What’s the world’s number one language? It’s not English – at least, not if you count only native speakers. By that definition, English is third in the league table. Mandarin is first, by a long way. Then Spanish. And then English, then Hindi.
But it’s a different picture when you count those who use English as a second language.
There are believed to be just under 400 million people who have English as their first language and about 1.1 billion people who use English as a second language. That’s about 1.5 billion English speakers in total – getting on for one in five of the entire world population.1
It’s a different picture again when you look at which languages the world trades in. English speakers represent 27 per cent of the world economy measured in terms of GDP.2 And that’s only native speakers, not including those using English as a second language.
English is here to stay – at least for the time being – as the world’s lingua franca, meaning a language that is adopted as a common language between speakers whose native languages are different.
That’s why we often need to create content in “international English”. There’s just one problem: there is no such thing as “international English”.
How many versions of English are there?
While researching for this piece I came across a Quora Q&A that started with the question: “Do British people have different spellcheck on their computers? So, for example, if I spell the word ‘practicing,’ that is the correct spelling in the United States but in Britain I believe that and many other words might be spelled with an ‘s.’” (The answer is yes, they do.)
When I start an English editing, writing or translation assignment, one of my first questions is, “Which version of English do you want?” Some clients are unsure what I mean by that. It’s simple: you have to choose a “proofing language”. My current version of Microsoft Office offers a choice of 19 proofing language versions for English, from Australia to Zimbabwe.
Some of these versions are nearly identical to others. For example, UK and Irish English. I’ve searched and researched and as far as I can tell, there is no spelling that is allowed in UK English but disallowed in Irish English nor vice versa.
The one proofing language that’s not on the list is “English (International)”. That’s because no such beast exists. So when a client or colleague tells me, “Just make it international English,” I’m afraid I can’t – it’s not an option. You have to pick one of the nineteen. It shouldn’t usually be a difficult decision. But it’s worth giving it some thought, as we’ll see.
Which English version should you opt for?
In my experience it will usually be UK or US. That’s what my client base mostly requires.
If you’re based in the UK and your readers/customers are mainly UK-based, you’ll obviously choose English (United Kingdom). Similarly for anywhere else if you’re targeting people in the same geography – you go for the local version, your own locale.
But what if you’re, say, a European company with a website targeted at customers in other European countries perhaps including Britain, and maybe the Americas too?
There isn’t a right and a wrong answer. One language version isn’t superior to the other. (IMHO.) You need to make a judgement call as to what works for your clients. Either UK or US is fine. But a mishmash is sloppy.
So, choose one and be consistent.
Or you might go for both and have a website with a facility for the user to select US or UK English (among others). If you’re Amazon or Tripadvisor or Microsoft or some such massive corporation dealing with millions of private individuals in different parts of the English-speaking world, you’ll definitely want to do that. For most of us, however, the cost and complexity of maintaining what is, in effect, a dual-language option probably outweigh the benefits.
Unfortunately you can’t fudge it by using “International English” spelling conventions because they don’t exist.
How can you internationalise your English content?
You can’t dodge the issue of choosing a proofing language with its associated spelling rules. But you can (and probably should) make sure you don’t alienate vast swaths of your intended readership by being too culture-specific.
If you’re British and want Americans to understand you, you might want to avoid saying things like, “Cripes, is that the time? I say, you chaps, let’s pop down the local for a pint of best, but mind the bobbies on the beat; they won’t half have a go if they cop us nattering after last orders and – dash it all – I’m not terribly keen on being banged up, what?”
If you’re American and want British people to relate to the words you use, you might want to think twice before saying things like, “Gee, is that the time? Man, I reckon we should go hit the drive-thru and grab a burger and fries, and let’s not dawdle, or we’ll miss the window and end up stuck in a hellacious traffic jam – I’m already hangry and need to grab a soda stat.”
What to avoid
OK, nobody really talks like that. But here’s a serious (non-exhaustive) list of things to consider. Avoid:
- Using culture-specific idioms or slang
- References to local political systems, policies, or figures
- Assuming familiarity with local holidays or events
- Cultural references tied to local geography
- Language that assumes familiarity with local measurement units
- Assumptions about food preferences or traditional dishes
- Overusing humour based on local stereotypes
- Using abbreviations or acronyms without explanation
- Currency references without conversion
- Using region-specific humour or cultural references
- Stereotypical national expressions or behaviours
- Assuming knowledge of local history or literature
- Excessively formal or stiff language
- Sports references outside of major global sports
- Cricketing metaphors or baseball metaphors
- Assuming a specific political or social context
It’s not only spellings and vocabulary
It’s common knowledge that US and UK spellings differ: color/colour; favorite/favourite; theater/theatre; gray/grey; airplane/aeroplane and many, many more.
And of course there are lots of differences in everyday vocabulary: cookie/biscuit; sidewalk/pavement; boot/trunk (of a car); windshield/windscreen; gas/petrol. You can probably easily think of dozens more.
There are less obvious differences too:
- US English tends to use the 12-hour clock with A.M./P.M. in capitals; UK English uses the 24-hour clock, or the 12-hour clock with am/pm in lower case.
- US English writes dates in the format December 12, 2024. UK English tends to prefer 12 December 2024. And what does 03/05/2024 mean? Is it March 5th or 3 May? It depends.
- US English tends to have page headings and subheadings in title case (all initial capitals); UK prefers sentence case.
- US English places commas and full stops (periods) inside quotation marks; UK usually puts them outside unless it’s a full sentence in quotes.
- US English uses imperial measures; UK tends to use metric or a mixture (maybe weight in kg but distance in miles).
- US English actually calls itself “U.S. English” (with the periods).
- The sad proofreader-types among us may have noticed that US English generally uses an unspaced em dash where UK prefers a spaced en dash. If you don’t know what this means, I kind of envy you.
These are just a few examples. There are many more.
With a bit of thought, it’s possible to craft content that keeps regionalisms to a minimum and resonates as well as possible with a broad audience. Alas, there sometimes has to be a trade-off between lively metaphor and international understandability.
Who owns the English language anyway?
Some British people take the view that the English language is somehow their property. They resent those pesky Americans and their Americanisms. The unspoken assumption is that the rest of the English-speaking world has the English language on gracious loan from the British, and must keep it clean and pure. Which I say is a load of codswallop, or tosh. (Or baloney, or hogwash, to use some mighty fine “Americanisms”.) Let’s remember that English has always been a wondrously adaptive, anarchic and inclusive language. That, along with the international dominance of American culture, probably goes a long way towards explaining why English became the world’s first second language in the first place.
The main thing when you’re writing for an international audience is to be clear and consistent, and try not to mix your language versions. An editorial style guide helps a lot with that. Ah yes, I nearly forgot to mention, editorial style guides are my specialist subject.
1. This is a consensus. The precise figures are debatable. We can’t be sure how reliable and up to date the census data is. And then not all authorities agree on which dialects are part of a bigger language and which ones count as separate languages. Moreover, there is no standard definition of the proficiency level at which a person qualifies as a second-language speaker.