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I’m interested in a couple of trends I’ve seen recently as I wade through the Spellchecker tool. Whether or not you’ve noticed them, too, you might be able to shed some light for me.

I do a lot of Spellchecking, so I see a  lot of new articles, and these trends have exploded in popularity in just the last couple of weeks! I have no idea why!

The first is the use of French words. The most popular on wH is “cliché.” (I don’t know how to insert the accent mark. If you do, I’d love to know!)(Oh, I see this forum has added the accent for me. How nice. Is that how the accent marks show up in the articles, too?) Our writers use “cliché” as both a noun and an adjective. The most used expression is, “avoid clichés,” a phrase used  so often in our articles that it is becoming a cliché itself. “Saute” is a close second in amount of usage. If I open a new Spellcheck article about cooking, I expect   to see that word and am rarely disappointed!  “Décor” is a close third in amount of usage, and it’s gaining fast. Recently I’ve noticed widespread use of that word, even when it’s only marginally appropriate. I would say that until a couple weeks ago, I encountered “décor” something like once a month. Now it seems I see it more than once a day. I don’t get it. So anyway, what’s with the French? Is this just a new linguistic trend among our younger contributors? (I’m told by someone who would know that many or most of the Spellchecker articles are written by younger people.)

The other trend I’m seeing is an increasingly frequent appearance of British spelling. The Brits have always contributed to wH to some extent, but in very recent days I’m seeing many more British spellings flagged by Spellchecker. Why would that be? Until very recently, I would encounter a British spelling once or twice a week. Now I’m seeing them several times a day. I’m just wondering what’s causing this. Not that I’m complaining, Krystle…

At any rate, I think it’s interesting (even a bit odd) that both of these trends seem to have overwhelmed the Spellchecker in just the last two or three weeks. I’ve monitored Spellchecker fairly closely for almost a year, and I’m pretty sure my observations are accurate. Maybe Jack’s dream of a truly international wikiHow is coming true. 

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Interesting comments. I agree about cliché, saute and Décor. I, sorry all, never correct these as I am not entirely sure how they are correctly written. Voilà pops up a fair bit too with some creative spellings…I wonder if the use of French is associated with the increase in contributions from the UK. Most UK school children aged 14 + learn French (or German and / or to a lesser degree Spanish) in school so perhaps they enjoy showing of their linguistic skills…dunno. Many Brits will deny any liking for anything French, but those 3 words are common, every day words used in the UK by native English speakers. I like the diversity here. I learn new words sometimes. That you for sharing your musings.

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Very interesting, thank you for bringing that to our attention. Yes, I have seen the word cliché in articles many a time, and sauté and decór. About British Spellings, we have quite a diverse community here, mostly from the UK, America and India. I’m not sure if it is mostly British people writing spellchecker articles or if the British way of spelling is becoming more popular in countries, but I have seen more ‘colour’ a round instead of ‘color’. I am British myself and use the British English spellings, and have seen a rise in our type of spellings. As HumanBeing stated, many children aged 11-14 get taught either French or German, so that could add to the addition of British Spellings and French words. 

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Very interesting. I did not know about UK school curricula, and that very well could help explain what we’ve been seeing here of late. I guess if we’re to have a truly international project, we’re going to be subjected to some mind-expanding influences, which I think is good! It’s going to play tricks on us along the way, I’ll bet. Today on Spellchecker I saw the word “personalize,” and I had to stop and think for a second: “Is that the right spelling?” It actually looked wrong to me for a moment! (If you haven’t guessed, I’m an American – the non-flag-waving variety.) 

Rumors have it that Jack wants to have all our articles available in all languages. Is that possible? We have something like 180,000 articles, and I think there are six or seven thousand languages. Do the math. Your head will spin. Esperanto, anyone?

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Good thoughts… When I come across the words cliché and sauté, I find that I end up changing it so it has the accent since that’s the proper way of spelling. I am also finding right now that as I try to write décor without the accent, it automatically fixes it for me.

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Leah, are you saying when you encounter “cliché” and “décor,” they don’t have the accent? I was thinking they automatically came with them.

Another example: suddenly I’m seeing an explosion of the word “crème.” A month or two ago I never saw that word. Now I see it in profusion. That just seems odd to me. It’s like somebody flipped a switch and “cream” became “crème,” even in cases where “cream” is entirely appropriate.

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@Donagan I think people try to up their vocabulary by using French words even when they are out of context. Maybe we should have some sort of notice about this.

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I agree–I have seen these very frequently since May, which is when I joined.

I do have to say though, that it feels like Americans frequently use words from other languages in everyday conversations, so I really don’t think they’re just from Europeans. Everybody knows what voila means, even if they don’t know any other French words. (Or they understand its contextual meaning, at least.)

