Spelling - favourite

United States
January 17, 2007 9:16pm CST
Really! Does anyone who speaks English say fave-oo-rite? No, we say fave-o-rite. So, why would we spell favorite as favourite? Any good reason? Or just because?
1 person likes this
4 responses
• United States
18 Jan 07
Well, we don't pronounce it "k-nife" or "p-hone" either. I think stuff like that is mostly leftovers from old english pronounciations and spellings. Aren't foniks great?
1 person likes this
• United States
22 Jan 07
I remember watching some show set in the middle ages as a kid. One character is a scribe or a monk and asks another how a word should be spelled, "...with an "i" and two "l"s or just one "l" and a "y". The other responds that he has seen it several ways and that the scribe should "pick his favorite (or favourite) and maybe it will become the standard" I have a feeling this isn't so far from the truth of how things actually happened....
1 person likes this
• United States
18 Jan 07
ROFLOL .. very good response! When I was a kid I always questioned why when and why were not spelled hwen and hwy .. the "h" sound comes first!
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@rosie_123 (6113)
19 Jan 07
The spelling favourite is more true to the original word in French and old English, and is considered to he the correct spelling everywhere apart from in the States. In the UK we always spell it that way - the same as words like colour, favour etc. The American way (without the "o") was just changed by the Americans a couple of hundred years ago (no idea why!) and looks so wrong to us!!
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• United States
19 Jan 07
Actually, we leave out the "u", not the "o". I have a Canadian friend who spells things the English way. I usually ignore it, but thought I'd start a discussion about it here. Interesting about color .. you spell it colour, and the French spell it couleur .. but, they pronounce it differently too.
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@urzicutza (1971)
• Romania
18 Jan 07
well i use mozzila firefox!and it has speling program!and it is great and it helps me alot!
• United States
18 Jan 07
I use Firefox also, and I've never asked it to spell for me. So, when I make spelling mistakes, they are my own.
• United States
30 Jan 07
If you choose the USA version of firefox, it will spell "favorite" .. if you set it up for the UK spelling, it will spell it "favourite".
@lafavorito (2959)
• Philippines
23 Jan 07
FAVOURITE is the spelling for English-British while FAVORITE is for English-American.
• United States
23 Jan 07
Thank you for that! I didn't know! Actually, I do know that. Doesn't make any difference to my point .. if we pronounce it the way it is spelled, it won't sound like we say it.