You crack me up Taru. I love it. I think "colour" is British, fyi.

British English is colour, American English is color. The former is the original root/word - it comes from a French word and is from Middle English times. The latter is what has come about since American colonisation and so forth. Hope that helps !

Colour is the Brit spelling. Use whichever you prefer. No worries.

I can help you out with "colour" and "color", Canadians spell it as "colour" and americans spell it as "color:

:)

Given that english is a evolving language I'd go with the original spelling as it shows the origin/evolution of the word.

Thank you very much, so many wise people around. I can sleep in peace tonight.

Columbia is like Britannia, it is a foreign, in this case latin, term to call a land. The Ancient Romans designated Britannia for the Britannic Isles, and the Spanish designated Columbia for the new world that Christopher Columbus had discovered. I understand that the Republic of Colombia (with an O) seceded from the Spanish state in 1819 and adopted the term to indicate this separation, although Northern & Southern Americans retain their identitifation with Columbia: Indeed the USA has towns, states, universities and indeed yachts (of which two NYYC America's Cup defenders) named after Columbia.

Wikipedia American and British spelling differences: Canada and other Commonwealth countries adopted the British spelling of words ending in -our such as favour, colour, neighbour, harbour etc. Two different dictionaries are followed... British using Samuel Johnson dictionary of English from 1755 and America using Noah Webster dictionary of English from 1828. I'm from Canada and as I type the words with "-our" in them, my spell check underlines the words (misspelled) because I have an American spell check! Oh, by the way Canada has a "province" called British Columbia. Hope this helps.

Americans are lazy and ignorant. Color is shortened because of laziness, Columbia is ignorance because that's the only State they know and how it is spelled.

People already mentioned the Color thing.

I've been to Colombia several times to visit, mainly Bogota but some other places too. It annoys me when people are talking about the country and spell with a U instead of an O.

Don't know why it's spelled with a U in Canada and US, just how it is, I guess.

I don't want to confuse you further, but in Canada we also have other spelling rules that differ from America....such as cancelled...America spells it canceled. We use the British spelling... double the consonant and add the ending..eg. travelling. There are many other differences... centre (British) instead of center...defence (British) instead of defense (Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Spelling)

I think where words have two spellings, depending on British or American spelling you can use either. However, you should remain consistent and if you use one you should stick to it.

Here in Australia we use the British spelling. Although I learned English in the USA, I now use the British spelling of words.

When I write a blog post it usually tells me I have errors where words are spelt the British way, eg. Realise (British) and realize (American).

'COLOMBIA'

On the other spelling issues, I agree, that since you are neither American or British (as well as Commonwealth country related) you should choose a spelling of certain words and be consistent in their usage.

On another note.....we all have our little idiosyncrasies "EH?"

There's been enough written about colour/color, nevertheless I'm throwing in my two cents worth since this is something that has always bothered me (damn you American spell check).

Use the British spelling on colour, labour and so forth, since the vowel sound is ou, not o. I also prefer the double consonant on words like travelling and if it's a fence, then it's offence, defence and so forth.

Ok I'm done. Happy travels, enjoy the posts, especially on a grey, rainy Vancouver day.

One last thing: British Columbia was almost Columbia the British was added to avoid confusion with the country you are now visiting. However our first premier, perhaps longing for some Latin spice in his life, changed his name to Amour De Cosmos (he wasn't reelected, but you certainly have to give him points for style).

You worry too much. Your English is better than most native speakers here in the US.

Deb
S/V Kintala
www.theretirementproject.blogspot.com

So we can attribute the spelling of colour/color to british or american versions. Speeling can be a tricky, but when it actually comes to pronunciation, forget it; the proverbial book goes out the window, as this little poem will attest:

I take it you already know,
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you,
On hiccough, thorough, laugh and through?
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,To learn of less familiar traps?

Beware of heard, a dreadful word,
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead - it’s said like bed, not bead;For goodness’ sake, don’t call it ‘deed’!
Watch out for meat and great and threat,
(They rhyme with suite and straight and debt).
A moth is not a moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, broth in brother.

And here is not a match for there,
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear.
And then there’s dose and rose and lose –
Just look them up – and goose and choose.
And cork and work and card and ward,
And font and front and word and sword. And do and go and thwart and cart –
Come, come, I’ve hardly made a start!

A dreadful language? Why man alive!
I’d mastered it when I was five.

Taru
From your bloggings, I would say that Deb is right and although I've never heard you speak English, I just know you're Scandinavian accent will make it sound better than any American can. But if you will permit me, there is one other written word(s) I would like to alert you to and I've noticed you use; it's the awful Americanism ..... Gonna !
If you and Alex will be going out tonight, then you can write...... "Alex and I are going to go out tonight"
Not....... Alex and I are gonna go out tonight.
One more thing..... It's always "Alex and I"
Never...... Me and Alex !

Have fun

From Wikipedia:
The word "Colombia" is named after Christopher Columbus, the explorer who discovered America. The name "America" was given in honor of Americo Vespucio, the first man who did a complete map of North America and South America.
In 1819, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Panama declared independence from Spain, and formed a country called "Gran Colombia". Venezuela and Ecuador separated in 1830. The official language is Spanish, but there are many dialects spoken by minorities.

So, since Colombia is named after Christopher Columbus, it could be argued that the Colombians are guilty of misspelling their name.

List of places named after Christopher Columbus...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_places_named_for_Christopher_Columbus

Yes Davy Jones, I know it should be "Alex and I" and never "Me and Alex". I think that nowadays I get it right most of the times. In Swedish and Finnish you always mention yourself first so it took a while to get used to. It is much more proper to mention your own name last.

Hi Taru,

Whenever I come upon a similar language problem, I go to this cool little tool a friend of mine built for Google. It references the massive digital library Google is building and shows you the frequency of usage of each word over time: http://bit.ly/XzbI6t

Have a great day!

Thomas

The trick I learned for knowing when to use "I" instead of "Me" is to ask if the sentence makes sense if you were only talking about yourself. For example:
"Me went to the store" doesn't sound right so you would say "Alex and I went to the store."
"Happy birthday from I" doesn't sound right either so you would say "Happy birthday from me and Alex" (in this case you can use me before or after Alex) instead of "Happy birthday from Alex and I."
Even as a native English speakers, we still use the wrong words because they're so commonly used by everyone that they get entrenched into the lexicon/usage. A pet peeve of mine is "seen". The only time you would use seen is if "have" is used before it. For example:
"I seen the Cliffs of Dover when I was in England." is wrong. The proper use is "I have (or I've) seen the Cliffs of Dover...". You could make the first sentence correct by saying "I saw the Cliffs of Dover..."

I think it's only in America where they spell with no U. And in all other English speaking countries it is with a U.

Columbia / Colombia. I think the origin of this is Christopher Columbus ... and the difference in spelling is, again, the difference between the English and the rest of the world.

Good luck learning this foolish language!

It is a British English vs American English thing. Colour is British, and color is American. There are a couple of other cases of spelling or grammar which are favored by one or the other, but I don't think it's an important distinction. Everyone knows what you're talking about regardless of the spelling you choose.

Americans just like to be different from everyone else, hence their measurement systems, for example. British English is the root of American English, but any is correct, I tend to mix spellings as well!

This is ironic because I now live in British Columbia, and I always tend to misspell it "Colombia" due to growing up in the Caribbean and South America and being more used to the latter. Just what we are more used to and revert to I guess.