Calling all English hubbers, do you write in English English or US English? I find myself more and more writing for the market - so especially on Amazon hubs changing the spelling of colour to color etc. Anyone else?
Word hates when I do that, I get red errors all over the place! lol
US English - no question. Trust me - barbecue and barbeque are two entirely different search engine volumes.
You could always change your Word preferences.
Which was in UK english? i tend to use both since bbq is so often used - barbeque naturally pops out sometimes
But I live near a famous BBq joint so I see Barbecue a lot - I never even noticed that before.
Barbeque is English. Barbecue is American, but they shorten it to BBQ, not BBC.
I write in English English, but am starting to wonder if that's wise from an earnings point of view. Although in my jewellery hubs, I do *try* and get round it by using lots of key words that have the same spelling in both versions, and by making "jewelry" part of the hub's URL.
Good question Izzy and good answer from Mark.
You make a good point about writing for the market. I write in scottish english, so nae awn his got a scooby wit am writin aboot.
Im from the U.S. and tend to write in Englsih English, I have no idea why, I always have, I failed a bunch of spelling tests, teachers got real mad at me, and my spell checker hates me!!!
I write in the Queen's English of course. Why would I wish to adopt the inferior US English with all its spelling mistakes? One must raise the standard, not lower them. Tuh.
Because most of the readers are from the US.
I write in English English - anything else feels wrong to me (not that there is anything wrong in it, it's just me!) But I can understand how you feel about your amazon hubs - writing in US English could be an advantage then, I guess. I would have to really concentrate, though, it wouldn't come easily!
I write in US English, however, since having spellchecker I've noticed some words stored in my brain are spelled using English English rather than US English. I just know jewellery is the correct spelling but the spellchecker doesn't agree with me!
I get more traffic from google UK anyway. Maybe that's why?!!
I tend to stick to UK language. If it was not for old fuddy duddies like me it would disappear lol.
Occasionally I americanize and I guess it could be more profitable. By the way I often write in my own language as the correct grammar seems to be lost on me nowaddays.
Thanks for all the replies. I think Mark's answer is the most apt in the sense that the search engines look for American spellings. I did read somewhere that putting both spellings into tags would mean the search engines still see it...but maybe it will be easier to just write the whole Hub in US English!
Jewelry spelt like this just looks so WRONG lol. Course it is jewellery, but if the search engines skip that word then I guess jewelry it is
I'll keep Word the way it is I think, and stick to English English when writing about subjects localised to the UK, not that there are many of them.
US english. It's habit to be honest. I can switch easily, it's no big deal. Broadens the mind and all that
I go back and forth between the two, sometimes it is easier to get rid of the red lines by simply giving in to the American spelling but I don't understand the term US English...it's either English or it is something else - Americanish!
We were watching an American program on TV and a commercial came on - onto the screen flashed the word HONOR (honour) and my son made the comment, "I didn't realize that the Americans' spell honour differently." My young daughter piped up, "You are right A...., they spell it with an 'H'!"
out of the mouth of babes comes the greatest humor.
I find myself constantly spelling 'theater' theatre, even with the little red line, I like how it looks.
a helpful link.
http://www.englishclub.com/writing/spel … nglish.htm
When I don't think about I naturally write in English English, but sometimes when I think of it I write in US English. Like when I did jewellery hubs at Christmas I spelt it the US way, even though it nearly killed me
Use both so that you cover all eventualities when people are searching...
America, English.
Should be a button on it. God knows you English people talk funny.
I turned off the bloody spell-checker a long time ago. Good thing I can spell.
If you're writing here for profit, it's probably an advantage to use U.S. English. Otherwise, I use the King's English. They invented it after all (using Latin and a few other derivative languages of course) a couple of centuries before the U.S. started mangling and abbreviating things, and colloquial spellings started to creep in.
I would assume Google is intelligent enough to know that "jewellery" and "jewelry" are the same thing. I will see it understand different grammatical forms (boldfacing learning and learned, if I typed in learn, for example).
The only wrinkle I can think of is, with geotargeted search results available nowadays, Google might assume a hub on "jewellery" is more appropriate for a non-US visitor, while "jewelry" is more appropriate for a US visitor.
No data to back that up, just a guess.
If what you say is true (and I would love it to be true LOL), then the only question is whether seeing British English spellings in a hub would make a US reader less likely to click on the Adsense ads or Amazon products.
I doubt that very much. Americans tend to be much less fussy about UK vs US spelling than do Brits (because it's not "our" language).
If your concern is audience, why not have a spanish version of your writings ?
Afterall color is the spanish word for colour...
verdad!
But I don't write for a Spanish audience, nor am I fluent in the language, and if I was I'd be bumped off Hubpages!
No I haven't seen a thread on this before and this is all very interesting. Obviously if the whole internet went over to American English, we wuld lose our language and I wouldn't be too happy about that, but my primary reason for writing here is for money so I guess I'll need to write more often in US English.
I write English English. Maybe it's some kind of rebellion against the US hegemony and a declaration of independence!
I usually just write in English English. I guess it's because my teachers always fussed about keeping the language different than the US English. It annoys me to see the red lines everywhere though, so sometimes I write in US English just to appease the machine.
I would probably write in Old English if I could. Create a bit of variety.
If enough people wrote English English wouldn't the search engine settings change ? Democracy at work...
I mainly use English English but will occasionally change things in tags e.t.c. for both! e.g. soccer and football! I hate saying soccer but there you go!
Cagsil.
I read once you have stated you didn't speak any other languages other than English.
From your writings and reasonings, I'd be ready to bet a lot that you could speak and write a nice collection of other languages would you give it just a bit of your time.
