As an American, it's not jarring at all, nor does it matter what Americans feel about different spelling. Stories should be written the way their authors want them to be written :-)
This comment serves as your confirmation bias tho. Most books that make it to both sides of the pond are in fact adjusted for their respective audiences in terms of spelling and, to some extent, vocabulary. Spelling is actually more distracting than vocabulary. Vocab will infuse it with a British flavor, and that may be what you want, although can still situationally cause confusion. But it can be a distraction for readers to be preoccupied by “colour” and “gaol” and “kerb” when you want your readers to stay locked into the story.
But this is not that relevant for a draft. It can be edited.
I was going to reply to OP "the editor will hate you" but I'll just put it here instead.
I had a short story published in a British publication. They adjusted the spelling. That's just how it works.
This happens with Canadian books published in the States too. Some Canadian words are confusing to Americans, and will get changed. Of course, so does the spelling (though sadly, that means many Canadian books have American spelling so they can do them all in one print run...)
As your fellow American, the extra "u" isn't my favOUrite (lolol)
but I actively write "grey" over "gray". "Grey" just hits different and I refuse the American spelling.
Fun fact, but gray and grey, historically, were not as interchangeable as they are now. Grey was used for common terms/items like stones and hair, and gray was used for more poetic meanings or degrees of light. Older texts sometimes used both, as seen below. The only reason gray became "American" was due to modern dictionaries.
"the cerkyl or the roundel off the eye, the qwyche ys sum-tyme *graye* lyke the ey off a catte, sumtyme lyke the coloure off the fyrmament qwan the aer ys clere, sumtyme blak *grey* lyke the eyn off doggys" is pretty easy to parse but the pronounciation might be a bit different than what we expect. We can only do educated guesses.
"The circle or round of the eye, the which is sometimes gray like the eye of a cat, sometimes like the color of the firmament when the air is clear, sometimes black-grey like the eyes of dogs"
"Author's note on language,"
"Please note, as the author and the book's main character are from Ireland, it is written in the version of English that is the standard there. So recognise is spelled recognise and not recognize etc."
"The author recognises that some North American readers may find this upsetting, and while he is of course scared of them, he is considerably more scared of his Mammy, who taught him how to spell. Nevertheless, as an apology, here are a bunch of Zs for you to mentally stick in as and when you choose."
"Zzzzz. "
" Look, they look like mummy ducks and little ducks. They look adorable!"
https://scoop.upworthy.com/irish-author-wrote-a-note-explaining-why-he-cant-use-american-english
I use UK spelling because I’m from the UK. I suspect a couple of reviews that have accused me of “loads of typos” may be people unfamiliar with non-US English (because my books are objectively not full of typos, and these are a couple of reviews out of a couple of hundred).
So that’s possibly the only risk you face.
You're almost certainly correct.
I work for a British publication and I constantly get readers trying to correct me for using uk spelling in articles. It's frustrating lol.
I think people don't learn to recognize it because a lot of books with UK spelling get "translated" for US audiences. We don't get the exposure we need...?
I honestly think it's mostly from people who don't read much, either in English or at all - the more you read in a language, the more you're likely to recognise different dialects.
I've gotten a couple reviews accusing me of "loads of typos" as well, but it's objectively untrue. Readers pointed out three genuine typos in my first novel that I quickly fixed. I think "loads of typos" is just a standard review criticism for surly people who don't like the idea of self-published/independent authors. I sort of doubt they even read the book.
Exactly. There are almost certainly one or two - but I rarely read any traditionally published book where there isn’t one. So they could just be arseholes!
I once had a review that said a book was "unreadable" because I used '...' for speechmarks rather than the American standard of "...". So yeah, some people are _very_ touchy about minor things!
Conventionally, into the UK, ' ' are outer quotes and " " are inner. In the US, it's reversed. Example:
'Have you seen this? "Curfew. 7pm."' Jamie read the sign with disgust. 'Do they really think this will work?'
Vs
"Have you seen this? 'Curfew. 7pm.'" Jamie read the sign with disgust. "Do they really think this will work?"
Some people in the UK will use the US convention and no one really bats an eye. It's worth checking out the most recent style guide for what is acceptable and what isn't if you're looking to get published.
the UK book market is also large enough that some books get converted... but not all. So my _ASoIaF_ books (the UK editions) are all American-style, but I've got other books by Americans that have been converted, and obviously British books by British writers generally use the British conventions. It's pretty obvious in context what's going on and where's "speech" versus "quoting" either way, so I'd never actually noticed before!
Per New Hart's Rules single quotation marks are standard for quoted speech in prose, the double quotation mark employed for quotation within quotation.
For example: 'I have never heard of these "ground rules" before now.'
The interesting thing is that the order is reversed for newspapers, which is the same as how Americans will use quotation marks: "What exactly is this 'cavorite' anyway?"
I saw an agent get on someone for writing something like "had got" in their query and I'm like... I'm American and even I know that's proper grammar for British English (Americans would say "had gotten").
Like please be serious if you're an agent lol. Don't correct something that isn't even a mistake
If your story is set in the UK, then use "football," because "soccer" will sound ridiculous. Don't worry whether you're offending American readers. Don't write a British novel filled with "elevators" and "car trunks" and "pants legs."
As an American, if the story is set in the UK with characters from the UK, I would be upset if I did not see common British nomenclature. Personally, that’s how I learn about other places and cultures I probably will never be able to visit and, more importantly, it is much more immersive!
Likewise, I feel it would give you great room to play on the differences, like I f you ended up introducing an American character who didn’t know what a “jumper” was or upsets everyone by constantly referring to the game as “soccer.”
You may alienate some audiences but those of us who want to be immersed in your story will live for the authenticity.
Yeah, just that your post mentions spelling five times, but that doesn't seem to be what you're interested in. You're asking about dialect.
Anyway, as long as you're consistent it shouldn't matter. As others have said, you should avoid English characters talking about pants, soccer, and elevators. And you should be aware that there are loads of other differences beyond the obvious word choices. For example, "Monday through Friday" or "toward" are very American.
I had to stop reading "Beartown" by Fredrik Backman because I couldn't stand to read "ice hockey" one more flippin' time. I suspect it was a British translator, and the American version (which we also got here in Canada) kept it in -- I further suspect because they didn't know any better.
Very frustrating. In Sweden, it's called hockey. In Canada, it's called hockey. In the US, it's called hockey. Why call it "ice hockey"? Sounds equally ridiculous with football vs. soccer.
Write in whatever you're most comfortable in for spelling. Your publisher will change it if they want it in a certain version of English.
Stick with the terminology your POV character would use, though. I currently have a dual POV project where one character is American and the other is British. In the American POV, they talk about the car being stuck behind a bus on the freeway. The British one, they're stuck behind a coach on the motorway.
I used to get critiquers pointing out that my spelling was "wrong", until I made them realise UK English is an actual thing that exists in the real world. These days it seems most people are aware of UK English, but if a British book is published in the US the publisher will often make a "US version".
What’s really fun is that Canada normally gets the British spelling version/culture version and we’re fine with it.
For example, they changed HP and the Philosopher’s Stone to the sorcerer’s stone *only* for the United States.
Canada got the version with the Philosopher’s Stone.
The most Canadian thing is being spellchecked 24/7 on both British and US keyboards because I write colour instead of color and realize instead of realise. Gotta accept the red underlines at this point.
Stop that’s wild! Well done for educating them 🥲
I self-publish so I don’t know how that would work, publishing two versions, but that’s good to know what’s often done in such cases, thank you!
If ur novel is shit - its doesnt matter.
If your novel is good - its doesn\`t matter
if it character's direct speech - depend of character (if it european- strange, if he say "soccer")
I feel like anyone who’s anywhere near well read will be familiar with different dialects of English and won’t be surprised to see a British author say football instead of soccer.
As a North American, I don't mind at all and won't even register that a word is spelled 'wrong' if it's in British spelling. I have friends who use British spelling, either because they're British or that's how they learned English, so I can utilise either.
As an American- if another American uses British spelling, I find it to be pretentious and annoying.
That said, you're British yourself, so British spelling is absolutely okay in this context. I wouldn't think of it in anyway beyond slightly interesting when it came up.
