# ADR-0009 - Use American English

## Date

2025-11-24

## Context

Gradle is an international open-source project with contributors from around the world. English is the primary language for code, comments, documentation, and communication, but there are variations in English spelling and terminology, specifically American English vs. British English.

Inconsistency in spelling conventions can lead to several issues:

# ADR-0008 - Use NullAway for null checking

## Date

2025-08-06

## Context

Our codebase uses `null` extensively to represent an absence of value or optionality of the argument.
We utilize nullness annotations in Java code and somewhat rely on IDE warnings to guide us.
However, the Java code we have is not fully annotated, which causes several consequences:
* IDE warnings can be misleading

* Use American English spelling in code, comments, and documentation (e.g., "color" not "colour", "initialize" not "initialise"). See [ADR-0009](architecture/standards/0009-use-american-english.md) for details.