Why Are Words Spelt Differently In British & American English?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ส.ค. 2019
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SOURCES AND FURTHER READING
A Little Book Of Language: www.amazon.co.uk/Little-Book-...
Spelling & Standardisation In English: www.ruf.rice.edu/~kemmer/Histe...
Spelled or Spelt: www.grammarly.com/blog/spelle...
The Main Difference In British & American Spelling: www.oxfordinternationalenglis...
Influences On The English Language: fluentfocus.com/influences-on-...
Johnson’s Dictionary: www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/di...
Why Are There Uppercase & Lowercase Letters?: www.wonderopolis.org/wonder/w...
The English Language In America: people.umass.edu/sharris/in/e...
Noah Webster: webstersdictionary1828.com/Noa...
Marty Gots a Plan Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
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The type of english i learned is whichever one undertale is made in.
Name Explain
Another tidbit: upper case letters were called majiscules and lower case letters were called miniscules.
What type of english do other british colonies speak such as Australia and New Zealand ?
Victor Harbor in South Australia is spelt the original way as it was founded before the u was added to habour.
Have you done a video on the English used in the Caribbean? Cause I'd love to know how the hell they managed to get accents like that when there's no accents anywhere else in the world close to theirs.
British person: Colour is spelt C-O-L-O-*U*-R. You spell it wrong
American person: No U
That is just so clever, yet so stupid
*I love it*
Stop speaking French!
Let's compromise and spell it "kuller".
Tubmaster 5000 that’s verbally correct but its way too far off lol
kouler
British English:
Colour
Draught
Tyre
Theatre
American English:
Color
Draft
Tire
Theater
Canadian English:
Colour
Draught/Draft
Tire
Theatre
Because why not both
I use "theatre" for war and "theater" for opera.
I use "theatre" for the art form and "theater" for the place.
Also arse is so much better than ass
Don’t be an ass about it XD
Ha. I was thinking the same as I'm Canadian. Kinda like how we use both metric and imperial too. Our licenses say metric but in real life we say imperial. Oven temperatures are in imperial, on tv it's metric xD
Britain: English (traditional)
America: English (simplified)
Hotel: Trivago
@@FinlayHamm your comment: not funny
@@FinlayHamm pretty overused ngl
@@bonniethebunny5204 that was 6 months ago FUCK OFF
@@FinlayHamm you act like that was an ancient ass comment like it was a decade ago
I once got points off in art class because I labeled my color wheel as "Ye Olde Colour Wheele"
I would've given you extra points for that. Brilliant, I love it.
@@anmolrulezzz same
they are nothing but uncultured plebs!
Why???
Are they that stupid?
@@Federalissimo it's a Texas school, so... Yes
English is not my first languarge. I've learned british english in school, but I've really learn to understand english through series/movies - so my english is a messy Mix between british and american english. And I have no idea which is which.😅
Same situation. Appatently, looking at that list of words he showed, my vocabulary is a completely messy mixture of both spellings
in the netherlands it's the same, well at least were im from
I'm a native speaker, born and raised in Britain. And yet during this video I have "learnt" that I've been writing a few things wrong. That word, learnt, just looks so wrong to me, yet it's the way I should write it.
I think british english is what they teach as foreign language in schools everywhere, also here in finland. I too have learned a lot more from TV, movies, games, music etc. and those are mostly in american english so my english is also a messy mix of both with lots of mistakes too. My rule of thumb to which is british and which is american english always was that the longer or more complicated one is british. That got ruined with elevator/lift and autumn/fall.
Same, Some days i use British some nights I use american or both
3:34
When you realize that the "wtf am I reading" meme guy is actually a spelling reformer and has probably made that facial expression because he saw what a mess english spelling was
I can't believe Johnson has been relegated to "the "wtf am I reading" meme guy"
I was genuinely surprised to see that meme guy in this video. I thought he was a modern day creation. I actually learned something new! 😀
@@TheCimbrianBull well that and history of UPERCASE and lowercase history.
@@TheCimbrianBull pist du Zimbrisch?
