9 yrs olds spelling test - do you agree 'emphasize' is WRONG!!!???

[tyketiler]

2 incorrect spellings today in school test 'emphasize' and 'reorganize' marked WRONG. What do you all think? OED agrees with my son!

I agree with your son. Always feel annoyed when they are marked with a little red line on my computer.

They are fine if you live in the US but not in the UK. It is emphasise and reorganise here.

What soapbox said

I used to agree with you about the use of 's' rather than 'z' until my secretary pointed out she was taught 'z' for organize etc 30yrs ago! I tried to prove her wrong but OED clearly cites 'z' version as preferred and 's' as an alternative. I think both should be correct.

Always use 's' myself but.....

An episode of Morse hinged on the fact that a suicide note was forged and had words 'misspelled' with 's' instead of 'z'. Morse railed against the 'ignorance' of this. It is 'z' in the OED as any fule kno he said (or words to that effect) ie not Lewis.... or me!

z is correct. It comes from the Greek -suffix izo. The idea that it is American is a myth.

the soapy one is right. Z - americano, s - English - one of the things that divides us. Thank God.

i have always thought the z ending was american and the s ending was uk english. I would think either should be acceptable in standard written work -

silly words to be in a spelling test in my opinion, as this is bound to be a contentious issue! why don't the teachers stick with mississippi and diarrhoea like ours did?

why don't you take in your copy of the OED and show the teacher up??!!

why thank god?
it's the same word however it is spelled. or should that be spelt?

I'd say in 2008 both are acceptable

My electronic Concise OED gives -ize (also -ise) whichever I type in. Which suggests that -ize is now considered to be correct.

ARRGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Have a word with the teacher!

It is just plain wrong to think ize is an American suffix.

I think you should definitely ask the school how they're deciding the correct answers. This should be a matter of clear policy. (Is it an international school by any chance?)

Writing formally in the UK I would most certainly expect to use "emphasise" and "reorganise" (hmm, "re-organise"? - whole other issue). In the US, using the z is correct. (As others have said.)

Mabanana, I am English (and over-educated) and also did a post-grad (in literature) in the US. The spelling differences are exactly as Soapbox said.

sorry you are wrong if you think that the -ize suffix is wrong, or modern, or American. It is etymologically correct, and historical. We may nowadays have shifted to a preference for the -ise suffix, to the point where that is also correct, but perhaps that's just a sign of growing ignorance about the roots of language.

Perhaps you need to get your son to show you his spelling list before the test. Its probably wisest he learns the teacher-approved spelling for the test but knows that for some words there are valid alternatives.

mabanana is right. Really. Look in a dictionary.

explained here from point 22 onwards IThe ize is the oed version & hence correct.

Not claiming that -ize is "wrong" or "modern", just that, overall, it is an American norm, whereas -ise is the current British norm.

I think the distinction worth making is that -ise is generally seen as actually wrong in the US, whereas both -ize and -ise are OK in the UK. But -ise is more typically conventional in the UK - hence my saying that's what I'd expect to see.

I still think it is worth asking the school how they've come up with their ideas of what's correct, as they've strayed into a bit of a vipers' nest

George E uses ize in Daniel Deronda. Please don't make me go and look for it.

I had a lovely teacher, who suggested that where you could use 'ise' or 'ize' you should opt for 'ize', as z is a letter we don't get to use very frequently.

Both "ize" and "ise" are correct in British English. -ise is generally more common, but some big publishing houses such as Oxford University Press have opted for -ize.

The Morse thing was that -ize was specifically an Oxford thing, that stuck in my head.

But I love the idea that -ize should be used to give poor old z a turn