what is that form of writing english, but more professional, such as "realise" and "colour"

Question

i would like to learn it, since many of the most educated and all the official high end magazines use it, i need the term it is so i can google it, i though it was uk english or plain english but didnt get the results i was looking for...i want a guide to those spellings, in summary

Answer 1

Usually it's just the British spelling versus the American spelling. Check the Oxford English Dictionary for alternate spelling. Also, if you're using Microsoft Word, you can change your language settings to UK English instead of American English, this will adjust your spell check to look for words like "color" and change it to "colour" and so on. Go to Tools > Language > Set Language. Give it a try, and good luck.

Answer 2

Dear Jellz, I am an Aussie too and am delighted to try to give you a good answer. The major trouble you strike in your quest for global humour (Yes, I spell it that way, too) is that we do not have a global language. You can do wonders without using spoken language and sticking to body language and actions which is why people probably "get" you. I have lovely 20-minute "chats" in this way with people overseas eventhough I do not know any of their language. If Miming is a genre - then there is one answer for you. Just watch Marcel Marceau at work. It isn't wordplay but there are wonderful shots of George Dubya Bush going around where he is reading a children's book upside down and another where he is using binococulars with the lens caps on - no language needed !!! Although it is not global but only cross-cultural - another possibility is to build a genre around situations where the same words in different languages mean different things. (For example, in Hong Kong recently it tickled my funny-bone when I bought some shoes from a store called Fook Hing in Hong Kong Shoes, if you get my drift)!!

Answer 3

I assume that you are American so spell English words differently.This goes back to the times of Benjamin Franklin and early American politician who wanted to make America more 'American' rather than being seen as and English colony so changed the spelling of many words so that they could still be recognised but were 'American'. Words such as 'Colour' became 'color' and 'mould' became 'mold'. There are many more.

Try the test on this site

The Queen's English Test
http://www.okcupid.com/tests/take?

Or do a Google search on 'Queen's English' and find it there.

Or: spellster.com/s/american-english/ - Supplemental Result

Type in english spelling v american spelling and find this site. It gives you hundreds of words and meanings. For example we call the thing that lets water out a tap, you call it a fawcett.

Get hold of an English version of the Oxford English dictionary so that you can check your words and if typing a word document change the language option to 'English UK' rather than 'English US'.

Answer 4

Old English

Answer 5

agree with 1st answer
basically a lot of your words ending in 'er' we spell 're' eg litre
also, we use an 's' insetead of a 'z' in a lot of words
and we add some extra 'u' s

but change your word language to english uk
and check the collins/oxford english dictionary
try searching google UK for a dictionary (www.google.co.uk)

Answer 6

Well done Sherri - 'Old English' how dumb can you be?

The UK version is the one that is universal amongst English speaking countries; with the exception of the US and US try hards (Philippines & Singapore).

Answer 7

what it really means is that this here country boy, spent quite a bit of time in europe (the country, not the moon) and learned to spell more colourfully from them brits i was around.

realize = realise
colour = colour
empathize = empathise
beer = pint

-eagle

Answer 8

British maybe