There are some general rules which can be identified when considering Canadian, British and American spelling.
As mentioned before, Canadian spelling generally aligns itself with the British version, although with some significant American variants. Australia, New Zealand and South Africa tends to be even closer to the British. This being the English language, however, there are of course plenty of exceptions, and exceptions to the exceptions.
“-our” / “-or” |
“-re” / “-er” |
“-ce” / “-se” |
“-xion” “-ction” |
“-ise” / “-ize” |
“-yse” / “-yze” |
“-ogue” / “-og” |
“oe” / “ae” / “e” |
“en-” / “in-” |
“-ell-“ / “-el-” |
Dropped “e” |
Hyphens
|
Words ending in an unstressed “-our” in English and Canadian (e.g. “honour”, “colour”, “flavour”, “armour”) are usually spelled without the “u” in American usage (e.g. “honor”, “color”, “flavor”, “armor”). The Prairie provinces of Canada, however, tend to follow the Americans on this. A notable exception is “glamour” which retains the “u” in American, as often does “saviour”.
Derived words (e.g. “honourable”, colourful”, “flavoursome”, etc) are usually consistent with this rule, although with the suffixes “-ate”, “-ation”, “-ize”, “-ific”, “-iferous” and “-ous” the “u” disappears in all countries (e.g. “honorific”, “humorous”, “vigorous”, “laborious”, “invigorate”).
|
Words ending in an unstressed “-re” in English and most of Canada (e.g. “centre”, lustre”, “spectre”, “fibre”) are usually spelled with “-er” in American usage (e.g. “center”, luster”, “specter”, “fiber”), as well as in the Prairie provinces of Canada.
A general exception is words ending in “-cre” (e.g. “acre”, “massacre”, “lucre”, “mediocre”) which retain the English “-re” spelling in America, as do a few other words (e.g. “ogre”).
In both British and American usage, the “-e” is dropped in derivatives like “central”, “fibrous”, etc.
|
Some nouns ending in “-ce” in Britain and Canada (e.g. “offence”, defence”, “pretence”) are spelled with “-se” in American (e.g. “offense”, “defense”, “pretense”).
Some nouns ending in “-ce” in Britain and Canada which have a related verb ending in “-se” (e.g. “practice” / “practise”, “licence” / “license”) lose that distinction in American usage (“practice” is used for both noun and verb, “license” is used for both noun and verb).
Derivatives (e.g. “defensive”, “offensive”, “pretension”) are generally spelled with an “s” in both countries.
|
The use of the ending “-xion” in words like “connexion” and “inflexion” is now rare in British usage and is unknown in American and Canadian - “connection” and “inflection” are now the norm in both countries.
“Complexion” and “crucifixion” are exceptions, in all countries.
|
Most verbs which are commonly spelled with “-ise” in Britain (e.g. “organise”, “recognise”, “realise”) are spelled with “-ize” in America and Canada (e.g. “organize”, “recognize”, “realize”), although the “-ize” form is actually considered to be more correct even in Britain nowadays.
There are, however, some words which are spelled with “-ise” in both British and American usage (e.g. “advertise”, “despise”, “supervise”, “chastise”, “revise”, “surprise”, “exercise”, ”improvise”, etc).
|
Similarly, the handful of words which end in “-yse” in Britain (e.g. “analyse”, “paralyse”, “catalyse”) are spelled with “-yze” in America and Canada.
|
Many words of Greek origin which are spelled with “-ogue” in British and Canadian usage (e.g. “analogue”, “dialogue”, “catalogue”), usually lose the “ue” in standard American spelling (e.g. “analog”, “dialog”, “catalog”), although “dialogue” is quite common in America and “analog” is increasingly common even in Britain and Canada when used as a technical term.
|
Common diphthongs like “oe” / “œ” (e.g. “diarrhoea”, “oestrogen”) and “ae” / “æ” (e.g. “encyclopaedia”, “leukaemia”, “anaesthesia”) in British and Canadian spelling are usually simplified in American usage to “e” (e.g. “diarrhea”, “estrogen”, “encyclopedia”, “leukemia”, “anesthesia”).
Some words containing diphthongs, like “aesthetics”, “archaeology” and “aerosol”, tend to retain them in the US.
|
In Britain and Canada, “inquiry” (formal inquest) and “enquiry” (questioning) have slightly different meanings; in the US, only “inquiry” is used.
In Britain and Canada, “insure” (protect against) and “ensure” (make certain) have different meanings; in the US, only “insure” is generally used.
|
In Britain and Canada, the final “l” of an unstressed syllable is doubled before most suffixes (e.g. “modelling”, quarrelled”, “cruellest”, “traveller”, “woollen”) but not in the US (e.g. “modeling”, quarreled”, “cruelest”, “traveler”, “woolen”). The final consonant is doubled as normal in both countries where the final syllable is stressed (e.g. “rebelling”). “Paralleled”/“paralleling” is often an exception even in Britain, mainly to avoid the cluster of “llell”.
There are other words which double the final “l” before a suffix starting with a vowel but not before a suffix starting with consonant in British and Canadian usage (e.g. “skilful”, “enrolment”, “fulfilment”), whereas the American spelling always doubles all the “l” (e.g. “skillful”, “enrollment”, “fulfillment”).
|
When adding a suffix to a word ending in “e”, British spelling often keeps the “e” (e.g. “ageing”, “likeable”, “sizeable”, “judgement”) whereas the American and Canadian drops the “e” (e.g. “aging”, “likable”, “sizable”, “judgment”).
But there are many exceptions, where both Britain and the US drop the “e” (e.g. “breathable”, “curable”, “lovable”, “believable”), and the “e” is retained in all countries where needed to preserve a soft “c” or “g” sound (e.g. “changeable”, “knowledgeable”, “traceable”).
|
Word starting with “e” which have a prefix ending in “e” are hyphenated in English and Canadian (e.g. “re-elect”, “re-enter”, “re-entry”, “re-examine”, “pre-empt”, “pre-exist”, “pre-eminent”) but not in American (e.g. “reelect”, “reenter”, “reentry”, “reexamine”, “preempt”, “preexist”, “preeminent”).
A few other words which are hyphenated in Britain (e.g. “counter-attack”) lose the hyphen in American usage (e.g. “counterattack”).
|
There are, of course, many more differences between British and American spelling which do not fall under these general rules, and which can only be identified from a comprehensive listing.
|