Australian and Canadian English for writers

Most guides treat English as a two-way split. It is not. Australian and Canadian English are distinct standards with their own dictionaries and their own rules about what to borrow from where — and if you are pitching into either market, guessing wrong is visible immediately.

Canadian English: the genuine hybrid

Canadian English is the most mixed of the major varieties, and the mix is not random.

Keeps from British:

• -our endings: colour, honour, favour, labour, neighbour
• -re endings: centre, theatre, metre, litre
• Doubled consonants: travelled, cancelled, labelled
• Cheque for a payment, grey over gray

Takes from American:

• -ize over -ise: organize, recognize, realize
• -yze: analyze, paralyze
• Tire, curb, aluminum, program
• Punctuation inside quotation marks, US-style

So the Canadian standard is roughly: British vowels, American consonants and verb endings. Colour and organize in the same sentence is not an inconsistency in Canada — it is the rule.

The authority is the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, and Canadian Press style is the newsroom standard. Broadview — one of the Canadian publications BRYME lists — states outright that it follows Canadian Press style and the Canadian Oxford Dictionary. That is the kind of detail worth reading off a publication's own guidelines before you pitch.

Dates in Canada are genuinely ambiguous. Both day-month-year and month-day-year are in circulation. Spell the month out; do not make an editor guess.

Australian English: closer to British, with its own vocabulary

Australian English follows British spelling more consistently than Canadian does.

Follows British:

• -our: colour, honour, labour
• -re: centre, theatre, metre
• Doubled consonants: travelled, modelling
• -ise is strongly preferred over -ize — more strongly than in Britain itself, where both are accepted

Diverges from both:

• Program, not programme (unlike the UK)
• Jail, not gaol
• Labor only in "Australian Labor Party" — everywhere else it is labour. Getting this wrong in a political piece is an obvious tell.

The authority is the Macquarie Dictionary.

Australian vocabulary is a real barrier if you fake it. Arvo, servo, bottle-o, ute, esky, doona, thongs (footwear, not underwear), fortnight, tradie, Centrelink. The advice here is the opposite of what you might expect: do not reach for these unless you are Australian. Nothing marks an outsider faster than a slightly wrong colloquialism. Write clean standard English and let the editor add the local register.

Why this matters for pitching

BRYME now lists 17 Canadian and 10 Australian paid opportunities alongside 71 US and 21 UK. Several carry eligibility rules that make the local variety non-optional:

• The New Quarterly publishes Canadian writers exclusively
• Geist prioritises Canadians, permanent residents, or work with a strong Canadian connection
• Island accepts submissions from Australia, New Zealand and Australians abroad
• Propel is UK and Ireland only

If a publication restricts by nationality, its editors read a great many submissions from writers who have not adapted. Spelling that matches the house standard is the cheapest possible signal that you have.

The quick reference

The bolded Canadian column is the one to study — it is the only variety that splits within a single row-set, and it is the one writers most often get wrong by assuming it is simply American.

Practical advice

Set your spellchecker properly. Both Canadian and Australian English exist as options in every major word processor. Most writers never change it from US default, and it shows.

Read one full article from the target publication. Faster and more reliable than any table, including this one.

Never guess at slang. Standard English written well is always acceptable. Misused local slang never is.

Check the publication's stated style. Where a magazine names its dictionary or style guide — as Broadview does — that is not a suggestion.

Browse the Canadian and Australian opportunity listings, each with its stated rate and eligibility.