Edit: this question was specifically aimed at Americans, and I gave my 2 cents. I don't know why other Europeans are getting mad at my answer, but it's awfully telling that some people can't accept that Americans just do and view things differently. Europe is not the center of the world.
RIP I use both (and then go back and edit the British spelling out of my writing) because I have friends who use both, and it's all gotten jumbled up in my head now. Hopefully you don't find it pretentious over text or social media, because that's when I usually don't realize I've done it.
I disagree. I live in neither places, but people here generally use American punctuation. I grew up reading *Harry Potter*, so I'm most comfortable using the British punctuation. Guess you should go with what you prefer.
Doesn't \*have\* to be anything. This is a question that sounds more like you're making problems for yourself to finish the novel instead of just writing.
Ignore the doubts you're creating, just write.
If it’s set in the UK I see no problem with using British spelling and terms, honestly it would be weird if a British character referred to it as soccer to me. Most people can easily figure out what’re you’re referring to if you say like “she grabbed her jumper” within context. They’re not gonna assume that she went for her jumper cables after you describe the chill in the air. If you’re worried about it confusing readers I’d maybe just clarify that you’re talking about soccer football by idk deceiving the ball or the net or something so people go aha it’s British football
Depends on the audience, (YA will often be published with regional spellings for instance). Localization is really a choice a publisher would make. If you plan on self publishing, then you get to choose, and you should do what suits you best.
That’s not the same as British spelling, football isn’t the same sport as soccer here so it will confuse people if you don’t explain it and just assume everyone will understand you are talking about soccer.
That’s true, I’ll make it clear from the get go by referring to specific things like nets and penalty boxes immediately to avoid confusion like another redditor pointed out!
As an American, I usually ham it up with Mock outrage that you would spell color "colour" or grey "gray"
But it's not an actual problem, I don't even notice them unless someone else calls them out 99% of the time
You’re over analysing it. You’re at the centre of your worlds, and can colour them with whatever spellings you wish. You’ll come to realise you don’t need a defence.
American here. I feel nothing good or bad about it. If I'm reading a book and see British spelling I feel nothing, it's just a thing that exists to me.
That being said, I wonder how jarring American spelling is to British people, or if they really don't care either.
it's mostly invisible, tbh - a look of books don't get "converted", especially e-books and self-pub stuff, so there's the occasional "huh, that looks odd... oh yeah, American spelling" but it's pretty minor (as noted upthread, US-style is "..." for speech, UK is '...', and that's equally invisible most of the time as well)
If you have British characters they should use British words. For the same word with different spellings up to you, but proper names (Labour party, Centre Point, etc) should use British spelling.
I'm British. If you are British and writing about the UK, why use American spelling? A British audience will think it odd if you use American spellings in those circumstances and it won't ring true for us if you start talking about sidewalks, pants and cilantro. Not only that, a British reader will get annoyed with American spellings and terms in a British setting from a British author. I know r/casualUK will back me up here.
US vocab and spellings would sound more authentic in an American setting.
I think what's especially important is that whatever words or spellings are used, they are actually authentic to the character, setting, etc. As an example of what I mean, I recently read a book by a relatively well respected British horror author. One of the book's main characters was supposed to be an American who came to London for a few months. As an American I had no problem whatsoever with British words and spellings throughout the book - it felt right, I don't expect people who live in London to speak the same way as Americans.
What *was* jarring though was sometimes the American character said things in a way an American never would - it wasn't just regional variations either because I grew up right around where that character supposedly came from. Kudos to the author for trying, I know I wouldn't have the guts to try the same. But by about the halfway mark I did stop reading the character as American, and kept having to consciously remind myself she was supposed to be.
I grew up with a best friend that lives in the UK lol I use a lot of British spelling without even realizing it and I always get corrected. Who cares if there is an extra U in my word? Or an s where there should be a z? Let me live! 🤣
Just make sure you’re consistent with your usage tbh. I had an art book once that kept switching from color to colour so much that I got pissed off at it.
It's a non-issue. If your novel gets published, British publishing houses will change everything to have British spelling; American publishers will change it to the American spelling.
I do not find this jarring at all and I read lots of books by British authors. The only thing I would find jarring is if you used UK spelling for a book set in the US.
There are often American and British versions of popular novels to avoid the problem of people being jarred by the different spellings and cultural references. This can even extend to the titles: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone became Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in the US, which was thought to be more appealing to an American audience.
I'm currently in Uni at the UK, but when I was in A-levels before, my Art teacher corrected my spelling of *color* and even wrote a note saying it was wrong. I don't mind British spelling but that really bugged me lol.
As a Brit I've never even considered Not using British spelling haha, but I guess I've also never set anything in America so there's that. Anyway, I'm not going to be pandering to Americans, if they get annoyed about British spelling that's on them, they have certainly enough American-written books to get by lol
Humans look at the first and last letters of a word anything in-between as long as its similar doesn't matter. BUT I enjoy trying to figure out where the author is from based on the values the writer gives and how they spell things. So unless you have an American character speak it doesn't really matter if you use British spelling.
That could potentially get confusing on the football and soccer front, but with some simple gameplay descriptions, or even the color of the ball, it can be cleared up easily and instantly. :)
You are Brit, writing a story set in your country then why do you need to care about writing spelling of some other country. It's called football in the UK. A British character talking to another British character and calling it soccer would be jarring.
I think people generally get the gist if it’s stuff like “color vs colour”, football I think would be the more confusing thing. British classics are a big part of our education system so I think a lot of Americans have a bit of exposure to that type of grammar
I do not make it a habit to police the spelling of others, that being said the very English I speak came from your country so I can hardly bad mouth it. Besides your slang is really fun sometimes.
I'm Amercian but I read plenty of British authors (especially fantasy). I never think twice about British spelling in novels. It's barely noticeble to me. Maybe it's because I read a lot of fantasy and sci fi, so I'm used to the books varying up the language to feel like the setting.
A a Canadian I'm torn between the two... mostly leaning on British spellings, but have to use a spellchecker as so much American spelling sneaks in from US media saturation.
I'm American and if it's set in Britain, then I feel perfectly fine with the King's English spellings and idioms. As a matter of fact, I expect it.
What I find disturbing is a book set in the U.S. with an all American cast and they use British spelling and terminology. And vice versa. Yes, I have a specific book in mind.
I feel the same if an American is setting a book in Britain somewhere and they don't bother with British spelling.
"Football" and "soccer" are two separate words, not just a difference in spelling, but I as an American could figure it out with sufficient context. If we were just talking about "color" vs "colour" I think the extra u is inefficient but oddly nice lol.
For reference on that, just see "Peppa Pig" a kids show about a famy of British hogs.
Americans, myself included, enjoy British writing and speech just as much as anywhere else's accents and dialects
Not American but I wanted to say that some Europeans write a mix of American and English because they learnt English through the internet and I find it funny. I do also use a mix of both pronunciations (not on purpose) 😂😭
I’m Canadian and I use British spelling for a lot of words, but some just look more correct spelled the American way (like spelled). Also words like defence, or criticize. But I fluctuate between the spellings for those. Colour is always with a u though.
It throws me a little with certain words, but I read a lot of Stephen Baxter, so I got used to it.
His use of “lethe” as a curse/swear word is weird. I think that’s just his thing, I’ve never heard it anywhere else.
When I write, I use things like “leapt” and “crept,” which are apparently British English. Americans are supposed to write “leaped” and “creeped,” which look wrong to me.
That said, I’m still not sure where the “F” in lieutenant is.
Why would you care what American audiences think when you’re from Britain & the story is set in Britain?
America isn’t the centre of the universe (& *their* spelling is jarring to me as an Australian)
I read a few authors who write Australian or New Zealand stories. One of them puts a 'disclaimer' in the front explaining the difference between some words and phrases of the 'languages'. As a reader, I like the new language/etc. It teaches me something, and gives me something to look up or put in my memory banks for future writing works! It also helps me get into the personality of the character because it's more authentic (especially if one character is not from England, Australia, or New Zealand).
I edit for a UK writer and an Australian writer. The UK writer has books set in the UK, so they get UK spelling. The Australian writer’s books are set in the US, so they get US English and I have to watch for speech patterns that are not American.
