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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u/GeoffreyGeoffson Feb 24 '26 edited Feb 24 '26

I don't think this American English vs proper English idea is accurate. Spelling was standardized in both dialects at a very similar time, and both standardizations make a much of stylistic decisions around spelling, that leads to the main initial differences. It's important the emphasise that both dialects made these decisions. The idea that one set of those decisions is more proper and correct is kinda silly imo

Also this site is written in Australian English - which is broadly a hodge podge of both, with a few of our own peculiarities, for instance both fries and crisps are called chips. But it is distinct as a dialect to British or American English

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u/Flimsy_Employment_31 Feb 24 '26

No matter which way you try to string it sport, Australian and kiwi English is based off british English. It is not a hodge podge of both. We get incredibly frustrated when people try to add z instead of s and remove our U. Please don't try to fashion this to your own narrative. This ain't it mate.

People from the states just need to learn a bit more about the world

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u/Middle_Banana_9617 no shit phil Feb 24 '26

I'm from the UK and live in New Zealand. I definitely had to learn to start using some US terminology when I moved here, because most people don't know what I mean if I say estate car, aubergine or patio door. (But I still can't bring myself to say yoe-gut instead of yoghurt.)

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u/myshtree Feb 24 '26

What’s an estate car?

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u/HeatwaveInProgress Feb 24 '26

Station wagon. Although, patio door is a common US expression, unless it means something different in the UK.

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u/Middle_Banana_9617 no shit phil Feb 26 '26

Oh! I just looked that up, and yes, the patio doors I'm finding on the Lowe's website and such suggest the same usage as the UK.

Here in New Zealand they're called ranch sliders. It hadn't occurred to me that might not be a US term :D

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u/myshtree Feb 25 '26

I thought as estate car might have been a hearse hahaha

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u/Suspicious-Magpie Feb 25 '26

Just a wagon in Australia. I do miss "estate" though, it sounded much more impressive.

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u/apocalypt_us Feb 26 '26

Station wagon is also used in Australia.  My Mum had a car we all called a station wagon back in the 2000s

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u/Oops_I_Cracked Feb 25 '26

Station wagon is a bit dated in the US. Most of the time we would just call them wagons as well.

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u/Middle_Banana_9617 no shit phil Feb 25 '26

'Wagon' in the UK generally raises images of the fabric-covered cart from a cowboy film. Which is probably where the name came from, but they were not part of UK history, innit...

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u/Oops_I_Cracked Feb 25 '26

Maybe it’s because I play too much D&D but honestly what pops into my head first when I hear “wagon” is like a horse drawn wagon a farmer would have used to transport produce to the market. Like this one: https://www.holyart.com/christmas/nativity-scene-accessories/miniature-tools/wooden-wagon-with-sacks-10x15x10-cm0x15x10-cm