replace 'z' or 's',here?

[Fazzu]

Hello everyone,

I got a question.

Is it realize or realise?
Is it realising or realizing?

Thanks.
Faz

[Casiopea]

Welcome, Fazzu. Great photo!

Most words that Americans spell ending in "-ize" are spelled with "-ise" or "-ize" in Britain:

apologize apologise, apologize
apprise apprise (to inform)
apprize apprize (archaic) (appraise, esteem)
atomize atomise, atomize
burglarize burgle, burglarise, burglarize
capitalize capitalise, capitalize
categorize categorize, categorise
characterize characterise, characterize
civilize civilise, civilize
civilization civilisation, civilization
colonize colonize, colonise
computerize computerise, computerize
criticize criticize, criticise
dramatize dramatise, dramatize

See more here: http://www.peak.org/~jeremy/dictiona...ellcat.php#ise

The "-ize" version is the old British version and it is still used in Great Britain, for example at the University of Oxford and in academic publications. The "-ize" spelling is not an American invention, it existed long before the USA were founded (~15th century). Source

It all began with izein in ancient Greek, which evolved into izare in post-classical Latin and then iser in French. English has been colonized with words from all three languages, including pulverize, moralize, and monopolize. While it's true that ise is often defined as a "British" preference, ize is actually a better choice most of the time, according to Britain's leading authority on language: the Oxford English Dictionary. (OED)

Read more here

[Coffa]

You will find that most British English writers always use the '-ise' ending for verbs such as this one, and most American English writers always use the '-ize' ending. This is a cause of great confusion and debate. The traditional answer is that '-ize' is used for English verbs which are derived from Greek words (for example, 'theorize'), and '-ise' is used for verbs derived from Latin or French (for example, 'realise', which comes from the French verb 'realiser'). Most native speakers are unaware of this distinction though, and tend to use one form or the other exclusively. So you will see inconsistent spellings.

[rewboss]

It gets even more confusing, because there are a few words which are spelled "-ise" in both British and American English: "advertise" is one (I was once torn to shreds on a newsgroup because I spelled it with "-ize", which one American took as proof that I was stupid). Another one is "enterprise" -- "Enterprise" (with an "s") was the name of the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the famous starship from Star Trek and an experimental space shuttle.

The trend though is for "-ize" to become more common.

[Casiopea]

The trend though is for "-ize" to become more common.

The USA seems to be somewhat undecided - no doubt related to the doowhachawannadoo attitude.

From The American Heritage Dictionary
v. merchandise also merchandize
v. advertise

From WordNet (Princeton University)
v. merchandise
v. advertise also advertize

(I was once torn to shreds on a newsgroup because I spelled [advertise] with "-ize", which one American took as proof that I was stupid).

Apparently, s/he wasn't from Princeton.

Another one is "enterprise" -- "Enterprise" (with an "s")

Note, verbs, not nouns: *merchandize (n.) *enterprize/Enterprize (n.); but nouns from verbs: advertis/zement; not *merchandis/zement, *enterpris/zement. merchand isn't a word in English, and enterprise isn't a verb.

It gets even more confusing, because there are a few words which are spelled "-ise" in both British and American English: "advertise" is one.

Right. They're of Latin origin, and yet some are spelled (spelt? ) -ize.

enterprise, Middle English > Old French > Latin inter-. + prendre
advertis/ze, Middle English advertisen > Old French > Latin advertere
merchandis/ze, Middle English > Old French > Latin mercari

Here's an observation 'only good for remembering how to spell "advertise" and "merchandise".'

... this -ize/ise spelling difference only applies when the ending
has the meaning of "convert something into something else"
(e.g., Americanize, crystallize, galvanize), ...

SOURCE

[Fazzu]

Thanks.

So,I can use realise or realize,anything?

[Casiopea]

AMERICAN ENGLISH
realize

BRITISH ENGLISH
realise, realize

The suffix -ize has been around in English since the late 16th century. This is such a useful suffix for making verbs from adjectives and nouns that it has become one of the most common in English; we got it via French, which of course uses the spelling -ise.

It orginally comes from the Greek infinitive verb ending -dzein. As early as the 3rd century, Christians were taking Greek words such as baptidzein and Latinizing the endings, as in baptizare. Originally, only Greek base words were Latinized in this way, but then the French began using the ending for Latin base words, as in réaliser.

... many of these words were borrowed into English from French [e.g., réalise, réalize].

At some point during the vogue for codification and standardization engendered by the Englightenment, some bright spark in England decided that all words with Latin bases should be spelled with -ise, and all words with Greek bases could continue to be spelled with -ize. Thus Britons got saddled with having to memorize even more irregular spellings than we have to [including the variants from French]--although more and more, they are using the -ize ending themselves.

This idea never caught on in America, where -ize continued to be preferred.

Source