British, Australian, and Canadian English to American

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I used to struggle with switching in my brain between American and UK English. When I started to create content for more overseas clients, they would sometimes complain that I had used British English instead of Australian.

This technique works easily on a Firefox browser and has since become a great way to get my Ho"u"nor and Centr"e" in place.

See the Firefox dictionary technique here.

Do any of you have a method that you use to switch between forms of English? Using Firefox dictionaries is good, but not always perfect.
#american #australian #british #canadian #english
  • Profile picture of the author marciayudkin
    I read a lot of British novels, and it's clear to me that the differences go way beyond spelling, which is all you were targeting in your method.

    A lot of the vocabulary is different in ways that would not be flagged by dictionaries.

    Dialogue is quite different. People being questioned in British novels add a lot of questions at the end of their statements. This one wouldn't come up in copywriting so much, but I'm just showing you an example of differences.

    Even pronouns can be different. British and Australian people write "different to" where Americans write "different from."

    I once had a project of editing an Australian home-study course for American readers and I was constantly querying things like "budgie - what's that?" (a kind of bird that apparently everyone knows in Australia) and "abseiling??" (an outdoor sport akin to rock climbing, as I remember).

    Marcia Yudkin
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