I wish these words could be automatically considered correct in the system, as well as British spellings. I’m sure that’s possible, but it might not be worth the effort. *Shrugs*

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Yes, Bluefizz, I think it’s American (and perhaps British and Canadian) writers who are using the French words. The articles don’t seem European to me in most cases.

I forgot about voila. That’s been used a lot as long as I’ve been watching.

It would be wonderful if Spellchecker could instantly recognize non-American words and spellings as valid, but I’m told that that is a technically difficult step to take.

I’m guessing that all of these problems will be ironed out over time. Let’s enjoy the ride.

Oh, and Miss Unicorn, people may indeed be trying to “up” their vocabularies, but I’m guessing that they just think French words sound cool while quickly expressing certain slightly complicated concepts.

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Please see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_terms_with_diacritical_marks . This may assist, as it shows that leaving the diacritical marks in place assists pronunciation. Of course, how we each pronounce English has somewhat diversified…

I find American English tends to simplify as much as possible. Hence, the mass dropping of accents from loanwords where accents were once commonplace in English. Sauté, cliché and décor are loanwords and are accurate with accent, or, if you are using the Americanised version, without. People understand what’s meant either way.

You will probably also notice other language loanwords, such as jalapeño and piñata Spanish loanwords that people enjoy adding the ñ to.

As for voilà, its appearance in any of our articles is a red flag for removal as it is rarely used in an appropriate manner.:slight_smile:

Perhaps there might be a difference between Mac users and PC users. I could be wrong on that count but I find it easy to add accents from a Mac, without being slowed down, so that probably has a practical impact.

Hope this helps - the Wikipedia article is best for explaining this in totality.

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Awesome post and information, @Flickety . Thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge.

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Thanks @Flickety ! My mind has been expanded. I had never heard the word diacritical until today. What a fascinating post this has become. This is what I love about wikiHow. Keep up the good works all.:slight_smile:

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Thanks, Flickety, interesting stuff. So you’re saying "cliché "is spelled correctly either with or without the accent? Wikipedia seems to agree, but Merriam-Webster seems not to. In any case, our Spellchecker tool flags words with the French accent marks or the Spanish tildes, and so we have to deal with the issue. I’d prefer not to deal with it, frankly, especially if, as you say, people understand these words with or without the diacritical marks.

Meanwhile, what  do you consider an “appropriate” use of “voila”? The many times I’ve seen it used on wH, it seems OK to me. My print dictionary doesn’t even list the word, but a number of online resources seem to indicate that our articles are using the term accurately. Maybe we could substitute “ta dahhh!”    

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@Donagan , yes, I am saying it’s likely to be accurate both ways, unless the English in the article is a mixture of more than one dialect. In which case, a big edit is called for on the article as a whole and that editor gets to choose which English forms the consistency.

Also, I think the “accuracy” of the spelling depends on which dictionary you look at, an American, Canadian, British, Australian, South African, New Zealand, etc. one… For example, Merriam-Webster is not my go-to dictionary for my academic or daily usage. Mine would be something like Oxford, Collins or Macquarie (Australian). The dictionary you choose is dependent on your English. For example, my Collins dictionary says “cliché”. While the dominant American spell-checkers on Firefox, this forum and wikiHow prefer cliche, it doesn’t prevent me from adding the accent. I constantly have to live with the realisation that my English is being swamped by the internet preference for Americanised English. Fortunately, the brain is highly adaptable and it’s like a fun puzzle.

As for the wH spellchecker, it is as good as the human input. I can’t remember where the tool for improving it is but Bebeth (I think) created it and there was a way to mend any disagreements it had with Brit., etc. spellings but I can’t remember how. Someone will know. Maybe that’s the purpose of the spellchecking tool too - do the accepted spellings get remembered? Anyway, the technical side is beyond me but it would be worth asking Bebeth, Anna or Krystle if the accent issue is possible to deal with somehow.

Voilà is idiomatic and I view it as something mostly used by middle and high school writers. When I see it written by an adult, I cringe. Sorry. Maybe it is a North American issue as it wasn’t one I grew up hearing or using except in French class; it does strike me as Valley girl speak ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valley_girl ). Cute in a movie, not so relevant in an instructional article aiming to be a tad more dignified. Personally, I’d just rather not see it in our articles. Done, finished or similar more accurate words or perhaps a phrase are clearer.

