Writing Articles in UK English

[GriffinL]

Ok, I have a question for all you warriors out there. I live in California and as such I speak English natively. American English, to be precise. I have one of my current employers wanting me to write articles in UK English. I've tried searching google and can't really find any specific guide. Should I tell him to send the articles to a UK person or do I have a chance? Help!

Thanks!

[Mangozoom]

Hmmm ... I am a brit. It depends on your grasp of original UK English.

Nothing worse to an englishmans ear than yank trying to fake it (should imagine my US accent would not work too good either).

But maybe you could try and few articles and get your client to approve them.

If you get confused on the UK version of a word pm me.

I'm off on holiday (vacation) and need to use the toilet (bathroom) right now

John

[GriffinL]

Well dang. I really hate turning down work, but I hate doing things half-baked even worse. I can tell you right now that I won't be able to write in even decent UK english without hours and hours of research and practice. And for the money I get per article..eww.

Thanks for the help guys. I'm going to see what my employer has to say.

[yves]

Honestly, there isn't exactly that much of a difference, here goes,

Instead of favor, favorite and color its favour, favourite, colour etc. (change o to ou for those types)
Instead of liter it's litre (er to re for those types)
Instead of moisturize it's moisturise (ize to ise)

Can't think of any more but there really isn't much. When I was writing articles, I had to write in American English and that is the only differences I can think of.

Doesn't your word processor have UK English on it?

[yves]

ha ha a few more

You say sidewalk we say pavement
You say drapes we say curtains
You say diapers we say nappies
You say faucet we say tap

[la dominatrix]

Originally Posted by GriffinL

Ok, I have a question for all you warriors out there. I live in California and as such I speak English natively. American English, to be precise. I have one of my current employers wanting me to write articles in UK English. I've tried searching google and can't really find any specific guide. Should I tell him to send the articles to a UK person or do I have a chance? Help!

Thanks!

The grammer and structure of sentences does differ most noteably in the use of a comma and full stop. However you can get around that one because most people would not know that the grammer rules do actually differ. However where it does get difficult is the fact that expressions are totally different and style is quite different.

In reality I think it is easier for me as a native Brit (despite the fact I have been an expat for more than half of my life) to write for the American market than it is the other way around, simply because Brits are exposed to AMerican culture more than the Americans are exposed to the British culture.

That does not mean you should not try, set your spell checker to British UK English and go for it. If you like when you have written one or a couple pm and send them and I will let you know if they are passable as being writtne by a Brit.

La dominatrix

[Diana Lane]

Dunno wot makes 'em fink we can speak proper over 'ere anyway

The correct spelling of flavor is 'flavour', center should be spelled as 'centre', license should be spelled as 'licence', jelly spelled as 'jam', trunk and hood should be spelled as 'boot' and 'bonnet'... and the American Date Format as 'Why the British often show up on the wrong day'

We're quite simple really. It's just everyone else who has complicated everything

[yves]

Originally Posted by la dominatrix

In reality I think it is easier for me as a native Brit (despite the fact I have been an expat for more than half of my life) to write for the American market than it is the other way around, simply because Brits are exposed to AMerican culture more than the Americans are exposed to the British culture.


La dominatrix

Yes I agree with that. It is probably easier to go from U.K to American than the other way around. But for the sake of an article, I still think if you have the UK spell checker on you should be fine. As long as you don't use colloquialisms, not that you would for an article anyway.

[JoMo]

"Two nations separated by a common language."

-George Bernard Shaw

[Andrew G Gowans]

Hi Griffini, as a native Brit I can empathize having spent years working with HP in Palo Alto.

As a writer and writing coach, I can fully agree that grammar, spelling and the use of the "right" words are very important. For the native reader, structure and style can also make a huge difference (as I have found writing Spanish for the Spanish reader - ouch).

If you are prepared to give it a go; I am happy also to give your writing a proofread and edit or if you require some help with writing or rewriting, PM me.

Good luck.

Andrew G.

[GriffinL]

Wow. Thanks for all the replies guys! The warrior forum is definitely one of the most mature and helpful forums I've ever been on.

Anyway, I talked to my employer and he said that all he required was the literal translations that ms word can do. He agreed that I can just write them in regular (better, if I say so myself) English and then he'll do the translation required. So thanks for the help guys!

[Justin Jordan]

I've done a lot of work for two British clients, and getting the language down actually isn't too bad, so long as the stuff you're writing if fairly formal. The things that will get you are things like 'gotten', which is accepted use in the States and not in the UK.

I actually wrote so much for those two clients that I sometimes still use an 's' where a 'z' should be - realise vs. realize.

[la dominatrix]

Originally Posted by Justin Jordan

I've done a lot of work for two British clients, and getting the language down actually isn't too bad, so long as the stuff you're writing if fairly formal. The things that will get you are things like 'gotten', which is accepted use in the States and not in the UK.

I actually wrote so much for those two clients that I sometimes still use an 's' where a 'z' should be - realise vs. realize.

there is no "diven" either

[Poglia]

There are no big differences, just a few words like color-colour, apartment-flat, burned-burnt, theater-theatre, etc. BTW I'm not American nor British.

