[BUG] Inconsistent spelling ("judgement" vs "judgment") in generated recommendation text
Status Open
Reported on v2.1.220
Maintainer reply None cached
Activity 3 comments · opened Jul 28, 2026
Preflight Checklist
- [x] I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
- [x] This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
- [x] I am using the latest version of Claude Code
What's Wrong?
Claude Code used the British spelling "judgement" in a recommendation message, where Anthropic's product copy otherwise uses American spelling ("judgment"):
"The threshold is the only judgement call — 10 is my suggestion, not a derived number. Want me to implement it that way, and should main stay unpushed until it's fixed?"
This is model-generated text rather than static UI copy, so it's an inconsistency rather than a fixed typo in the codebase — flagging in case there's a system-prompt or style-guide level fix that could standardize spelling in generated output.
What Should Happen?
american english to be consistent
Error Messages/Logs
Steps to Reproduce
any recommendation
Claude Model
Opus
Is this a regression?
I don't know
Last Working Version
_No response_
Claude Code Version
2.1.220
Platform
Anthropic API
Operating System
Windows
Terminal/Shell
PowerShell
Additional Information
_No response_
3 Comments
I saw colour, recognise, behaviour, and centre also. So yes, I think it's a British vs American English thing rather than just a "this word is funky" thing.
Agree.
From: Josh Peters @.*>
Sent: Friday, July 31, 2026 2:42 PM
To: anthropics/claude-code @.*>
Cc: rgrossha @.>; Author @.>
Subject: Re: [anthropics/claude-code] [BUG] Inconsistent spelling ("judgement" vs "judgment") in generated recommendation text (Issue #81824)
<https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/231307653?s=20&v=4> pcty-jpeters left a comment (anthropics/claude-code#81824) <https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/81824#issuecomment-5146801625>
I saw colour, recognise, behaviour, and centre also. So yes, I think it's a British vs American English thing rather than just a "this word is funky" thing.
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Claude Opus 4.8 and Opus 5 are using British spellings, even when I feed it material with all American spellings.
We need explicit settings for a specific type of English for Claude to generate.
It's a lot of work to have to go through everything, especially in Claude Code, to change all the British spellings that Claude drifted to.
Even doing
claude.MDchanges won't guarantee that Claude won't drift to British spellings.I'm an American user, and I never gave Claude any indication I use British spellings, but it generates them anyway.