Template:Use English variant/doc

This template is intended as a replacement for all templates listed under {{Use X English}}.

Usage

{{Use English variant|variant=|date=August 2026}}

This maintenance template adds articles to the hidden categories grouping all articles using a specific national English variant. This means that the article with this template must conform to that national variant's spelling, vocabulary, and grammar.

Supported variants:

English variant	Natural tags (recommended)	IETF language tag
American English	American	US
Australian English	Australian	AU
British English	British	GB or UK (non-IETF)
Oxford spelling of British English	Oxford spelling	None (use Oxford)
Canadian English	Canadian	CA
Hiberno-English	Hiberno Hiberno-English	IE
Hong Kong English	Hong Kong	HK
Indian English	Indian	IN
New Zealand English	New Zealand	NZ
Nigerian English	Nigerian	NG
Pakistani English	Pakistani	PK
Philippine English	Philippine	PH
South African English	South African	ZA

Full list of English dialects is available at the relevant Wikipedia article. If some variant of English is missing from the template and there is a genuine need to add a new entry, do not add one yourself; first ensure that the corresponding "Use X English" template already exists, then start a discussion at the talk page of this template.

The choice of the appropriate value depends on several factors, which you should consider in this order:

1. If the article has strong ties to a given area where the dialect is spoken, or concerns topics that don't have global relevance but only one country natively speaking English is involved, use the value for that country's dialect (MOS:TIES)

   • If a specific English variant is missing but, when you apply MOS:COMMONALITY, its formal register is indistinguishable from a listed variant of English, use that variant.
   • If an article describes topics concerning several English-speaking areas, but is not a global one, you may choose any of the relevant dialects.

2. If there is no particular tie to any area where English is natively spoken, or the subject is global and has no ties to any particular area, any variant may be chosen so long as it can be consistently maintained. (MOS:RETAIN)

   • Articles using British-style spelling but with -ize endings or IUPAC-standard spellings for chemistry should use Oxford spelling and not British English.

For more details on proper usage of English variants, see MOS:ENGVAR.

Articles with this template deployed will not work with the EngvarB script that fixes articles to various variants of Commonwealth English.

For tagging talk pages and edit notices, see {{English variant templates}}.

TemplateData

This is the TemplateData for this template used by TemplateWizard, VisualEditor and other tools. See a monthly parameter usage report for Template:Use English variant in articles based on its TemplateData.

TemplateData for Use English variant

This maintenance template adds tagged articles to the relevant subcategory in Category:Articles using English type template to signal the dialect of English meant to be used while writing this article.

Template parameters

This template has custom formatting.

Parameter		Description	Type	Status
English variant	variant	The dialect of English that is supposed to be used in this article. This can be either a so-called natural value, e.g. american, or a relevant IETF language code. Check the template documentation for supported values and how to properly choose the English variant. Suggested values American Australian British Oxford spelling Canadian Ghanaian Hiberno Hong Kong Indian New Zealand Nigerian Pakistani Philippine South African Ugandan Example Indian	Line	required
Month and year	date	Month and year when the template was deployed. "{{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}" inserts the current month and year automatically Example January 2026 Auto value {{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}	Line	suggested