True story: I was working on a submission to Health Canada (a New Drug Submission [NDS], as we call it in Canada) for a long-standing client. He emailed me one day and said that everything looks good except that there is a mix of US and UK spelling.
I was mortified that he thought that I didn't check the consistency of the spelling in the document. But who could blame him? Not too many people outside (or inside) Canada are familiar with the peculiarities of Canadian spelling.
Let's have a closer look at this linguistic Chimera we call Canadian English.
US vs UK spelling
Without going into too much detail, most people are aware that there are two "versions" of English spelling — the kind used in the UK and its former colonies such as Hong Kong, India, and Australia (eg, -re, -our, -ise) and the kind used in the USA (eg, -er, -or, -ize).
Though Canada is a former British colony, due to our proximity to the US, American culture permeates most of our lives, including our spelling. But, being too polite to completely do away with the British spelling, we have developed our own brand of English that uses both UK and US spelling rules (rather haphazardly).
We Canadians can be very passionate about our spelling (as well about calling the letter "Z" "zed"). So do us a favour and read this quick primer on Canadian spelling (please and thank you).
Canadian spelling
There are some basic rules that will help you determine if you should use UK or US spelling when writing in Canadian English.
-our
Words that in end in -or (US) or -our (UK) are spelled the UK way. Examples include behaviour, tumour, humour.
-re
Words that end in -er (US) or -re (UK) are spelled the UK way. Examples include metre, centre, litre, titre.
-ize and variants
Words that in end in -ize (and its variants -iza, -izi, and -yze) (US) or -ise (UK; or -ize [but never -yze] in Oxford UK English, [oh boy...]) are spelled the US way. Examples include summarize, prioritize, analyze.
-am
Words that end in -am (US) or -amme (UK) are spelled the US way. Examples include gram and program.
Compound vowels
Words that contain compound vowels in UK spelling such as haematoma, oestrogen, leukaemia, are spelled the US way: hematoma, estrogen, leukemia.
Double L
This one is tricky, and even the Canadian language authorities The Canadian Press and The Canadian Oxford Dictionary either don't agree or allow the use of both. In my experience, the spelling with two Ls is more common, but it's best to look up individual words if you're unsure. In the table below, I show the spelling I am used to seeing more often.
List of words commonly used in medical writing
I have compiled a list of words you may commonly come across in medical writing and their Canadian spelling (as well as whether they follow the UK or US convention):
Canadian spelling | Spelling convention |
|---|---|
Acknowledgment | US/UK |
Aging | US |
Aluminum | US |
Analyze | US |
Catalyze | US |
Celiac | US |
Centre | UK |
Cesarian | US |
Cheque | UK |
Colour | UK |
Counsellor | UK |
Defence | UK |
Dependant | UK |
Diarrhea | US |
Dyslipidemia | US |
Dyspnea | US |
Edema | US |
Enrol | UK |
Esophagus | US |
Estrogen | US |
Etiology | US |
Favour | UK |
Fecal | US |
Fetus | US |
Fibre | UK |
Fulfill/Fulfillment | US |
Glycemia | US |
Gram | US |
Gynecology | US |
Hemoglobin | US |
Hemorrhage | US |
Instalment | UK |
Instill | US/UK |
Ischemia | US |
Labelled | UK |
Labour | UK |
Leukemia | US |
Leukocyte | US |
Manoeuvre | UK |
Metric ton | US |
Offence | UK |
Organize | US |
Paralyze | US |
Pediatric | US |
Practice (noun) / Practise (verb) | UK |
Program | US |
Titre | UK |
Tonne (but see Metric ton above) | UK |
Tumour | UK |
Other Canadian peculiarities
Serial (Oxford) comma
The serial or Oxford comma is the comma before the last element in a list. The use of the Oxford comma is a hotly debated subject among word nerds so I won't go into detail here, but the official stance on its use in Canadian English is, perhaps predictably, vague. The Canadian Press advises against it, except in cases where it is required for clarity.
Measurements
When it comes to measurements, officially, we use the metric system and degrees Celsius, and this is what you should always use in medical writing. However, this is a relatively new rule and people will still often use the imperial system/degrees Fahrenheit.
No matter how convoluted our conventions sound, there are colloquial "rules" that we generally follow. Just for fun, here they are:
height and weight (people) - imperial (feet/inches and pounds)
weight (eg, when buying meat or cheese) - imperial (pounds)
length (short) - imperial (feet/inches)
length (long) - metric (kilometres)
volume (eg, baking; for liquids and solids) - imperial (cups/teaspoons/tablespoons)
speed - metric (kilometres per hour)
temperature (ambient) - Celsius (if ~<50 years old), Fahrenheit (if ~>50 years old)
temperature (personal) - Fahrenheit (general population), Celsius (doctors)
temperature (cooking) - Fahrenheit
Do I need to use Canadian spelling for documents submitted to Canadian regulators and journals?
The good news is, you don't have to use Canadian spelling (though we appreciate it). Just make sure that whatever spelling convention you use, it is consistent throughout your document and preferably across your documents. And if you use Canadian spelling when working with non-Canadians, give them a heads-up so they don't think you didn't spellcheck your document 😉
Stay curious!
Comments