How can I set Word to query/reject American English spellings?

[Peter-the-Scribe]

Writing in 'English English', I would like Word to query non-English words.
It has no problem querying the occasional French, Greek or Italian words
which turn up in my stories, but if I use an American English spelling, e.g.
'traveler' instead of 'traveller', 'agonizing' instead of 'agonising', the
spelling checker will not point out the error of my ways. (I wonder sometimes
if an American character's dialogue should be written with American English
spellings, rather as I might include the occasional French phrase in the
dialogue of a French one? What do you think?)

In short, is there any way of turning off the US English dictionary?

 

[Shauna Kelly]

Hi Peter

There are several things going on here, and it's worth unravelling them.

First, to ensure that everything on your machine is set up appropriately for
UK English, then you have to set the Windows, Office and Word settings
appropriately. See http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister/LangFmt.htm
for more information.

Second, some words, such as 'agonising' and 'organisation' are problematic.
While these are common ways of spelling these words, few etymologists would
agree that they are appropriate spellings. For example, there is no entry in
the OED for agonise or agonising. The OED says that all such words end
in -ize, -izing etc. So the MS Word spellchecker, quite rightly, won't mark
'agonizing' as incorrect, even in UK English.

Finally, some words, like traveller, are easily solved. My machine is set up
with Australian English in Windows and Word. There, if I type 'traveler',
Word's AutoCorrect kicks in and automatically changes it to 'traveller'.
However, even if I mark the text as UK English, Word tells me that
'traveler' is wrong. So the easiest way around words like that is to add a
new entry to the AutoCorrect list at Tools > AutoCorrect Options

Whether American characters should have their dialog spelled in 'American'
is a matter of personal style, I would think.

Hope this helps.

Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word

 

[Peter-the-Scribe]

Thanks for this, Shauna. My PC and Word are both set up to use UK English as
the default language. What I can't seem able to do is to prevent automatic
loading of the US English dictionary so US English spellings are then not
recognised and queried (the wavy red underline).

You had me worried that I'd chosen the only word in the (British) English
dictionary that is spelt with an '-ize' end - which we'd normally take for
granted was the US English form. I just had to check my dictionary - the
Concise OED rather than its big brother you quote - and for a moment was
devastated when only 'agonize' was listed. Fortunately, I then noticed in
parentheses just after it '(also -ise). Phew. But it was the same with
'organization' - so I've learned something this morning!

The autocorrect function changes 'traveler' to 'traveller' as you describe,
but it doesn't amend 'dialog', which the C-OED plainly marks, in the entry
for 'dialogue', as the US spelling. Obviously I'll have to train it better!

I began this thread apparently poorly researched: I had assumed that all the
'-ize' words were US English - much of it has appeared in Britain in the last
fifty years, rather like fast food burger shops - and I have no wish to be
'Americanised' - so I automatically prefer not to have such spellings appear
in my novels - this dates back I think to when I had some short stories
published in the USA a few years ago, and discovered that the spellings and
certain of the punctuation had been changed by the Editor because, she said,
she would have had readers complaining to her about 'wrong spellings' if she
hadn't. As if American readers couldn't handle a non-US form of English! If
any of my novels should be taken up by a US publisher, I'm not certain I'd
want to read the American version, having seen what one did to a Minette
Walters novel, unsurprisingly set in England. I'll bet she never *wrote* that
one of the characters got into his SEDAN - we still call them saloons, though
I understand there could be confusion in the USA with those places full of
gunslingers, gamblers and girls.

I am however, grateful but chastened. Thanks.

 

[Shauna Kelly]

Hi Peter

One way that US English can creep into your Word documents is if you copy
and paste from somewhere else: either from a website or from another
document where the text is set up to use US English. To avoid that, use Edit

Paste Special and paste as unformatted text.

For what it's worth, my understanding (largely from the etymologies in the
big OED) is that the British had one of their routine love affairs with the
French in the 19th century. It was then that the Brits abandoned the -ize
words in favour of the French -ise. And stuck extra me's on the end of
program to make the truly awful "programme". (As far as I know, we don't
have telegrammes or anagrammes, for example!)

So organize and program are the "real" British spellings. But the Americans
had long since left home with the "real" British spellings before the
British adopted French spellings. "Dialogue", however, is an old English
spelling.

FWIW, I am frequently accused of using "American" spellings <*sigh*>.

Hope this helps.

Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word

 

[tygrus]

The system is still skewed to users in the USA.

Can enough of us complain to Microsoft to make it easier.

Separate US-English from the base. If I select English(Australia) I don't
want US spelling being allowed.

Show summary of language settings in hierarchy eg. show OS setting and
Office global setting in Word language dialog (or sub-dialog). That way you
can actually see where the possible problem is, flag inconsistencies and help
users to go and fix the problem.

When installing Office is should check and ask to change relevant settings
to match desired defaults. MS Windows setup should also follow the logic of
location->language to show defaults for the other settings (A4 paper,
English(Australian) keyboard, date format, timezone etc.)

They should also make it easier to set these globally for all current/new
users.

The MS help do not fully explain the system and controls to troubleshoot.

Regards,
tygrus.
--------------

 

[Graham Mayor]

This is an American application on an American operating system, so the
defaults are of course biased to the US. Those defaults can all be changed
to local conditions. Problem is that many people do not read what the
messages on the screen say when installing Windows.

Word sets its installation defaults to match whatever language options you
have set in Windows, so start with Windows regional settings..

The proofing language for a given text is a paragraph attribute. Apply the
appropriate attribute and the spell check will be based on the language you
select.

Unless you turn off that option Word will attempt to auto detect the
language of a given text. Turn it off from tools > language > set language.

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

One tiny correction: the proofing language is a property that can be applied
to as little as a single character (doesn't have to be the same for an
entire paragraph). Although it can certainly be incorporated in a paragraph
style (and every paragraph style does have a language attribute), it can
also be made part of a character style.

 

[Graham Mayor]

Good point - I should have said 'text formatting attribute'

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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