When I googled his name for an image of him I screamed to myself "IT'S THE MEME GUY"
I died at the definition of “Oats”
In Germany we are encouraged to write and speak British English and some of the older teachers stand by that, but most teachers let us use whatever we want and don't mind weird mixtures.
uk:flavour
us:flavor
uk:colour
us:color
uk:what are you doing?
us: removing u
Unoriginal
In England, there's an extra u in "harbour," "favour," "labour," "neighbour," "splendour," "flavour," "colour," and "honour"; but curiously, not "liquor," "motor," or "rotor."
For simplicity's sake, we Americans drop all those silent u's, and end up with "harbor," "favor," "labor," "neighbor," "splendor," "flavor," "color," and "honor."
Mind you, we're the exact same Americans who keep the u in "glamour," so go figure!
@@ABHyt Look who's talking.
@@grantorino2325
The word 'glamour' is French so it kind of makes sense to retain the original spelling.
@@TheCimbrianBull I've never even heard anyone really say glamour before
I live in Romania and the version of english I was taught depended on the teacher I had.Usually the more lenient and younger teachers taught american english, while the older ones insisted on british.
Same thing in Lebanon. Even if I was taught the British English in school eventually we consume a lot of American shows and programs we start to get influenced by it without realising that...
Hey! I'm an American and I took Romanian in college. (I'm extremely rusty; I haven't been to Romania in like 3 years. lol) Anyways, I remember meeting a Moldovan and them telling me that its kinda the same situation linguistically between you two as us and the British. Probably not as drastic since you're neighbors but I didn't know if that was true or not.
@@h.thumbsthomas5479 It's kinda true,the differnce between the two is just that moldovans use a few regionalisms which most romanians know anyway but don't use and also moldovans have a more russified pronunciation.
@@ioncezar21Interesant! I mean that makes sense considering the whole USSR and all that.
@@h.thumbsthomas5479 fun fact: the soviets tried ti make a moldavian-romanian dictionaire but they changet so many words that the mildavians didn't understanted anythink.
Yesterday to my husband through text: “ I cancelled our subscription.”
“What? Cancelled has only one L”.
“Well, I guess we’re British now.”
I'm an American and I've always thought it was spelled cancelled.
America: "canceled," "canceling," "canceler."
England: "cancelled," "cancelling," "canceller."
But ->
BOTH America AND England: "cancellation."
:/
I'm American, and I was always taught to spell in with two 'L's.
@@grantorino2325 *CONFUSION INTENSIFIES*
We call it “I have to not do this because I want to drink tea and sleep”
As a native French speaker, I have to say that seeing the word "theatre" in an english sentence feels wrong, as if it was written in the wrong language.
Ya the British version just feels wrong
Theatre.
lafox283 we literally invented the language you are using right now lol
@@elysian5028 fair enough!
@@osamalinbaden1996 The no-longer-alive Proto-Indo-Europeans are cringing right now.
I am Icelandic. We are taught British English in school, but American media is very popular as well. Thus, I write (and speak) in a sort of mix of American and British English.
So basically Canadian English?
In Portugal is the same
Same in Malaysia
I am a brit but I sometimes I speak American English without realising it because of TV shows, movies, and TH-cam /Google
In school here in Mexico they opt for British English, but the US is a neighboring country so I think it’s kind of pointless, but I use a weird mixture of both lol
I am an Indian and I realized that we use both American and British versions of spelling for different words
"We can order things, and the next day they arrive at our door".
*Laughs in Irish*
O'Normie
laughs in every single ocuntry other than usa and uk
I am danish. In primary school we learnt British English. I remember being corrected a lot when I was young because I spelled it “color” instead of “colour”. In high school I believe we could use either one but we however had to be consistent in which one we used. I am not sure what I use today, but I think it is somewhat of a mixture. I however believe I use more American than British as it is the one I encounter the most.
I’m American and I use “theatre” when talking about drama and plays, and use theater when talking about movies
I use 'centre' when talking about a building, e.g.: convention centre; But I use 'center' when talking about location, e.g.: It's in the center of the forest. I don't know why, I just have for a while.
Smart
MinifigureXtreme wtf that doesn't even make sense
Absolutely agree.
Same. I thought that was typical.
