Is the spelling sanitizer or sanitiser?

The main time I tend to use hand sanitiser, or is that hand sanitizer, is when I’m on a cruise before I eat. I’ve also used it when visiting people in a hospital, or in an aged care facility. It makes sense.

However, now with COVID-19, all that has changed and now it becomes part of your regular routine.

The question then is, is the Australian spelling with the ‘s’ or the ‘z’?

A check of Google for sites ending in .au for the words sanitiser and sanitizer, returns 1.19 million results for the ‘s’ spelling and 464,000 for the ‘z’ spelling.  A check of the Australian Oxford Dictionary and the Macquarie Dictionary for the words sanitise and sanitize, gives us sanitise with the ‘s’ as the primary spelling and sanitize with the ‘z’ as the secondary spelling.

In Australia the preferred spelling uses the ‘s’ for the word sanitiser and its various forms.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.Australian-Dictionary.com.au

Is the spelling barbeque or barbecue?

Australia Day is a day to relax and have friends over for a barbeque, or is that barbecue?

A search using Google for sites ending in .au, returns around 3.7 million results for barbeque and 17.3 million results for barbecue. Microsoft Word allows both barbecue and barbeque as valid spellings.

The Oxford and Macquarie dictionaries list barbecue as the primary spelling and barbeque as a secondary spelling. The Macquarie dictionary notes there’s greater use of the secondary spelling barbeque in Australia, than there is in the US or UK.

The preferred spelling in Australia is barbecue. Now there’s something to ponder whilst grilling the snags on Australia Day.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.Australian-Dictionary.com.au
The preferred Australian English spelling.

Is the spelling financer or financier?

Whilst editing a document recently I noticed the spelling financer and financier in the same paragraph. I couldn't help think is this a difference in usage, or perhaps a spelling issue.

Checking the Macquarie and Australian Oxford dictionaries there is no mention of financer, but financier is included in both dictionaries. Checking online dictionaries including the Merriam Webster (American), Oxford (UK) and Collins, none include financer. The only online resource to include financer was Wiktionary, but as Wiktionary isn't a reliable authoritative resource, you need to take care putting any credence on whether or not it is a correct spelling.

Microsoft Word's spellchecker marks both financer and financier as correctly spelled words, which is one reason people may inadvertently use financer and think they've used the correct spelling, when they really should have used the word financier.

A check of Google for Australian sites (sites ending in .au) produces 872,600 results for financier and 42,700 for financer.

As there is no reference in any of the authoritative references to the spelling financer, this would tend to lead us to accept financer is a spelling error and financier is the correct spelling.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.Australian-Dictionary.com.au
The preferred Australian English spelling.

Is the spelling ANZAC, Anzac, or anzac?

The word ANZAC is an acronym for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. An acronym expectedly consists of the capitals for each word. Interestingly, we also have Anzac, which has an initial capital to refer to people, places, or other uses, other than the specific Corps. For example Anzac Day, Anzac biscuits and the Anzacs.

Spelling the word anzac using only lower case is a spelling error.

Interestingly, in Microsoft Word if you misspell ANZAC, the capitalised version will not be suggested, but only the version with the initial capital. In fact Microsoft Word will even autocorrect a misspelled capitalised variation of ANZAC, to be the word Anzac, with the initial capital letter.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.Australian-Dictionary.com.au
The preferred Australian English spelling.

Is the spelling nightime, nighttime, night time, or night-time?

A common issue with spelling is whether two words should be put together without a space (known as a compound word), include a space, or the words hyphenated. Sometimes words evolve over time starting as separated, then hyphenated and finally joined together.

A check of Google for Australian sites ending in .au, returns 1.76 million results for nighttime, 3.88 million results for night time (which includes night-time) and 101,000 for nightime.

Nightime should be considered a spelling error, but it is used for Codral Nightime Cold and Flu tablets, where misspelling a word is common in branding and marketing situations.

The compound word nighttime is a US spelling. In Australia the spelling is not listed in either the Macquarie dictionary or the Australian Oxford dictionary, so nighttime should be considered a spelling error in Australia.

The Macquarie dictionary lists night-time as a noun, with no reference to night time. The Australian Oxford dictionary also only lists night-time, again with no reference to night time.

I have to say I didn’t see that coming. The correct spelling for Australian usage is night-time with the hyphen.

