the Brits; pronounce worse than the Americans.
> Aussies: Add "G'day", "mate" and a heavy accent to everything they say in an attempt to get laid.
> 
> Brits: Shop at home and have goods imported because they live on an island.
> Aussies: Shop at home and have goods imported because they live on an island.
> Americans: Cross their southern border for cheap shopping, gas, liquor and cigarettes in a backwards country.
> Canadians: Cross their southern border for cheap shopping, gas, liquor and cigarettes in a backwards country.


 
Cuchu;
Ok...thank you for the laugh..again.. 
One little point about the Canadians..and don't tell anyone..
it is all true!!
te gato


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## Outsider

MadTomVane said:
			
		

> That's about all I know.  I hope someone found this useful.  I've been waiting for almost 4 years for an excuse to write all this somewhere.


It was very interesting. Thank you.


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## Outsider

mjscott said:
			
		

> I would imagine some French-speaking people don't put accent marks on stuff for the same reasons Spanish people don't put accent marks on stuff.


I think you misunderstood the posts before yours. It's not that Franch-speaking people do not use accents in French words. They do.
It's that English-speaking people sometimes leave out the accents when they employ French words.



			
				mjscott said:
			
		

> You have to write it in WORD, copy and paste it into the reply box in order for it to transfer on a posting. When in Argentina, there were high school students who decided that accent marks were not that important (unless you want someone to be clear about what you're saying!)
> 
> AE = Ampere


Regional keyboards include accents. Even those that do not can write accent marks via option keys. See here, for instance.


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## gaer

Outsider said:
			
		

> I think you misunderstood the posts before yours. It's not that Franch-speaking people do not use accents in French words. They do.
> It's that English-speaking people sometimes leave out the accents when they employ French words.
> 
> 
> Regional keyboards include accents. Even those that do not can write accent marks via option keys. See here, for instance.


I think a better solution is to use a macro program, because changing keyboard layouts every time you want to type in another language gets insane very quickly. 

Gaer


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