Why can't Americans Spell........(like Brits)?

25,514 views ・ 2018-07-06

Eat Sleep Dream English


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:00
Guys, why can't Americans spell the same as Brits? It's total madness. We speak the same
0
310
5650
00:05
language but we spell completely differently. So we are going to look at six differences
1
5960
4350
00:10
between British English spelling and American English spelling. Let's get into this madness.
2
10310
4470
00:22
Hello and welcome to Eat Sleep Dream English, if you haven't met me before my name is Tom
3
22560
3400
00:25
and I teach fresh modern British English so that you can take your English to the next
4
25960
3819
00:29
level and achieve your life goals. Now before we get started I was only joking about Americans
5
29779
4791
00:34
not being able to spell, it was a joke. But it does raise the issue of the differences
6
34570
5480
00:40
in spelling between British and American English. So for those of you that write a lot in English,
7
40050
5490
00:45
this is really important to know. If you are writing a business email or you are a journalist
8
45540
4830
00:50
or you are writing an essay for your university getting the spelling correct is really important
9
50370
4520
00:54
and that will depend on whether you speak British English or American English. Take
10
54890
3851
00:58
the word apologise, in American English it ends with -ze but in British English it's
11
58741
5938
01:04
-se. So apologize is -ze and apologise -se. Another example is criticise. -ze in American
12
64679
8631
01:13
English, -se in British English. Difference number two is -or and -our. So take the word
13
73310
7750
01:21
colour, in British English we write -our in American English it's just -or. Another example
14
81060
8169
01:29
favourite. In British English favourite and in American English favorite. So the -our
15
89229
14081
01:43
and the -or. Another example neighbour. So in British English neighbour, in American
16
103310
8599
01:51
English neighbor. Difference number three is the endings of -re and -er so take the
17
111909
8941
02:00
word theatre. In British English we end it with -re in American English it's -er. Another
18
120850
8491
02:09
example centre. So -re in British English -er in American English. This next one is
19
129341
7629
02:16
a classic difference. Now take the word practise. In American English it's with -se at the end.
20
136970
5829
02:22
Now in British English we have -ce but we also have -se. So in British English the noun
21
142799
8341
02:31
will be -ce practice with a -ce so Doctor's Practice is -ce but the verb is -se. So I'm
22
151140
8090
02:39
going to practise the guitar is with an -se. So for the noun it's -ce with the verb it's
23
159230
5360
02:44
-se. Whereas in American English it's the same for both. Makes it a lot easier, right?
24
164590
4750
02:49
Same with the word license. So license is -se in American English, the noun in British
25
169340
5290
02:54
English is -ce and the verb to license something is -se so there's a bit of a difference there.
26
174630
6139
03:00
The next difference is with the Ls. The Ls can be slightly different depending on whether
27
180769
3341
03:04
it's British or American English. For example skilful. In American English it's skillful
28
184110
7599
03:11
whereas in British English it's just one l so skilful. To continue that idea on take
29
191709
8370
03:20
the word travel. Now travel is spelled the same in British and American English but when
30
200079
4220
03:24
you add a vowel on to to it so for example if you want to put it into the past tense
31
204299
3541
03:27
travelled then in British English you add an L so travelled with two Ls but in American
32
207840
5830
03:33
English you stay with one L. Same with travelling, two Ls in British English, one L in American
33
213670
5790
03:39
English. Ok, let's look at some other words that are commonly spelled differently. So
34
219460
4311
03:43
donut in American English, doughnut in British English. Same pronunciation but different
35
223771
9088
03:52
spelling. Aeroplane or airplane. Airplane in American English and aeroplane in British
36
232859
10481
04:03
English. Pronunciation aeroplane, airplane, it's more or less the same when it comes down
37
243340
6280
04:09
to it I'd say aeroplane airplane. I don't know what I say, it's so interchangeable these
38
249620
6020
04:15
days. I wouldn't be too worried what you are saying. And in fact do you know what I probably
39
255640
4339
04:19
write airplane instead of aeroplane. So I use the American English spelling just because
40
259979
5621
04:25
it is simpler in my head. I don't think it matters too much. The word Mum is also spelled
41
265600
6140
04:31
differently. So in British English we spell it Mum. In American English Mom. Maybe that
42
271740
6590
04:38
comes with the pronunciation, it's slightly different but Mum is spelled differently.
43
278330
4750
04:43
Jewellery is another one. So in British English you've got two Ls and in American English
44
283080
4309
04:47
there's one L. Pyjamas, in Britain we throw a Y in there so pyjamas whereas in American
45
287389
6341
04:53
English it's just pa. And finally the colour grey. In British English it's grey and in
46
293730
6821
05:00
American English gray. Guys, what did you think? Did you enjoy that vlog? Did you find
47
300551
6048
05:06
it useful? Did you know the differences between British English and American English spelling?
48
306599
5361
05:11
Let me know in the comments below. If you can think of any other examples of differences
49
311960
3829
05:15
in spelling then let me know in the comments below. If you don't know already guys I'm
50
315789
4331
05:20
on Instagram and I've got daily English content that I put on there so that you can keep updated
51
320120
5359
05:25
with your English. I've also got a Facebook page so go and check them both out. If you've
52
325479
3971
05:29
been here before you'll know that I put new videos out every Tuesday and every Friday
53
329450
3820
05:33
to help you take your English to the next level. Thanks so much for hanging out with
54
333270
3910
05:37
me guys. I've really enjoyed it, alright guys thank you so much for hanging out with me
55
337180
3510
05:40
this is Tom, the Chief Dreamer, saying goodbye.
56
340690
2479
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7