Google and the English spell-checker

I have always liked Google. I use their search engine and their browser and here I am using their space for blogging. My English is reasonably good, but like others, I often suffer from 'Digital Dyslexia'.

This is where I think my fingers are hitting one key, when in fact, they have hit the wrong key and then end up with a typo.

Up until a little while ago, I used to be able to spot this easily, which is fortunate, because it happens with boring regularity and the faster I type, the more often it occurs.

You can imagine my dismay when I discovered that my spelling was being highlighted when in fact, I hadn't spelt anything incorrectly. In fact, as I sit here, Google in its infinite wisdom has decided to highlight 'spelt', yet my use of this word is not incorrect.

Spelt definition: a simple past tense and past participle of 'spell'

So what's wrong with it?

I think Google is trying to remove British English from the internet - invented by an Englishman, by the way - and has removed British English from its spell checker.

Now I realise this is a free service (realise in English does not have a 'Z', but an 'S'), but I don't understand why British English should be removed. They haven't removed French, German or any of the other languages from their spell checker.

I've said this before and it looks as if I will have to say it again: American English is no longer the same as British English.

• We do not have sidewalks, but pavements. We walk on pavements, we don't (or shouldn't) drive on them.
• We do not have windshields, we have windscreens.
• Knickers are forms of feminine underwear and pants are the male form.
• Fenders are not car bumpers, but the plastic or rope things that hang off the side of boats.
• Trunks are large cases and boots are what Americans call trunks.
• A bonnet is what you open to see the engine and a hood goes over your head.
• If you are tired, it means you lack energy and would like to sleep, it doesn't mean that you have a new set of radials. Those are tyres (which the spell checker has again marked as incorrect).
• The man dragged the body out, he didn't drug it out. A Drug is a medicine or other substance which has a physiological effect when ingested or otherwise introduced into the body.
• The man dived into the water, he didn't dove into the water. A dove is a bird.

As you can see with the few examples above, British English differs from American English in numerous ways and therefore should be treated as a separate language. America is not the only English speaking country in the world, in fact, they are only a small proportion of English speakers and thanks to our 250 year (or so) separation, the American version of English has evolved and not in the same way as British English.

That's your prerogative, America, but let's get this straight. American English is now sufficiently different to British English (or the English that's used in the rest of the world), with its own dictionaries etc, that it's high time it was just called American and not English.

In the meantime, Google, can we have our spell checker back, please?