Differences between American & British spelling

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• published: 09 Nov 2015
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Do you prefer American English or British English? In this lesson, I'll teach you some of the most common differences between American and British spelling. Learn these differences so that you can write words correctly in the United States and in the United Kingdom. Both styles of spelling are correct. However, it is important to know which style to use, especially if you do business or go to school in an English-speaking country. You can check spelling differences in a dictionary, but this lesson will teach you some of the basic differences in spelling. In New York City you can buy a liter of soda, but in Liverpool you would get a litre. Spell like an American in England and they'll think you weird. Spell like the English in America and they'll think you are very old-fashioned. Can you guess what style of spelling I prefer? Test your international spelling skills:http://www.engvid.com/differences-between-american-british-spelling/ TRANSCRIPT Hello, guys. Welcome back to www.engvid.com. Today, we are looking at the differences between American English and British English, and in particular some of the spelling differences between our two ways of doing things. I'm not saying one is correct and the other is wrong, although I have a preference. So, important things to know if you want to be working in one country is you will need to use that country's way of spelling. I'm going to be looking at some of the ways that we differ in our ways that we end words, looking at some of the consonants as well. It's not an exhaustive list, in terms of there are some other differences, but these are the major differences in the spelling between British and American English. Let's have a look. Let's put our glasses on, have a little look. Mmm. "our" becomes just "or". What is Benjamin talking about? Well, I've got four "our"-ending words from British English spelling: "behaviour", "colour", "labour",-that's a little spade there for digging, doing a bit of manual work-"rumour", passing a rumour about someone. So, what do our fellow Americans do with this lovely "our" formation? Well, unfortunately, they take out the "u". They don't seem to like the "u" very much, so it disappears. Yeah, it just becomes "or". It looks a bit sad, the "r", standing there all on its own. Sorry, "r". Sorry, I... I know you liked "u" a lot. Don't worry. Right, moving on to "re" endings. A little bit different in the U.S. of A. They seem to think the "e" goes there, so: "centre" would become "center". "Theatre", the home theatre, Britain, but in America, it's "theater", "theater". A "litre", we drink pints of beer, here, in Britain, but apparently you have a "liter" of beer in America. "er", okay? We share some similarities, you know, some... They haven't... They haven't kind of told us to completely F off, because they think, you know, words like "acre" should be spelt with an "re", which indeed they should. Okay, great. Moving on to the "l", "l", "l". Should we all practice saying an: "La, la, el, el, la"? Yeah, that's lovely. Feel kind of... Get up, have a little bit of a dance around. Yeah? I don't need to get bored, watching my videos, god's sake. Okay, "l". Well, the Americans don't like doubling the "l", so they don't like two pairs of legs; they just like one-legged people. Strange, I know. So, "cancelled" with my two long legs, they chop a leg off. "Jewellery", okay? There's my two diamond rings just becomes one, and they seem to have got rid of an "e" as well. Okay? So the... There is a couple of different ways the Americans spell "jewelry", this being one, losing an "l" and an "e". "Woollen", I've got a nice woollen jumper. Yeah? Two o's, two l's. Yeah? It's from two sheep, so I need to o's and two l's, but Americans can't quite afford the extra "l", so it just becomes one. Right. A bit more "l" action. Sometimes the Brits just like to use one "l". We are in a bit of a financial crisis at the moment, so sometimes we can only afford one "l", and the American's dollar doing just a balance, okay, so sometimes they have two l's. I "enrol" at university. If you're going to come to Oxbridge or Cambridge, make sure it's a one "l" enrolment for you. If you're going to Harvard, you're looking at two l's. If you fulfil... Fulfil the criteria... "l" there, "l" there, got the yankee doodles. Like... But two l's. Okay? I know you are a skilful student of English, which is why you have been attracted by the laws of the universe to watch this video now. Make sure if you're in Britain, you spell it like this; and if you're in America, with a double "l". Okay? So, just to recap with our l's, a little bit complicated: We like to... We like our double l's sometimes, and sometimes the Americans drop one. So... Okay, so you're... You've got a base word: "jewel", "cancel", if I've got an "l" at the end of the word, then normally I'll put an extra "l" on to the ending. Okay. Good.