Cool. The uppercase/lowercase explanation was my favorite (or favourite ;)) part of the video so I, for one, am glad you found away to slip it in.
I didn't know this until now but I will make sure to slip that random piece of information into future conversations.
Favourite, if you miss the U then you fail you in English.
ME too. Did not know that was how Upper/Lower cases letters came about.
I'm an American, and yet the British spellings "grey," "endeavour," and "anaesthetic" look correct to me.
This video also reminds me of one of my favorite lyrics from My Fair Lady, "There even are places where English completely disappears; in America, they haven't used it for years."
the one word I hate, is "aeroplane", its a plane that fly's in the air, not the aero
@@marcaldovino264 Aero means air, doesn't it? (Correct me if it doesn't) I prefer aeroplane. It looks more satisfying.
@@marcaldovino264 aero as in like aerodynamics and yes aero means air sort of
yeah, i'm british and there are somethings that is spell the American way and I think this applies to a large number of British people, the main example I can think of this draught which I do normally spell as draft unless I'm talking about a draught horse. also tyre i spell as tire so I think maybe one day english and American spelling may fuse into one with the only ones that stick around being the ones that show the difference in American and English pronunciation like aluminum vs aluminium, since we say it how it's spelt.
American here... I struggle with grey. That will always be how my brain spells it unless it is a proper name. Watched too much canadian tv growing up I guess.
USA: Memes
UK: Felony
USA: Prison
UK:Australia
We don’t call our crimes felony’s or misdemeanours
xarvert I understood it, it was just incorrect. No woooosh
ree
@Michael Brentford
Oh no, you’ve learnt the truth, I am speechless!
Forstår du hvad jeg siger? Ingen? Okay, du er en stor idiot. Du tror, Jorden er flad. Le Terre est ronde. I understand that this is hard for you to accept. (Guess how many languages I used, lol (I love knowing three languages)
@Michael Brentford No, sarcasm isn’t, but Danish “isn’t your strongest trait,” neither is science. And also, be careful of what you say to people, hardman 😊
Having lived in both countries, I tend to use the “Canadian “ variant which takes from both
Is your pronunciation also Canadian? Or just your spelling?
Just spelling, lived in PA and TX so I have a weird accent
You'd naturally think Canadians would use British English as it also adopts more French spellings than the American interpretation, given that Canadas is practically made up of French and English settlers.
Interesting.
I liked that too - older words are often spelled the British and newer the American way....
That helps, thanks! English is my second language and in school we were learning British English, but everything on tv is usually in American English. Way to get all confused 😀
In my studies, English teachers just taught us both the British version and the American one, so I wasn't actually "confused", but I ended up knowing way more American English words because of media haha
It's not confusing, if you see an American spell you double check and spell correctly.
I mean when you get an illiterate to write your dictionary you are only going to get wrong spelt words.
@@King_Cova
ROFL~ hopefully you won't get shit for this one, but that had me laughing.
Reminds me of our [European Portuguese] arguments versus Brazilian Portuguese.
@@King_Cova wrongly spelled words*
@@NeoZeta shit from Americans? Collectively they couldn't put an argument together, that you couldn't destroy in one sentence.
You must be limited in your understanding of Americans, if you are actually laughing. Moron.
And over here in Canada, both Oxford and Mirriam-Webster dictionaries are sold and we use a pick-and-choose combination of spellings.
It appears we took many of the consistency changes like programme -> program and tyre -> tire but retain ou-s and re-s like in colour and theatre.
Which is massively irritating when using spell checkers that only feature US or UK dictionary spellings.
Ok, let’s keep this simple...
Most people from England 🇬🇧 speak: English.
Most people from America: speak “American”. (NOT AMERICAN ENGLISH OK BECAUSE THAT’S FROM ENGLAND)
Most people from Australia 🇦🇺 speak: Australian.
And most people from Canada 🇨🇦 speak: Canadian.
If the only non-US option for the spell checker or language option is UK I go for that one.
I appreciate the way he worded the video’s title. It draws a larger audience then, “Why Is American English spelled differently From British English” - or vice versa. And the way he worded the thing will offend less people, good on ya mate!
Reminds of me Langfocus channel, he did a "Why Is English Spelling So Damn Weird?!
