British vs US English

I am just curious how many of you are capable of writing in both US and British English? Being a Brit I personally prefer "the Queen's English" (as it was meant to be written!), but I recognise that of the internet population, the majority will be used to reading US English.

I realise there may be cases of writing for a British audience, but I imagine the majority is intended for global consumption and therefore US English is preferred.

And with search engine technology nowadays, do you think it would affect a site at all?


There is a reason for my query - I am looking to start a travel site and will soon be looking for a good quality writer. However, I may also contribute to the site myself and would tend to write British English. So it may be easier to get a writer who can do the same - or, I guess I could publish the articles under writer names to account for the differences.

(not the reason for the thread, but any writers who may be interested and write good quality content for reasonable prices (don't worry, I am not looking for $1/1,000 words or anything stupid!), PM me!).

 

For sites that are specifically targeting the UK market, I always write in British English and state it in the meta tags, whereas for non-localised sites, I always using the American spelling of words.

As far as SEO is concerned, I've not noticed any significant difference based on which is used - setting a target country in Google Webmaster Tools (or using a ccTLD domain) seems to be far more effective.

 

Chimaera,

The Queen's English works just fine on every site I've ever helped to design. I honestly haven't noticed any differences in SEO or significant differences in the organic traffic when compared to the copy I've written in "American" English.

It's just my honest opinion, but I believe that the average grade level at which most people read prevents them from noticing the difference in such a way that affects results.

Just my 2p.

If you need help with your project, feel free to PM me.

 

U.S. English is better.

 

I can write in UK English if required to do so. I feel uncomfortable, though, I must admit. US English is still the one I'm most comfortable using. Plus my MS Word version doesn't recognize "recognise" and all the red lines are a bit distracting

 

I vary the writing based on the client. The key is in remembering to ask them where they're located if they don't tell me up front - no surprises that way. And I'm pretty sure even UK English has varied quite a bit from how it was originally "meant to be written."

Occasionally UK clients want to target US spellings of phrases (haven't had any requests the other way around, but it could happen), so as a writer always try to remember to ask, and as a client always remember to make your language requirements clear up front.

 

Could someone please explain the difference in the two languages? Is it simply spelling variations like ton vs. tonne, color vs. colour, enamored vs. enamoured?

Or the difference the inclusion of words and phrases themselves? This subject is simply smashing, y'all!

 

MS Word has a nice feature which allows you to change the language you are typing in. Go under tools, and simply set the language to British English before you begin and you won't have all of those little red lines

Good advice, Jenn. True, not many US clients will specifically request British spelling; and I've only had a few of my UK clients request US spelling. Still, it is a good idea to ask at the onset of a project, just to be clear.

Spelling is a large part of it, Seaside. However, there are also differences in punctiation and the slang used,which are very important.

 

There are also words which are used completely differently as well.

UK Mobile Phone
US Cell Phone

UK Trousers
US Pants

UK Crisps
US Chips

UK Chips
US Fries

There are also pronuncial differences such as the word aluminium where Americans do not emphasis the "ium" and just say "um"

 

Good examples. In this one though, I'd say it's another spelling difference, and not in pronunciation. We usually don't include the second "i" in US spellings, which is why we don't pronounce it.

 

I didn't realise that.

 

Hi guys here is my 2 cents worth ,

I'm an English teacher in Japan teaching kids from the age of 2 to 13 , I speak the queens English being an Australian but the text books I have to use are written in us English , The main thing I come across is the pronunciation factor,
for example in us English they say tomato as in tomayto and in British English we say tomarto I know it looks weird but if you say those words out loud the way they are written you will get my drift ,also we say zed for the letter z and you say zee for the letter z , there are also numerous words spelt differently as well that you are all aware of , any way just my 2 cents worth and I will always talk the queens English no matter what ,

cheers lockie

 

Chimaera - perhaps you could start a poll with "What do you prefer? US English or The Queen's English"

That might be quite interesting.

 

Thanks for the interesting feedback! I guess that in this instance (travel writing), it wouldn't make much difference. I think Weirfire's point about different words is the most relevant thing to consider, if for any reason your keywords would include such things as cell phones or trousers etc.

I recently produced a site on dog breeds and specifically asked my writer (who happened to be my fiancé!) to write in American English. I just did a test for one of the key phrases I ranked for, and there is indeed quite a difference between "dog behavior" and "dog behaviour".

So I think it can matter, but generally doesn't. Still an interesting discussion =0)

[edit]Weirfire I think that would be a bit biased given the number of 'Yanks' versus 'Brits' on this board! Though interestingly, the aforementioned fiancé is American but prefers British English in the majority of cases. For example she prefers the spelling, but refuses to change some of her pronunciation despite having lived in the country for over five years.

 

Neat. I actually kind of knew there was more to US and UK English than just differences in spelling but I never took the time to actually learn the dissimilarities. Thanks for the info.

And to answer the OP's question, I don't really think the version of English used should affect a site unless:
1) The site is geared toward a specific audience (US or UK) and the market is exclusive to them.
2) The writing pretty much sucks.

I personally think that if you've got good meat to offer, it doesn't matter where you bought it.

Cheers

 

Why don ya'll speak like wot I do!

Johnt

 

Only the US and UK would have a debate about which English to use.

 

Well I suppose English did originate in England and first migrated to USA!

Johnt

 

Wouldn't it have made a stop first in the Caribbean?

Seriously, this is fascinating. I'm such a dweeb!

 

Oh I can write in British. Colour. See? Kidding. Couldn't resist.

I had NO IDEA that you could change WORD to British English. That rocks CW. Thanks for that tip. I'm going to leave and go check it out now. That is so cool. More exciting that a new thesaurus. And I do get pretty excited about a thesaurus.