Strange little language quirk

bruno123
Tue, 05 Dec 2006 18:01:21 +0000

Most of the differences between British and American spelling have to do with the spelling reform introduced by Daniel Webster by the time of the US independence from Britain. Typical classes of differences (that extend to similar words) include:

honour x honor

realise x realize

organisation x organization

centre x center

defence x defense

mediaeval x medieval

modelling x modeling

enrolment x enrollment

dialogue x dialog

etc…

In addition, there are several other miscellaneous differences affecting isolated words (e.g. “plough” v. “plow”, “draught” v. “draft”, “artefact” v. “artifact”, etc.).

BTW, Brits usually say “to sit an exam”, rather than “to take” or “give” an exam.