Hi everyone,

I wasn't sure exactly where to post this little issue. Lately, while skimming through various websites I've noticed something odd. I have noticed that some words like organize, recognize, summarize etc. are spelled with and "s" instead of a "z." At first, I thought that it was a mispelling of words but realized that it was happening more and more and mostly in foreign countries like Australia,UK and even Canada. It isn't a big deal or anything I just would like to know if the spelling is a correct spelling in different countries. Curiousity has gotten the best of me and I need to know! Is it exceptable to use an "s" instead of a "z"? If you try spelling those words with an "s" especially in MS Word, the program corrects it to a "z." What do you think? Is there a spelling/grammar rule that I'm missing?

Thanks for your comments.

Leilani

Hi Leilani

I'm not aware of any grammatical rule in relation to such words. My understanding was that the accepted spelling was particular to the country you're from. As I'm an Australian, we've always spelled words such as those in your examples with an 's' rather than a 'z'. The same applies to words like 'neighbour/neighbor' (and some others I can't quite think of right now!)

Having said that, I don't think it would be necessarily wrong to spell those words any way you feel is correct. Without having looked in a dictionary, I think either spelling would be understandable and acceptable.

Just my opinion. Hope it helps!

Hi Mandy,

Thank you soooo much for the reply. I have been wondering about this for a while now. Yes, I did notice other words like the neighbour/neighbor having a different spelling also. While I was in school, so many of the instructors drilled into our heads how important it was to make sure we didn't have typos in our work because it looked unprofessional. I don't think any of them went over the subject of other countries spelling a word which was spelled almost exactly the same way with exception of one letter and with the same meaning. I find this absolutley fasinating and also informational. Thanks again, Mandy. I would love to visit Australia someday.

Leilani

It's quite interesting, isn't it? Good luck with it all!

If required, you can set up Microsoft Word to perform its spell checking function using British English rather than American English. It would then highlight spellings with 'z' as being incorrect. It would also highlight the word "color" as being misspelled, as in British English it is correctly spelled as "colour".

Being British I have always wondered why when they put computers together they automatically programe them American English when they are sold to the UK and all other British English selling countries. Anyone know?

That's a very interesting point. I'm British and live in Thailand and when I have bought computers here, they still come set up with all-American settings (language, currency etc.). It's easy enough to change, they even have Thai settings, but you have posed a good question.

I believe it is a software thing and since Windows is a US produced product then US English would be the default.

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