Apr 18 2008
Toward or Towards?
Which of the following sentences is correct?
If you said the second sentence is correct, you’re right. If you said the first sentence is correct, you’re even more right.
Both “toward” and “towards” are technically correct, according to most English language stylebooks. The difference is, “towards” is more likely to be used these days by the Brits, while “toward” has become the American favorite.
The Associated Press Stylebook, which most American businesses and publications use, takes a distinctly American stance, saying simply, “toward, not towards.” In short, according to AP, “towards” is dead.
So if you’re an American, or gravitate to the American English way of life, you’re safer to bury “towards.” Say a few kind words over its grave and move on. If you’re British, or believe that the Queen’s English is the only true and living form of the world’s most robust language, go ahead and use “towards.”
It’s not worth another revolution.
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Thank you for the help. I love the humor!
Thanks for the explanation!
Having a Scots father and a southern momma, language was an ongoing debate in my house. I was taught: I walked towards the horses, and I had a positive regard toward them. I have one of your books, and your advice is always spot on — I drop the ’s’ because the distinction is not understood in the states. But I use it as a point that Americans prefer simple solutions over correct ones.
Finally. I may speak confidently again. Until my next grammatical cunundrum.
Thank you, Mr. Osborne
Great humor :))) and perfect explanation!!!
Thank you so much for the perfect insight, Steve!
And Cathie, thank you as well so much for your excellent examples.
Now I know from where I write on this matter, with thanks to all of you!
All my Best,
Claudia
I don’t know…I’m American, but I say and write ‘towards’ pretty frequently. Perhaps it gets used like ‘a’ and ‘an,’ depending on whether the next word begins with a vowel or consonant. Otherwise, I can’t detect a pattern to my potentially erratic use of the two words.
‘Whilst’ on the other hand, is distinctively British and unnecessarly clumsy in the mouth. I doubt any Americans use it over the more asthetically pleasing ‘while.’
In general, I’ve noticed American spelling rules gravitate towards saving space and being logical - no unnecessary ‘u’s in ‘color,’ ‘tumor,’ etc. Dialog is 25% shorter than it’s insular cousin, and customize is phonetically unambiguous compared to its confused counterpart. Since I, my compatriots, and our ancestors descend from an unbroken linguistic line of English speakers on back to the Norman invasion, nobody can claim that British English is a purer or better form. Besides, dialectically we’re much more homogenous than Britain, where people at one end of the island can barely understand those at the other end, we outnumber them by more than 5 to 1 (considering N. American English vs. all dialects from Britain and Ireland), and we dominate the world politically and culturally, so I’d humbly submit that we’re the final authority on anything English-related.
The truth hurts, I know
Tim, you hit the nail spot-on!
Also, we have the biggest vocabulary. So there.
Despite the fact that most of us use about 1/5th of it.
I agree with “toward,” and have always used it. Still, I teach at a major American university, and find that most of my students have never used “toward.” When I suggest they refrain from using “towards” they act like they’ve never heard of it without the s.
As a further note, New Englanders tend to use “towards” as well… just a reflection of our roots, I guess!
Weighing in as a Brit: Tim, you’re partly right and partly not.
Spelling in American English has been simplified to a small degree: color, not colour; honor, not honour. But basic spelling reform was never fully implemented, so you still have many of the glorious [we share an unnecessary 'u' right there] inconsistencies and oddities we also revel in.
Whilst there is a tendency to shorten many words in American English [;-)], there is also a proclivity to lengthen others, or create (sometimes clumsy) new words which sound more professional and technical than simple English phrases. Did you know that many American clergy no longer ‘conduct someone’s funeral,’ instead they ‘funeralize’ them? I submit that’s shorter but somewhat less elegant.
Brits like to claim to be the final arbiters of English. We’re not. You’d like to make the same claim for Americans. You’re not. No one ‘owns’ a language. We simply speak it, write it, listen to it, mold [or mould] it, until it does what we need it to do.
One thousand years from now, my guess is the two languages may be quite different. And whose will be best? Why, mine, of course …!
I love the humor
Thanks for the explanation.
In one thousand years, we wouldn’t be debating about the English language anymore. Mandarin will take over as the world’s most spoken language (no pun intended).