I'm a Nyan Fuggedy and you can think of me as your friendly guide to the English language.

We talk about writing, history, rules, and cool stuff.

Today we'll talk about the two spellings of ketchup and about how to punctuate questions.

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned the current ketchup shortage and that reminded me that

people sometimes wonder about the two spellings of the word ketchup.

Although both spellings are correct, K-E-T-C-H-U-P ketchup is far and away the most common spelling.

Some dictionaries do list ketchup, C-A-T-S-U-P as a variant, but the Oxford English

dictionary says that variant spelling is largely American and rose a bit later than ketchup,

which came first.

The AP style book specifically recommends ketchup with a K and a search of word usage in

Google Books shows that spelling vastly outpacing ketchup with a C in both American English

and British English.

And I'm sure it doesn't hurt that Hines, the main provider of ketchup in both countries,

also spells it ketchup with a K. This spelling on all those bottles and packets seeps into

our minds like ketchup into a dry bun.

The history of the sauce in general surprised me though because it wasn't always the tomato

sauce.

The original ketchup was probably a Chinese fish sauce called something like Hashi-Op

that British travelers enjoyed while traveling in the east in the 1600s.

After returning home, they tried to imitate the sauce and also gave it an English version

of the name that came as close as they could approximate.

And then eventually in the 1700s and 1800s, ketchup came to be a word for many different

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