[vicone]

There are no big differences, just a few words like...

There are a lot of small differences. Australians follow British spelling conventions but the dictionary with my word processor is set for US spelling as I write for the American market. Most good word processors seem to have a choice of dictionaries for spell checking.

If there are phrases or words that seem applicable and I don't feel comfortable with them, I just rephrase the sentence. I write factual articles and books rather than novels, so speech patterns aren't nearly as important.

Ivan

[Bev Clement]

there are a lot of differences between British, Australian and American English.

We use words that are not common in America like "spelt"

And in Australia they would talk about their thongs, which isn't what we Brits and Americans would think of.

So you have to be careful with certain words because of their different meanings.

[GuerrillaIM]

some american words and phrases dont exist in uk english and sound a little strange to us. I notice american writers use the word "gotten" a lot which isn't a word in uk english.

[Martin Luxton]

There are also sexual/cultural minefields.

In the UK we smoke fags and we use rubbers to erase pencil marks.

An elderly Australian uses Durex to wrap Christmas pressies.

Martin

[Kim Standerline]

Oh my, the mind boggles

Originally Posted by Martin Luxton

An elderly Australian uses Durex to wrap Christmas pressies.

Martin

[SarahMcHarry]

Originally Posted by la dominatrix

The grammer and structure of sentences does differ most noteably in the use of a comma and full stop. However you can get around that one because most people would not know that the grammer rules do actually differ. However where it does get difficult is the fact that expressions are totally different and style is quite different.
La dominatrix

La Dominatrix,

As a native Brit you should know that we spell 'grammar' as 'grammar' not 'grammer'.

GriffinL,

If you are writing for the Internet I wouldn't worry too much about differences in style. Our UK argot has been much influenced by American English and I think the US's more informal style is fine. The differences in spelling are easy to check. Just let your words flow, make sure your grammar and punctuation are correct (no differences, really) and if you want validation, just ask a Brit to proof read the text for you.

Good luck!

Sarah

[Diana Lane]

Originally Posted by Joeman

phrases like "Fanny Pack" have a whole other meaning over here in the uk...

I know. I was quite shocked when I was told that most Americans will happily eat Fanny Farmer's Fudge without batting an eyelid

[JoMo]

Originally Posted by Diana Lane

I know. I was quite shocked when I was told that most Americans will happily eat Fanny Farmer's Fudge without batting an eyelid

LOL. Ok I have to know what's up with the fanny in UKese.

[Bev Clement]

Read this and you will get your answer

US vs UK

[Debbie Allen]

If you are using Word to create your document you can select the language "English" (UK)

[Adam Sussman]

Originally Posted by Diana Lane

I know. I was quite shocked when I was told that most Americans will happily eat Fanny Farmer's Fudge without batting an eyelid

LOL!!! Spits coffee over the keyboard :-)

[marciayudkin]

Honestly, there isn't exactly that much of a difference

As someone pointed out, there are a huge number of small differences in addition to the obvious ones.

Some years back, I was hired by an Australian company to edit/rewrite all of their home study courses for the U.S. market.

This involved not only changing spellings but also changing examples so as to be understandable to Americans. This I could do because I was familiar with the subjects involved. However, even so I was always querying about particular references that made sense given Australian geography, culture, etc. that I did not understand.

The one example that stuck in my mind was constant references to "budgies," which were a kind of bird that seemed to be household items in Australia. Even when I found it it was a nickname for "budgerigar" I was baffled.

It was lots of fun to learn about Australian geography and tourist spots and think of U.S. equivalents.

This company was very smart because they realized they needed an intelligent and high-level translation in order for the courses to work in the U.S. Merely changing spelling would most definitely not have worked.

Marcia Yudkin

[liza31n]

I think UK english is just a bit different with American English.I can't see any problem with this as long as you construct good sentences,with correct grammar and spellings.

[kennethtang]

Originally Posted by Bev Clement

Read this and you will get your answer

US vs UK

LOL! That was one good read, Bev.

[Bev Clement]

Now you know what to say or not to say to us Brit

[kennethtang]

Not a problem. We Malaysians started off with Her Majesty's English too. However, nowadays, it is no longer British English, it's Manglish (Malaysian English, NOT Mangled English), our very own home-brew

[Addendum]: Our neighbours (notice the 'ou'?) down south call their version Singlish, cos it's just Sinful how they use it LOLOLOL!

Originally Posted by Bev Clement

Now you know what to say or not to say to us Brit

[Bev Clement]

Sounds like Chinglish in China and Hong Kong, wonder how close it is to Manglish

For those who think there isn't any problems with writing for the UK market, why do you think Wendy's didn't do well in the UK, because their upsell was a "biggie"

[Karen Connell]

Originally Posted by Diana Lane

I know. I was quite shocked when I was told that most Americans will happily eat Fanny Farmer's Fudge without batting an eyelid

OMG, Can't stop giggling!!

As an English woman living in Ireland, I nearly choked when I read that!

I have to say, as I was reading the thread, I was going to bring up the American 'Fanny Bag' but propriety ruled and I decided not to.

