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British and American English spelling

British and American English spelling

October 17, 2014 By Nestor 1 Comment

Do you know if your spelling is more British or American English? The tables below show some of the the main differences.

-our/-or
British English American English
colour color
flavour flavor
behaviour behavior
neighbour neighbor
-re/-er
British English American English
theatre theater
metre meter
centre center
-se/-ze
British English American English
analyse analyze
realise realize
memorise memorize
criticise criticize
organise organize
recognise recognize
-ll-/-l-
British English American English
travelling traveling
traveller traveler
modelling modeling
cancelled canceled
labelled labeled
-gramme/-gram
British English American English
programme program
kilogramme kilogram
gramme gram
-ogue/-og
British English American English
analogue analog
catalogue catalog
dialogue dialog
-se (verb)/-ce (verb)
British English American English
practise practice
license licence
-ce (noun)/-se (noun)
British English American English
defence defense
offence offense
Past tense differences
British English American English
learnt learned
dreamt dreamed
got got/gotten
dived dived/dove

Other differences
British English American English
enquiry inquiry
enquire inquire
ensure insure
yoghurt yogurt
omelette omelet
mum mom
pyjamas pajamas
ageing aging
tyre tire

Filed Under: Confusing words in English

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Seuss says

    May 7, 2015 at 2:17 am

    Hello, I’d like to add a couple of corrections to the -ce/-se noun/verb sections. First of all, in British English (and most non-American contexts), “practise” is a verb and “practice” is a countable noun. The same goes for “licence” (noun) and “license” (verb). And “advise” is the verb while “advice” is a non-countable noun in most modern contexts.

    In American English, often the same spelling is used for both the noun and the verb. It is typical for Americans to write “license” and “practice”, and use both as nouns and verbs. However, the distinction between “advice” and “advise” still applies and is the same as British English. Generally, if Americans use atypical spellings such as “licence” and “practise”, they conform to British usage, namely, as a noun and verb, respectively.

    Reply

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