A quick review of the first 100 sites for “night-time” shows only 30% of sites use the correct spelling, many using both night time and night-time in the one article which is considered an error. Given the number of people using the spelling nighttime, nightime and night time, it is conceivable that 80% or more of writers are using the incorrect spelling for Australia, according to the Macquarie and Australian Oxford dictionaries.

With Microsoft Word, if you enter nighttime Microsoft Word will mark nighttime as an error, but suggest both night time and night-time, which could easily lead writers to use the wrong spelling for Australia, depending on what they mean to write.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.Australian-Dictionary.com.au
The preferred Australian English spelling.

Is the spelling Afterall or After all?

Recently, whilst checking a Microsoft Word document, the word Afterall with the initial letter capitalised did not come up as a spelling error, whereas afterall without the initial capital, was shown as a spelling error. How could this be?

The compound word afterall is a common misspelling of after all. The Australian Oxford dictionary confirms the spelling is after all.

A check of Google for sites in Australia (sites ending in .au) returns 321,000 results for afterall and 19.6 million results for after all, which shows most people spell the word correctly. So why isn't Microsoft Word marking the word Afterall as a spelling error?

It may simply be the Microsoft Word dictionary is in error. Another possible reason is a check of the internet shows Afterall is used by a number of organisations as part of their name. As part of an organisation's name, Afterall can be capitalised.

In this situation, how the word Afterall is being used, is after all the only way to know if the word should be capitalised or not. If Afterall is not part of an organisation's name, it is a spelling error.

Kelvin Eldridge

www.Australian-Dictionary.com.au

The preferred Australian English spelling.

Is the spelling checkbook, check book, check-book, chequebook, cheque book or cheque-book?

It's been a long time since I've written a cheque. Remember ripping out those cheques. But how do you spell the thing you ripped the cheques out off?

The easy task is we can eliminate checkbook (and any variation) as checkbook is listed in the Macquarie Dictionary as the US spelling. The Australian Oxford dictionary lists cheque book and the hyphenated variation as in cheque-book journalism. The Macquarie Dictionary has the entry chequebook and chequebook journalism. Two dictionaries with two different spelling variations.

If we perform a search on the NAB, Westpac, Commbank and ANZ sites, our four main banks nearly always use cheque book.

A search of Google restricting sites those ending in .au for cheque book and chequebook gives  36,00 and 31,900 respectively. Using the plural cheque books and chequebooks gives 12,000 and 6,320 respectively. If we search for cheque book journalism and chequebook journalism the results returned are 508 and 74 respectively. Of the 508 results for cheque book journalism around 30% used the hyphen, as in cheque-book journalism. Finally, if we use chequebook diplomacy and cheque book diplomacy we get 70 results and 44 results respectively.

Certainly this is not an easy one. The banking industry appears to mostly use cheque book as two words. The results returned from Google for sites ending in .au also indicates cheque book is the preferred spelling. When used as an adjective with the word journalism, the most common usage was cheque book without the hyphen.

Based on these results, for Australian usage, the preferred spelling appears to be cheque book as two words and when used as an adjective, the spelling may not need to be hyphenated. Although this does make me wonder if it's because using hyphens is often a problem for people. Normally, going forward we'd probably expect to see chequebook become the preferred spelling, however since cheque books are being used less and less, there's a good chance cheque books may become a thing of the past.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.Australian-Dictionary.com.au
The preferred Australian English spelling.

Is the spelling free standing, free-standing, or freestanding?

Looking for kitchen appliances recently, the results returned In Google showed the use of free standing, freestanding, and free-standing, sometimes even in the one result. It is often said if there's multiple ways to spell a word, you should be consistent with the spelling you choose.

The Australian spelling dictionary aims to provide the single spelling preferred in Australia, but sometimes, as in this case, it can be quite difficult to identify the single preferred spelling. A search of Google for sites from Australia (sites ending in .au) returns 5.41 million results for free standing and 6.37 million for freestanding. Because of the way search engines work, searching for free-standing with the hyphen, usually doesn't return something we can have confidence in, as a hyphen is often treated as a word delimiter. Hyphens are also regularly used in the website URL  (address) and these results will be returned by Google as well.

The Macquarie dictionary has the entry freestanding, but not free-standing. The Oxford Australian dictionary has free-standing, but not freestanding. Microsoft Word is no help at all as it will suggest freestanding and free-standing with the same meaning, and both free and standing are legitimate words in their own right.

