[General] The use of S or Z on the internet while posting in English

[Shyamal_Mitra]

Dear learned members,

Kindly accept my salutations! This is my first post in this educative forum.

I often see my typed text such as "realisation" or "capitalisation" get automatically underlined in red and my word processing software prompts me to change the S with Z to correct the syntax.

I was awarded the First Division 5 points rank in December 1972 in my high school qualifying Indian School Certificate Examination conducted by the Cambridge University Local Examinations Syndicate, UK and I had obtained 88 per cent marks in the paper on the English Language. I had learned to use S instead of Z for these words from my class teachers and English teachers who were Roman Catholic Scottish missionaries of The Congregation of Scottish Christian Brothers running six very renowned schools in India. My school was taken over by American Jesuit Fathers in 1970 when these Scottish Brothers left India.

Did those missionaries of Scottish origin teach me wrong English?

Thanks and regards.

 

[emsr2d2]

Welcome to the forum. :hi:

The underlining will be based on which variant of English your browser/word processor spellchecker is set to. Mine is set to BrE so it underlines "realize" but not "realise". Neither one is wrong. It just depends on which variant spelling you wish to use. Choose one and stick to it. However, if you want to avoid the squiggly red lines, you might have to change the settings on your spellchecker.

 

[bubbha]

"s" in words like "realise" and "liberalisation" are UK (including Scottish) spelling, though the -ize/-ization form is also not considered wrong, I have heard.

In American English, -ize/-ization is almost universal. There are exceptions, such as "advertise".

 

[GoesStation]

Oxford University Press favours the 'z' versions in BrE.

For such a transgression, they should be confined to gaol.