Since the first settlers ventured “across the pond” and took up residence in the United States, American life has been diverging from its British origins.

English-speaking Americans quickly began to have a range of new experiences that didn’t exist in Great Britain, interacting with Native Americans and immigrants from other countries.

Over centuries, the language began to diverge, leaving us with a few significant spelling differences between British English and American English. Let’s take a look at American versus English words.

American vs. English words

Some words have two different spellings — one that’s used more commonly in American English and one that’s more prevalent in British English. Take a look at the American versus English words below to learn which variant you should use. This is vital to ensure your meaning is conveyed correctly, whether in blog posts or email marketing.

Suffixes

Most spelling differences in British versus American English occur in suffixes. One of the commonly known distinctions is the British addition of the letter U into words that end in –or, but there are several others.

-or vs. -our

American: color, humor, flavor

British: colour, humour, flavour

-er vs. -re

Am: theater, center, liter

Br: theatre, centre, litre

-ize vs. -ise

Am: incentivize, apologize, organize

Br: incentivise, apologise, organize

-yze vs. -yse

Am: analyze, paralyze

Br: analyse, paralyse

-ense vs. -ence

Am: defense, license, offense

Br: defence, licence, offence

Extra letters

The American writing style often opts for fewer letters, while the British writing style often doubles letters or adds extra vowels.

Double L

Am: traveled, canceled, traveling, canceling

Br: travelled, cancelled, travelling, cancelling

Double vowels

British English has many spellings that use ae or oe vowels to achieve a certain sound. American English tends to use only the e.

Am: estrogen, pediatric

Br: oestrogen, paediatric

Aside from spelling differences, there are a few common distinctions between American versus English words, grammar, and punctuation as well. Correct punctuation is imperative for everyone — from business owners to content marketers.

American vs. British punctuation differences

In order to ensure your punctuation is always impeccable no matter the continent you’re writing on, let’s talk about a few common British vs. American English punctuation differences.

Quotations

For quotations, American style uses double quotes. If a quotation occurs inside another quotation, American style uses single quotes.

Ex: “I was talking to my sister yesterday, and suddenly she says, ‘What if I dye my hair purple?’ I was shocked.”

British style flips this around. For quotations, British writing style uses single quotes, while American writing style uses double quotes for quotations inside other quotations.

Ex: ‘I was talking to my sister yesterday, and suddenly she says “What if I dye my hair purple?” I was shocked’.

In British style, periods and commas are placed outside of the quotation marks if it is not part of the original quote. American style puts these punctuation marks inside the quotation marks, whether they are part of the quote or not.

Times and titles

American style opts for a colon between hours and minutes when writing time, while British style uses a period.

Am: The train arrives at 11:11.

Br: The train arrives at 11.11.

For courtesy titles such as Ms. or Mr., American style uses a period, while British does not.

Now that you know the difference between American versus English words and punctuation, you can ensure your content is error-free.

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