Someone else mentioned locale differences (and has been mentioned a few places here) and that particular example came to mind since I have it in my first comment.

Not being British, I don't know how often that is used now (anyone know?).

But this also brings up important discussions like what if you are doing a time piece. You could be talking about a bundle of sticks. "Don we now our gay apparel" is something many of us sing (or at least hear) and I don't consider it offensive. But you wouldn't really write anything "new" with it, but if what you are writing is related to that time period... then it fits.

Side Note: South Park has a FANTASTIC episode on the "F" (gay) word that to me is one of the best episodes they have ever made and does a great job at pointing out that this issue is not cut and dry by any means. Season 13, Episode 12 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_F_Word_(South_Park)

>> Not being British, I don't know how often that is used now (anyone know?)

Anecdotally, in Glasgow, it is still far more common to hear “I’m going out for a fag” than “i’m going out for a cig” - maybe 5 to 1-ish more common.

That said, smoking is pretty rare these days, certainly compared to ~20 years ago when the indoor ban was introduced.

There’s plenty of the population here would draw a blank and look at you confused if you tried to use the word as a slur - they’d eventually get what you mean but the slur term is not really used here, it’d be jarring to hear someone use the word that way.

One person’s view of Glasgow… YMMV.

Thank you for the insight, that makes sense. I mean I know I saw it referenced in comedy a lot so why change it.

Yet here we are with Google (likely, again I can't confirm it but what are the chances that "fag" and similar words are not part of this list) imposing a US English view on the world. Even if it is just a recommendation you can ignore, slowly that influences you.

How does a red squiggly line make a problem here? In a non-English language I get tons of false-positives on actually correctly written words and I just either ignore them, or “add to dictionary”. I assume dismiss or something similar is just as easy to do here, it really doesn’t worth raising our heart rate over.

Which is why this kind of feature is useful. I'm British and I live and work in the USA. Having software prompt me that the word I use for cigarettes may not be interpreted the same way here provides me real value.

I see the potential value in it, but are you always writing for a USA audience?

If you are not, you are using a tool that (seemingly) is pushing US language norms on other users of the English language.

Further, because the app could be pushing you to not use those words that are perfectly suitable in your culture. Overtime you may find yourself not using them in every day which would be gradually changing your unique culture.

Maybe there is some functionality here that I am missing that actually takes audience into account. But from what I can tell from the outside this is pushing one English ideal onto the world.

Google Docs has a language setting, which I use already - if I'm writing for a US audience I set my document language to US/English and it helps me with spelling words like "favorite" and "neighbor".

US language norms have been taking over the entire world ever since syndication of US-produced media began.

Even thirty years ago there were jokes about how you could go to Australia and understand every word they said and not understand what was said at all. That's decreasing each year.

100 years ago you could recognize where in the US someone was from very easily; now we all speak variations of "Californian".

God forbid someone is exposed to a different culture.

I'm the one being exposed to a different culture here (learning about US culture) and I find it useful.

If that's how you wish to express yourself, go ahead, but if you're writing as yourself (as opposed to writing in the name of someone or something else) there's nothing wrong with using the words and spellings from your own dialect rather than that of your audience. Would you try to hide your accent when speaking in person?

I am already overexposed to these American cultures, and I find the idea of them telling me that the way my culture speaks and expresses its self is "wrong" to be rather disturbing, considering the effect that mass exposure to US culture has had on us.

I think most people could do with a little less exposure to US culture tbh

Absolutely they do. Good thing silicon valley is the only place and culture that matters!