In many articles, the spelling color is used. I have done some research, and really, the spelling colour should be used because that is the spelling that everyone else that write in English (other than Americans) write colour (such as the British). So, which is correct to use? I found some articles that mix the two spellings. What does everyone think? P.S. Americans adopted the spelling of color as well as other words that should have a U in it.
You can read http://www.wikihow.com/Choose-Which-English-to-Use-on-wikiHow
for help. It may be better not to change color to colour or colour to color (or other words that have U’s in them), though.
Hmmm… makes sense, but at the same time, it can really annoy me when the spelling is mixed up and when I know that using the U is the proper spelling.
I remember I changed colour to color when an article had mixed spellings one time because I thought the article was using color, but now I think it was actually using the words with the U in it. I come across other articles like that, but I just leave the spelling as is since it might be a mistake the author has made.
Jamie
5
Argh, Hailey beat me to it
Haha!
That’s okay Jamie! Thanks for the help Hailey Girges!
TL;DR version of the above article: Both American and British spellings are correct on wikiHow and we discourage editors to change the spelling to favour (yes, I spell it with a U) one version.
system
8
What you should do, however, is to keep spelling consistent throughout the article. If an article is using both the American and the British version of a word, it is best to change it to a single version, to maintain consistency. Both American and British spelling is accepted on wikiHow, and are both correct.
That’s what I am trying to do.
The problem is when changing it back to the British spelling (such as colour), the red squiggly line appears underneath it saying it is a wrong spelling.
Hailey
10
There is a way to change that (I don’t want to go off topic on this thread, so I might not be able to say what to do).
Marina
11
It’s not going off topic if you explain that.
Feel free to explain it to her. I could, but I’m on mobile and explaining it isn’t my strong suit right now.
Hailey
12
@LeahlovesGod
, you go to System Preferences. Then you choose “Language and Text” and click “Text” on top of the window that shows up. Go to the side of the window - there will be a drop-down menu. Click on it and choose “British English” from the menu. When you type in “colour” it won’t show the squiggly line under the word. (Note that this is for Macs)
I will see if I can do that with my Window’s computer. Thanks for the help!
Nope. It didn’t work on my Window’s PC.
Hailey
15
I’m not really sure how to do this on a Windows computer - only on a Mac.
system
16
@LeahlovesGod
Could it be your browser that’s highlighting the word as a typo? What browser are you using?
@Krystle
I am using Internet Explorer 11 on Windows 7. It could be my browser, but I am not sure.
@LeahlovesGod
- Right click on the word that is squiggly underlined and select “Add to Dictionary.” The word will not be flagged again unless you reset the dictionary. Alternatively, right click the word with the squiggly underline and click Language > More > English (United Kingdom) when you want to make sure all words in an article are of the British form. Switch back when Americanizing an article: Language > More > English (United States).
@Serendipitee
Thanks for the help! The dictionary showed Language: English (Canada) though. I added it! @Krystle
it was probable the dictionary. It actually happens a lot.
Well in computer programming, we have to use ‘color’ and the american english too follows ‘color’… but in most of the books, the spelling is ‘colour’ … If you type ‘colour’, it even shows a red underline telling that it is wrong in many places… So, I guess you should use ‘color’
