If americans speak English, why do they spell half our words wrong??

Answer 1

Because Americans speak American English, just like Canadians speak Canadian English, Aussies speak Australian English, and so on.

When people move away from the Mother Country, the language changes over time. An example is what happened to the Dutch language in South Africa, it became Afrikaans. Very similar, similar enough that a Dutch person can understand an Afrikaaner, with a minimal effort, and they can read each other's texts for the most part, but still, different languages in many ways.

The words are not spelled wrong from the American point of view. They are correctly spelled. Color is as valid as colour, depending on the nationality of the person writing the word.

Answer 2

Because americans use the old way of spelling english words which are largely phonetical whereas the english decided to change their way of spelling (not the other way round as some people think) so the English way of spelling is actually more modern.

Answer 3

AHA, they're our words now!

I think it's pretty clear that Americans speak American...okay, okay, American English. What about the South Africans, then, or the Australians? Surely they don't retain all the same spellings as jolly olde Englande. And don't forget Canada, eh.

In any event, when people ask me my what my native tongue is, I tell them that I speak American, but I'm trying to learn English.

This reminds me of a joke that hopefully will merit ten points...

So an American and a Englishman are standing in the lobby of a hotel in London. The American looks at the Brit and asks: "Are you waiting for the elevator too?"

Says the Brit: "I beg your pardon, but I do believe it's called a lift."

The American: "No, it's an elevator."

"No, it's a lift."

"Look, pal. We invented the thing, it's an elevator."

"Yes, but seeing as WE invented the language, it's a lift."

Answer 4

Trying for their own identity in a way that lacks the English sophistication and appreciation for word and sentence structure. That said, why do so many English people spell half of their words wrong? (which creeps up to three quarters on Answers).

Answer 5

Because American English is a bit different from British English. There are a lot of spelling differences. They like omitting silent sounds: Eg: "u" in flavour - flavor, behaviour -behavior; labour - labor. According to Noah Webster, we omit the "u" in "laborious". But it's strange that we spell "curious" with "u" while "curiosity" is spelled without. So, in English there are lots of rules and exceptions for each rule, and exceptions for those exceptions. American English is a bit different in vocabulary too. Eg: BE flat-AE appartment, BE post- AE mail, etc. There are also differences in pronunciation and grammar.

Answer 6

A "living" languages are dynamic and change with use and time. It is only comparatively recently that spelling was standardised in England so it is not surprising that people who used English, Spanish or french but are not in the country were the language has originated will have their own variations. It is not all that important as long as what is said or written conveys the right meaning

Answer 7

Not too worried about the spelling. English spelling is arbitrary and I've got a good US spell checker. What bugs me is the pronunciation. Laboratory is pronounced similarly to lavatory, what's aluminum and nookleer? The time has come to accept that the US and the UK are divided by a common languidge.

Answer 8

Interestingly (at least to me), the Americans changed the spelling of certain words on purpose. There was a conscious decision to 'simplify' the spelling of words such as colour by removing unpronounced letters, and making the word more phonetic (i.e. centre/center).

This also extended to place names. All American place names bar one lost their 'burgh' if they were pronounced 'boro' , and spelled burg if they were pronounced that way. (as Edinburgh is pronounced 'Edinboro', but most American place names spelled that way over time became pronounced as the words supposedly looked - 'burg'.) Any Burghs that were still pronounced 'boro' were spelled that way (my grandmother lived in Waynesboro - it may well once have been spelled Waynesburgh).

The only exception to that is Pittsburgh - it's pronounced "Pittsburg", but they refused to change the spelling of the city.

Answer 9

this question was guaranteed to open a can of worms

when it comes to spelling, each country has its own quirks

to say americans spell words wrongly isn't quite correct, they spell some words "differently" favourite/favorite... colour/color

go back to "wrong" spelling, and look at a large number of wrongly spelled (spelt?) words used by english (british) people....

Answer 10

What you have to remember is that although our ancestors landed in America, and planted the seeds of modern civilisation there, our cultures have changed dramatically. The language has evolved in 2 different ways - just as ours has over the last 300/400 years. It's not down to laziness, or ignorance, it's called evolution. Although we are fiercely proud of our language (and it is used worldwide), we should respect the Americans and the way the English language has evolved over there.