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American English VS British English: Top Mistakes You Can Make

There are many ways to spell words, but you must know the difference, so your spelling doesn’t get mixed up. The best way is through reading and discussing different versions with others who also happen to have a more diverse knowledge base than you. They can offer helpful insight into why one might exist over another – like which other languages these two countries share in common (besides their native language), for example, “french” vs. “French.”

Writing for a particular audience needs to make sure that there are no spelling errors on your paper, then here’s what some of the most common British/American mistakes look like. Get acquainted with them and improve your English learning.

Words’ Endings

-re & -er

It’s no surprise that many people find spelling one of the most challenging aspects of learning a new language. The words with endings like -er and British English tend to have different spellings than American ones, but what may come as more confusion is why this occurs. The experts explore how languages change over time by looking into examples where both versions exist for an entry in the video from Lingoport Global Academy: Centre vs. Center; litre vs. liter (among others).

-ogue & -og

It applies to some nouns that have this particular ending. The correct way of spelling them in British English is with -ogue, and in America, it’s spelled differently –ogue. Some examples include: dialogue or dialog (British English.) Analogous words are those having like sounds, so analog means similar but not identical. Analogue comes from Latin, meaning “of its kind.” Now, if you were talking about something digital, then we would use dig.

-yse & -yze

Verbs are one of the most important parts when writing an essay, and there’s a lot that can go wrong if you don’t pay attention. British English uses ‘-yse’ as its ending for verbs whereas American does not; however, this is only used in college applications essays to some universities on both sides (in Britain or America).

-our & -or

You may have noticed that the way you pronounce words can change depending on your country. Americans say color, and British people prefer to use a more formal word like color. There are also many other examples of this in different languages.

-ence & -ense

The following words all share an attractive trait – their endings in British English are spelled with a ‘c’ whereas they have ‘s’s in American English. It can be very confusing if you’re not careful, significantly when these spellings don’t change at all from sentence to sentence or paragraph!

Double Vowels Words

The vowel in American English is usually not needed to make words sound the same, but British English speakers add it anyway. They use different spellings in this case: oestrogen becomes estrogen, and pediatric becomes paediatric.

There are two different ways you can go about things when it comes to spelling. For instance, the word ‘archaeology’ has an extra vowel, whereas other words like ‘archeological’ do not alter their structure and always come out correct when spelled correctly. It varies from area to area, and if your audience speaks another language or doesn’t know English at all, then make sure they’re aware of both spellings.

Adding Extra L

Check your spelling, people. You may be an English speaker, but it’s easy to get these mistakes wrong. Common errors include using two ‘l’s’ in some words like traveling or fuelling – this happens more often than you think with American English speakers who tend not to do this so much (British, however, uses both).

Wrap It Up

You may be surprised to know that many of these common spelling mistakes result from exposure to both British and American English. They’re not just confined within one country, but instead can happen for years due to living in either Britain or America as well.

Next time you get a spelling correction from Grammarly, don’t be too quick to accept it as gospel. Consider who your audience is and what they want or need in their message before getting any word choices that may not work well with them.

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