The Word Cloud

I'm in a tangle (again) about the -ize/-ise issue. Books on grammar, such as Fowler, tell a complex and evolving story, including usage moving across the Atlantic and back again. Has anyone found clear guidance on common -z- and -s- words for a writer in the UK in 2011?

Think you'll find the '-ize' to be an American usage, which, as you rightly say, has been subsequently passed back across the Pond. Dashed unfortunate that so many colonial phrases seem to have been absorbed by the younger generation, what?

John, I think you'll find the answer you're looking for here. It's a very useful site altogether.

Thank you, Spangles, and thnak you for the site reference. Fascinating!

Please don't mention the Sanders fellow - rank bad hat, in anyone's estimation.

Like me, maybe it helps you to know the background: -ize is the original ending taken from the Greek; -ise was taken into British English from French in the 16th century, and even though it went back and forth for awhile after that in the UK (thus, that pond was actually the English Channel, not the Atlantic...), and despite opposition of OED, Encyclopaedia Britannica and the London Times, -ise has remained the most common so that there's no confusion with non-Greek -s- endings of words such as devise and surprise. So, if you're writing British English, the -ise have it. :-)

Confused? I will be.
Interesting website Spangles (OxfordDictionaries), but dare I timidly suggest that there's a grammatical mistake in it?
Where it says, 'But there are a small set of verbs that must always be spelled ...' - shouldn't this be '... there IS a small set of verbs ...'?

*creeps off*

Tut tut! It's such a common pitfall to tumble into. The word 'verbs' seems to be jumping up and down and attracting all the attention when actually it's the 'a small set' that is the object of the sentence.

That 'ise' thing has always bugged me too.
Working for GE's, an american firm (and I have to be careful what I say here because they are techy about being discussed in public), everything on the flippin pc is 'english US' and it kind of ticks me off a bit. No wonder so many of us get confused when there are different schools of thought, chopping and changing from one side of the pond to the other.
I 've always tried to stick to 'ise', from what Persia above says, looks like I'm doing the right thing for a change. :o)

So, what's the current situation with things like, 'or' replacing 'our', ie neighbour, neighbor, colour, color etc
I've imagined that how ever you choose a word, as long as you stick to that specific correct spelling it should be ok. Am I right, if I'm wrong, you'd better put me right.

Sometimes I think the welsh language is so much simpler. hahahaha - only sometimes. hahaha

If we're talking about published books, the -ise/-ize debate will be settled by the publisher's house style. Some UK publishers prefer -ize endings (which the Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors deems to be the correct choice for the UK) while others prefer -ise.

Nibs – the great thing about Welsh is that it's consistent. I had Welsh lessons for four years at school (I didn't arrive in Wales until I was ten), and of the languages I studied (also French and Latin), more of the Welsh grammar has stayed with me – even though I've hardly ever used more than a few phrases of the language.