The little red writing book - Brandon Royal 2007

American English vs. British English
Appendixes

American English and British English are the two major engines behind the evolving English language. Other English-speaking countries — most notably Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, the Philippines, and South Africa — embrace a variant of one or both of these two major systems. Although American and British English do not differ with respect to grammar per se, each system has its own peculiarities in terms of spelling and punctuation. The purpose of this section is to provide a snapshot of these differences.

SPELLING DIFFERENCES

Spelling Differences Between American English and British English

Spelling fine points: The British generally double the final -l when adding suffices that begin with a vowel, where Americans double it only on stressed syllables. This makes sense given that American English treats -l the same as other final consonants, whereas British English treats it as an exception. For example, whereas Americans spell counselor, equaling, modeling, quarreled, signaling, traveled, and tranquility, the British spell counsellor, equalling, modelling, quarrelled, signalling, travelled, and tranquillity.

Certain words — compelled, excelling, propelled, and rebelling — are spelled the same on both platforms, consistent with the fact that the British double the -l while Americans observe the stress on the second syllable. The British also use a single -l before suffixes beginning with a consonant, whereas Americans use a double -l. Thus, the British spell enrolment, fulfilment, instalment, and skilful, Americans spell enrollment, fulfillment, installment, and skillful.

Deciding which nouns and verbs end in -ce or -se is understandably confusing. In general, nouns in British English are spelled -ce (e.g., defence, offence, pretence) while nouns in American English are spelled -se (e.g., defense, offense, pretense). Moreover, American and British English retain the noun-verb distinction in which the noun is spelled with -ce and the core verb is spelled with an -se. Examples include: advice (noun), advise (verb), advising (verb) and device (noun), devise (verb), devising (verb).

With respect to licence and practice, the British uphold the noun-verb distinction for both words: licence (noun), license (verb), licensing (verb) and practice (noun), practise (verb), practising (verb). Americans, however, spell license with a -s across the board: license (noun), license (verb), licensing (verb), although licence is an accepted variant spelling for the noun form. Americans further spell practice with a -c on all accounts: practice (noun), practice (verb), practicing (verb).

PUNCTUATION DIFFERENCES

The following serves to highlight some of major differences in punctuation between America English and British English.

Abbreviations

Americans use a period (full stop) after salutations; the British do not.

Americans use “vs.” for versus; the British write “v.” for versus. Note that Americans also use the abbreviation v. in legal contexts. For example, Gideon v. Wainright.

Colons

Americans often capitalize the first word after a colon, if what follows is a complete sentence. The British prefer not to capitalize the first word that follows the colon, even if what follows is a full sentence.

Commas

Americans use a comma before the “and” when listing a series of items. The British do not use a comma before the “and” or "or" when listing a series of items.

The abbreviation “i.e.” stands for “that is”; the abbreviation “e.g.” stands for “for example.” In American English, a comma always follows the second period in each abbreviation (when the abbreviation is used in context). In British English, a comma is never used after the second period in either abbreviation.

Note that under both systems, these abbreviations are constructed with two periods, one after each letter. The following variant forms are not correct under either system: “eg.,” or “eg.” or “ie.,” or “ie.”

Dashes

The British have traditionally favored the use of a hyphen where Americans have favored the use of the dash. Discussion of the two types of dashes is found in Appendix II — Editing Tune-up.

Quotation Marks

Americans use double quotation marks. The British typically use single quotation marks.

Periods and commas are placed inside quotation marks in American English (almost without exception). In British English, the treatment is twofold. Punctuation goes inside quotation marks if it’s part of the quote itself; if not, quotation marks go on the outside. This means that in British English periods and commas go on the outside of quotation marks in all situations not involving dialogue or direct speech. However, in situations involving direct speech, periods and commas generally go inside of quotation marks because they are deemed to be part of the dialogue itself.

Note: Today, the practice of using single quotation marks is not ubiquitous in the United Kingdom. A number of UK-based newspapers, publishers, and media companies now follow the practice of using double quotation marks.

Always be nice to those younger than you,

because they are the ones who will be

writing about you.

—Cyril Connolly