And thanks for your comments @Alabaster and @HumanBeing . I read English language books like some people read comics, I am fascinated by its history and ongoing development.:slight_smile:

As an aside, I don’t know if anyone else has noticed but I have been finding some circa 19th century English coming through some of the articles added by Indian contributors. Language gets stuck in time all the while it’s evolving and assimilating to the culture it’s within. It’s fascinating stuff.:slight_smile:

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Ooh this just gets better…go @Flickety for sharing what you think is cringe worthy. I cringe, or as I like to say, ‘sheesh’ at so much poor writing on here from all kinds or contributors. Those that seem immune to bad grammar, bad spelling and poor article flow baffle me. I agree that there are some interesting styles of articles coming through from around the world, often India. I quite enjoy trying to modernise these and make them more approachable. It’s the direct translation stuff that is the pits, so much of it is nonsensical. I enjoy adapting my writing to the intended audience, I will now leave the voilà-s in any article about being / acting like / looking like a valley girl and remove the rest and sort the sautéed, décor-s and clichés based on the origin of the article, if I can figure it out. Hmmm, anyone for Sautéed Jalapeño Peppers with Crème or is that a bit cliché? (Just did that to make sure I have added all those words to the dictionary on my chosen editing device).

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Flickety, you make very good points. I agree with everything you say, especially regarding “voila.” It’s badly overused here and does bespeak an immaturity a dictionary/encyclopedia might want to rise above. As for American English vs. the rest of the English-speaking world, why don’t you and I just arm-wrestle for the right to decide how wH spells things? Or we could flip a coin. Or we could take a worldwide vote. Or we could just defer to you, because you read dictionaries like they’re comic books. I actually like that last option best. Or there’s Esperanto. I give up. It’s too complicated for me. I like simple problems.

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@Donagan - To me, the proper way to spell the words is as they exist in the native language and I, therefore, always add the diacritical marks. I can see where the transformation to Americanized English is occurring, perhaps accelerated by the limitations imposed by the programming of widely used models of electronic devices. Perhaps the time will come when I, too, transition to the crass saute, puree, and pinata, but my iDevices will likely continue to add the diacritical marks automatically and to flag the words that have no diacritical marks.

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That’s very true. I have helped out there a bit in the past and English spelling is very confusing. I also see a lot of questions as to how people should spell. The American way, or the English way? Which way is preferred and is there any specific rule about that? Would love to know as it would be very helpful!

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Love, the usual formula we use here is to try to discern the intent or habit of the original author of the article in question and follow that author’s lead. The purpose of that formula, of course, is to try to be fair to all contributors regardless of their linguistic tendencies. wikiHow is, after all, a global experiment trying to avoid favoring any one national or cultural group (hence the planned effort eventually to translate all articles into as many languages as practicable). Naturally, any huge project comes with challenges. This formula carries with it some confusions and uncertainties. That may be unavoidable. However, I’ve been watching some of the people steering this ship for the last year or so, and they impress me as skilled and open-minded folks, constantly  looking for constructive input and willing partners. They seem to excel at a skill crucial to this enterprise: a display of patience. The only reason they haven’t yet fashioned a perfect result is that they’re aiming at such an incredibly high target. All they ask for is a good-faith effort from each of us. Someone else, by the way, will probably provide you with a better definition of the above formula.

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@HumanBeing , very witty.:slight_smile:My oven blew up last night, second time in a year… and since I don’t think the electrician can mend it this time, I’ll be limited to stove top cooking, so your suggestion for sautéeing may come in handy. As for crème, well there’s another word for pondering about in the makeup area, where I think the Frenchifying is a good example of things trying to sound better than they actually are. Every time I read BB creme/cream/crème ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BB_cream ), I have visions of a BB gun shooting makeup all over someone’s face.

@Donagan , feel free to sweep voilà out.:slight_smile:Looks like it’s time to ask Jack for an Esperanto wikiHow, that’d try all of us. As for simplicity, I hear you - consistency is the main thing and keeping with original author’s or major editor’s intent ( http://www.wikihow.com/Choose-Which-English-to-Use-on-wikiHow ). Or use a thesaurus to find another word without an accent (platitude, truism, etc.). Or completely rewrite the article from scratch (oops, sorry, that’s veered way off simple). I still think it is worth raising the issue of treatment of accents if they’re clogging the system.

@Alabaster , it is good to know your iDevices are adding the diacritical marks. I’d know that if I had the courage and patience to use an iDevice to edit. But I don’t.:slight_smile:It’s hard for me to see these words as right without the diacritical marks but I can also see why the shift is occurring - simplicity, speed, and the path of least resistance.

@LoveofWriting , check out the link I’ve just referred to: http://www.wikihow.com/Choose-Which-English-to-Use-on-wikiHow . Basically, if the author wrote in one style of English, it stays that way unless a major editor does a big overhaul, especially where it was a stub, unclear or inaccurate. This policy isn’t an excuse to undo someone’s English though, the overhaul should be about enhancing the content and if it happens to be that the editor doing that has a different English, then so be it.

At the end of the day, I think it’s good for all of us to dabble in other styles of English, keeps our brains in good shape.