American spelling

[Christopher]

Touché, Drago! Great post!

 

[ColinJ]

Any one else getting fed up of being told via red underlining that the English spelling you are quite rightly using is wrong?

It hadn't quite percolated through to conscious thought, but now you mention it - yes, it is annoying ...

Firstly, change the language settings in your browser.

... especially since I have already selected 'GB English' in my browser settings!

I'm going to investigate this!

 

[totallyfixed]

I give up, going to plan a rout for this weekend ride and I will look for a spare "e" while I am about it.

 

[Drago]

I got no beef with the Yanks beyond the nasal whining they call 'language' and the lard sodden mess they call 'food'. Aside from that I quite like em.

To be fair the Americans live in perpetual awe of our better food, cars, language, weather, television, military, women, legal system, political system, motorbikes, music, literature, history, etc, so you gotta feel a little sorry for them.

 

[ColinJ]

Okay, I can now spell 'colour' that way and not be told it should be 'color' - hoorah!

Thanks for the nudge tf - it turned out that I had the correct language setting selected, but I hadn't downloaded the GB-English dictionary so the browser was using the default (US) English one.

 

[mr_hippo]

bow=bough but throw does not equal through
ruff=rough but cuff does not equal cough

The Chaos
by G. Nolst Trenite' a.k.a. "Charivarius" 1870 - 1946


Dearest creature in creation
Studying English pronunciation,
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse and worse
I will keep you, Susy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye your dress you'll tear,
So shall I! Oh, hear my prayer,
Pray, console your loving poet,
Make my coat look new, dear, sew it!
Just compare heart, beard and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it's written).
Made has not the sound of bade,
Say said, pay-paid, laid, but plaid.
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as vague and ague,
But be careful how you speak,
Say break, steak, but bleak and streak.
Previous, precious, fuchsia, via,
Pipe, snipe, recipe and choir,
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, shoe, poem, toe.
Hear me say, devoid of trickery:
Daughter, laughter and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles.
Exiles, similes, reviles.
Wholly, holly, signal, signing.
Thames, examining, combining
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war, and far.
From "desire": desirable--admirable from "admire."
Lumber, plumber, bier, but brier.
Chatham, brougham, renown, but known.
Knowledge, done, but gone and tone,
One, anemone. Balmoral.
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel,
Gertrude, German, wind, and mind.
Scene, Melpomene, mankind,
Tortoise, turquoise, chamois-leather,
Reading, reading, heathen, heather.
This phonetic labyrinth
Gives moss, gross, brook, brooch, ninth, plinth.
Billet does not end like ballet;
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet;
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Banquet is not nearly parquet,
Which is said to rime with "darky."
Viscous, Viscount, load, and broad.
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation's O.K.,
When you say correctly: croquet.
Rounded, wounded, grieve, and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive, and live,
Liberty, library, heave, and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven,
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the difference, moreover,
Between mover, plover, Dover,
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police, and lice.
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label,
Petal, penal, and canal,
Wait, surmise, plait, promise, pal.
Suit, suite, ruin, circuit, conduit,
Rime with "shirk it" and "beyond it."
But it is not hard to tell,
Why it's pall, mall, but Pall Mall.
Muscle, muscular, gaol, iron,
Timber, climber, bullion, lion,
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, and chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor,
Ivy, privy, famous, clamour
And enamour rime with hammer.
Pussy, hussy, and possess,
Desert, but dessert, address.
Golf, wolf, countenance, lieutenants.
Hoist, in lieu of flags, left pennants.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rime with anger.
Neither does devour with clangour.
Soul, but foul and gaunt but aunt.
Font, front, won't, want, grand, and grant.
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say: finger.
And then: singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, age.
Query does not rime with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post; and doth, cloth, loth;
Job, Job; blossom, bosom, oath.
Though the difference seems little,
We say actual, but victual.
Seat, sweat; chaste, caste.; Leigh, eight, height;
Put, nut; granite, and unite.
Reefer does not rime with deafer,
Feoffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Dull, bull, Geoffrey, George, ate, late,
Hint, pint, Senate, but sedate.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific,
Tour, but our and succour, four,
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, guinea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria,
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean,
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion with battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, key, quay.
Say aver, but ever, fever.
Neither, leisure, skein, receiver.
Never guess--it is not safe:
We say calves, valves, half, but Ralph.
Heron, granary, canary,
Crevice and device, and eyrie,
Face but preface, but efface,
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust, and scour, but scourging,
Ear but earn, and wear and bear
Do not rime with here, but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew, Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, clerk, and jerk,
Asp, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.
Pronunciation--think of psyche--!
Is a paling, stout and spikey,
Won't it make you lose your wits,
Writing "groats" and saying "grits"?
It's a dark abyss or tunnel,
Strewn with stones, like rowlock, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict, and indict!
Don't you think so, reader, rather,
Saying lather, bather, father?
Finally: which rimes with "enough"
Though, through, plough, cough, hough, or tough?
Hiccough has the sound of "cup."
My advice is--give it up!

 

[Fnaar]

Why do all Americans pronounce the word 'herb' with a silent 'h'?

Herb Alpert probably didn't (or doesn't, if he's still alive)

 

[ASC1951]

Why do all Americans pronounce the word 'herb' with a silent 'h'?

French influence in the southern states?

 

[Archie_tect]

"O-rig-ano"... no, the correct pronunciation would be ori-ga-no... these colonials....

 

[totallyfixed]

Okay, I can now spell 'colour' that way and not be told it should be 'color' - hoorah!

Thanks for the nudge tf - it turned out that I had the correct language setting selected, but I hadn't downloaded the GB-English dictionary so the browser was using the default (US) English one.

I am using Google Chrome and it doesn't allow any English except the American version so how do I get around that? Answers in plain English please.

 

[Archie_tect]

Buy a mac, mac....

 

[totallyfixed]

Buy a mac, mac....

Which is exactly what I intend to do when I can afford it. Someone remind me why in 2012 it is possible to navigate using gps, watch a film, take a picture and access the internet on a device that fits in your back pocket but I can't get a spell checker to correct English on my bloody home computer.

 

[Smurfy]

[QUOTE 2137481, member: 259"]This thread's just gotten ugly! [/quote]

Funnily enough, we do have an expression that uses the word 'gotten'

Ill gotten gains

But apart from that, I'm not aware that British English uses the word 'gotten', and I do cringe when I read it in stuff authored by Americans.

 

[jonny jeez]

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om7O0MFkmpw


Mr Mitchell has it right, as usual

 

[ColinJ]

Try this (found online):

During Windows installation, you're prompted to select a language. If you choose British English at this point, you'll be spell checking in British English. If you didn't choose British English at installation, then you'll have to manually change it by going to
Settings > Show advanced settings > Languages and spell-checker settings and follow the intuitive menus you see there. If you need more help, search your Chrome help files, looking for the term "spell-check".