[General] Correct use of 'Program' and 'Programme'

[jasont]

I am from Australia, when I was being talk English, the curriculum was based on 'The Queen's English', as taught in the UK. For example the correct spelling for the following words is as follows: colour, neighbour etc (although I see your spelling checker does not like it). Unfortunately, Microsoft Word has always thought Australian grammar and spelling is same as the US and it is not.

Anyway my question surrounds the use of the words 'Program' and 'Programme' as taught in UK English classes. See the example sentence below:

Fred Nerk is the Program Manager responsible for the network upgrade programme of work.

Is this the correct use of both words? Should the use of 'Program' be spelt as 'Program' or should it actually be spelt as 'Programme'?

My thought is 'program' used in 'Program Manager' is correct as it is a title of a roll most likely introduced into English via the Americans. The use of 'programme' is correct also as it is being used in its traditional sense.

I could be wrong, hence this post. Please advise.

[English-coach]

I'm Canadian, and as far as I know they mean exactly the same thing...it is just a different spelling. In Canada, like the states, we say program. Programme is just the British spelling.

So you are correct in your example, although I would just use program in both cases. I am not sure if you should use the american and british version together in one sentence.

Maybe someone else knows the answer to that.

Sorry I couldn't help more.
Diana
LEARN ENGLISH BY USING IT: ANSWERS & MOTIVATION FOR ANY ENGLISH LEARNER

[jasont]

Diana,

Thanks for the reply. With the increasing pervasion of the corrupted US spelling of some words it does make it difficult syntactically and grammatically correct documents. The only hope in these cases is the reader of my document shares my ignorance of the nuances of the English language to notice if it is in error

Thanks again,
JasonT

[English-coach]

HI Jason,

It can get pretty annoying huh. British or American spelling. I'm Canadian and we tend to spell things the American way...but my mother is British so we always spell things differently. It is not really a big deal though...People don't usually notice it. Unless they are looking for it. :)

All the best
Diana

[Tdol]

In the UK, it's becopme very common to use program for software and programme elsewhere.

[jasont]

Diana, I suppose it is the OCD in me that wants to get it right.

Tdol, based on your post (thanks for doing that), my sample sentence in my original post would be grammatically and syntactically correct.

Thank you both for your input.

[DevaRupa]

It is not fair to call the American spelling corrupt. Both the English and the Americans agreed to attend a forum for the purpose of rationalizing the English language, but the British didn't attend at the last minute - apparently due to the expense involved.

[Abstract Idea]

Originally Posted by DevaRupa

Both the English and the Americans agreed to attend a forum for the purpose of rationalizing the English language, but the British didn't attend at the last minute - apparently due to the expense involved.

Hmm, that's an interesting piece of information. Do you have any details about it?
Do you have dates, names, extension and things like that?

[Gillnetter]

Originally Posted by jasont

Diana,

Thanks for the reply. With the increasing pervasion of the corrupted US spelling of some words it does make it difficult syntactically and grammatically correct documents. The only hope in these cases is the reader of my document shares my ignorance of the nuances of the English language to notice if it is in error

Thanks again,
JasonT

I would suggest that you pay more attention to the actual writing and not so much to the various ways that words are spelled. For example, the meaning of the following presents more of a mystery to me than does the spelling of the word "program" - "With the increasing pervasion of the corrupted US spelling of some words it does make it difficult syntactically and grammatically correct documents."

[albertino]

When in Rome do as the Romans do.
If your targets are British, use British spelling;
If your targets are Americans, use American spelling.
Mixed spellings would be annoying to some serious scholars before a compromise could be reached between the British and the Americans, I think.