Comments on: Judgement or Judgment?

By: William D'Onofrio

William D'Onofrio — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 13:58:57 +0000

I usually would agree with Maeve Maddox’s thinking, paraphrasing: “why have something if it has no evident purpose…being an american… “. But, the problem with this type of thinking is that each person has their/his/her (?) own definition or vision of “purpose”.
I say instead: if the root is “judge” and the “e” causes no problem then keep it in “judgement”. As one said it feels and looks better with the “e” breaking the heaviness of all those consonants…but then, that might also be a judgement call affected by the fact that I’m of Italian origin in Canada since 1959 (52.5 years!!) and I’ve gone through a very beneficial “renaissance” in latter years.

Those people, like Katy, that say “IT IS WRONG BECAUSE THAT’S THE ACTUAL SPELLING” need to soften up a bit since they do not have the answer to what is ACTUAL…unless they have some direct link to the CREATOR. In answer to Robert: let”s change the rule!

By: Robert

Robert — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 11:08:46 +0000

Dallas: ‘If you learn a word correctly, then it looks wrong when it IS wrong. It looks wrong with an “e” in it because it IS wrong. For people to change how a word is spelled just because others don’t like how it really IS spelled is ridiculous in my opinion.’

I’d just like to point out that this discussion is about the correct spelling not just the most favoured spelling, and as it stands there is no CORRECT spelling. Judgment may be favoured in America, and it is used in England too. However, just because you were taught that ‘judgment’ is the CORRECT way to spell it, doesn’t mean it is. I don’t think people spelling it as ‘judgement’ means that they are trying to change how it is spelt, they are simply applying a different linguistic rule to the word.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Fri, 20 May 2011 17:41:28 +0000

I was searching the spelling due to Judgment Day, which is tomorrow, I hope I’m not too late to learn the true spelling… From what I read, it seems “judgment” is widely accepted over “judgement.” I personally prefer judgement with the “e.” English is not my first language and it took me a while to realize “judgment” is pronounced “judgement.”

By: Joline

Joline — Mon, 09 May 2011 10:42:40 +0000

Thanks for all that interesting information. This particular issue arose on a Cambridge Proficiency exam so the above discussion was very helpful in shedding some light on the matter.

By: Katy

Katy — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 16:05:32 +0000

Well, “judgment” is more widely accepted than “judgement”. In the US, “judgement” is always wrong, although I guess you could say it’s a British spelling if you like the “e”. However, I think that English speakers should just use “judgment”, regardless of what it should be (soft/hard g) because that’s the actual spelling. English is a language of exceptions and contradictions, so there’s no point in insisting on spelling other words wrong just to fit the rule.