Okay, someone explain why people use the letter "s" instead of the letter "z" in several words...

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Dragnov

Diamond Member
Apr 24, 2001
6,878
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It's buggin me. :p

This forum is the first time ever in my life that I've seen the letter "s" being used instead of the letter "z". At first I thought it was some Canadian or British thing, or some other country outside of the U.S., but I'm seeing it among Americans also. As far as I know, I thought there was only one proper way to spell a word while pronunciation may vary by region.

Several examples.

Analyze -> Analyse
Realize -> Realise

I'm sure there are many others that I'm missing but those are the first two that came to mind. Man those look funny.

Not trying to say one's better here than the other, or that the "z" is the proper way (because now I honestly don't know anymore). Just looking for an explanation.
 
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agnitrate

Diamond Member
Jul 2, 2001
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Because they cannot spell. Also, the same reason people use a '1' to represent an 'I' or a zero to represent an 'O'. *ahem*

-silver
 
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Dragnov

Diamond Member
Apr 24, 2001
6,878
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Originally posted by: agnitrate
Because they cannot spell. Also, the same reason people use a '1' to represent an 'I' or a zero to represent an 'O'. *ahem*

-silver
Click to expand...

Mine is dmittedly a bastardization of "Grimlock" since it was taken and I wasn't planning on being a poster. (I would get it changed as I never talk like that but I'm too lazy). But as far as I can tell, it's not people purposely making a spelling mistake or they even think of it as one.
 
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Marshallj

Platinum Member
Mar 26, 2003
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Originally posted by: Gr1mL0cK
It's buggin me. :p

This forum is the first time ever in my life that I've seen the letter "s" being used instead of the letter "z". At first I thought it was some Canadian or British thing, or some other country outside of the U.S., but I'm seeing it among Americans also. As far as I know, I thought there was only one proper way to spell a word while pronunciation may vary by region.

Several examples.

Analyze -> Analyse
Realize -> Realise

I'm sure there are many others that I'm missing but those are the first two that came to mind. Man those look funny.

Not trying to say one's better here than the other, or that the "z" is the proper way (because now I honestly don't know anymore). Just looking for an explanation.
Click to expand...

If they're from another country that spells things that way like Britain, then they're spelling it right. But if they're from the US, they're spelling it wrong.
 
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agnitrate

Diamond Member
Jul 2, 2001
3,761
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I always thought it was just poor education or people that just didn't know any better. It's not a blatant misspelling because it still sounds relatively similar, but it just looks odd to me. *shrug*

I don't consider it an alternative such as 'color' and 'colour' because realise just isn't a word. Chalk up another one for the American education system!

-silver
 
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dopcombo

Golden Member
Nov 14, 2000
1,394
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Exactly. heh.

One's Brit, the other's american.

It gets worse when you received a Brit education all your life, then go to the US for college.

Now i can't figure out which is which. Luckily there's spellcheck. :p

Colour, centre, realise.
Color, center, realize.
 
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NewSc2

Diamond Member
Apr 21, 2002
3,325
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what's more annoying is when they use "z" in place of "s"

like:

iz
gunz
boyz

etc.
 
B

bootymac

Diamond Member
Aug 20, 2001
9,597
0
76
Originally posted by: NewSc2
what's more annoying is when they use "z" in place of "s"

like:

iz
gunz
boyz

etc.
Click to expand...

ARGH!! I'm 14 and I'm like the only person that types normally out of all my friends!!!!! A normal MSN conversation would go like this:

person: heyz iz der maf hw
me: no, but I think you have english homework
 
her209

her209

No Lifer
Oct 11, 2000
56,336
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Or when they put a's at the end of every word.

Imma gonna sucka yourra blooda.
 
zephyrprime

zephyrprime

Diamond Member
Feb 18, 2001
7,512
2
81
I would venture that the reason that the spelling in the US is different than that used in Britain in this case is because of Webster. The original mr. Webster, that is, who lived around the time of the American Revolution. He felt that we americans should distance ourselves from the despicable english and since he was a literate sort of guy, for him that meant making Websters dictionary which contained spellings for words that he thought were more sensible than what was then conventional English.

But his idea never really took off. However, we do spell some things differently because of him. (eg, Americans write "center" while Brits write "centre").
 
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TheCorm

Diamond Member
Nov 5, 2000
4,326
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Originally posted by: vtqanh
s is the British English, z is American English
Click to expand...

I get a text from people a few years younger than me "WHAT!?" everything is weirdly abbreviated to almost nonsense lol.

Jamie
 
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