British and US spellings

The lists below give the most common spelling differences between British and US English. As stated above, most but not all of these will be picked up by your computer spell checker. However, it is important to be familiar with the basic spelling differences between the two varieties.

As already mentioned, generally speaking British spellings are also used in Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The US column gives spellings used in the United States. Canadian English uses features of both British and US English, depending on the type of text.

-ou- and -o-

-ae- and -e-

-oe- and -e-

-ph- and -f-

-pp- and -p-

-ll- and -l-

These differences include verb forms with -ing and -ed, but not the to form. However, neither British nor US English is consistent – for instance, equally and equality in both – so always use a spell checker or dictionary as your guide. A number of examples are given below:

-l- and -ll-

In contrast to the examples above, in the words below it is British English with -l- and US English with -ll-. Furthermore, it is the to form and present tense -s verb form that differ as well as a number of other forms.

-c and -k

-qu and -ck

-xion and -ction

-ce and -se

-re and -er

Note: in both British and US English, meter is written with -er when it means a measuring device or to measure, for example:

The following words are also always written with -er in both British and US English:

Long and short endings

Some words in British English have a long ending, where the US spelling has a short ending. Compare the following examples. Note, however, that not all such words differ; for instance, both British and US English write diagram, histogram and synagogue.

In British English, the short forms analog and program are used in computing.

Other spelling differences

The following words are written differently in British and US English. On British and US vocabulary differences, see further below.