An unexpected realization
Think there’s a spelling error in that headline? It would depend on whether you prefer British English to American, I suppose. But, actually, it shouldn’t.
Being a native English speaker (and writer) in a land where British English is the accepted standard, I’ve been taught to use an ‘s’ instead of the ‘zee’ that’s favoured in American English (I’m talking about words like organise, realise, recognise and finalise). And it just seemed right.
Conjugating these verbs, however, has always made be slightly uncomfortable. While the pronunciation of the ‘s’ in organise is soft enough to justify its use, the ‘zing’ that rolls off the tip of your tongue when pronouncing the present participle (organising) always made me think twice about the spelling.
For years, I have fought my instincts while writing these words. Steadying my wrist as I head into the final syllable, ready to trace the exact opposite shape of the sharp, swift ‘z’ that I wanted to scribble down so badly.
But I shall restrain myself no longer.
I recently stumbled across an article (multiple articles, in fact) which pointed out that Oxford prefers the -ize suffix for many of these ‘traditionally’ -ise words. And it’s not just Oxford, Cambridge and Collins do, too. If you search for any of these verbs using -ise, you will be directed to a page with the -ize version, with an ‘also’ or ‘usually’* beneath the main entry suggesting the -ise spelling as an alternative.
The question is: why?
The reason is etymological. The -ize suffix follows the Greek convention of verbs ending with –izo and –izein, which was the standard when these words were first defined in print (some as far back as the 1400s). Newspapers and other publications latched onto the -ise spelling between 1800 and 2000, which is why you’re likely to see it more often. The point is, neither is right or wrong, so you’re entitled to use whichever tickles your fancy. Just as long as you’re consistent.
Unsurprisingly, there are certain words that must always be spelled with an ‘s’ – like ‘unsurprising’ – because they’ve come into the English language in a different way. But that feels like a topic for another day.
All I know for now is that I no longer have to resist the urge to let my pen zig-zag across the line when I recognize the need to use one of these words.
*This is wildly incorrect. The -ize suffix is usually used in British English. You can have a look at Google’s Ngram Viewer – which charts the frequency of comma delimited search terms per year for a particular language – to see the difference in popularity between the -ize/-ise terms. I tried it out with organize/organise here.