I tell you. It is really good for the brain to speak or write a foreign language at least from time to time. It's the best way to get into another culture than yours.
And that is real wealth.
IzzyM.
I had a look at your garden. I love it.
That is real wealth too.
You are kidding right? I have trouble with my own language and ALL the words in it, as it is.
Why would I want to learn a less complex language. There are more words in the American English language than any other language on the planet. Most of the words in American English have multiple meanings, depending on the context of a the sentence or intent.
It happens to be one of the reason I enjoy writing so much now, as I didn't a decade ago. I am only high school educated and have no formal higher education. So, everything is self taught.
I hope you can understand, the wealth I require is not in learning a new language, it is in the money I can collect/receive/obtain, so I can do the things that I want, like living life, not just surviving.
I was far from thinking that you could ever make me laugh.
You're definitely a province boy.
My laugh is not full hearted though.
I'm sorry.
Don't move from Massachusets.
Maybe you'll become a stone statue some day.
You see, there you go again. Assuming something not said. I would travel and see lots of place, providing it did not get in the way of my work. I have no doubts that I could gain more by moving and doing things outside my state.
This again, requires what? Requires money. DUH!
Which is more important, cannot do both presently? So, please enlighten me.
You are not in my position and have no clue what my life is like.
Enough said.
Never meant to be rude.
I live in Paris.
If you ever happen to come by, just let me know.
I'll be happy to leave you an appartment I have and make you visit around.
Feel free to be welcome.
Maybe you'll utter some of your grand grand father's words
hehehe
Emmm...that was before he let his dogs loose in it! but thanks
Wow, I didn't realize there were so many UK English speakers/writers on here. Luckily I'm reading what you have to say, because I have a hard time understanding accents. I love the movie Snatch, but I can only understand like half of it. Cheerio.
what about lock, stock, and three smoking barrels.
That's the original and it's good, but I like Snatch better. Either way I can hardly understand the words except for, "Easy peasy lemon squeezy."
best
movie
ever
I watch it with the captions on
I try to write in american english but a lot of my british nuances get through. Unfortunately it is where the money is.
It's hard not to slip into American spelling sometimes because the defaut US spellchecker here is constantly showing me those wavy red underlines.
I always stubbornly put the "u" in colour though...if I don't I feel like I'm being colonised. [spellcheck is telling me that should be coloniZed!]
I have my spellcheck on English English so sometimes a British/Canadian spelling gets through.
Hmmm... I've just done a search on _alan k jewelry_ and my hub on the subject came up in fifth place, on the first page!
Mind you I was using google.co.uk - don't know if that makes a difference; maybe someone using google.com would get a different result. Any American readers care to try it out, in the interests of scientific research LOL?
Completed my education in UK english, and now messing up with US english at workplace.
I prefer British English, particularly jewellery. Of course, most people will probably recognise this as mispelling or is it misspelling?
I do British/Australian also. I begrudgingly use US English, though I'm convinced it's not proper.
I always write in English English, though I think this is more than about just spellings. Most of the Brits on HubPages have a very British way of putting things, and I can often spot a fellow Brit just from their writing style.
I use English English and if spell checker tells me to change it I ignore the word and leave the spelling as is. If I have any doubts I refer back to my OED and go with that.
I use English English because it still retains the deepest meanings in the fewest words. The cultural exagerration of American English devalues good words, moron-ises them in some cases, either through replacing them with short slang phrases or devalue through cynicism.
Empress, I just searched for your hub using Alan K jewelry and it comes up number eight, so it's still on the first page.
I never knew the English spelling was 'jewellery'; that may explain why people mispronounce it here. How do you pronounce it?
I hear "jule-er-ree" a lot. Hmmm, I just went to a site that has audio pronunciations in English and American. They sound the same. Perhaps someone with better hearing could listen?
Yes, "jule-er-ree" is how I pronounce it. But of course spelling doesn't necessarily give an accurate idea of pronounciation. Who would know just from reading the place name "Leicester" that it's actually pronounced "Lester" rather than "Lay-cester"?
Does anyone actually make sufficient money from Hubpages to even ask the question: US or the superior UK English? Shame on all you British citizens that write in US English
Or the name "Chalmondley" is pronounced "chumly".
QUOTE:
Does anyone actually make sufficient money from Hubpages to even ask the question: US or the superior UK English? Shame on all you British citizens that write in US English
-------------
So, from reading the posts here, US English is ONLY written in the US? Canadians and Australians use English English? Any other countries care to join in?
how about labour, should I use labor or labour, I am currently writing about child labor?
thanks Izzy and audrevea, maybe I will use labour becase it is used by United Nations as well
What a great question Izzy. I usually write English English but I'm mindful that Hubpages is a US based site and I imagine most readers are North American. However, that assumption might be wrong!
Anyway, sometimes, I change and use US spelling and then I have a odd mix in my hubs. However, its all rather random.
According to analytics, my readers are about 50/50 US UK and a smattering from around the globe, but Amazon is dot com, the US site so there is no point really writing in English English on those hubs aimed at a US market. But for the rest? Hmmmm! I don't want to put off UK viewers by continually using US spellings; not saying that it would put them off, but it might, especially if they read my profile and see that I am Scottish. Then it seems pretentious to write American when I'm obviously not from there.
The Scots especially don't like when one of their own seems to get above themselves.
For example, Sheena Easton, a Scot, started her career in the UK then left to aim for the bigger US market. She came back to Glasgow to star in an open-air concert where she was booed off the stage, and had eggs thrown at her! Not because she sang badly, she didn't, but because she'd developed a US accent (and was perceived to have turned her back on us)!
Strange but true.
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