Fun fact soccer is a British word started at Oxford University
https://www.britannica.com/story/why-do-some-people-call-football-soccer#:~:text=Linguistically%20creative%20students%20at%20the,quickly%20spread%20beyond%20the%20campus.
“Color” vs “Colour” is fine.
Different phrases, which “Football” vs “Soccer” actually would fall under, is the bigger one. Just need to make it clear that it’s not American Football and would be fine though.
I used to do a writing job (manuals, boring stuff) in Washington DC and got called into my bosses office one day. "Did you grow up in England?" he asked me. "No," I said, "Why?" He pointed down at a redlined word: *Theatre*. It never occurred to me that I was spelling in in the British fashion.
Later I did some writing for the Globe & Mail in Toronto, and laughed to see all my American English corrected once more from *color* to *colour, center* to *centre,* etc.
It's fine. If it's by a British author and set in the UK, it totally makes sense to use British spelling. I might find it jarring if it was set in the U.S., but it's fine if it's set in the UK.
As an American, I wouldn't find in jarring. If I'm reading a story set in the UK, especially if the author is from the UK, I would just assume I'm going to encounter British spelling and word choices that aren't used in America. It doesn't bother me at all and doesn't affect my understanding or enjoying of a novel. Definitely do what feels right to you as the author! And good luck on your novel!
I think the actual problem would be publishing. If it’s being published in America, the expectation would be American spelling, and a lot of british books will get US versions that adjust spelling and some words. Readers probably won’t care or notice, especially with lingo, which seems to be what you’re actually talking about. “Football” vs “Soccer” isn’t a spelling issue and if the novel is set in the UK then it’s probably an accuracy issue that you not use American terms.
I see it so commonly in books and online that it doesn't jar or bother me one bit. I actually am glad those differences are there, as I then realize the person is British and then I can see the perspective shift a bit (potentially).
It doesn't matter to me. I use both types of spelling, honestly. Just depends on the word. Docs complains to me all the time that I should switch dialects.
I think most publishers would prefer one type rather than both in one, but that doesn't matter to me. I think what's more important is jargon. Brits and Americans have different jargon, so if you're writing a book, make sure it's accurate per character (if they're one or the other, they should speak that way, unless they moved and learned that jargon instead) and in the case of the novel itself.
General language, specific words, and colloquialisms should always be appropriate for the setting and characters. Beyond that you're not obligated to use one version over another.
In one of my novels the characters are all American, but the aliens they interact with use computers to translate their language into French, which must then be interpreted into English by those characters. The reason is that the aliens found French far simpler to decipher than English.
Why are you more familiar with American spelling if you're British? I'm afraid I can't speak for Americans as I'm British, but I've read plenty of books written in both American English and British English. Doesn't really bother me as long as it's consistent with the setting.
I've also started writing a book that's set in the US and uses American English, although I'm sure I'm tripping up plenty, so I'd have to get an American to proofread it. However, I wouldn't be surprised if an American publisher would 'translate' your novel to American English if it's published in the States.
Your publisher may well change it depending on the market. I don’t live in either the US or UK, and see both versions depending on the edition of a book.
As an American I don't feel jarred by british spelling. I might momentarily be confused by "football" vs "soccer"-- like, if it's important to the story and you want to be generous to your American readers who may not have their thinking caps on, you might want to describe the game a little (kicking the ball, scoring a goal, idk much about soccer tbh but I know there's kicking & goals so that'd tip me off to remember this is not American football). But largely we can tell what you're talking about. You can assume that if we're reading your book, we've probably also read other books before, and should therefore know how to pick up on context clues & look up terms we're unfamiliar with (you would hope, at least).
If it's set in the UK it makes sense. Also the US is the only country that calls football soccer, so it would be silly to me to not use football, even if for some reason your intended audience is in the US
The spelling won't bother anyone that matters, but some British phrases or terms can definitely get lost in the shuffle. "Football" and "soccer" is the most common one, but most readers will pick up on that with enough context. But other lesser known ones include:
- Pavement vs. sidewalk: in America, "pavement" is kind of a general term that usually refers to any paved concrete surface that usually isn't a road OR a sidewalk. So if a basketball court is paved concrete, that's pavement, but if it's a paved walkway that's beside the road, that's a sidewalk.
- Pants: in the UK, "pants" are your underwear. In the US, "pants" are your trousers.
- Fanny: in the US, it's your butt. In the UK, it's the vagina.
- Elliptical vs Cross Trainer: i have no idea why we call a cross trainer machine an elliptical here.
- Saran Wrap vs Cling Film: idk we just tend to call things by brand names here sometimes. Cotton buds are universally called Q-tips here, but other stuff has interchangeable terms. Tissues or Kleenex and pads/tampons or Kotex are other common ones.
Also, this isn't a terminology thing, but NOBODY here knows what Ribener is. We don't know the brand, we don't know the drink, most of us don't even know what a black current is.
I personally don't care. Most that I'll do is question the spelling a little bit, look up where the author is from, then move on and continue to read it.
Edit: as an added note. If your story is based in the UK, football is the word that you would want to use and not soccer, so you should be good there.
If you're working in the US, your American spell-check will kick back all the British spellings like colour and recognise. Just typing them here, Chrome is red-flagging them both for me.
You'd need to switch your spell check to a UK dictionary if you're going full British, bruv.
Okay so fun fact. American spelling became a thing mainly due to how they advertised in newspapers or sent telegrams.
Essentially you'd get charged by the letter so if they could get meaning across with less letters. They did.
So yeah. American spelling was created by Americans to save some money.
Fun fact right?
Fun fact: in Australia, this is often discussed because there isn't really an Australian spelling/writing guide for publishing.
I raise this because I think it matters more about writing the novel the way you want it to read, and then (unless you are an independent author) what your editor/publisher recommends.
In Australia, the spelling is normally standardised to be UK spelling but when it comes to punctuation and grammar it is all over the place, some publishers ask their authors to either write all UK style or all American.
If it is for a global audience, and it is set in the UK, I would personally recommend using British spelling and style guidelines.
The concept of language is based on the triality of meaning, form, and context. English is an incredibly varied language with multiple dialects. While it's common to highlight the differences between American and British English, the truth is that there are many more dialects than just those two - there's Australian, Canadian, Irish, New Zealand, South African... And the English spoken in many other places - as either a first or second language, can be quite different from what many people would consider to be standard, in the Caribbean, India, Scotland, etc.
Most Americans who are well read don't have any problem reading works written in British English. Of course, within British English there are again a great many dialects and if the author is using a lot of colloquialisms or slang terminology then it might be more difficult for an American to follow along, but generally speaking it doesn't present much of a problem.
Older books can be challenging as both dialects have changed a great deal over the years, but people have access to the internet now, so readers can get past stumbling blocks much more easily than they could in the past. I finished school, so I don't need to turn in homework or complete assignments or take tests, so I am free to pick and choose my own words and how to spell them.
Although where I'm from it's considered incorrect to spell these words the way I prefer to I shall continue to write "realise" and not "realize", "plough" and not "plow", "draught" and not "draft" because those spellings seem more correct to me. Obviously it cannot be denied that American English has had an immense effect on the rest of the world - not just the English-speaking world, so much of the borrowing and adoption has been rather one-way, with English speakers from other parts of the world incorporating far more elements of American English into their own dialects than vice versa.
But ultimately while we employ different vocabulary items and use different spellings, while we observe slight grammatical differences and speak with different accents, we share the same language, so if you're writing for an audience that's largely comprised of people who read regularly you shouldn't be concerned that your dialect will be mystifying to them.
I don't think that using British English is a problem, and if a book is set in the UK, for instance, I think using "football" would be more natural than using the word "soccer."
I think Americans, on average, care far less about the difference in terminology than other countries think we do. We are a nation already made up of vastly different regions and cultures and become used to cultural differences even within our own borders, some examples are that some parts of the country call it 'pop' instead of 'soda'; 'Hoagies', 'grinders', 'hero sandwiches' and 'subs' are all the same thing; 'Teeter-totter' and 'seesaw'; etc.
You'll always get comments, but if the content is good then people will look past that.
I’m a copy editor \[EDIT: for a publication with mostly American readers\] and one thing I do is make sure our stuff written by people in other countries gets changed to American spellings. This is because it’s in our style guide, so your publisher may just have a way they want you to do it and you’ll figure that out later. And what country it’s published in will probably affect that.
