About:Spelling

Introduction

This is a destination guide in English. But within English, there is still some discrepancy between British English, American English, Australian English, Canadian English, etc. Is it colour or color? Aluminium or aluminum? Potatoes or potatos?

To be honest, it's whichever one you want to use. In all those cases, there are multiple correct ways to spell the same word.

If someone has spelled a word according to another national form of English, you should probably not change it. There are, however, a few rules designed to keep the whole guide consistent:

Use the same spelling within the article. We don't want to read a sentence like this: "The potatoes in Rome are better than the potatos in Milan." Keep it consistent within the article.

Don't go through and change the spelling of the other sections to match your own. If you're adding to an article that has been written predominantly using American English, stick to American English. Remember, be nice.

If you are writing an article about an English-speaking country, use the national English of that country. This extends down into derivative articles. That is, an article about Chicago should be written in American English. An article about surfing in Australia should be written in Australian English.

Writing Numbers: Decimal Points and Commas

When it comes to writing numbers, we adopt the English standard, which is to use commas in large numbers (ie. 3,000,000 = 3 million) and decimal points to split the integral and the fractional parts of a decimal (ie. $3.40 = three dollars and forty cents).