It appears this may be a situation where the spelling is evolving. Often when there's two words used as an adjective, the words will be hyphenated. However, as time goes on the hyphenated words drop the hyphen and the result is a single word. With freestanding exceeding free standing (and free-standing), this would indicate the preferred Australian spelling may now be freestanding, with the hyphenated version free-standing a secondary variation. The use of free standing as a two word adjective - when used in the sense of self-supporting, unconnected, independent – which is very common, would also not be the preferred spelling.

Kelvin Eldridge
The preferred Australian English spelling dictionary
www.Australian-Dictionary.com.au

Is the spelling help desk or helpdesk?

A very common situation is whether or not two words should be separated by a space, or joined together as a compound word. The term help desk/helpdesk is one such situation.

A check on the internet of Australian sites (limiting sites to end in .au using Google) returns 12.6 million results for help desk and 379,000 for helpdesk. However, most people aren’t aware of how to limit results to just include sites ending in .au, so if they did the same test without restricting the results, they would get 66.8 million and 73 million respectively. The reverse of the usage in Australia. This is a perfect example of why it isn’t wise to just accept the information you receive from Google, without understanding more about the results you’re seeing.

Microsoft Word accepts both helpdesk and help desk equally, meaning writers using Microsoft Word are often unaware they’re using a secondary spelling variation.

If you check the Macquarie and the Australian Oxford dictionaries, both list help desk as the primary entry and helpdesk as an also entry.

The primary spelling in Australia is therefore help desk, with a space between the two words.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.Australian-Dictionary.com.au
The preferred Australian English spelling.

Is the spelling breakeven, break even, or break-even?

It's very common where a word can be used as a compound word, two separate words, or with the two words hyphenated. Sometimes all three can be correct based on your usage, but at other times one or more may be a secondary spelling, or may be incorrect usage.

If we check breakeven, break even and break-even using Google, and limiting sites to sites ending in .au, the number of results returned are: 67,400, 156,000 and 161,000 respectively. The Australian Oxford Dictionary only lists break even. The Macquarie Dictionary lists both break even and break-even. Neither dictionary lists breakeven which indicates breakeven as a compound word may not be correct. Those using Microsoft Word should take care as Word accepts breakeven as a valid spelling.

The Macquarie Dictionary describes break-even as a noun derived from the phrasal verb break even, thus break even is a phrasal verb.  E.g. Usage as a phrasal verb. The company aims to break even by year end. Usage as a noun. The company may never reach break-even. In addition break-even can be used as an adjective. The company needs to know their break-even point.

Whether break-even or break even is used depends on your usage. At least in Australia, breakeven as a compound word, should most likely be considered to be an error.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.Australian-Dictionary.com.au

Is the spelling veranda or verandah?

One of the well known uses of the word verandah is in the song Home Among the Gumtrees, written by Bob Brown and Wally Johnson in 1974 and later recorded by John Williamson. The spelling used was verandah. Today if a person used Microsoft’s Word to write the lyrics, they’d most likely use the spelling veranda, as verandah is not included in the Microsoft spelling dictionary.

According to both the Macquarie and Oxford dictionaries the primary spelling is verandah, with veranda listed as a secondary spelling. For Australian sites (those ending in .au), according to Google the usage of verandah to veranda is approximately 2:1. 

So next time when you’re sitting in an old rocking chair pondering, you’ll know the primary spelling in Australia is verandah ending in an h.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.Australian-Dictionary.com.au
The preferred Australian English spelling.

Is the spelling pre recession, prerecession or pre-recession?

If you check the Macquarie and Australian Oxford dictionaries you’ll not find an entry for the spelling pre recession, prerecession or pre-recession. What are you to do if the dictionaries don’t help you?

Often words evolve over time. To-morrow became tomorrow. First, in general, if the word is not in an Australian dictionary, that would indicate the usage has not evolved enough to become a single word. If the hyphenated version doesn’t appear in the dictionary that doesn’t rule it out, but you still don’t know. Don’t fall for the trap of using dictionaries for other countries online as versions of English for different countries may evolve differently over time.

Is the usage of the two words an adjective, or adverb and perhaps should be hyphenated?

Sometimes if in doubt, perhaps the best approach, may be to rewrite the sentence. 

Kelvin Eldridge
www.Australian-Dictionary.com.au
The preferred Australian English spelling.

