The Mystery of Letter U

First and foremost, I'm 100% Canadian which automatically excludes me from any comments that focus on how I "have no idea what I'm talking about because he's probably not even from Canada". Colour, neighbour, labour, flavour. Those are some examples that certify me as a credible source of information to actively ignore. Secondly, this post, like everything else you will ever read from me, is written with every ounce of sincere sarcasm that I can muster. If I'm not the most actively cynical person you have ever met then you aren't trying hard enough.

We even have our own dictionary

As Canadians, we often overlook the fact that we add a truly unexplainable (it's really quite easy to explain) extra letter in several of our words. That infamous letter being "U". It often is to blame for several puzzled looks and awkward explanations that attempt to prove we aren't completely illiterate. In most cases, the adding of the letter "U" is completely pointless as it does not impact the pronunciation or meaning of the intended word whatsoever. Just to be clear: By "most cases" I mean in every single case.

Personally, I think it's ridiculous that we, as humans, have to add or remove a single letter from a word once we cross over the border between Canada and the US. I mean, if I went down to Georgia and asked someone to describe to me what colour their state flag is, I don't believe I would have to specify whether I'm asking about the color or the colour. So why are we forced to spread rumours instead of just rumors? Since when is it not okay to just be neighbors instead of having to be neighbours?


So many questions that really shouldn't be answered because they are as rhetorical as they are wildly pointless. 

Let's just assume that you are a lot like me. For starters, I'm sorry to hear that. However, if you are then that means you have probably, at some point in your life, encountered a situation in which someone has tried to assure you that you are spelling a word completely incorrectly because you were taught it is imperative to add an extra vowel. You probably never questioned why that vowel needed to be included, but it surely must have been important otherwise they wouldn't have throw in a letter that couldn't possibly seem more out of place in the middle of a sufficiently functioning word.

And then there's spelling in French

Just as a final note: This post is full of those notorious, red squiggly lines that would indicate that I have no idea how to grasp the English language. Take a wild guess which words are being highlighted for me to attempt to correct.