Hello Readers,

I'm in the UK and fairly new to this forum. I have a couple of web sites that are visited mainly by Americans (90%).

Because of this, I try to use the American version of certain words, eg. color as opposed to colour, etc. Just an attempt to make you feel more at home

Do you think I should bother doing this?

Is there anywhere that lists American/UK versions of spellings?

TTFN.
Paul.

Don't think it will make a big difference - but if you want to cater to your biggest audience, it is easy to make the spellings one way or the other. I use Word - my version has both a UK spell checker and a US spell checker - I just set it to the spell checker I need. Super simple.

Cheers

Thank You, Timothy.

Using the spell-checker is a good idea - I'll just have to remember to change it back when I write to the Times!

I've also asked for for a critique of the site under the Critique Requests section (entitled; Rushed my Site...), if anyone would care to look.

Cheerio, or rather... See Y'all,
Paul.

Hi Paul,

Interestingly, I have the reverse issue: I tend to write for a fair amount of UK/Canadian/Australian markets, so I'm constantly being reminded that z's are a no-no and u's are standard fare just about everywhere!

For a very basic look at some of the most common UK/American English words, see http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwesl/egw/jones/differences.htm

This site seems to do the trick for the majority of words used.

As for whether you should bother or not...if being seen as UK-specific is not a liability for your sites, then I'd not worry about it.

Cheers.

Mark

I'm American and I've always enjoyed seeing the UK spelling of words like color/colour. I would know it wasn't an American site, but that's ok. It makes the site seem more exotic. I'm not answering as a copywriter, though. Don't know if it'll affect your conversion rate, I just know a lot of us enjoy those spellings.

Janet

I have been told that Americans are more allergic to UK spellings than vice versa. This is probably because we're used to being confronted with this colonial mangling of the language , whereas I've heard that many Americans see British spellings and think the writer is ignorant (!). Australians and Kiwis are cool either way I believe. Therefore, if most of the market is from the US and other English speaking countries, then it seems to make more sense to write in American english.

You can always check spellings at www.dictionary.com

Jane

Paul

I am in the UK but 85% of my work is American.

UK vs USA is a myth started by *so-called marketers* that have no idea about the working facts.

#. Offine stick to the local language.
#. Online use USA english. Don't get bogged down on debating the issue ... there isn't one.

Explain.

How can it be a myth, when it is quite evident that the one does not spell in the same way as the other, and there are clearly two distinct "dialects"? And even you go on to provide a rule of thumb for when to use which.

What is the myth and what are the working facts?

Jane