It’s licence not license!

[Heather37231]

I’m so fed up with seeing British people use “license” for driving etc. It’s rife. Nobody seems to realise that’s the US spelling. I blame Olivia Rodrigo.

Got this from Nat West today (you don’t get more British than Nat West).

I just use prison, dodges the issue that way!

@coureur another battle that was lost a long time ago amongst young British people is “schedule”- it’s almost universally pronounced “skedule” now.

Practice and practise is one that I admit I do have to think very hard about. For the reason you mention.

I always just think of it following exactly the same pattern as advice and advise. We don’t get that one wrong because the pronunciation is also different.

sorry to sideline, but why is 'driver's licence' wrong?

It is my licence. I am one driver. It belongs to me. It is my driver's licence

I don't think that's particularly to do with it being American, I think it's because unfortunately so many people are simply terrible at spelling and don't think it matters.

The person who said that "driver's license" annoyed them, presumably because of the incorrect spelling of licence( which you spelled correctly) and also because in the UK it's a driving licence not a driver's licence.

During Covid, NatWest had signs up asking customers to 'practice social distancing' so they have form for this.

Exactly.

Compare and contrast UK, New York and California.

It does make me cross.

We invented the sodding language, and now we are so often expected to spell our words the way other countries spell them. If they want to spell it that way, that's up to them, but we need to put our collective foot down.

The Aussies go for a hybrid!

Noooo! Then we end up like the French.

English is a plastic language, which is its strength. But also its weakness, when we want to moan about usage 😆

Bizarrely because that relies on knowing how to spell advice and advise ( although they do sound a bit different which helps ) - that might work / thank you !

That English has spread so widely is a consequence of the British Empire, isn't it?

I don't think you'll get much sympathy for the fact that the language hasn't remained exclusively yours...

Yes. Like Spanish and Portuguese in Central and South America. And French in Africa.

That's the point of using advise/advice as an indicator of the correct way, they do sound different unlike most, if not all, the other words where people get confused about the endings.

The prime minister said 'specialty' yesterday, unless my ears deceived me, but I'm still saying 'speciality'. I know it isn't anything to do with licences, but it's another example, I think, of modern American beginning to supersede what has been used in the UK for a long time.

Don't tell me - tomorrow Susie Dent will tell us all that 'specialty' was used from 1265 until some time in the nineteenth century, in the UK.
Is the universality of English something to do with it being the language of technology as well as being the language of the British Empire?

Don’t know the context in which Sunak said it but “specialty” is a type of insurance offered by Lloyd’s of London. Also I think it is what doctors call their areas of expertise?

NHS Specialties

Pic here as didn’t post in previous post

They've just slavishly copied the US there I think @Heather37231 .
See Aluminum.

On the general point, the internet in general and social media in particular have catapulted the rise of US spellings. Microsoft conquered the world some years ago. It's all over Mumsnet for a start.
And then they adopt US pronunciations as mentioned - can anyone say 'twenty' these days? - and then it's 'driver's license' and 'practice your singing' (my choir WhatsApp).
We're doomed!!

Who do you mean “they”? The NHS?

I’m pretty sure UK doctors have been taking about “specialties” for decades.

Or do you mean my OP and Nat West?

Funnily enough, I’d say that “aluminum” is one of the few Americanisms that hasn’t caught on over here!

Is the universality of English something to do with it being the language of technology as well as being the language of the British Empire?

Yes. So, software will usually have a license agreement, that's perhaps where we see the word most frequently now (if only momentarily as we scan down to find the 'I agree' checkbox without actually reading it).

I write software, the company was American, now taken over by a bigger European one - but the standard language of our user interfaces and documentation and is American English.

I don’t mind Microsoft or Apple asking me to agree to a “license” because I know full well they are American.

But not Nat West. It’s like turning on the TV and finding that Ant and Dec are suddenly talking with Texan accents!

Funnily enough, I’d say that “aluminum” is one of the few Americanisms that hasn’t caught on over here!

Hopefully it won't, as that's definitively wrong - the globally accepted spelling according to IUPAC is 'aluminium'. Otoh, it's sulfur not sulphur. Yes, I'm a chemistry pedant.

Lots of talk about “sulfates” amongst UK beauty bloggers.