Spelling in the UK and USA.?

Question

As an American [yank] when you sit an English exam at school or university, would you lose marks if you spelled words the UK English way, as per the Queens English?

Perhaps question badly written. As an English person, if I went to USA and sat English exam, would I lose marks for sticking to the English spelling of words.Spelled and spelt are the same and both are correct.

Answer 1

I'm a Briton who just graduated from an American university - although I standardised to US spellings whenever I handed in work done on a computer, I used British spellings in all my handwritten work and never once had anyone comment on it or take points away, so I'm guessing that holds true for most places. To be honest I think being able to spell at all, even if you use non-standard variants, is a refreshing change.

Answer 2

I like this question! Isn't there a saying that we are 2 countries separated by a common language! I'm British and I know that when I was taking my GCSE's and A levels ( a very long time ago) had I dared to spell favour as favor I would have been marked down. But I agree with a previous answer that these days examiners don't seem to worry. Which is awful as we are all diminished by the lowering of standards and I hate to think of how our children and grand children are being betrayed.

Answer 3

Yes: Because the UK has it's own standard for spelling and so does the US. For example, in the US 'organisation' is spelt 'organization'. If you spelt the former in an exam conducted in the United States, you would, by their standards have made a spelling error, even though in England it would be correct.

Answer 4

Sadly you would fail if you sat an exam in the UK, we know that in the USA you have different ways of spelling words for i.e. Colour is the UK way. But US it color.
Favorite US. UK Favourite
Center US UK Centre
Program US UK Programme
Counseling US UK Counselling
Encylopedia US UK Encylycopaedia
Theater US UK Theatre
Dialog US UK Dialogue
Catalog US UK Catalogue

Answer 5

Well i'm in the UK so I'm not sure... but if you were translating then I suppose you have to spell english way. I would check with your tutor... don't lose marks over a technicality.

Answer 6

I don't think so, for example I write french word like "acquis communautaire", whoever studies European Union Law must not be unfamiliar with this word, does it means if i write this in an english exam, i will loose marks?

But if i write the same phrase in english, it might be something like "asset community", i think noone would understand.

Answer 7

if you come over here to Britian and have an exam you would probbaly loose marks for spelling stuff the american way
but we're pretty laxed so im not sure
might just be classed as a spelling mistake
which you might not loose marks for

Answer 8

It is simply wrong. You probably need a copy of The Chicago Manual of Style ISBN: 0226104036, so you can learn the USA version of our language.

For Spanish, there are 19 different styles. Pick the wrong one and you are WRONG. For French, there are 6 different styles. Again, pick the Right one to be correct. there are 5 flavors of German,

There are 13 different flavors of English, so learn one REALLY well.

Answer 9

I'm pretty sure you would lose marks, as many words are spelt incorrectly by Americans. One would assume that the correct English would be the U.K english, not th U.S.

Answer 10

I dont know about the US but here in the UK the examiners dont seem too bothered anymore about bad spelling as long as the content is there.
Some of the spelling and grammar on this site proves my point!