Is the spelling driver’s licence, drivers’ licence, drivers licence, or driver licence?

Sometimes it’s almost impossible to work out what the correct place an apostrophe should be, or even if it should be used.

Before we answer the above question, let’s first look at visitors book. The visitors book doesn’t belong to a visitor, so there is no possessive apostrophe. In a similar way a licence is a document we acquire when we pass a driving test.

If you visit the VicRoads site you won’t find an apostrophe in drivers licence where it’s used, but more often than not you’ll find driver licence, or licence. However, if you scan the internet you’ll find driver’s licence, drivers licence, driver licence and driving licence. In SA the government site uses driver’s licence. In NSW the government site uses driver licence. In QLD, often licence is used by itself and less often, driver licence.

By not using an ’s’ on the end of driver, the VIC, NSW and QLD government sites avoid the issue with the apostrophe.

In general the spelling should be driver licence without the s and apostrophe, however, often we need to conform to the standards of others. Depending on the state you’re in, you’ll most likely need to check the state’s governing body to see the preferred use or not, of the apostrophe. Alternately, it may be possible rewrite your sentence so no apostrophe is required.

Kelvin Eldridge

www.Australian-Dictionary.com.au

The preferred Australian English spelling.

Is the spelling learnt or learned?

OK. This is one where I’ll stand corrected. Until writing this article I’d previously researched and found the spelling learnt was the preferred Australian English spelling, except for the usage of learned for a person with much knowledge pronounced “learn-ed”.  But today that changes. Our language changes over time and at times that means we need to change as well.

When it comes to the spelling of learnt or learned, in the usage such as “I learnt/learned to drive”, the preferred spelling in Australia is learned.

If you check The Australian Oxford Dictionary and the Macquarie Dictionary for the entry “learn”, you’ll find learned appears before learnt in both. The positioning of the word in the entry indicates the preferred usage in Australia.

To confirm the usage in Australia, a search of Google for sites ending in .au (Australian sites), for a phrase such as “l learned to drive” and “I learnt to drive”, returns over 90% of articles using learned compared to learnt.

After reading this article you’ll be able to claim you’re learned in the terms learnt and learned.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.Australian-Dictionary.com.au
The preferred Australian English spelling.

Is the spelling “awhile” or "a while"?

Both the spelling ‘awhile” and “a while” are correct. Both mean a period of time. The spelling to use depends on usage. The spelling “awhile” is for an adverb and “a while” for a noun.

An adverb needs a verb, that is a doing word.

Can we stay awhile?

Stay is the verb and awhile is the adverb.

Can we stay for a while?

While is a noun as a period of time, such as an hour or a day.

If you’re struggling with which one to use, a technique that can be useful is substitute a noun such as “day”. The noun “hour” isn’t good as then you’d need to use the word “an”.

Can we stay day.

Makes no sense, so “awhile” is correct.

Can we stay for a day.

Makes sense, so “a while” is correct.

Often in situations like this where usage can be confusing, it may be useful to consider rewriting the sentence, if that makes your life easier and helps your reader.

Kelvin Eldridge

www.Australian-Dictionary.com.au

The preferred Australian English spelling.

Is the spelling nana or nanna?

When talking about one’s grandmother we often use the terms nan, nana and nanna. In Australia, what then is the preferred spelling? Is nana spelled with one n, or is nanna spelled with two n’s.

First, we do have to remember nana and nanna are considered colloquial spellings and as such, are used informally. Also since people use Nana and Nanna as names, names can often vary in spelling. Having said that, the best approach is to refer to the authoritative references.

The Macquarie Dictionary lists nana as a secondary spelling of nanna and the entry nana refers on to nanna. Thus according to the Macquarie Dictionary the preferred spelling would be nanna. The Australia Oxford dictionary entry nanna states a variation of nan, with nan listing nana and nanna as variations for nan. The Australia Oxford thus doesn’t directly give us answer for nana and nanna.

The online Oxford dictionary doesn’t directly list nanna, but interestingly, states nanna as the British form for nana under the nana entry.

Based on the Macquarie Dictionary it would appear the preferred spelling in Australia is nanna. The spelling preference in Australia appears to be: grandmother, nan, nanna and then nana.

Kelvin Eldridge

www.Australian-Dictionary.com.au

The preferred Australian English spelling.

Is the spelling behaviour or behavior?

