British and American English!

[Guest]

Do native English speakers feel offended when a non native English speaker mix British and American English in his or her writing?

[Vall]

I usually don’t notice. I am American and google docs sometimes tells me I’m spelling something in the British way, even though it’s how I’ve spelled it my entire life.

It’s no big deal, just make sure to be consistent.

[Amber]

Not offended, I'm an American English native speaker and I write in a mixed British/American kind of way. Some spellings have just always made more sense to me. I've always spelled it "travelled" and "grey".

There are other examples I use, I just can't think of them off the top of my head.

Don't miss: Is there any difference between American and British English particularly in grammar?

[Jayson]

I possibly wouldn't even notice.

I'm a native speaker (USA) and I use some British English just because I like it better. Grey and axe are my most often spotted 'errors' and I don't intend to change them either.

[Rosemary]

Not offended, but it can seem very strange.

[Brownell]

Yes, when a character is using an expression that's not American and the character is supposed to be American or vice versa. There's a book series that does this a lot. They call lawyers solicitors and they fall pregnant instead of get pregnant.

Things like that just show that the author doesn't know how things are said in the US.

Explore these too: How do you all handle upset readers?

[Rebecca]

If you're writing from the pov of an American character, use American English. If you're writing from the pov of a British character, use British English. If you're narrating, just be consistent.

[Jenifer]

Not offended but a good editor should fix this. Unless, of course, some characters are Brits/Americans. Then it’s logical even they speak to use the spelling they’d use.

[Kate]

Not offended, but if there are inconsistencies like spelling color with a u only sometimes and not others, that would be frustrating. I think consistency is important.

[Debbie]

No offense at all, but your readers might not like it, UNLESS it is actually tied to the specific characters who WOULD talk like that (UK or US English). But just to mix it up would probably turn readers off.

[Steve]

Hey, American spellings have been becoming mainstays in Australia now for a while.

I'm very mindful of it. Word documents don't always like being changed from US English to AUS english, so I add British to the US Word dictionary.

Meter instead of metre is probably the only word that really bugs me, because a meter is a unit for measuring, whereas a metre is a unit of measure.

When I read something like... four meters lay between the assassin and the path to Queen Klamidia's freedom... I always imagine like an odometer, a thermometer, a barometer and maybe a tachometer laying casually, like carefree Roman elites drinking wine, eating grapes and wondering who'll win sunday arvo's match between the Lions and the Christians, while in the midst of the action. I pick on my American friend often about it.

[Fleur]

Like how you have a British character but write in American English as narrative? I don't know.

But I saw someone who claimed they are French and is annoyed having French and the American English mixed. But the game they play has that in the localization.