Have you ever noticed multiple spellings for some words? These differences are largely due to “American” spelling versus “British” spelling of words.
We Canadians generally use a mix of both in our correspondence. Some tend to use American spelling more frequently and consistently, others gravitate towards British spelling. In part, I think it goes back to what you were taught in school. Also, in my experience, many Canadians who write professionally, or write regularly as part of their job, tend more towards the use of British spelling. I fall in that category for my own writing. Having said that, when I compiled the lists below, I realized there are some words where I consistently use the American spelling, particularly for item #3 – it turns out that this is convention in Canada, not just individual preference.
Interestingly, a discussion with my proof reader, Ramona Rea, generated conflicting opinions on what is individual preference versus formal convention for spelling in Canada. That sent me back to do some further research to elucidate which is the case, but it didn’t really solve the problem. Turns out we were both right, and both wrong, on various points. It’s complicated! And I’ve learned something in the process.
So – what are the differences?
1. “or” vs “our” at the end of a word:
American British
color colour
behavior behaviour
neighbor neighbour
labor labour
odor odour
And sometimes in the middle of the word, or before “l”
favorite favourite
mold mould
In Canada, both versions are acceptable, but there are regional variations on preference.
2. “er” vs “re” at the end of a word:
American British
center centre
theater theatre
fiber fibre
meter metre
liter litre
In Canada, both versions are acceptable, but again with regional differences. Some Canadian dictionaries prefer the American spelling, others prefer the British spelling. For scientific writing, the British spelling is preferred in both British and Canadian journals.
3. “ze” vs “se” at the end of a word:
American British
analyze analyse
paralyze paralyse
recognize recognise
organize organise
catalyze catalyse
realize realise
In Canada, it is convention to use the American spelling. And British writers are gradually switching over to the American spelling as well.
4. “el” vs “ell” at the end of a verb when changing its form:
American British
labeled labelled
labeling labelling
traveler traveller
canceled cancelled
counseling counselling
In Canada, it is convention to use the British spelling, but with some regional differences.
5. Single vowel “e” vs double vowels “ae” and “oe”, particularly in medical jargon:
American British
leukemia leukaemia
orthopedic orthopaedic
pediatric paediatric
maneuver manoeuvre
etiology aetiology
In Canada, it’s a mixture, with a tendency towards the British spelling. In medical and scientific writing, the British spelling is preferred, even in some parts of the US. However, the lay press in Canada and the US tends towards the American spelling.
6. “se” vs “ce” at the end of a word:
American British
license licence
practise practice
defense defence
offense offence
pretense pretence
With this one, just to make things more complicated, Canadians use the American “se” spelling when using the word as a verb or descriptor (participle), but use the British “ce” spelling when using the same word as a noun.
Canadian examples:
I have a driver’s licence. (noun)
The company licensed its product. (verb)
It’s time for hockey practice. (noun)
I have to practise the piano. (verb)
7. “g” vs “gue” at the end of a word:
American British
analog analogue
catalog catalogue
dialog dialogue
epilog epilogue
monolog monologue
However, I’ve seen many Americans prefer the “gue” spelling in this case. And Canadians use the British spellings.
8. And finally, miscellaneous other words that are spelled differently:
American British
check cheque
grey gray
program programme
learned learnt
while whilst
spelled spelt
mustache moustache
aluminum aluminium
buses busses
jewelry jewellery
licorice liquorice
Once again, Canadians use some American spellings and some British spellings.
Which version(s) do you prefer to use?
When editing or writing manuscripts, I adjust the spelling according to the nationality of the journal where the paper will be submitted:
American journal = American spelling.
British or European journal = British spelling.
Canadian journal = British spelling, for the most part, but some American spelling.
If Canadian English is not your first language, and you’re targeting your writing for a Canadian journal or audience, it’s probably best to use the services of a Canadian copy editor to ensure the spelling is correct and consistent in your paper.
The most important thing to remember is consistency. For any given word, make sure you spell it the same way throughout the entire manuscript. Also, for any of the examples above, spell all words within the same category the same way throughout the entire manuscript.
Spelling is tricky! I hope you found this tip helpful. I’d appreciate your feedback, and I welcome suggestions for future weekly writing tips.
You got grey mixed up – it’s the other way round. Also Britain switches between -se (verbs) and -ce (nouns) as well, not just Canada.
Thanks Alessandro Lancia.
Oops! I double-checked, and you’re right, I mixed up “grey” (which is actually the British spelling) and “gray” (actually American spelling). Thanks for catching my error.
Interesting to learn re item 6, “ce” versus “se” at the end of words, that the British spelling is starting to trend towards the Canadian switching as well. Good to know!
You also have practise/practice mixed up in the same way. Oops!