Karen

[LeeMasterson]

I'm an Australian freelancer, so I manage to pick up plenty of freelance work in both the US and the UK. We're educated in school to write UK English and we pick up the American-version of English from the internet fairly quickly.

There are distinct differences in some spellings, but the grammatical structure of some sentences can be significantly different. If you can manage to pick up both styles and work with them, you'll increase your freelance client-base

Lee

[luckystepho]

One thing that affects me is remembering that Americans go on 'vacation' and we Brits go 'on holiday'.

[Intrepreneur]

It isn't that much different apart from knowing the word differences.. I tend to miss out on those sometimes when writing my articles.. But as long as I'm writing it's all good.

[apple87jane]

Hi all guys and girls, I'm also a new B at internet marketing, and I also found the same problem in writing articles, cause I'm from malaysia and educated in UK engish, it's very hard for me to write a proper articles t post! How?;-(

[Karen Connell]

Originally Posted by Bev Clement

Read this and you will get your answer

US vs UK

Hi Bev,

Just read the article in the link!

What a hoot!

Right - off for a fag!

Karen

[DavidO]

There's a lot more involved here than just spelling differences and punctuation. There's no way you could fake writing authentic British English without years in the U.K. and many different experiences with the people. Same goes for a Brit in the U.S.

But as for writing articles that aren't dialog heavy it's no problem as 98% of the language is interchangeable. It's just that 2% that will get you!

[BiancaRaven]

I switch between writing both UK and US English comfortably - but UK English is my primary style. There are some noticeable differences in spelling, punctuation and grammar that need to be watched.

Bev's article link was a good laugh about the British take on US spellings and word usages

[aspiepower]

Don't mention the Queen, we wouldn't, you shouldn't ... we don't all know her personally.

[pearsonbrown]

There are lot of differences between AE and BE. One example is in the use of the subjunctive, where AE remains more formally correct than BE. The modal verbs can also be a bit of a minefield. Even though I try to put out exercises that work in both AE and BE, I frequently get emails from AE speakers telling me I am "wrong".

Pearson

[bertuseng]

I grew up in South Africa where we speak and write brittish english and then I taught english in taiwan for 3 years, where I had to speak with an amercan accent and write and spell the american way. Now I am living in the UK and have to do it the brittish way again. PRetty confusing. hehe.

Here are a few big differences in spelling that you should be aware of:

british vs american

holiday vacation
colour color
favourite favorite
etc.

Hint:
You can set your spelling test on office to uk english and then it will show out the mistakes.

hope this helps.

[bobsstuff]

I have two answers to this problem:
1. Use a UK English Spell Checker. It should correct all of your American English spelling "errors".
2. Pay someone proficient in UK English to proof read your articles. They can get rid of "vacation" and replace it with "holiday" etc etc.

Assuming you get $10 an artcle and have to pay $5 to have it proofread, you are still making money, keeping a client and MAYBE opening a whole new market.

[whateverpedia]

Originally Posted by Dhrousha

Hi Bev,

Just read the article in the link!

What a hoot!

I laughed so hard, the fag I was sucking on flew out of my mouth.

BTW f it doesn't have a bath in it, it isn't a bathroom. It is a toilet, an ablution facility, or here in AU, a dunny as in the well known Aussie song "I Hope Your Chooks Turn Into Emus And Kick Your Dunny Down".

Translated this means "I wish you harm by having your chickens turn into large filghtless birds and demolish your "bathroom".

... and while we're at it...

Any Aussie male with red hair is given the nickname "Blue".

Any surnames that end in the suffix "son" (ie Jackson, Simpson, etc) have the son removed and replaced with "o". Thus Homer Simpson would be known here as Simmo, Peter Jackson as Jacko, no first names.

Don't get me started on Kiwi's though as that wouldn't be choice, bro'. One of them might hut me wuth a bug stuck.

Oh, this whole language thing has got me so pissed, I'm off to the pub to get pissed.

[Colin Palfrey]

Originally Posted by luckystepho

One thing that affects me is remembering that Americans go on 'vacation' and we Brits go 'on holiday'.

In fact I'm English and no, we go on "The Piss"

[SarahMcHarry]

This thread reminds me of a puzzle we had a couple of years ago.

We had booked into a hotel at a ski resort in Vermont. The hotel was all Olde English and we felt quite at home. We were having a wonderful time trying to experience the ultimate all-American ski vacation.

We looked through all the facilities that the hotel offered and one of them which struck us was a packed lunch with a free fanny bag.

Fanny bag? WTF is a fanny bag?

We had a day when we were going on a long drive away from the hotel and a packed lunch seemed a good idea. So we ordered one, asking that it be supplied in a fanny bag.

And what did we get? Well, some delicious sandwiches, fruit and juice. And it was delivered in what we in UK call a bum bag, ie. a small bag on a belt that you tie around your waist. The bag was filled with wonderful lunchtime food which we truly enjoyed.

I still have that fanny bag - I use it for all sorts of purposes (photography, primarily) - and we love to taunt our UK friends with the fact that in US English 'fanny' means 'bum'. They think that's really funny.

Sarah