Do you British people think it is funny how we americans spell "color" or "favorite"??

Question

I know a few words that we spell differently. i am going to move to England so can anyone please tell me more words that are spelled differently than american versions? i want to learn!

rubymlake, get a grip! Too bad, I don't make the rules of American spelling or grammar. I was simply taught to follow it, I didn't make it! Waste my time on some other occasion will ya???

Okay , I'm getting the idea that a lot of "U"s and"Z"s are added to British words.

Citag, so i got no "humour" just because I'm American?? You got another thing coming pal..

I swear, by some of your answers (such as "On the Wagon"'s answer), some of you probably think I am an idiot. Think again....pavement is not a difficult word to spell. Try antidisestablishmentarianism!!!!!

Answer 1

Here's another one: jewellery/jewelry. Also, anything with "ae" or "oe" is changed to "e", like oestrogen/estrogen, paedophile/pedophile. That really annoys me

Answer 2

You'll be fine, the pronunciation is pretty much the same anyway, revel in being the one with the accent for a change. If you work with a PC switch the Dictionary to "English" English rather than the US English and let "spell check" educate you as you go.
Should anyone REALLY take you to task explain that at the founding of your country there was great discussion regarding language, weights and measures etc.
They had a clean slate and decided to attempt to simplify the language phonetically, hence metre became meter etc.
They went Metric with money (but kept the copper penny)..
They kept other"imperial" measuring systems with a few "tweaks",
ounces and pounds remain but a "stone" (14lb) and a "hundredweight" of 112 lbs (8x a stone), were dumped.

Pints and gallons were kept, but there are only 16 fluid ounces in a pint so a gallon of dinasaur juice will be 20% bigger in UK (but will cost 500% more).

Spelling at that time was hardly universal in Britain. Though great strides have been made to standardize since, the first Oxford English Dictionary was published in the early to mid 1800's I'm told.
I would suggest that anyone taking umbrage with your spelling and/or pronunciation has other axes to grind,
perhaps distaste for current US foreign policy!

Answer 3

Are you sure that you want to move to England after reading some of these stupid and ignorant answers?
Don't take any notice of those people that are so narrow minded that they have to write bad comments.
I have a friend that lives in Honolulu and when we first started writing to each other we always commented on those differences in our languages, we helped each other and it was fun too. When you arrive find an intelligent British friend to help you and as time goes by you will learn our way of spelling. At the end of the day it doesn't really matter.....look at some of the spelling you have on this site! Good luck.
By the way who said our spelling was the correct way anyway??? Britishness at it's worst, thinking we are superior once again....such crap.

Answer 4

Please do not worry about this because when you get here you will find that lots of us spell English words differently to the rest.

The English language is going through a big change. If you carry on using the American spelling you will not upset anybody and we will be able to understand you. I think we are slowly turning into Americans anyway !

Answer 5

I don't think it's funny, but I do think it is a feeble attempt to create an identity for a nation which has no history of its own, no identity and no idea!

There are other words which irritate me such as the metal aluminum (should be aluminium) which has its last i missing for no reason whatsoever except that americans appear lazy in their spelling.

Answer 6

i find it a little bit insulting when installing software that asks if you want to install in "English (US)" but doesn't give you a GB equivalent.

yeah the spellings do seem a little bit odd but hey different rules over there i guess.

One word is aluminium/aluminum. Us brits think that the first one is right and the US version is wrong- don't let anyone tell you this is the case! We changed it to aluminium so that it sounds similar to other elements in the periodic table.

Good luck with the move dude!

Answer 7

I could never understand why the americans had to take our beautiful language and b*u*g*g*e*r it up completely. Was it due just to illiteracy or was there a conscious effort to make it as different as possible without changing the actual sound so much that it could not be understood?One word that really gets my goat is Aluminum. I mean, hey! All metals end with IUM - Uranium, Plutonium. What happened to the i in aluminium???

Answer 8

I moved from South Africa to the US and in SA we use the British way of spelling. I haven't changed the way i spell some words, simply because the American spelling seems wrong to me, and not only that but it's sort of automatic.

Answer 9

I'm not British but always get confused with centre and center. Also I never know which is the British vs American way with words ending in ize/ise.

Answer 10

Its not just the british that spell this way,I am an aussie and we add those extra 'U's and bits and pieces,many other countries do also ,so 'get a life' to those who think that english is 'THEIR' language.And to those arrogant people...learn how to spell!!!!!!
ha ha,just joking!! We all have different ways...get used to it

Answer 11

It does look a little odd.
Labour
Plough
Trough
Pavement (not sidewalk)
Tube (not subway)
Football NOT soccer

Be very careful with Fannies, and bums are tramps.
A rubber is not rude, and faggots are meatballs.
Nobody will mind if you "nip out for a ***".