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Professional Editor's Corner: Canadian Spelling and
Hyphenationhttps://polishedpaper.com/
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Billions of people around the world speak English. Youd think
that this would facilitate communication, and it does. For the most
part. Unfortunately, we have four major types of English (American,
Australian, British, and Canadian), and when it comes to idioms and
written communication, they differ somewhat.
Here I will begin guiding you through the major aspects of
Canadian English. Lets start with spelling.
Canadian English uses a combination of American and British
spelling rules.https://polishedpaper.com
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1. Use the American form for ise/ize verbs and related nouns
civilize, commercialize, idealize, lionize, minimize, normalize,
optimize, organize, patronize, recognize
2. Use the British form for nouns ending in or/our
ardor, color, Endeavour, favor, flavor, honor, humor, labor,
misdemeanor, neighbor, odor
3. Use the British form for nouns ending in re/er
caliber, centre, epicenter, kilometer, scepter,
theatrehttps://polishedpaper.com
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4. Use the British form for verbs ending in l/ll
enrol enrolment, fulfil fulfilment, instil
5. Use the British form for nouns ending in ce/se
defence, licence, offence, pretence
6. Use the British form of verbs (past tense) ending in l
cancelled, carolled, counselled, grovelled, modelled, labelled,
marshalled, quarrelled, signalled,
travelledhttps://polishedpaper.com
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7. Use the American form when choosing between ae/oe and
earcheology, anaemia, cesarean, chimera, diarrhoea, ecumenical,
encyclopedia, eon, medieval, primevalExceptions: aesthetic and
onomatopoeiaFor words not covered by the above general rules,
consult the Oxford Canadian Dictionary online (free for spelling)
or the Gage Canadian Dictionary.
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Canadian Hyphenation
Canadian hyphenation follows American English for the most part
(see the Chicago Manual of Style for more details), but we do see a
couple of major differences.
1. Adjective + participle (ing or ed)
In American English, we hyphenate these compounds before nouns
BUT NOT after.
The researcher asked 20 open-ended questions.
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BUT
When questions are open ended, participants have greater freedom
to share their experiences.
In Canadian English, we ALWAYS use hyphens for such compounds,
no matter where they appear in the sentence.
My sister is a hard-working person. I wish I could be more
hard-working.
2. Adjective + gerund*
In American English, we dont pay attention to whether an
adjective-gerund compound takes an
object.https://polishedpaper.com
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We simply hyphenate when such compounds precede nouns (that they
describe) and omit the hyphen when they do not.
Dry cleaning involves harsh chemicals.
The dry-cleaning process is complicated.
Canadian English follows the above convention, but makes a
distinction for when the compound takes an object.
Dry-cleaning 20 shirts (AN OBJECT) in an hour is hard.
Dry cleaning is not something I want to
learn.https://polishedpaper.com
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Remember: A gerund is an ing word (looks like a verb) that acts
like a noun (we use gerunds anywhere we could use a regular noun).
For example: Swimming (a gerund) is fun!Now that you have some
basics under your belt, go out there and try your Canadian!
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