sundaridevi - 9:23 pm on Aug 8, 2011 (gmt 0)

I don't understand why everybody says go with British English? Are they British, American or guessing? If it is due to "ease of use" then just load English(US) dictionary in Word and change everything that is wrong.

I'm an American who has spent many years overseas and my experience is that Brits are accustomed to American English and consider it a fact of life. Americans on the other hand often don't understand that not everybody spells the same way as they do (as the OP noted above). I could tell you a funny anecdote about color vs colour, but it's too long. Let's just say that to some Americans colour = colooor and is meaningless.

I bet most Americans here are unfamiliar with half of these

[en.wikipedia.org...]

Note that the above reference says:

enquiry or inquiry:[106] According to Fowler, inquiry should be used in relation to a formal inquest, and enquiry to the act of questioning. Many (though not all) British writers maintain this distinction; the OED, on the other hand, lists inquiry and enquiry as equal alternatives, in that order. Some British dictionaries, such as Chambers 21st Century Dictionary,[107] present the two spellings as interchangeable variants in the general sense, but prefer inquiry for the "formal inquest" sense. In the US, only inquiry is commonly used; the title of The National Enquirer, as a proper name, is an exception. In Australia, inquiry and enquiry are often interchangeable, but inquiry prevails in writing. Both are current in Canada, where enquiry is often associated with scholarly or intellectual research.

There are a lot more, the first time I heard "have you got a spanner?" I had to stop and think, what could THAT be?