Forum Discussion
UK english
I bought MS Word yesterday (Office) I've a LAPTOP. I've set it to UK English, but it still wants to change my 'leant' into 'leaned', my 'focussed' into 'focused', my 'backwards and forwards' into 'backward and forward' etc. What am I supposed to do? Also, in the UK, we don't use Oxford commas much, like the USA, but MS Word keeps highlighting the lack of commas. Thanks.
18 Replies
Maybe the issue here is that UK English is more likely to accept spelling alternatives (I am not sure). Of course, allowing for spelling alternatives is not going to be helpful for anyone who wants to ensure consistency.
As Charles said, language formatting is unnecessarily complex in Word—or at least it isn't fully transparent.
To verify that the language is correct in the document, select a small portion of text, such as a single word, and then visit the Language dialog box (Review tab > Language group > Language > Set Proofing Language). Repeat this with other words in the document.
This is necessary because Word may not correctly display the language if you select a large portion, such as the whole document.
However, it is possible to re-apply the correct language to a large selection, such as a whole document. That is why re-applying UK English should work (and that is why Charles suggested doing this). In such an instance, you just use OK in the Language dialog box (do not choose Set as Default because you are not changing the default).
- Thanks. If you look at my reply on July 3rd, 10:28, you'll see I've already gone to the language 'group' (where it says 'translate' and 'language'). I clicked on 'Language' then clicked on 'set proofing language' and it's already set to UK English. Okay, so I opened a word document with 'any more' in it, highlighted 'any more' and then clicked on set proofing language again. UK English was still selected, then I clicked 'OK' and nothing happened – 'any more' still underlined.
"any more" is correct, at least in US when it is referring to quantity, but an error if it is referring to time or sequence. Here is English US:
English UK gives the same result.
You need to set the region/language in Windows to English-UK.
For more, see Spelling Checker Does Not Work! - Proofing Language Keeps Changing - Solutions
Check your grammar settings under File > Options > Proofing.
Thanks for that. I checked and the oxford comma box isn't even ticked but the absent oxford is highlighted as missing on my documents. Also, my language settings are UK or British English. Charles_Kenyon
- Also, some UK English is okay, like road 'kerb' instead of road 'curb' (Us english).