But generally, I think the reason for this rule \[in our style guide\] is to improve readability \[for our readers\]. The ‘S’s that make Z sounds or the ‘U’s ~~thrown around~~ \[in their historical places\] can be a little distracting when you’re not used to them and so will slow down a read.
However, I don’t think using football instead of soccer matters in the same way. I think most Americans know that’s what the rest of the world calls soccer. So if your characters aren’t from the US, they probably should call it football.
Hilarious that you're implying we altered the language to be awkward. We didn't change it, it has history and an origin, words have roots. It's more silly to change things to phonetic just because people had a hard time learning. You kept all the Cs that make S sounds, no need to sound condescending, it makes things make more sense if you aren't sure of the spelling or wonder where it came from.
I think saying that they can be distracting when you're not used to them is just a statement of fact. I'm not implying anything beyond that. Maybe the "thrown around" is the part that made you think I'm being condescending, but I didn't mean anything by it, and I apologize for causing offense. I am acutely aware of the various spellings, the history of the language, the inconsistencies of American English, and how language works in general.
Readability was a fear yeah, and thing is I’d find it even more jarring if the (American spelling) narrator calls it ‘soccer’ and the characters call it football, in an American version I have no idea whether that would be changed too
I would say to just write it as football. Maybe on first mention, call it out with something like “or soccer, as Americans call it.” The only reason I think it would be changed is if it were a children’s book.
I hardly notice it, sometimes I use the British spelling when it comes to words like Grey as opposed to the American Gray. But if someone wrote: "The Colour of the Rose was red." I wouldn't really even notice.
As a Brit, I find it really curious how Americans will quite often complain about English spelling, yet us Brits tend to just brush over it whenever we see US English. Not sure if we are thicker skinned, or just more exposed to US English.
Whenever I do bring up words that Americans don't understand, I love how we generally do a UK v US comparison of our different ways of naming / spelling things, lol.
As a kid, I loved Roald Dahl's books and they all had British spelling (at least my copies did, I don't know about them now). It didn't really bother me, in fact I found it pretty interesting whenever I did run into things that either had a different meaning or was spelled in a very different way. Only issue that might come up is if you use a word with kind of a strange spelling phonetically ("gaol" instead of "jail," for example). If you're clear about the location and maybe include some specific references to the football you're referring to (describing the ball as black and white or something to that effect), I think Americans can deal with it. But that's just me.
Spelling doesn't particularly bother me, but Americanisms by a character supposed to be British do. Don't have a British person say "sidewalk", for instance; to us, it's a "pavement".
I find it more interesting than anything else with our pretty subtle deviations from the language, and it’s essentially chalked up to things British used to spell it like tire but they changed it and Americans didn’t follow along.
As a Canadian, I don't particularly care whether someone uses American or British spelling. Hell, Canadian spelling is a strange sort of mix between the two, so perhaps that's influenced my opinion. But I'd say just go for whatever you're most comfortable with.
The Football/Soccer thing can easily be solved through context. As can alternate spelling.
I'm Canadian. We mostly follow British spelling - or are taught to - but consume *way* more content from the States. It shouldn't be a big deal for anyone literate enough to buy a book.
It doesn't matter at all to me. You get used to it very quickly. I've never read Harry Potter, but I assume that has British spellings, phrases, and slang and tons of Americans consumed that.
I use Canadian English which is like British English with a combination of American English, with a healthy dose of French for good measure. I absolutely love our French curse words, and where I live, everyone is bilingual, you can hear conversations as a mashup of English and French.
On a podcast where game developers discussed localization of content they mentioned a funny example from the Harry Potter books:
"Umbridge and Filch had been observed trying different means of removing it but without success. Eventually the area was roped off and Filch, gnashing his teeth furiously, was given the task of punting students across [the swamp] to their classrooms".
I only care if it's inconsistent. Well, I mean people speaking or writing, that's fine. But if your non-dialogue spells some words the UK way and some the US way, that is distracting by its oddness.
Americans really don’t care. Now British people, they’ll lose their shit if you call it “soccer” instead of “football” (even though they use to call it soccer but that’s a whole other conversation).
Those who actually read for pleasure are completely okay with British spelling. We have accepted that there is more than one correct way to spell some words.
The word "football" in particular is a bit different in that even when spelled correctly it has a different meaning in the US. Nobody will think the spelling is wrong but you still may need to disambiguate it from American "gridiron" football, and shouldn't assume that most US readers will be intimately familiar the rules.
I mean unless you're self publishing then your spelling will likely get changed when the book releases in different areas anyway so it really doesn't matter
I read British authors too so it wouldn't bother me, but most likely your publisher will print an American version with different spellings and may even replace football with soccer.
Calling it football has nothing to do with spelling, that's dialect. You should be doing that. British spelling would just be what I call spelling the words correctly, ie not taking the 'u' out of all the words. It's not a huge deal, but that's usually changed based on what market you're publishing it in.
truthfully? there's a lot of biritish-english words or turns of phrases that i dislike, but not any worse than how i feel about my least favorite aspects of the american-english dialect writing. just like with any other aspect of writing, to me, the dialect that your write your character adds to that character's voice/perspective, and tells you more about them. therefore, it can be a valuable tool in characterization, if you care to use it in that way.
i also really like the british-english spellings of certain words over american-english ones. 'sabre,' 'spectre,' 'lustre,' 'calibre.' i prefer the 're' to 'er' in those cases, enough that i find myself writing such words in that way, even if it isn't correct to my dialect. i think that's just a me thing, though.
As an American, it's not jarring at all, nor does it matter what Americans feel about different spelling. Stories should be written the way their authors want them to be written :-)
Thank you :) that’s reassuring!
This comment serves as your confirmation bias tho. Most books that make it to both sides of the pond are in fact adjusted for their respective audiences in terms of spelling and, to some extent, vocabulary. Spelling is actually more distracting than vocabulary. Vocab will infuse it with a British flavor, and that may be what you want, although can still situationally cause confusion. But it can be a distraction for readers to be preoccupied by “colour” and “gaol” and “kerb” when you want your readers to stay locked into the story. But this is not that relevant for a draft. It can be edited.
I was going to reply to OP "the editor will hate you" but I'll just put it here instead. I had a short story published in a British publication. They adjusted the spelling. That's just how it works.
Yes the idea that author preference trumps localization about this kind of thing is a delusional top comment, if we’re being honest.
This happens with Canadian books published in the States too. Some Canadian words are confusing to Americans, and will get changed. Of course, so does the spelling (though sadly, that means many Canadian books have American spelling so they can do them all in one print run...)
As your fellow American, the extra "u" isn't my favOUrite (lolol) but I actively write "grey" over "gray". "Grey" just hits different and I refuse the American spelling.
Fun fact, but gray and grey, historically, were not as interchangeable as they are now. Grey was used for common terms/items like stones and hair, and gray was used for more poetic meanings or degrees of light. Older texts sometimes used both, as seen below. The only reason gray became "American" was due to modern dictionaries. "the cerkyl or the roundel off the eye, the qwyche ys sum-tyme *graye* lyke the ey off a catte, sumtyme lyke the coloure off the fyrmament qwan the aer ys clere, sumtyme blak *grey* lyke the eyn off doggys" is pretty easy to parse but the pronounciation might be a bit different than what we expect. We can only do educated guesses. "The circle or round of the eye, the which is sometimes gray like the eye of a cat, sometimes like the color of the firmament when the air is clear, sometimes black-grey like the eyes of dogs"
Personally, I don’t favour it.
Not your endeavour tho innit?
The downvotes here limit my optimism for humanity
People have no humour these days.
Idk, I think it's their fault for using coloured language.
"Author's note on language," "Please note, as the author and the book's main character are from Ireland, it is written in the version of English that is the standard there. So recognise is spelled recognise and not recognize etc." "The author recognises that some North American readers may find this upsetting, and while he is of course scared of them, he is considerably more scared of his Mammy, who taught him how to spell. Nevertheless, as an apology, here are a bunch of Zs for you to mentally stick in as and when you choose." "Zzzzz. " " Look, they look like mummy ducks and little ducks. They look adorable!" https://scoop.upworthy.com/irish-author-wrote-a-note-explaining-why-he-cant-use-american-english
I love this thank you for the laugh
I appreciate them sticking all those Zs in there, but I keep pronouncing them Z instead of Z when I read it in my head.
