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Pedants' corner

Organisation vs Organization

14 replies

SouthernComforts · 13/12/2016 21:54

Is one American and one British? I would use 'S' not 'Z', but the (UK) textbooks I'm reading use 'Z', which to me seems more American somehow.

My phone auto corrects to S.. off to check the language settings..

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BiscuitMillionaire · 13/12/2016 21:55

You are correct. 's' spelling is British, 'z' is American. Neither is wrong.

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gillybeanz · 13/12/2016 21:57

Is this the same with socialisation and socialization?
I've seen both but the "z" shows wrong spelling.

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SouthernComforts · 13/12/2016 21:59

Yes, my phone is set to UK English. I've only noticed it on this specific uni module - Business, so the word organisation features heavily!

The OU website also uses Z.

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SouthernComforts · 13/12/2016 22:00

Gilly, the book I'm reading uses Z in realize too.

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gillybeanz · 13/12/2016 23:09

I heard it was American spelling too, but wasn't sure if it was the same for all the words using "S" or "Z"

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Nightmanagerfan · 13/12/2016 23:15

UK spelling and grammar has two "styles" a Oxford and Cambridge. Oxford spelling uses "z" spellings and Cambridge uses "s".

(Oxford grammar has other differences including the Oxford comma.)

I'm a former book editor by the way so was once paid to know these things!

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SouthernComforts · 13/12/2016 23:46

Interesting! Thanks night.

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SouthernComforts · 13/12/2016 23:49

Is there a reason only certain words can use both S or Z and others can't? Is it only words with 'ise' in?

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SenecaFalls · 13/12/2016 23:55

The "ize" spelling is actually older in British English than "ise."

blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2011/03/ize-or-ise/

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SouthernComforts · 14/12/2016 00:10

Thanks Seneca, interesting that they are both correct and yet I would never use -ize, I wonder if it stems from school? Although I don't recall ever being told -ize is wrong.

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zappa2001 · 24/12/2016 16:54

-ize is wrong in the UK. When in America, -ize away!

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zappa2001 · 24/12/2016 16:55

It all stems from autocorrect/suggsted spelling thanks to Microsoft Word.

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SenecaFalls · 25/12/2016 18:04

-ize is wrong in the UK

No, it's not.

blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2011/03/ize-or-ise/

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CommonFramework · 30/01/2017 23:03

Both -ise and -ize are correct in the UK!! Check out the Oxford Dictionaries blog on the subject.

Which you use doesn't matter as long as you're consistent within a document. And some words never take an ize ending (advise, etc.) so you have to watch for those.