Prose checks › US and UK spelling Pro

Prose check: spelling consistencyColour. Color.

US or UK, -ize or -ise: either is fine. Both in one book isn’t. Falcontext works out whether your book uses US or UK spelling, and finds the words that don’t.

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In Falcontext’s Edit tab, US or UK spelling is one part of Spelling consistency, with words written two ways and name spelling slips. Each part has its own light, and the worst sets the check’s.

How it decides

It counts. Whichever way most of your book spells things is the book’s way, and the words spelled the other way are flagged.

MixedThe colour of the sky changed as they rode. By evening the colour had gone to grey. She noticed the color of his coat was the same.
One wayThe colour of the sky changed as they rode. By evening the colour had gone to grey. She noticed the colour of his coat was the same.

Two kinds of mix

  • US against UK: color and colour, center and centre.
  • -ize against -ise: realize and realise. Both are British, by the way; it’s the mix that matters.

A spell checker set to one country flags the other’s words. This one only cares that you’re consistent.

How Falcontext checks US and UK spelling

Guidelines, not rules. Your book, your country’s spelling. This only checks you’re consistent.

Falcontext’s Edit tab beside Perch’s writing pad: the Spelling consistency check open, finding “color” in a book that spells it “colour”, marked in the text.
Finds
Words spelled the other way from the rest of the book.
Traffic light
  • One way throughout
  • 1–3 the other way
  • 4 or more
Fix
One click turns “color” into “colour” (or back) in the browser and in Perch, the web app; the desktop app only finds them.

One spelling, all the way through, is what the guide’s proofing pass is for, like a copyeditor’s style sheet.

US or UK spelling for your books?

Questions about US and UK spelling.

Should I use US or UK spelling in my novel?

Either. What matters is using one throughout. Falcontext works out which way your book goes and flags the words that don’t follow it.

Can Falcontext fix mixed spelling for me?

Yes: Fix and Fix all in Google Docs, Atticus, WordPress, Ellipsus and Perch’s writing pad. In the desktop app it finds them and you change them there.

Related checks

Words written two waysName spelling slipsChicago styleCurly or straight quotes

In Falcontext

Self-editing guideWhat to do in each passEditing passesRun the checks scene by sceneHow the lights are setLines from published fiction

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