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engbites1English Bites! are practical, bite-sized tips to help you improve your English for work. Published twice a week, the articles include useful advice covering different aspects of business English including grammar, vocabulary, writing, speaking as well as fun topics. It'll take just a few minutes to read each tip. You can subscribe to English Bites! from the Newsletters link above. After that, you'll receive notifications of all new tips by email.

Spelling Differences between US and UK English

17 Oct 2021
americanbritish1) –or and –our

British English tends to use -our in adjectives,whereas American English uses -or:

For example: colour (GB) and color (US); neighbour (GB) and neighbor (US)

2) –er and –re

Some noun endings are -re in British English, but -er in American English:

For example: centre (GB) and center (US)

3) – ice and –ise

Some words have -ice ending for the noun and -ise ending for the verb in British English. For example: practice (noun) and to practise (verb). However, in American English both noun and verb are spelled practice.

4) –l and –ll

In British English, when a word ends in a single consonant, it is doubled when we add a suffix beginning with a vowel:

For example: traveller; levelled

However, in American English the 'l' is not doubled:

For example: traveler, leveled

5) Other common words

British English and American English have different spellings for certain words:

For example: cheque (GB) - check (US); programme (GB) – program (US)
 

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