Practising vs. practicing

[Alan]

Hi Jamie (K),

Thanks for your interesting and detailed profile but as Andreana said, registering with the forum has its advantages. You seem pretty peeved about these cracks people make regarding British English and in the instances you quote, it must have been very galling. But you are not alone! There are also times when non-native English speakers tell me that what I've said/written is not correct English and it has happened on more than one occasion on this illustrious forum and then they say English people do not say that and when I assure them I am English and have spoken it now for the best part of 70 years, they still claim they are right. I find it mildly amusing when this happens. There is a famous example of a highly regarded British journalist (and I must admit his name has momentarily deserted me) who worked as a foreign correspondent in a country which diplomatically I can't name but was a long, long way from home and he wanted to send a telegram to his family about a visit they were making to see him. At the post office the clerk told him his English was incorrect (which of course it wasn't) and he refused to send it. Our journalist pleaded with him to send the telegram because it was urgent but the clerk was adamant and in the end the poor man agreed to send the telegram with the corrections made by the clerk because he was desperate to get in touch with his family.

Alan

PS: The journalist's name is James Cameron and his material is well worth reading.
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English as a Second Language
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[Ralf]

[NinaZara]

I like going shopping with metrosexuals. They give really positive and constructive comments and they don't mind even if I drag them to the make-up department.

You should try bringing them, Ralf.

[Ralf]

[Yankee]

[Torsten]

Hi Amy,

Many thanks for answering my question -- I was not aware of the fact Joy Fielding is Canadian. This explains everything. It's interesting but I didn't notice the Canadian spelling in her book, as you said, Canadian spelling is a combination of both American and British.

TOEIC listening, photographs: A car accident

[Deeenglishtestnet]

Here is something from what I learnt:
In British english, the word is spelt with a 'c' when used as a noun and 's' when used as a verb. Hence:
We go to the court for tennis practice and once we reach there, we start practising.

I believe in American English, both forms of the word are spelt with an 's'.

Another example (British english again) would be 'advice' and 'advising'.

[Torsten]

The word 'English' is always capitalized in any variant of English. The word practice in American English can be the noun as well as the verb, while in British English it's the noun. Advice is the noun and advise is the verb in any variant of English.

TOEIC short conversations: Negotiating the price for a used car

[Deeenglishtestnet]

Ha ha. I knew 'English' should be capitalized - just being careless :oops:

Yes, like I said earlier, in British English, usually the noun form uses a 'c' while the verb uses 's' - hence advice/advise and practice/practise and others.

Seems like American English is not as consistent. There seems to be no such word as 'practise'. It is 'practice' for both forms (noun and verb). I just checked
Merriam Webster. But then 'advice' and 'advise' are distinguished.

[Yankee]

.
Perhaps one reason that the spelling of the words advice and advise has not merged into just one spelling in AmE is that we also pronounce those two words differently.

On the other hand, practice and practise are pronounced identically in BE, aren't they? :wink:
.
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[Alan]

Hi,

Absobloominglutely.

Alan
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[Zookie]

Actually, practice is a verb... practise is a noun. It is not American vs British English, so the debate is based upon a false starting point. Sorry!

[Torsten]

Zookie, you got it wrong. In British English 'practise' is the verb and 'practice' is the noun. As for the debate, how much of it have you read and/or understood?

TOEIC short conversations: Clarifying directions

[Zookie]

My apologies - I am working on less than three hours sleep and typed the words the wrong way around. You are correct of course - in British, 'practise' is the verb and 'practice' is the noun.

I read and understood the entire discussion.

I am British and was taught the clear distinction. It mars the precision to spell both words in the same way.

Spelling is very precise (unlike me this morning on so little sleep!) and I was taught the same distinction for license/licence as well.

[Laddiebuck]

Actually, Joy Fielding is Canadian, so I would expect her to use the practice/practise, licence/license noun-verb distinction.

Savvythought also wrote:
"Isn't this how the US emerged and developed into the strongest nation - just taking the best of everything and re-arrange it?"

Attributing success to all sorts of things is a pet peeve of mine. It's about as accurate as saying that the Wehrmacht was so successful at Blitzkrieg because Hitler was a vegetarian. There are all sorts of unsentimental reasons for America's success in the past hundred years and cultural borrowing is not one of them. (Industrial espionage *did* play a small part in its copying of the industrial revolution, but not that much.) The frequently cited reasons are political stability (Enlightenment philosophy), natural resources ripe for easy military conquest, geographical isolation, and later capital and business.