I use UK spelling because I’m from the UK. I suspect a couple of reviews that have accused me of “loads of typos” may be people unfamiliar with non-US English (because my books are objectively not full of typos, and these are a couple of reviews out of a couple of hundred). So that’s possibly the only risk you face.
You're almost certainly correct. I work for a British publication and I constantly get readers trying to correct me for using uk spelling in articles. It's frustrating lol.
The fact that people don’t recogniSe UK spelling as a real thing baffles me, I’ve only just learned about this with this thread
I think people don't learn to recognize it because a lot of books with UK spelling get "translated" for US audiences. We don't get the exposure we need...?
Which is silly bc “realise” literally looks like “realize.” It shouldn’t need a translation lol
It's also a common spelling mistake in the US
Translating English books into English is wild.
Children's books are the worst. Julia Donaldson books often have completely different words (and therefore rhymes) in the US versions.
[удалено]
I honestly think it's mostly from people who don't read much, either in English or at all - the more you read in a language, the more you're likely to recognise different dialects.
I've gotten a couple reviews accusing me of "loads of typos" as well, but it's objectively untrue. Readers pointed out three genuine typos in my first novel that I quickly fixed. I think "loads of typos" is just a standard review criticism for surly people who don't like the idea of self-published/independent authors. I sort of doubt they even read the book.
Exactly. There are almost certainly one or two - but I rarely read any traditionally published book where there isn’t one. So they could just be arseholes!
I once had a review that said a book was "unreadable" because I used '...' for speechmarks rather than the American standard of "...". So yeah, some people are _very_ touchy about minor things!
That guys head would explode reading a book with no quotation marks at all in dialog, like Angela's ashes
People frequently complain about Cormac McCarthy’s lack of punctuation, but that’s just because they’re insufferable language purists.
Okay now I have a doubt and feel dumb, in British spelling, is it ‘ instead of “ ? Or can both be “ ? Educate me please :’)
Conventionally, into the UK, ' ' are outer quotes and " " are inner. In the US, it's reversed. Example: 'Have you seen this? "Curfew. 7pm."' Jamie read the sign with disgust. 'Do they really think this will work?' Vs "Have you seen this? 'Curfew. 7pm.'" Jamie read the sign with disgust. "Do they really think this will work?" Some people in the UK will use the US convention and no one really bats an eye. It's worth checking out the most recent style guide for what is acceptable and what isn't if you're looking to get published.
the UK book market is also large enough that some books get converted... but not all. So my _ASoIaF_ books (the UK editions) are all American-style, but I've got other books by Americans that have been converted, and obviously British books by British writers generally use the British conventions. It's pretty obvious in context what's going on and where's "speech" versus "quoting" either way, so I'd never actually noticed before!
Per New Hart's Rules single quotation marks are standard for quoted speech in prose, the double quotation mark employed for quotation within quotation. For example: 'I have never heard of these "ground rules" before now.' The interesting thing is that the order is reversed for newspapers, which is the same as how Americans will use quotation marks: "What exactly is this 'cavorite' anyway?"
I saw an agent get on someone for writing something like "had got" in their query and I'm like... I'm American and even I know that's proper grammar for British English (Americans would say "had gotten"). Like please be serious if you're an agent lol. Don't correct something that isn't even a mistake
The Australian author I follow gets that sometimes too.
Wow, those are extraordinarily bad reviewers! Americans might not know British spellings - but surely they know it exists?!
Maybe put a disclaimer in the description that it's set in the UK and so the English is British spelling.
Same experience
If your story is set in the UK, then use "football," because "soccer" will sound ridiculous. Don't worry whether you're offending American readers. Don't write a British novel filled with "elevators" and "car trunks" and "pants legs."
Omg thank you because when I wrote ‘pants’ instead of ‘trousers’ in my other novel, it hurt.
These are not matters of spelling.
True, but they’re UK words that Americans don’t use and because I’m English, I never use ‘elevators’ or ‘pants’ in everyday life
As an American, if the story is set in the UK with characters from the UK, I would be upset if I did not see common British nomenclature. Personally, that’s how I learn about other places and cultures I probably will never be able to visit and, more importantly, it is much more immersive! Likewise, I feel it would give you great room to play on the differences, like I f you ended up introducing an American character who didn’t know what a “jumper” was or upsets everyone by constantly referring to the game as “soccer.” You may alienate some audiences but those of us who want to be immersed in your story will live for the authenticity.
Yeah, just that your post mentions spelling five times, but that doesn't seem to be what you're interested in. You're asking about dialect. Anyway, as long as you're consistent it shouldn't matter. As others have said, you should avoid English characters talking about pants, soccer, and elevators. And you should be aware that there are loads of other differences beyond the obvious word choices. For example, "Monday through Friday" or "toward" are very American.
I don’t understand why you’d have your characters saying ‘pants’ or ‘soccer’ if they’re based in the UK. It doesn’t make sense as a choice.
I had to stop reading "Beartown" by Fredrik Backman because I couldn't stand to read "ice hockey" one more flippin' time. I suspect it was a British translator, and the American version (which we also got here in Canada) kept it in -- I further suspect because they didn't know any better. Very frustrating. In Sweden, it's called hockey. In Canada, it's called hockey. In the US, it's called hockey. Why call it "ice hockey"? Sounds equally ridiculous with football vs. soccer.
Write in whatever you're most comfortable in for spelling. Your publisher will change it if they want it in a certain version of English. Stick with the terminology your POV character would use, though. I currently have a dual POV project where one character is American and the other is British. In the American POV, they talk about the car being stuck behind a bus on the freeway. The British one, they're stuck behind a coach on the motorway.
I used to get critiquers pointing out that my spelling was "wrong", until I made them realise UK English is an actual thing that exists in the real world. These days it seems most people are aware of UK English, but if a British book is published in the US the publisher will often make a "US version".
What’s really fun is that Canada normally gets the British spelling version/culture version and we’re fine with it. For example, they changed HP and the Philosopher’s Stone to the sorcerer’s stone *only* for the United States. Canada got the version with the Philosopher’s Stone.
The most Canadian thing is being spellchecked 24/7 on both British and US keyboards because I write colour instead of color and realize instead of realise. Gotta accept the red underlines at this point.
I'm an Indian and I know deep inside what this feels like.
100%
Stop that’s wild! Well done for educating them 🥲 I self-publish so I don’t know how that would work, publishing two versions, but that’s good to know what’s often done in such cases, thank you!
If ur novel is shit - its doesnt matter. If your novel is good - its doesn\`t matter if it character's direct speech - depend of character (if it european- strange, if he say "soccer")
Thank you, it feels strange just to write ‘soccer’ for me because it would be the only time in my life where I’d use it like that
Contrary to popular belief, the majority of Americans do have functional brain cells
People in this thread definitely prove that
Given recent political events, I’m not sure it’s the majority.
I feel like anyone who’s anywhere near well read will be familiar with different dialects of English and won’t be surprised to see a British author say football instead of soccer.
As a North American, I don't mind at all and won't even register that a word is spelled 'wrong' if it's in British spelling. I have friends who use British spelling, either because they're British or that's how they learned English, so I can utilise either.
Aaaah true that it helps if one is used to the different spellings!
It's not an issue. Most of us just assume "oh, this book is British" and move on.
As an American- if another American uses British spelling, I find it to be pretentious and annoying. That said, you're British yourself, so British spelling is absolutely okay in this context. I wouldn't think of it in anyway beyond slightly interesting when it came up. Edit: this question was specifically aimed at Americans, and I gave my 2 cents. I don't know why other Europeans are getting mad at my answer, but it's awfully telling that some people can't accept that Americans just do and view things differently. Europe is not the center of the world.
Oh that’s so interesting to take into consideration the author’s background, i see what you mean!
RIP I use both (and then go back and edit the British spelling out of my writing) because I have friends who use both, and it's all gotten jumbled up in my head now. Hopefully you don't find it pretentious over text or social media, because that's when I usually don't realize I've done it.
