Spelling differences between American and British English

Spelling differences between American and British English
-or vs. -our American British color colour favorite favourite honor honour   -ll vs. -l  American British enrollment enrolment fulfill fulfil skillful skilful   -og vs. -ogue  American British analog analogue catalog catalogue dialog dialogue   -ck or -k vs. -que American British bank banque check cheque checker chequer   -ense vs. -enze American British defense defence license licence		-ze vs. -se  American British analyze analyse criticize criticise memorize memorise   -er vs. -re  American British center centre meter metre theater theatre   -e vs. -oe or -ae  American British encylopedia encylycopaedia maneuver manoeuvre medieval mediaeval   -dg vs. -dge (or -g vs. -gu)  American British aging ageing argument arguement judgment judgement   Other  American British jewelry jewellery draft draught pajamas pyjamas  plow plough program programme tire tyre

In British English, words that end in -l preceded by a vowel usually double the -l when a suffix is added, while in American English the letter is not doubled.  The letter will double in the stress is on the second syllable.

Base Word	American	British
counsel	counseling	counselling
equal	equaling	equalling
model	modeling	modelling
quarrel	quarreling	quarrelling
signal	signaling	signalling
travel	traveling	travelling
excel	excelling	excelling
propel	propelling	propelling

 

Spelling of verbs

This is related to formation of the past participle for verbs. For a complete list of irregular verb spellings, see Susan Jones’ Complete List of English Irregular Verbs at this web site.  Below is a sampling of the three main categories of differeneces with verbs.

-ed vs. -t

The first category involves verbs that use -ed or -t for the simple past and past participle.   Generally, the rule is that if there is a verb form with -ed, American English will use it, and if there is a form with -t, British English uses it.  However, these forms do not exist for every verb and there is variation.  For example, both American and British English would use the word ‘worked’ for the past form of ‘to work’, and in American English it is common to hear the word ‘knelt’ as the past tense of ‘to kneel’.

Base form	American	British
to dream	dreamed	dreamt
to leap	leaped	leapt
to learn	leareded	learnt

base form vs. -ed

The second category of difference includes verbs that use either the base form of the verb or the -ed ending for the simple past.

Base form	American	British
to fit	fit	fitted
to forecast	forecast	forecasted
to wed	wed	wedded

irregular vs. -ed

The third category of difference includes verbs that have either an irregular spelling or the -ed ending for the simple past.

Base form	American	British
to knit	knit	knitted
to light	lit	lighted
to strive	strove	strived

So what does tall his mean for learners of English?  In the beginning, unfortunately, it means a lot of memorization (or memorisation) and of course, a few mistakes.  For spoken English, the differences are barely audible, so forge ahead and don’t be too concerned with whether a word is spelled ‘dwelled’ or ‘dwelt’.  With written English, however, if you are unsure about the spelling, better to ask your teacher or look the word up in the dictionary and see what the experts say.