ZED not ZEE...

[Machjo]

Specific English words may have two or more recognized spelling forms, Juan. The British way or the American way. Canada has adopted the British way.

One notable example is the word center. Canadians and Brits prefer to spell it as centre. When I typed in "center" to search the on-line Merriam Webster dictionary I got 16 hits. I only got two hits when I typed "centre". So looks like the British (and Canadian)way is not the common way.

I don't fully agree with this. Canadian spelling is not identical to British spelling. They'd spell programme except if it's a computer programme, in which case program is acceptable. In Canadian English, the two are totally interchangeable.

Likewise, whereas British English accepts both the -ize and -ise spellings and their derivatives for the causative suffix, as long as it is used consistently throughout the article or publication, Canadian English never uses the -ise spelling for this particular suffix.

There are other differences too, but this should be enough to show you that spelling rules do vary between British and Canadian English, as they do between Canadian and US English. Australian English is different too. For instance, while Australians usually use the -our derivative in words such as colour, etc., they do make an exception for labor, spelt without the u.

This is one reason English spelling drives non-native English-speakers nuts.

 

[#juan]

the letter zee or zed: which name is best?

At this year’s Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee, a purse-lipped, snooty spelling official succumbed to an on-camera hissy fit when a Canadian girl contestant had the temerity to spell a word and use zed as the name of the last letter of the English alphabet. “We’d prefer zee,” sibilated the prissy prune of a spelling judge. Then why, American sir, would you invite the English-speaking world to your spelling bee and not have the civility to permit both names of the letter, zed and zee, to be used? Must American neo-isolationism and provincialism descend even to a simple children’s contest?​

Zed is the name of the letter in Great Britain, India, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and most other places on earth where English is used. But in America they call it zee. Fine. That does not appear to be a problem of planet-shattering consequence. Yet Canadians, like me, were generally miffed at American officialdom casting scorn on our pronunciation. For that reason CTV National News came to my humble abode and digitized a short TV clip for broadcast Friday, June 3, 2005. Their viewers wished to know the origin of the two names, zed and zee. Was one letter name correct and the other wrong? Well, here’s the answer.​

Z is the twenty-sixth and last letter of the English alphabet. The nutshell story of zed? Zed entered Middle English from French representing a “ts” or “ds” sound, then came to represent the voiced sibilant in, for example, the word zoo.



Continued: zed and zee in Canadian speech & spelling from Bill Casselman's Canadian Word of theDay​

 

[JLM]

I don't fully agree with this. Canadian spelling is not identical to British spelling. They'd spell programme except if it's a computer programme, in which case program is acceptable. In Canadian English, the two are totally interchangeable.

Likewise, whereas British English accepts both the -ize and -ise spellings and their derivatives for the causative suffix, as long as it is used consistently throughout the article or publication, Canadian English never uses the -ise spelling for this particular suffix.

There are other differences too, but this should be enough to show you that spelling rules do vary between British and Canadian English, as they do between Canadian and US English. Australian English is different too. For instance, while Australians usually use the -our derivative in words such as colour, etc., they do make an exception for labor, spelt without the u.

This is one reason English spelling drives non-native English-speakers nuts.

"catalogue" is another one.

 

[TenPenny]

Don't you all remember the radio ads:

Zeller's, that's what we said
Zeller's, with a capital Zed...

 

[fremantlefc]

I don't fully agree with this. Canadian spelling is not identical to British spelling. They'd spell programme except if it's a computer programme, in which case program is acceptable. In Canadian English, the two are totally interchangeable.

Likewise, whereas British English accepts both the -ize and -ise spellings and their derivatives for the causative suffix, as long as it is used consistently throughout the article or publication, Canadian English never uses the -ise spelling for this particular suffix.

There are other differences too, but this should be enough to show you that spelling rules do vary between British and Canadian English, as they do between Canadian and US English. Australian English is different too. For instance, while Australians usually use the -our derivative in words such as colour, etc., they do make an exception for labor, spelt without the u.

This is one reason English spelling drives non-native English-speakers nuts.

australians always use the our suffix (including labOUR) but one of our political parties is Labor

 

[JLM]

australians always use the our suffix (including labOUR) but one of our political parties is Labor

There's scads of examples- tyre, kerb, aluminium, not to mention words/names spelt the same but pronounced differently like Cecil- Sessal in England, Ceeecil in Canada.

 

[Curiosity]

I got caught using "chips" instead of "fries" when I first landed here...I think they have evolved into a more "worldly" expression now that our travel among the two nations is expanding....in fact I see "chips" written out as often...

 

[talloola]

are you aluminuming it mom, or are you copperbottoming it mom.

say that ten times

 

[Colpy]

Zed Zed Top???

I dunno.........

 

[Chiliagon]

not to be picky but isn't is Schedule ??

My Word program and Email corrects me to the AMERICAN spelling

of Colour
Odour
Favour
all the other 'ours