At first glance, deciding between the words behaviour and behavior, the choice appeared obvious. Many people would believe behaviour is the Australian spelling and behavior is the American spelling. The spelling behavior in Australia would be considered a spelling mistake. Certainly Microsoft Word marks behavior as a spelling error.

However, I decided to check Google for Australian sites and found approximately 54 million sites used the spelling behaviour, whilst 22 million sites used the spelling behavior. That’s a staggering one third of Australian sites (sites ending in .au), use the spelling which would be considered an error in Australia. Due to the high number of sites using the behavior spelling, it was felt important investigate the spelling.

According to the Macquarie and Australian Oxford dictionaries, both list behaviour as the primary Australian spelling and behavior is listed as an “also” and thus a secondary spelling variation. The authoritative references do not refer to behavior as a purely American spelling. It is common in Australia for people to incorrectly believe a spelling variation is only American, because that is the spelling used in America. In Australia, it is very common for words to have two spelling variations such as behaviour and behavior.

In Australia it is best to use the primary spelling behaviour, unless it’s not your preference, or there’s some reason to use the secondary spelling variation.

Kelvin Eldridge

https://www.Australian-Dictionary.com.au

The preferred Australian English spelling.

Is the spelling in-store, in store, or instore?

You can’t miss the word in-store being used in the retail industry. The word appears on shop windows, in catalogues and online. All three spelling variations are used when the retailer is talking about getting products in the store or shop.

You really can’t blame retailers for the inconsistent spelling. Microsoft Word has instore as a valid spelling, the Macquarie Dictionary lists instore and the Oxford Dictionary lists in-store. Those using in store are using a wrong spelling for this usage and that’s many retailers.

If you prefer the Oxford Dictionary as your spelling guide, you’ll use in-store and if you prefer the Macquarie Dictionary, you’ll use instore. It’s hard to say which is right. however, if you’re more conservative the spelling in-store is most likely the spelling to use. Because the spelling instore is a valid spelling in Microsoft Word (which may perhaps be an error), it is easy to see the Macquarie Dictionary, which is generally less conservative, may find an increased usage of instore, due to Microsoft’s Word being the leading document writing software used by businesses.

Which spelling you use is your choice. If you want guidance on which word to use, perhaps use the spelling in-store. This is the spelling indicated in the online Oxford Dictionary for British spelling and the Merriam Webster for US spelling. Because both the US and UK references agree on the spelling in-store, this further supports instore, may be an error in Microsoft software. A check of Australian sites online for Australian usage, indicates the main spelling is in-store.

Kelvin Eldridge

www.Australian-Dictionary.com.au

The preferred Australian English spelling.

Is the spelling forego or forgo?

This is actually a trick question. Like the words to, too and two, forego and forgo are known as homonyms. Two or more words that sound same, that are spelt the same or differently, but have different meanings.

Forgo has the meaning to go without and forego has the meaning to precede. A couple of tips to help remember when to use which spelling are: forgo has no e, so goes without, forgo starts with the same letters as does forget, whereas forego starts with the same letters as before.

Forego is listed as a secondary spelling variation of forgo. This would appear to be because so many people incorrectly use forego when they actually mean forgo, that the spelling becomes recognised as a secondary spelling variation.

The following sentences show the different usage. When dieting I will forgo dessert. Often soup will forego the main course.

Because forgo and forego are so similar, it’s a foregone conclusion people may confuse the two words.

Kelvin Eldridge

www.Australian-Dictionary.com.au

The preferred Australian

Is the spelling Labor or Labour?

There’s considerable rejection against the use of American spelling in Australia. We’ve caved on some words, but our Australian English is often different to UK and American spelling.

Every few years at election time, one thing that stands out is the incorrect spelling of the Australian Labor Party. Yes our leaders use the incorrect spelling for Australian usage, but most people find little issue in the usage. If a student used the same spelling in a spelling test, they’d be marked wrong.

The reason the Australian Labor Party use the spelling Labor instead of Labour, is, in the early 1900s there was a push towards using American spelling and a remnant of that time, is the spelling of Labor in the Australian Labor Party’s name. Rather than get hung up on spelling that ideally should be changed for consistency, if it makes things easier, it’s perhaps better to think of this as branding. In branding, incorrect spelling variations are often used.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.Australian-Dictionary.com.au
The preferred Australian English spelling.