British and American Spelling Differences

[apollo13]

Heh, yeah sorry about that principal thing - I was trying to watch tv at the same time as doing this, and my mind wasn't really on the job. >.<

~Evie

[SiriuslyMental]

One thing that really seems to confuse many Americans -

British does not mean English. An Englishman can be British but a Brit is not necessarily from England.

British includes all of Welsh, English, Scottish, and Northern Irish peoples.

British accents are a myth. There is no such thing as a British accent, but there are many English, Scottish, Welsh, and N Irish accents.

[Horsesbella219]

One thing that really seems to confuse many Americans -

British does not mean English. An Englishman can be British but a Brit is not necessarily from England.

British includes all of Welsh, English, Scottish, and Northern Irish peoples.

British accents are a myth. There is no such thing as a British accent, but there are many English, Scottish, Welsh, and N Irish accents.

If anyone has any trouble remembering that, i'd like to suggest a marvellous rthyme we used to sing in school when we were doing french skipping:

Endland, ireland, Scotland, Wales
Inside, outside, Inside, On.

It's also good for remembering how to do french skipping

[emmaholloway]

battery -- cell

cell? Isn't it a cell when it is only half a battery (or something like that, like when you had to draw the circuit diagrams in physics and a cell only had one big line and one small line, where as a battery had two?)

Battery is always battery as far as I know.

[bluexroses]

cell? Isn't it a cell when it is only half a battery (or something like that, like when you had to draw the circuit diagrams in physics and a cell only had one big line and one small line, where as a battery had two?)

Battery is always battery as far as I know.

Hm, you're probably right. I just remember when I went to England and needed one, the lady we were staying with called it a cell. *shrug* I probably just got something mixed up.

[apollo13]

I have actually only ever heard Americans refer to batteries as cells.

~Evie

[Rhi for HP]

Hmm...no, Evie, I have never ever heard a battery called a cell here in America, and I have been to 45 states...we just call them batteries...so I guess both Brits and Americans call them that.

cozy - cosy
fulfill - fulfil
any word ending in "ize" - "--ise" (Note: Microsoft Word, if you set the automatic spellcheck on U.K. English rather than U.S. English (many people do so and think that counts as Britpicking) will not pick up this difference, so you have to do it manually.)
Spoiled, spilled, spelled -- spoilt, spilt, spelt (sorry, I don't know the rule on this, like which verbs change and which don't, because not all verbs end in 't' in the past tense in British English).
whine - whinge
judgment - judgement
okay - OK
elementary school - primary school
middle school/junior high and high school (I've heard both called the British version) - secondary school

[Lola-Louisa]

In America, there seem to be two different spellings for the word "grey". There is the one I just put and "gray".

Is there any difference?

And also, my American cousin keeps referring to braids, like as in hair. I've only ever heard them in rope terms. What are they?

(This actually does have something to do with my fanfic)

[Rushia]

The way it was explained to me is that "grey" is British and "gray" is American. And sure enough, the first one is considered misspelled by my browser's automatic spell check. Interesting.

I don't really know a way to explain braids without using the word "braid," so here's a picture:



Just curious, what do you call those instead?

~ Lucia

[saizine]

Rushia, braids are often referred to as 'plaits'. The specific picture that you posted would be a French plait, I believe. Or at least, that was what my family referred to them as! I've not lived in England for a while, so I don't know if it's gone out of "use" or not.

xoxo Lessie