Can anyone, please, tell me what's the correct spelling??

Question

For years, I was convinced that that the UK spelling is "-ising", and US "-izing".
But, only recently, I heard that according to Oxford Dictionary, it is actually illiterate to write words with "-ising".
So, I am rather buffled, I admit.

Well, I hear it at this week's Inspector Morse. He said that it is illiterate to spel it with "z". And he should know, I mean, his character is so... well, Oxfordian (if this is the real word. if not - well, I guess I just invented it).

Answer 1

that's rubbish, -ising is the english way to end alot of words - its not illiterate at all.

bet whoever said it was illiterate was an american.... but THE ENGLISH WERE HERE FIRST!!

Answer 2

Hi.

For decades I too was baffled. As a result of my work over the last few years maintaining the Australian English dictionary spell check files, I came to the following conclusion which works for me.

In Australia it is acceptable to use either spelling. (The one additional condition being that you should be consistent. You wouldn't want to spell the same word in different ways, in the one document.)

The Americans (as a result of Noah Webster's work) standardised on the "ize" endings.

Historically the use of "ize" or "ise", I believe depends the where the word originated.

The modern way to spell words in Australia appears to be "ise".

If you check the Australian Concise Oxford dictionary, or the Macquarie Concise dictionary, both spellings are listed. The first listed word is the word more commonly used. This is the "ise" spelling.

I find if you perform a search of pages from Australia for each word, you also get a good indication of how one spelling is used more than the other.

My own personal preference (now) is to use the "ise" spelling. How others spell, is their preference.

Answer 3

When in doubt, it's always best to consult the Dictionary.

-ise and -ize. Most words ending in -ise can also be spelled with a final -ize: for example antagonise, capitalise, centralise.

For some words, however, you can only use the ending -ise.

Some of the most common of these are advertise, advise, enterprise, exercise, improvise, revise, supervise, surprise, and televise.

Answer 4

Though both spellings are acceptable, "ise" is the UK spelling and "ize" is the US spelling. I think UK spellings are always better than the US.I prefer using the UK spelling and pronunciations.

Answer 5

Here here The Gimp!

I use -ising. It was quite difficult while I was at uni because I didnt know which one to use but seeing as it's english we're tlaking of here, use the english version.

Answer 6

It really doesn't matter. I use "-izing" & no one bats an eyelid. However, most books spell it "-ising" - so just go with what you're comfortable using.

Answer 7

standard australian english, uses ising, although as a teacher we have to accept the americanisation of our language, havent heard about the oxford viewpoint before

Answer 8

using both "ising" and "izing".
Both are correct one is British and the other is Am.
don't believe what they say check it but our professors told us so other than that i don't know
hope u find the ans.
urs
sara

Answer 9

It depends on the verb:
|--: For one-syllable verbs, respect the stem: rising, prizing, seizing.
|--: For verbs that come directly from Greek, use -izing: categorizing, hypothesizing.
|--: For longstanding verbs that come directly from French, use -ising: advertising, despising, enterprising, reprising, surmising, surprising.
|--: Verbs that were created in English, rather than being imported from Greek or French, could go either way, depending on what country you're in: burglarizing, capitalizing, terrorizing.

Answer 10

The best dictionaries give both spellings which are equally correct.The 'z' is used more in the USA than in the UK.

Are you still 'buffled'..or should that be baffled?