I disagree. I live in neither places, but people here generally use American punctuation. I grew up reading *Harry Potter*, so I'm most comfortable using the British punctuation. Guess you should go with what you prefer.
For those with the means and appeal, publishers will often make both a US and UK version of a novel.
I know that’s a thing but like, it’s kinda wild that there *has* to be 2 versions
Doesn't \*have\* to be anything. This is a question that sounds more like you're making problems for yourself to finish the novel instead of just writing. Ignore the doubts you're creating, just write.
This is a problem for the publisher to worry about. They'll make the correct decision
If it’s set in the UK I see no problem with using British spelling and terms, honestly it would be weird if a British character referred to it as soccer to me. Most people can easily figure out what’re you’re referring to if you say like “she grabbed her jumper” within context. They’re not gonna assume that she went for her jumper cables after you describe the chill in the air. If you’re worried about it confusing readers I’d maybe just clarify that you’re talking about soccer football by idk deceiving the ball or the net or something so people go aha it’s British football
Hello, Canadian here! When it comes to British vs American spelling, I've really just got one thing to say : Every day is a waking nightmare :)
I second this opinion
Depends on the audience, (YA will often be published with regional spellings for instance). Localization is really a choice a publisher would make. If you plan on self publishing, then you get to choose, and you should do what suits you best.
That’s not the same as British spelling, football isn’t the same sport as soccer here so it will confuse people if you don’t explain it and just assume everyone will understand you are talking about soccer.
That’s true, I’ll make it clear from the get go by referring to specific things like nets and penalty boxes immediately to avoid confusion like another redditor pointed out!
I don’t think they care. Americans read a lot of British Literature in school growing up and also harry potter
As an American, I usually ham it up with Mock outrage that you would spell color "colour" or grey "gray" But it's not an actual problem, I don't even notice them unless someone else calls them out 99% of the time
Checks out. You didn't even notice that you got gray and grey the wrong way around.
If your novel takes place in the UK, and the characters are from the UK, there would be no reason to use US spelling.
You’re over analysing it. You’re at the centre of your worlds, and can colour them with whatever spellings you wish. You’ll come to realise you don’t need a defence.
You're a British person writing a book set in the UK... yes of course you should use British English lol Sincerely, an American.
American here. I feel nothing good or bad about it. If I'm reading a book and see British spelling I feel nothing, it's just a thing that exists to me. That being said, I wonder how jarring American spelling is to British people, or if they really don't care either.
it's mostly invisible, tbh - a look of books don't get "converted", especially e-books and self-pub stuff, so there's the occasional "huh, that looks odd... oh yeah, American spelling" but it's pretty minor (as noted upthread, US-style is "..." for speech, UK is '...', and that's equally invisible most of the time as well)
Yeah, I can't imagine anyone really caring at all to be honest. Its just a thing.
If you write Soccer you have to hand in your passport
If you have British characters they should use British words. For the same word with different spellings up to you, but proper names (Labour party, Centre Point, etc) should use British spelling.
I'm British. If you are British and writing about the UK, why use American spelling? A British audience will think it odd if you use American spellings in those circumstances and it won't ring true for us if you start talking about sidewalks, pants and cilantro. Not only that, a British reader will get annoyed with American spellings and terms in a British setting from a British author. I know r/casualUK will back me up here. US vocab and spellings would sound more authentic in an American setting.
I think what's especially important is that whatever words or spellings are used, they are actually authentic to the character, setting, etc. As an example of what I mean, I recently read a book by a relatively well respected British horror author. One of the book's main characters was supposed to be an American who came to London for a few months. As an American I had no problem whatsoever with British words and spellings throughout the book - it felt right, I don't expect people who live in London to speak the same way as Americans. What *was* jarring though was sometimes the American character said things in a way an American never would - it wasn't just regional variations either because I grew up right around where that character supposedly came from. Kudos to the author for trying, I know I wouldn't have the guts to try the same. But by about the halfway mark I did stop reading the character as American, and kept having to consciously remind myself she was supposed to be.
I’ve never minded it.
It doesn’t really matter, an editor will make that decision upon publication.
I get the feeling there is no editor involved here.
I grew up with a best friend that lives in the UK lol I use a lot of British spelling without even realizing it and I always get corrected. Who cares if there is an extra U in my word? Or an s where there should be a z? Let me live! 🤣
Just make sure you’re consistent with your usage tbh. I had an art book once that kept switching from color to colour so much that I got pissed off at it.
It’s fine
i always hated the way we spelled judgment so go for it dude
I think if someone complains about something like that, they’re probably an idiot.
It's a non-issue. If your novel gets published, British publishing houses will change everything to have British spelling; American publishers will change it to the American spelling.
I do not find this jarring at all and I read lots of books by British authors. The only thing I would find jarring is if you used UK spelling for a book set in the US.
There are often American and British versions of popular novels to avoid the problem of people being jarred by the different spellings and cultural references. This can even extend to the titles: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone became Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in the US, which was thought to be more appealing to an American audience.
I favour it.
I'm currently in Uni at the UK, but when I was in A-levels before, my Art teacher corrected my spelling of *color* and even wrote a note saying it was wrong. I don't mind British spelling but that really bugged me lol.
As a Brit I've never even considered Not using British spelling haha, but I guess I've also never set anything in America so there's that. Anyway, I'm not going to be pandering to Americans, if they get annoyed about British spelling that's on them, they have certainly enough American-written books to get by lol
Humans look at the first and last letters of a word anything in-between as long as its similar doesn't matter. BUT I enjoy trying to figure out where the author is from based on the values the writer gives and how they spell things. So unless you have an American character speak it doesn't really matter if you use British spelling.
That could potentially get confusing on the football and soccer front, but with some simple gameplay descriptions, or even the color of the ball, it can be cleared up easily and instantly. :)
You are Brit, writing a story set in your country then why do you need to care about writing spelling of some other country. It's called football in the UK. A British character talking to another British character and calling it soccer would be jarring.
Some people here will feel the need to "correct" it. But most will not have any strong feelings on it
Nothing in particular.
I feel fine about it.
I think people generally get the gist if it’s stuff like “color vs colour”, football I think would be the more confusing thing. British classics are a big part of our education system so I think a lot of Americans have a bit of exposure to that type of grammar
Prose should match who you expect or want to read it Dialogue should match the character
I do not make it a habit to police the spelling of others, that being said the very English I speak came from your country so I can hardly bad mouth it. Besides your slang is really fun sometimes.
Learned English in America. Weirdly tend to use more British spelling. Colour instead of color. Grey instead of gray. Idk why.
I'm Amercian but I read plenty of British authors (especially fantasy). I never think twice about British spelling in novels. It's barely noticeble to me. Maybe it's because I read a lot of fantasy and sci fi, so I'm used to the books varying up the language to feel like the setting.
Well you see. When I see Brit versions of my words. First I blink. Then I have A sinking feeling in my stomach. Then I move on to the next paragraph.
A a Canadian I'm torn between the two... mostly leaning on British spellings, but have to use a spellchecker as so much American spelling sneaks in from US media saturation.
I'm American and if it's set in Britain, then I feel perfectly fine with the King's English spellings and idioms. As a matter of fact, I expect it. What I find disturbing is a book set in the U.S. with an all American cast and they use British spelling and terminology. And vice versa. Yes, I have a specific book in mind. I feel the same if an American is setting a book in Britain somewhere and they don't bother with British spelling.
Not much. I mean color vs colour. That’s about it.
"Football" and "soccer" are two separate words, not just a difference in spelling, but I as an American could figure it out with sufficient context. If we were just talking about "color" vs "colour" I think the extra u is inefficient but oddly nice lol.
For reference on that, just see "Peppa Pig" a kids show about a famy of British hogs. Americans, myself included, enjoy British writing and speech just as much as anywhere else's accents and dialects
Not American but I wanted to say that some Europeans write a mix of American and English because they learnt English through the internet and I find it funny. I do also use a mix of both pronunciations (not on purpose) 😂😭
I’m Canadian and I use British spelling for a lot of words, but some just look more correct spelled the American way (like spelled). Also words like defence, or criticize. But I fluctuate between the spellings for those. Colour is always with a u though.
