American spelling vs. British spelling

[Amy_Rose]

I'm not an english speaker and I usually don't know the difference between the two, and it's really confusing, I wished that the whole world just settled on one, it would be much easier 

[MerePeasant]

British spellings because I live in Britain.

 

I don't have a problem with American spellings, but what does bother me is when British people use American spellings for no good reason. Have seen 'grey' spelt 'gray' by Brits even on here. Why?

 

'Jewellery' is a much prettier spelling than 'jewelry', and 'chequebook' is nicer than 'checkbook'!

[Rhaenys]

Trinidad was colonised by Britain so I use British spelling because that's what I learnt.  Sometimes I use American spelling when typing cause I'm lazy or I can't remember the British spelling.

[will123]

British spelling (colour, labour) for this Canuck other than 'center' (worked for a US multinational) & 'er' on metric units of measure

[CosmicTheAceOfSpace]

I'm British and prefer the British spelling, but overall I'm quite neutral to it, I don't take it as personally as some when auto correct tries to change the British spelling of a word to the American one (I don't quite understand what you have against the letter 'u', but oh well, you do you America!) 

 

[everywhere and nowhere]

My spelling is rather inconsistent. English is not my first language.

Btw, I virtually never make spelling mistakes in Polish, probably due to having started reading at pre-school age and so kinda having barely known my native language in a pre-written version.

 

Btw, I always write "gray", not "grey". Perhaps to move this word further from a very popular and harmful book series which seems to instill in people the opinion that everybody must try BDSM.

[Tasha the demi squirrel]

On 25/04/2018 at 1:12 AM, Nowhere Girl said:

popular and harmful book series

A book series that society have of course turned into a movie.....luckily I've managed to avoid this series

[daveb]

Some British spellings make more sense to me, and in other cases some American ones do. For example, traveller (Br) seems more correct than traveler (Am), but center/theater/etc. (Am) seems more correct than centre/theatre/etc. (Br). And words like color (what purpose does a silent u serve?) or gray (the vowel is pronounced like an a not an e).  

[Chloe O'Leary]

I definitely prefer British spelling over American. I am born and bred British, though, so I'm probably biased. 😉

[Dreamer23]

American English all the way!

 

I'm from Germany and we were taught BE at school (though fortunately allowed to use AE if we were consistent about it) -> Started switching to AE at some point in High School.

I assume it's because most media on the internet is using AE, but who knows...

 

[Tree snake]

I was taught British English at school but became familiar with American English through media and the internet. So in the end I grew accustomed to using a mix of the two. I prefer reading BE but IMO AE is easier to listen to. In general if I'm listening to music, a vlog or a podcast I prefer AE (BE has some really funky words, so funky I don't think even British people know what they mean), there are exceptions; Harry Potter, Midsummer Murders, Jeremy Wade the lovely man... I'm gonna go dream about Jeremy Wade now

 

[kiaroskuro]

I was also taught BE at school and I have family in the UK, so I naturally prefer British spelling and pronunciation.

Theater? Color? Looks wrong/odd, somehow.

[UnknownOwl]

I prefer Canadian spelling (Which is mostly British)

[Annenigma]

Here’s the thing. I personally prefer American English not just because I’m American but but the history behind it. We spell differently mainly because the invention of the printing press. American newspaper advertising was pay by letter so we cut back on redundant letters. It might be slightly easier but why is that a bad thing?

[iff]

@Fantastic Name

 

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iff, Census Forum Moderator