I don’t think they are mixed up. In the UK we have always differentiated between verb and noun. We visit the doctor’s practice but we practise cricket.
Americans almost always use “practice” whether it’s a verb or a noun.
Thanks for the feedback Martin. I guess it depends on what type of writing (casual, technical, medical) and perhaps the region of the US. I’m sure I’ve seen both spellings in some US writing, and I’m sure I’ve seen practice used as a both a verb and noun on occasion. Just another layer of complication, right?
I feel like I’m now overthinking and I can’t remember what I do!
My understanding of grey/gray is that grey is the colour, and gray is the surname.
I’m in Ireland so using Hiberno-English!!
This is just more of a question really, I am Canadian and when I was younger in school learning the “English language ” I could have sworn that we were taught that the word that is now more excepted as “college” and was spelled “colledge”. A bud asked me why I’ve spelled it that way for as he is from another country and found it off. When I told him it was the difference between the Queens English spelling and more modern spelling as was taught to me in school he just thought I misremembered my spelling from school. When we started looking up older ways of spelling that word we couldn’t find the way I was taught in school anywhere and I feel so frustrated right now. Is there anyone out there that knows what I’m talking about or is he right and I need to start getting medicated for memory loss. Not a joke..
Great question John. “Colledge” was once considered a correct spelling of the word, in the late 1600s through the 1700s, and it was proposed for the naming of William and Mary Colledge of Virginia. However, today this spelling is considered obsolete, and the accepted spelling is “college”.
But “accepted” is never “excepted”, if it’s meant to mean “not rejected”.
That’s right Dodger. “Accepted” means approval of an item. “Excepted” means an exception has been made for that item, so it is either approved when it normally shouldn’t be, or it has been excluded when it normally shouldn’t be. Confusion between these two words is worthy of an entire future blog.
Definitely not spelt with a d in the UK – sorry!
If you think this is confusing you should see what date formats are used in Canada (answer: all of the above)
Nic, you’ve raised a good point. The formatting of dates gets very confusing across the UK, Canada, and the US. And especially when using database programs such as Excel.
Well, not quite true. While written dates can be month day year or day month year, all numeric dates are YYYY-MM-DD since this is the simplest to work with when sorting and least confusing.
A very interesting article, fascinating. One additional point is that in UK English we use the American spelling program for a computer program but can differentiate for a TV, theatre or event programme.
Thank you Martin. An interesting accommodation.
I don’t think they are mixed up. In the UK we have always differentiated between verb and noun. We visit the doctor’s practice but we practise cricket.
The problem is that you wrote practise and friends under the american column. Thanks for the article!
British and Aussie English use both “while” and “whilst”. I don’t know if there’s a hard rule but I tend to use “whilst” when one subject is doing two things, but “while” when the subjects are different. It just sounds weird otherwise.
For instance: Sherlock often played violin and smoked his pipe whilst mulling over a mystery. Due to Sherlock’s ineptitude at fiddling, however, Dr. Watson preferred to leave the flat while Sherlock did his thing.
That’s an interesting differentiation for me to learn. Thank you. As a Canadian, when I see “whilst” written I know immediately the author is originally from the UK, or now Australia based on your information. In Canada and the US, we simply don’t use the term “whilst”.
Canadian English isn’t just somebody just picking between British and U.S. spellings. Canadian English is a unique, specific form of English. Most Canadian publishers use the Oxford Canadian dictionary as their spelling reference, which is based on a corpus of Canadian writing and indicates the most common spellings found in that corpus (and some other things). Canadian newspapers, magazines, governments and book publishers all spell the same way, in Canadian spelling. It’s not British or American, it’s Canadian.
You’ve raised a good point, Ken. I went to a number of those resources to help define what the correct or most accepted Canadian spelling is for this blog. You’re right. Canadian spelling isn’t just a trend of choosing British or US spelling, it has developed its own formal definitions, as captured by Canadian dictionaries.
American here. We actually spell “practice” the British way, even though in general you’re correct about us using the “-ise” ending. While I believe “monolog” and “epilog” are technically acceptable spellings, I’ve never actually seen those used either; they’re almost universally spelled with the “-ogue” endings (which you sort of allude to).
As a Canadian. I can say I prefer the British spelling in almost every case.
It leads to proper grammar and pronunciation.
Except er/re (Meter/Metre) When I went to school the we spelt everything with an er. At one time, only the Quebecois and French, New Brunswicker’s spelt things with “re” at the end.
The only exception I can think of is Theatre. Has always been. “RE.”
In the last 20 years all the sign’s for “Community Center’s” were re-done and now say “Community Centre.”
I can’t stand Z’s in words that should sound like a “Tss”. Not “zzz” … Analyse… Especially when the plural has an S in American spelling.