How Do You Spell Work Resume

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The word is French. The original spelling is "résumé", and this is the preferred spelling in English as well. However, since no English keyboard has a key with "é" on it (I type it via Alt-130 now) it has become accepted to simply say "resume". "Resumé" is not here not there -- if you know how to achieve the accent-aigue, then type the word correctly with both Es accented, if not, well, then use the un-accented version. The plural is "résumés" (or "resumes", depending on how you prefer to deal with the accents.) It is so both in English and in French.

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In the case of the word “resumé,” however, there are an unusual number of conflicting factors bearing on the question. This complicates and slows down the evolutionary process. Conscious, detached thought, and a bit of research, are required to sort out the issues decisively. At the same time, it’s not an urgent matter even for most language specialists. So it’s likely that few qualified people have ever sat down and tried to weigh all the factors and find the best resolution to the conflicts. And in any case, it would take time for word to get around. The Wiktionary article on “résumé” is a good discussion. The postings I’ve seen on Web discussion forums only demonstrate the inadequacy of casual opinions on this particular question—whether they come from laymen or, worse, from the second-rate professionals who are the source of most of the writings on language and grammar seen by the public. This includes some books that pass for style guides in some offices.)m

With all the different regions of the world that use English, and all the words borrowed from other languages, English spelling sure is problematic! There is often more than one acceptable spelling for a word. The team at ESL-Library was recently confronted with some controversy over the spelling of “resume”. This word, which comes from the French noun “résumé”, appears many times in our Office Life – Business in English lessons, as well as in a few lessons within the Everyday Idioms (Part 2) section and in the Employment lesson in our Living in English section . We had been spelling “resume” without any accents, but had to make a decision as to whether we wanted to continue to spell it that way. We’ll share our thought process below, and we’d love to know what other teachers think. (Source:blog.esllibrary.com))