BrE BrE

neighbour but donor

professor

honour but metaphor

savour but manor /'mænə/

flavour

behaviour but anchor

colour

In BrE the suffixes –ation and –ious usually lead to a form with –or: coloration, laborious, but suffixes –al and –ful as in behavioural and colourful have no such effect. However, AmE may keep –our in such words as glamour (next to glamor) and Saviour (next to Savior).

But in such words ascontour

tour -our is never simplified.

amour

AmE mold BrE mould

mustache moustache

molt moult

The second well-known case concerns –er and –re. British words in -re are regularized to -er in AmE. E.g.: BrE centre AmE center (but central)

metre meter

This rule applies everywhere in AmE except where the letter preceding the ending is c or g. In these cases -re is retained: acre /'eikə /

mediocre

ogre /'eugə/

Derivational Uniformity

BrE writes defence AmE has -s > defense > defensive

offence -s > offense > offensive

pretence -s > pretense > pretension

but to practise (v) but to practice (v) > practical

In another case BrE observes this principle and AmE violates it:

BrE analyse AmE analyze

paralyse paralyze

And their derivation cognates in BrE are “analysis”, “paralysis”.

Reflection of Pronunciation

This principle has been widely adopted in spelling in both varieties for verbs ending in -ize and the corresponding nouns ending in -ization. The older spellings with -ise and -isation are, however, also found in both AmE and BrE (in publishing style – preference for z). However, some words such as

to advertise

to advise

to compromise appear only with –ise

to revise

to televise

In AmE “l” is doubled if the final syllable of the root carries the stress and is spelled with a single letter vowel e/o. If the stress does not lie on the final syllable “l” is not doubled

to re'bel - re'belling but 'travel - 'traveler

com'pel - com'pelling 'marvel - 'marveling

con'trol - con'trolling 'revel - 'reveling

pa'trol - pa'troller 'yodel - 'yodeled

Hence AmE spelling closely reflects pronunciation. The AmE spelling fulfill, distill may be favoured over simplified Br fulfil, distil because they indicate end stress. BrE, in contrast, follows the principle of regularization since all final “l’s” regardless of stress are doubled (e.g. traveller, marvelling). In a few cases BrE doubles the final “p” where AmE does not, e.g. kidnap(p)er, worship(p)er.

Perhaps the best-known cases of spellings adapted to reflect pronunciation are those involving -gh-. Here AmE tends to use a “phonetic” spelling so that

BrE plough turns into AmE plow

draught draft

(a flow of air)

AmE thru (BrE through) and AmE tho (BrE though) are not uncommon in AmE but restricted to more informal writing and sometimes show up in official use.

Such spellings as AmE lite, hi, nite (BrE light, high, night) are employed in very informal writing and in advertising language.