" video.
...and it is weird when it comes to spelling :P
I think, the weirdest thing is, that by far you can't go from spelling like pronounciation.
@@HalfEye79
*pronunciation
@@TheCimbrianBull
Whatever. But you knew, what I meant.
Love that channel
yea but this guy doesnt yell at you in the comments and make you feel like shit like langfocus does
Thus, why the U.S. and Britain have been called two countries separated by a common language.
This really screws with us Dyslexics
dOeS tHiS hUrT yOuR eYeS THE LETTERS ARE MOOOOOOVING OH NO 🤦♂️
@@Rxpier what?
@@hdtec *d y s l e x i a*
i live in Australia and, oh man, oh, oh man
@@ronansorgdrager as do I my man. Sometimes ppl use American and other times they use British English. I’ve chosen to stick with British English…
German here. I was taught British English at school with our teacher making every effort to get our pronunciation as close as possible to the best British English he knew. The entire textbook was based on British English, only in the final year, the textbook introduced other versions of English at an enormous speed, including American, Australian, Canadian, South African and some other types of English. American English was just one of those many other versions, so we learnt about some differences but overall the course was on British English. Later at university, I took English interpreting, and we had to choose one type of English and stick to it in order to be consistent. All students from various countries chose British English, only one Austrian student chose American English. All our profs used British English as far as I remember. Altogether most Europeans I know, well my generation and environment, prefer British English over American English simply because it is so much easier for us to understand both spoken and written. The British spelling and pronunciation are much closer to our own languages than the American versions.
Northern British accents are closer to European languages, especially their pronunciation of short vowels in words like: back, stack or look, up. On the other hand Scottish and Cockney accents both have the same open "o" sound in :not, got etc. like Italian "o" in pero, cio.
Name Explain: [uses a picture of Bananas in Pyjamas in his video.]
Me, an Australian: Huzzah! A man of quality!
Bynanas in pajamas ;)
@@tearlach47 Baenenez en payjemez
Wait bananas in pyjamas is australian?
@@unfunnywasteland9692 I was just about to ask that very question.
"Chom-choms in Jim-jams"
In Kenya, the standard spelling taught in schools is British English. English is my 1st language. Well, jointly first with KiSwahili.
Oh wow, i thought KiSwahili was the only main language in Kenya, so do you speak English to people locally to or is it just because it is taught in schools?
@@hpsauce1078 We speak both very well. Depends on where you are but with either you'll survive anywhere. All our lessons in school with the exception of other languages are taught in English so expect most Kenyans to be proficient in English
Why are you guys writing it as KiSwahili though?
@@lvseka I have no idea i just assumed this guy knows how to spell it better than me.. otherwise I would just say Swahili...
@@hpsauce1078 Swahili is a people group, not the language.
In America, we actually usually use a combination of both English and American spelling. Words with different spellings usually have different connotations. “Theatre” is acting and “theater” is a cinema. Most streets or places in the middle of something are “Centre” but are in the “center” of where they are.
stfu 🤫
In the US British spelling is used when something is presented as "high class"
I agree, I know it’s complicated but I love those subtle details!
I’ve used and spelt words like “burnt” but have also used spellings like “dreamed”.
I’m just really inconsistent lol
Actually you don't use "burned" and "burnt" interchangeably. You say "the toast was burnt" yet you would say "I burned my hand on the stove".
Dreamt*
@AnySoo Chaann CAN YOU STOP SAYING “BRITISH ENGLISH” it’s just English okay and you are right about that but they both mean different things...
America: * removes u in colour *
U.k: what are you doing?
America: getting rid of u.
ha ha!
@Topgun God honor.
Ha Ha!!!
@Topgun God *GENIUS*
America in the revolutionary war
I'm Brazilian and the first contact I had with English was the British one. My parents paid for lessons on this school obviously named "British Culture". Then I had lessons on my regular school, which would teach based on British or American English, depending on the book the teacher chose to follow. That made me a really confused child regarding spelling. Most of my vocabulary came from watching subtitled TV shows, however, the majority of them from the United States, so now I usually tend to go the ol' American way.