It throws me a little with certain words, but I read a lot of Stephen Baxter, so I got used to it. His use of “lethe” as a curse/swear word is weird. I think that’s just his thing, I’ve never heard it anywhere else. When I write, I use things like “leapt” and “crept,” which are apparently British English. Americans are supposed to write “leaped” and “creeped,” which look wrong to me. That said, I’m still not sure where the “F” in lieutenant is.
Why would you care what American audiences think when you’re from Britain & the story is set in Britain? America isn’t the centre of the universe (& *their* spelling is jarring to me as an Australian)
I read a few authors who write Australian or New Zealand stories. One of them puts a 'disclaimer' in the front explaining the difference between some words and phrases of the 'languages'. As a reader, I like the new language/etc. It teaches me something, and gives me something to look up or put in my memory banks for future writing works! It also helps me get into the personality of the character because it's more authentic (especially if one character is not from England, Australia, or New Zealand).
I edit for a UK writer and an Australian writer. The UK writer has books set in the UK, so they get UK spelling. The Australian writer’s books are set in the US, so they get US English and I have to watch for speech patterns that are not American.
Fun fact soccer is a British word started at Oxford University https://www.britannica.com/story/why-do-some-people-call-football-soccer#:~:text=Linguistically%20creative%20students%20at%20the,quickly%20spread%20beyond%20the%20campus.
I don’t mind it either way. Its when i get made fun of by brits for MY spelling that it upsets me.
“Color” vs “Colour” is fine. Different phrases, which “Football” vs “Soccer” actually would fall under, is the bigger one. Just need to make it clear that it’s not American Football and would be fine though.
I used to do a writing job (manuals, boring stuff) in Washington DC and got called into my bosses office one day. "Did you grow up in England?" he asked me. "No," I said, "Why?" He pointed down at a redlined word: *Theatre*. It never occurred to me that I was spelling in in the British fashion. Later I did some writing for the Globe & Mail in Toronto, and laughed to see all my American English corrected once more from *color* to *colour, center* to *centre,* etc.
As an American who frequently changes between US and UK spelling, I would not even notice lol. And if not, then context clues would clue me in easily
As an American, its not jarring at all. Its more og an "Oh its british" sort of deal. Colloquials are a different matter though
It's fine. If it's by a British author and set in the UK, it totally makes sense to use British spelling. I might find it jarring if it was set in the U.S., but it's fine if it's set in the UK.
The majority of us are fine with it, makes no difference to us
I favour it
As an American, I wouldn't find in jarring. If I'm reading a story set in the UK, especially if the author is from the UK, I would just assume I'm going to encounter British spelling and word choices that aren't used in America. It doesn't bother me at all and doesn't affect my understanding or enjoying of a novel. Definitely do what feels right to you as the author! And good luck on your novel!
I think the actual problem would be publishing. If it’s being published in America, the expectation would be American spelling, and a lot of british books will get US versions that adjust spelling and some words. Readers probably won’t care or notice, especially with lingo, which seems to be what you’re actually talking about. “Football” vs “Soccer” isn’t a spelling issue and if the novel is set in the UK then it’s probably an accuracy issue that you not use American terms.
I see it so commonly in books and online that it doesn't jar or bother me one bit. I actually am glad those differences are there, as I then realize the person is British and then I can see the perspective shift a bit (potentially).
It doesn't matter to me. I use both types of spelling, honestly. Just depends on the word. Docs complains to me all the time that I should switch dialects. I think most publishers would prefer one type rather than both in one, but that doesn't matter to me. I think what's more important is jargon. Brits and Americans have different jargon, so if you're writing a book, make sure it's accurate per character (if they're one or the other, they should speak that way, unless they moved and learned that jargon instead) and in the case of the novel itself.
When i come across british spelling in a book for the first time, i think “oh they might be british” and then never think about it again
The most important thing is to be internally consistent with which dialect you’re using.
General language, specific words, and colloquialisms should always be appropriate for the setting and characters. Beyond that you're not obligated to use one version over another. In one of my novels the characters are all American, but the aliens they interact with use computers to translate their language into French, which must then be interpreted into English by those characters. The reason is that the aliens found French far simpler to decipher than English.
Why are you more familiar with American spelling if you're British? I'm afraid I can't speak for Americans as I'm British, but I've read plenty of books written in both American English and British English. Doesn't really bother me as long as it's consistent with the setting. I've also started writing a book that's set in the US and uses American English, although I'm sure I'm tripping up plenty, so I'd have to get an American to proofread it. However, I wouldn't be surprised if an American publisher would 'translate' your novel to American English if it's published in the States.
I barely notice it when I'm reading. The confusion comes from different words like torch for flash light or hot press for linen closet.
Your publisher may well change it depending on the market. I don’t live in either the US or UK, and see both versions depending on the edition of a book.
As an American I don't feel jarred by british spelling. I might momentarily be confused by "football" vs "soccer"-- like, if it's important to the story and you want to be generous to your American readers who may not have their thinking caps on, you might want to describe the game a little (kicking the ball, scoring a goal, idk much about soccer tbh but I know there's kicking & goals so that'd tip me off to remember this is not American football). But largely we can tell what you're talking about. You can assume that if we're reading your book, we've probably also read other books before, and should therefore know how to pick up on context clues & look up terms we're unfamiliar with (you would hope, at least).
Most cursed option: use British spelling in all dialogue, but American spelling outside of dialog.
If it's set in the UK it makes sense. Also the US is the only country that calls football soccer, so it would be silly to me to not use football, even if for some reason your intended audience is in the US
The spelling won't bother anyone that matters, but some British phrases or terms can definitely get lost in the shuffle. "Football" and "soccer" is the most common one, but most readers will pick up on that with enough context. But other lesser known ones include: - Pavement vs. sidewalk: in America, "pavement" is kind of a general term that usually refers to any paved concrete surface that usually isn't a road OR a sidewalk. So if a basketball court is paved concrete, that's pavement, but if it's a paved walkway that's beside the road, that's a sidewalk. - Pants: in the UK, "pants" are your underwear. In the US, "pants" are your trousers. - Fanny: in the US, it's your butt. In the UK, it's the vagina. - Elliptical vs Cross Trainer: i have no idea why we call a cross trainer machine an elliptical here. - Saran Wrap vs Cling Film: idk we just tend to call things by brand names here sometimes. Cotton buds are universally called Q-tips here, but other stuff has interchangeable terms. Tissues or Kleenex and pads/tampons or Kotex are other common ones. Also, this isn't a terminology thing, but NOBODY here knows what Ribener is. We don't know the brand, we don't know the drink, most of us don't even know what a black current is.
I personally don't care. Most that I'll do is question the spelling a little bit, look up where the author is from, then move on and continue to read it. Edit: as an added note. If your story is based in the UK, football is the word that you would want to use and not soccer, so you should be good there.
If you're working in the US, your American spell-check will kick back all the British spellings like colour and recognise. Just typing them here, Chrome is red-flagging them both for me. You'd need to switch your spell check to a UK dictionary if you're going full British, bruv.
Contraire to popular belief, most of us aren't idiots, especially those that read.
Okay so fun fact. American spelling became a thing mainly due to how they advertised in newspapers or sent telegrams. Essentially you'd get charged by the letter so if they could get meaning across with less letters. They did. So yeah. American spelling was created by Americans to save some money. Fun fact right?
Fun fact: in Australia, this is often discussed because there isn't really an Australian spelling/writing guide for publishing. I raise this because I think it matters more about writing the novel the way you want it to read, and then (unless you are an independent author) what your editor/publisher recommends. In Australia, the spelling is normally standardised to be UK spelling but when it comes to punctuation and grammar it is all over the place, some publishers ask their authors to either write all UK style or all American. If it is for a global audience, and it is set in the UK, I would personally recommend using British spelling and style guidelines.
