why do the uk and usa spell the same word differently???

Question

For example...

Colour (uk) Color (usa)

Grey (uk) Gray (usa)

Any others????

Answer 1

I think its simpler than that - their spell check is knackered lol

Answer 2

One of the earlier American writers decided to make the english language simpler, and in his dictionary, simplified many words. His spellings became standard in the USA, while the UK was unaffected by these changed spellings.

Answer 3

The reason for it is quite simple: the USA uses spellings and words that were in use in the UK in the 18th century.

Here, words and spellings changed, while in the US, they remained static - this was deliberate; the reason for adding unnecessary letters to a word or changing the name of something has never been understood, although one theory is that the Empire wanted to distance itself from the "rebellious colonists".

Examples: words:
Scallion (USA) Spring Onion (UK)
Eggplant (USA) Aubergine (UK)

The US versions were in use in England until c. 1801-5

Spellings:
Favor (USA) Favour (UK)
Neighbor (USA) Neighbour (UK)
Meter (USA) Metre (UK)

Answer 4

What's-your-face, the correct way of building that sentence is "The United States of America is wrong." When you're talking about 1 country, it doesn't matter how many people live there, you're still talking about a singular subject. Therefore, the correct word would be "IS" not "ARE". I suck at spelling, but I'm better than you at grammer. Go to school. Use that mush you call a brain.

Answer 5

They don't!
In UK, they speak English (well, some of them)
In USA, they speak American (well, a few of them).
Two countries separated by the same language.
It does not really matter eitherway, because the level of education of their language has gone down the drain, and none can spell correctly anymore.

Answer 6

Some of the US ones are better imo. I like the ones with z in instead of s. Due to the internet I've got to be careful when I do business letters these days.... as frequented too many international/us forums and so often use usa spelling.

realise (uk) realize (usa)

Answer 7

plenty

Sulphur (UK) Sulfur (US)

Aluminium (UK) Aluminum (US)

I believe it was when Websters produced his first Dictionary in the US he changed a few spellings to get rid of what he saw as 'redundant' letters. Changing 'ph' to 'f' for example

Answer 8

its all to do with 'phonetics' ie how the work sounds. The US dont use letters that are not needed e.g- colour they say color you really don't need the u because if you used the english way of pronouncing words it would sound like col-our.

Answer 9

Culture difference: except among the lowest levels of society Brits care, whereas except among the highest levels of society Yanks don't, so even their favourite national dictionary immortalised sloppy spellings.

Answer 10

Theres a great eddie izzard comedy sketch about this! I think u.s. spell through as thru, possibly?

I dont know why though to be honest!

Answer 11

Because Americans can't spell!!! If they want to speak English, they should spell correctly!!