I'm Nigerian and in school we lean both but mostly British, i guess it's because we were once a British colony,
Colour
Tire
Draft
Cauch
Vest
Aeroplane
That's how most people in Nigeria spell those words
Cauch?
Obviously, because you are learning English.
We spell it 'tyre' in definition of the rubber covering of the wheels and 'tire' in defintion of being fatigued.
All I want to do is to support your channel by writing a comment, but I'd love to take some time on telling you how great your channel is! I have not found such a straight-forward / educational but FUN to watch channel in such a long time! Cheers, Patrick!
I never realised the differences were actually deliberate. I'm not that bothered when American's use American English, but it does bother me when many many applications assume that American English is good enough for the whole world and don't provide other variations despite providing other languages. Particularly problematic when a spellchecker is involved....
This
Most spellings are similar enough that there are no issues determining what word they're talking about. Just use whatever you're used to, people will get it. I do understand the spellchecker argument though.
American english is there because it is the best english and only true english
"im not bothered when americans use american english" BRUH, lmao, what the fuck else are we gonna use? Australian english, it's literally in the name... if you got mad we are using our OWN english.... my goodness
That annoys the shit out of me, whenever I'm signing up to something and it says "choose your language" so I scroll and scroll looking for British English, which should just be called plain fucking "English" only to find no other option other than "American English" or it will just say "English" but with a USA flag, which is equally annoying, it won't be long before it just says "American".
As a Yank, I say we just have a rock paper sizers tournament.
As an American, I would point out that here it is rock, paper, scissors, gun.
Thought it was called hi-fu-mee in Japanese English .... or is it english Japanese ? (and junkenpo in proper japanese)
As a British person, we have no time for foolish games such as Rock Paper Scissors
We beat eachother to death with crumpets
oi lemme give ya a right old game of *Roshambo* mate
search it up if ya dont have a clue of what it means
I would say let's play football but even that we must describe which football were talking about. The game of Soccer Traditional Football (Associated-Soccer) or American Football played on the gridiron. American Football or British Football would be a great video.
Being from the Dominican Republic, us Latin Americans learn American English so that is the one I tend to use. Because of my job as a New York City tourist guide, I encounter many British visitors so I have expanded my vocabulary and writing prowess to accommodate those individuals although I always make fun of their way of speaking and writing their mother tongue. It is hilarious to hear people from other parts of Europe speaking English with a British sounding accent.
Some: British
Others: American
Me: Australian
김예찬 bruh
same with mum and mom. I mean Mum is correct. How do you get an O out of M-U-M
I learnt English as my second language. At school we mostly use American English because it's deemed as simpler but we adopted many words from British English (for example we use the word "lift" instead of "elevator"). But the thing is, I first learnt English at school but became more fluent after learning in another place that uses British English. So my English is basically a mix of the two.
Interestingly, some older rural Southern folks use "spelt" and words like "reckon," both of which are commonly used in modern British grammar.
I’m from Germany and we’ve actually learnt both.
Our teachers let us use both way in tests or so as long as we stick to one.
I mostly chose American English since the spelling is much easier
I school (In Sweden) they tried to teach us British english. I had older teachers. But it was impossible as our influence from American english is too strong.
Same in Netherlands
So u like stupid English
Same in Denmark
Sure banana language
As an American, this made me realize I spell many of my words in the British style (theatre, dreamt, grey)
gamers rise up
I use dreamt, spelt, and grey as well
i only use grey
I (an American) I use "dreamt" for the actual fact of having had a dream. I use "dreamed" only in "dreamed up", meaning an idea, or for a thought I "pulled out of my ass",LOL!
You say, as you use "realize" instead of "realise"
Well I've been learning English for more than 10 years and I have only started distinguishing the two versions about two or three years ago. That's when I decided for myself, that I want my English to be as British as I could possibly make it. So, I've been working towards this goal ever since. I've also been working on my accent for a long time to make it sound like a northern England accent, or whatever that group of accents should be called. I've done quite a lot of work and I'd say it payed off. Any time I go abroad (well, went abroad, as the bloody covid makes it impossible to go basically anywhere), not a single person can actually tell what country I'm from. I have even once got called a Scott, which was quite a surprise, since my accent doesn't sound that Scottish at all (well to me at least), but I was delighted, that my hard work had nevertheless payed itself off.