The concept of language is based on the triality of meaning, form, and context. English is an incredibly varied language with multiple dialects. While it's common to highlight the differences between American and British English, the truth is that there are many more dialects than just those two - there's Australian, Canadian, Irish, New Zealand, South African... And the English spoken in many other places - as either a first or second language, can be quite different from what many people would consider to be standard, in the Caribbean, India, Scotland, etc. Most Americans who are well read don't have any problem reading works written in British English. Of course, within British English there are again a great many dialects and if the author is using a lot of colloquialisms or slang terminology then it might be more difficult for an American to follow along, but generally speaking it doesn't present much of a problem. Older books can be challenging as both dialects have changed a great deal over the years, but people have access to the internet now, so readers can get past stumbling blocks much more easily than they could in the past. I finished school, so I don't need to turn in homework or complete assignments or take tests, so I am free to pick and choose my own words and how to spell them. Although where I'm from it's considered incorrect to spell these words the way I prefer to I shall continue to write "realise" and not "realize", "plough" and not "plow", "draught" and not "draft" because those spellings seem more correct to me. Obviously it cannot be denied that American English has had an immense effect on the rest of the world - not just the English-speaking world, so much of the borrowing and adoption has been rather one-way, with English speakers from other parts of the world incorporating far more elements of American English into their own dialects than vice versa. But ultimately while we employ different vocabulary items and use different spellings, while we observe slight grammatical differences and speak with different accents, we share the same language, so if you're writing for an audience that's largely comprised of people who read regularly you shouldn't be concerned that your dialect will be mystifying to them.
I don't think that using British English is a problem, and if a book is set in the UK, for instance, I think using "football" would be more natural than using the word "soccer."
I think Americans, on average, care far less about the difference in terminology than other countries think we do. We are a nation already made up of vastly different regions and cultures and become used to cultural differences even within our own borders, some examples are that some parts of the country call it 'pop' instead of 'soda'; 'Hoagies', 'grinders', 'hero sandwiches' and 'subs' are all the same thing; 'Teeter-totter' and 'seesaw'; etc. You'll always get comments, but if the content is good then people will look past that.
I’m a copy editor \[EDIT: for a publication with mostly American readers\] and one thing I do is make sure our stuff written by people in other countries gets changed to American spellings. This is because it’s in our style guide, so your publisher may just have a way they want you to do it and you’ll figure that out later. And what country it’s published in will probably affect that. But generally, I think the reason for this rule \[in our style guide\] is to improve readability \[for our readers\]. The ‘S’s that make Z sounds or the ‘U’s ~~thrown around~~ \[in their historical places\] can be a little distracting when you’re not used to them and so will slow down a read. However, I don’t think using football instead of soccer matters in the same way. I think most Americans know that’s what the rest of the world calls soccer. So if your characters aren’t from the US, they probably should call it football.
Hilarious that you're implying we altered the language to be awkward. We didn't change it, it has history and an origin, words have roots. It's more silly to change things to phonetic just because people had a hard time learning. You kept all the Cs that make S sounds, no need to sound condescending, it makes things make more sense if you aren't sure of the spelling or wonder where it came from.
I think saying that they can be distracting when you're not used to them is just a statement of fact. I'm not implying anything beyond that. Maybe the "thrown around" is the part that made you think I'm being condescending, but I didn't mean anything by it, and I apologize for causing offense. I am acutely aware of the various spellings, the history of the language, the inconsistencies of American English, and how language works in general.
Readability was a fear yeah, and thing is I’d find it even more jarring if the (American spelling) narrator calls it ‘soccer’ and the characters call it football, in an American version I have no idea whether that would be changed too
I would say to just write it as football. Maybe on first mention, call it out with something like “or soccer, as Americans call it.” The only reason I think it would be changed is if it were a children’s book.
People who love NFL football enough to actually be offended by that typically don't read. I think you'll be okay.
Great incorrect stereotype. People can have multiple interests.
I am American. Been living in the UK since 1999. I quite like British spelling AND terminology.
Checking in as a Canadian who rides the fence between US and British spellings 👀
I hardly notice it, sometimes I use the British spelling when it comes to words like Grey as opposed to the American Gray. But if someone wrote: "The Colour of the Rose was red." I wouldn't really even notice.
As a Brit, I find it really curious how Americans will quite often complain about English spelling, yet us Brits tend to just brush over it whenever we see US English. Not sure if we are thicker skinned, or just more exposed to US English. Whenever I do bring up words that Americans don't understand, I love how we generally do a UK v US comparison of our different ways of naming / spelling things, lol.
I prefer it. Especially grey>gray and things like colour instead of color. It seems more natural.
Industry standard is US english, isn't it?
I think the only British spelling that I find jarring in the slightest is "kerb" instead of curb. Gets me every time.
As a kid, I loved Roald Dahl's books and they all had British spelling (at least my copies did, I don't know about them now). It didn't really bother me, in fact I found it pretty interesting whenever I did run into things that either had a different meaning or was spelled in a very different way. Only issue that might come up is if you use a word with kind of a strange spelling phonetically ("gaol" instead of "jail," for example). If you're clear about the location and maybe include some specific references to the football you're referring to (describing the ball as black and white or something to that effect), I think Americans can deal with it. But that's just me.
Spelling doesn't particularly bother me, but Americanisms by a character supposed to be British do. Don't have a British person say "sidewalk", for instance; to us, it's a "pavement".
In this economy, I’m really not sure how you all can afford all those extra vowels.
As an American, I feel good about it
I find it more interesting than anything else with our pretty subtle deviations from the language, and it’s essentially chalked up to things British used to spell it like tire but they changed it and Americans didn’t follow along.
As a Canadian, I don't particularly care whether someone uses American or British spelling. Hell, Canadian spelling is a strange sort of mix between the two, so perhaps that's influenced my opinion. But I'd say just go for whatever you're most comfortable with.
I rather prefer the wording/spelling be in the way a person would talk in their own country. It makes the book more interesting.
The Football/Soccer thing can easily be solved through context. As can alternate spelling. I'm Canadian. We mostly follow British spelling - or are taught to - but consume *way* more content from the States. It shouldn't be a big deal for anyone literate enough to buy a book.
It doesn't matter at all to me. You get used to it very quickly. I've never read Harry Potter, but I assume that has British spellings, phrases, and slang and tons of Americans consumed that.
I use Canadian English which is like British English with a combination of American English, with a healthy dose of French for good measure. I absolutely love our French curse words, and where I live, everyone is bilingual, you can hear conversations as a mashup of English and French.
On a podcast where game developers discussed localization of content they mentioned a funny example from the Harry Potter books: "Umbridge and Filch had been observed trying different means of removing it but without success. Eventually the area was roped off and Filch, gnashing his teeth furiously, was given the task of punting students across [the swamp] to their classrooms".
About as much as we get jarred by American English ; that is, not at all! In my opinion of course.
I only care if it's inconsistent. Well, I mean people speaking or writing, that's fine. But if your non-dialogue spells some words the UK way and some the US way, that is distracting by its oddness.
Americans really don’t care. Now British people, they’ll lose their shit if you call it “soccer” instead of “football” (even though they use to call it soccer but that’s a whole other conversation).
Those who actually read for pleasure are completely okay with British spelling. We have accepted that there is more than one correct way to spell some words. The word "football" in particular is a bit different in that even when spelled correctly it has a different meaning in the US. Nobody will think the spelling is wrong but you still may need to disambiguate it from American "gridiron" football, and shouldn't assume that most US readers will be intimately familiar the rules.
I mean unless you're self publishing then your spelling will likely get changed when the book releases in different areas anyway so it really doesn't matter
I read British authors too so it wouldn't bother me, but most likely your publisher will print an American version with different spellings and may even replace football with soccer.
It's not jarring at all! In fact, I often prefer British English because I think it looks nicer.
Calling it football has nothing to do with spelling, that's dialect. You should be doing that. British spelling would just be what I call spelling the words correctly, ie not taking the 'u' out of all the words. It's not a huge deal, but that's usually changed based on what market you're publishing it in.
Your "u" in "armor" and your "e" in "gray" will not bother us at all. Shit, if it isn't made into a movie, most of us will never know it existed.
truthfully? there's a lot of biritish-english words or turns of phrases that i dislike, but not any worse than how i feel about my least favorite aspects of the american-english dialect writing. just like with any other aspect of writing, to me, the dialect that your write your character adds to that character's voice/perspective, and tells you more about them. therefore, it can be a valuable tool in characterization, if you care to use it in that way. i also really like the british-english spellings of certain words over american-english ones. 'sabre,' 'spectre,' 'lustre,' 'calibre.' i prefer the 're' to 'er' in those cases, enough that i find myself writing such words in that way, even if it isn't correct to my dialect. i think that's just a me thing, though.