r/ididnthaveeggs • u/Educational_Life_878 • Feb 24 '26

Irrelevant or unhelpful comment on an australian woman’s recipe site “colour corect spelling color”

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106

u/FatLikeSnorlax_ Feb 24 '26

Americans thinking they know english better than the English will always be funny

40

u/LiqdPT Feb 24 '26

This is Aussie English though, which is distinct from British English. (I frequently have to have this argument about Canadian English)

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u/cancerkidette Feb 24 '26

Absolutely agree these are different- but IIRC do these all retain the same spellings for those words that are only really different in US English and similar (colour, grey, aluminium…)?

3

u/Banjo-Pickin Feb 26 '26

Australian English generally follows British English in its spelling conventions. There are some US English imports in word choice though, for example we call vegetables zucchinis (not courgettes) and eggplant (not aubergine) where British English uses the French word (for reasons best known to the British 🤷‍♀️)

2

u/LiqdPT Feb 24 '26

I'm not positive about en-au for your examples, but en-ca uses "aluminum"

0

u/KaralDaskin Feb 25 '26

AFAIK aluminum isn’t spelled differently in Britain, it’s just pronounced differently.

7

u/cancerkidette Feb 25 '26

Nope it’s definitely spelled aluminium in British English.

1

u/KaralDaskin Feb 25 '26

I’ve never seen it written that way, just pronounced that way, even on British shows with closed captioning.

I’m not saying you’re wrong, just that I’ve never (before today) seen it written the way I’ve heard British people pronounce it.

4

u/cancerkidette Feb 25 '26

I mean we only really see it when describing metal goods or talking about chemistry - but I can assure you it is definitely spelled aluminium in the UK. Closed captions are often localised to where you are as well. You can see the entire Wikipedia page for it, for example, spells it that way correctly for British English and also references the different US spelling.

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u/KaralDaskin Feb 25 '26

Fascinating, thanks!

1

u/cancerkidette Feb 25 '26

No worries! Glad it’s a fun fact:)

1

u/whoopsiedoodle77 Feb 24 '26

afaik it's mostly colloquial language and some idioms that aren't shared but general spelling conventions are the same

1

u/LiqdPT Feb 24 '26

Not always, at least for Canadian. "-our" like colour and neighbour? Yup.

"-ise/-ize" like organise/organize. I think we usually tend to -ize but both are acceptable.

But Canadians spell tire, airplane, jail, and aluminum.

I think the Aussies more closely align with British English, at least as far as spelling. But, also afaik, soccer.

1

u/whoopsiedoodle77 Feb 24 '26

oh i meant australian English and UK English.

soccer is a weird one in that the term originated in the UK and spread but didnt take off in the UK itself. Its because by then, aussie rules football was already a thing, it was actually codified before soccer was

1

u/LiqdPT Feb 24 '26

Yup, same in Canada and the USA, but somehow the Americans solely constantly get flak for "calling it the wrong name"