shades of Red Lion 
Not just trash, but also fall for autumn, loan as a verb, gotten, and frame-up, amongst others. You guys have stolen Shakespeare’s English*…
H
*And possibly also his accent. But where does that leave the English of us Brits…?
Lets face it. We English speak English...the Americans...[i]talk[/i] American. Leave em to it…lerrem gerron wi it. Theres no placating spoilt children.
First, I would like to request a cessation of this debate so that the parties could combine in righteous wrath and demolish for ever and ever the popular ignorance of the difference between compliment and complement. (Aaaarrrgggghhh!) Surely this is more important than a little spelling spat between friends?
Second, to improve your humor I offer:
http://septicscompanion.com/
A splendid and sometimes sidesplitting explication of British vocabulary for benighted Americans.
Also, thinking of Mark who I’m sure already knows about it but would like to be reminded:
http://www.engrish.com/
A, now decades-long, census of the bizarre, nay, incredible delights of Japanese and Chinese views of correct English.
Dave
That is disappointing. One would expect that choosing ‘British English’ for the Language setting would make something like TextEdit check spelling against the corresponding dictionary, but it doesn’t. You still have to open the Spelling menu item and tell that application to use that dictionary – ditto for Scrivener and Safari.
–Greg
P.S. Inspired by this vicious thread I went right to my System Preferences and put both the American English and British English choices on my language list. Somehow I expected that this would put me in the blissful condition of being able to spell words whichever way without warning. No such luck.
OK, now that JB and I have exchanged rants, I’d like to offer some practical help.
-
When you get a red-lined word, Control-Select it and choose Learn Spelling.
In time, that should reduce your red-lined “labour” items. -
If the application uses Mac OS X spell-checker, use the app’s Edit:Spelling:Spelling menu
and choose British English. -
In Snow Leopard, the System Preferences for Language & Text has four tabs:
Language, Text, Formats, Input Sources.
Each has a British English option. Select, and they should place you in marmite heaven.
Peace, coz. My people hail from Lancashire and Kerry, which explains me feisty manner.
And peculiar affection for vic-k. Nice YooToob link, vic!
Mr dafu,
I believe my human has copyright on the above. Tis not a congenital condition afflicting either the sophisticates on this side of the pond, or the good ol boys on your side. Its just the kind of [size=50](…Ill just go and check he isnt stumbling about nearby. s`OK I can hear him upstairs snoring and farting) [/size]crap he comes up with on a regular basis, usually without even trying.
So, Mr dafu, your, [i]above[/i], isn`t a contentious issue.
Going for a sniff around the garden now ( some fit young toms around here)
Fluff
Okay Druid, barrels lowered, though I did rather enjoy the brief skirmish. Let’s do it again sometime. It’s not only a Lanckerry descendent who can do ‘feisty’. 
My rant did serve to assuage the boiling frustration I feel when forced into confronting my own limitations. But I nonetheless remain intensely wary of the pernicious American spell checker. It is the binary equivalent of The Terminator, having just one terrible and consuming purpose: to correct. AND. IT. WILL. NEVER. STOP.
Why not create your own spellcheck program? I’m sure if it’s high quality it will sell well in the UK.
And BTW, the Americans have had far less effect on your native language than the British had on, say, the native languages of India.
Things change.
I’d love to think that was a possibility but, in truth, I don’t have the requisite skills. My last programming efforts were back in the dark days of DOS. Where technology is concerned I think, these days, I’d prefer to remain just a consumer.
You’re right of course but, while it’s an interesting observation it’s not really relevant to my complaint. When I’m chuntering and fulminating over the dotted red underline, the last thing I’m thinking about is the British occupation of India – but perhaps I should… 
Actually, India should thank you for giving it English. The language is helping unite the country and make it competitive in the world economy. Furthermore, we Americans and you Brits should thank our lucky stars that English and not some other language has become the planet’s common tongue.
Still, computer programmers at Apple are able to solve the spelling problem. And solve it they should.
The spoils go to the winner.
Britain lost the war.
Awwaaayyy!! Y wazzak! Y torkin crap as yoosual. We...[b]let[/b]...you win. Feck me! downt y no nuthing
Every nation writes its own history books. The problum with yous lot, is ycarn`t spell!
Having grown up with both BBC (and multiple other UK channels) and tons of US programmes, I ended up speaking a mixture of both. It took a while to sort it out so I didn’t confuse my English friends by saying something about pants when I mean trousers (‘I bought new pants! Want to see them?’ could cause a certain weirdness amongst friends…)
I do not remember if I knew about ‘trash’… I do use ‘put it in the bin’ when speaking to UK-friends and ‘put it in the trash’ when speaking to my US-friends, because they use it like that.
Why do English people get twisted out of shape over that? (which I may have misinterpreted as getting upset over it, I still have a lot of sayings I haven’t figured out yet)
Tanja
Having plenty of experience from both sides of the pond I think my favourite source of confusion has to do with what a ‘rubber’ is for and how you go about ‘knocking someone up’.
being “pissed” is another that can bring confusion.
As I grew up in Australia I had a healthy dollop of language from both side of the ponds, and then additionally my own special words.
Like sandshoes, thongs, esky and stickybeak.
Go west to New Zealand and you get to talk about chilly bins and judderbars.
Judderbars? Now that sounds like just MY sort of waterhole. 
…from Australia? That’s taking rather the long way around, isn’t it?