"In America they haven't spoken any English for years!"
H. Higgins, professor
The UK: america what language are you speaking
America: AHRJEYDMEIWJEJDIEIWJER BLEEP BLOOP BOP I'M SPEAKING AMERICAN
We speak our own form of English. American English!!!! Keep in mind we were all English until we decided to adopt the American identity. Probably in the future American English will become just American. Just like Hispania Latin became Spanish.
is this from pygmalion?
@@rfe8nn2 stfu 🤫 you speak “AMERICAN” which is (in ACTUAL English FROM ENGLAND 🏴): DGAKhkflKhJshdkK jskmKjslskkVhs hmm jKk!£:2)&/&/)/&&;)hdwkisj hchw
@@Rxpier Yea and Spanish and French all have Latin roots in Rome aka Roman Empire. My point was there was a time when Spain was like America. You had Local Pre-Roman Languages in Spain or Hispania. They all spoke different Languages until Latin took root because Latin Hispania had greater influence. That's where the Spanish Language grew out of, Latin or Hispania Latin.
If you think that's arguing you should watch the literal fights between spanish from spain vs latin american spanish hahahahaha
btw love the vid
Imagine then trying to learn Spanish as a second (or third) language for several years and during that time having both teachers from Spain and Latin America.
End result: suddenly getting taught that the verb for taking something is reeeally inappropriate in some countries but common in others... (looking at you, coger)
¿Por qué no lo me dijo más temprano? Despues de habiá estudiado la lengua por tres anos es un poco tarde, ¿no?
It's NOT the same Spanish..and I'm Hispanic..not Latino.
As my first language is spanish i can tell you that there are M U C H more versions of spanish than just 2
True, it is a mess I try to avoid in polite conversation. I learnt it as a second language and prefer speaking like a certain part of Spain. It's usually not much of a problem until I talk with native speakers here then it can go very sour sadly.
@@unfunnywasteland9692 spanish is like english there are two big ones that people will piont at and a lot of smaller ones that aren't talked about as much. english is american vs british and i beleve that spanish is mexican vs spanish
As an American I actually tend to see some words spelled the “American” way and some spelled the “British” way and I myself use some British spellings like grey, spelt, and learnt
Bryce Irwin In the American south we use spelt and learnt but probably not because of the British thing
Brantley Hester yeah I live in Maryland and here people will use both learnt and spelt and learned and spelled
I never knew that grey was British English. I just thought gray and grey were both American ways of saying grey. I agree, spelled and learned just sounds a bit wrong, so I use spelt and learnt.
Britain: My Language is correct!
America: No My Language is correct!
Australia: NEITHER OF YOUR LANGUAGES IS CORRECT! My LANGUAGE IS CORRECT! *don don DONNNNNNN*
Gets beaten by kangaroo
The uppercase lowercase thing was the best part of this video
I am from Austria, I learned British english. However when I studied computer science I had to use the American english as well. I personally think the American english is easier to read. It is also interesting how the languages have been evolving!
Johnson might have spent 8 years compiling his dictionary but he still missed out the word "sausage".
And “aardvark”.
Noah Webster called his wife “my little aardvark.” Why? Because “you’re first in my book!”
Sawsij
i'm brazilian and i learned english from GTA V and Friends so i speak/write in american english, but having contact with so many other kinds of english changed my accent a little. it's still hard for me to perfectly understand other accents (this video was a good test), but i like the challenge
My story goes like this: I was taught British English... By an American teacher...?
If they're not making a film out if this story, then they should be!
I was as well
here in germany british english was the first to be taught but the diffrences were explained at school too
As a person with English as my second language I can inform that I use both jumbled randomly into my sentences, though it's primarily American English
Great video!! As an American, have noticed that the OLDER I get, whenever writing or typing, I tend to use the British English version of words more for whatever reason - must be because of reading history books written by English authors or something.. Then, it is quite "interesting" when using spell-check on an American computer and having it tell me that I have "misspelled" a certain word, or someone tell me that I made a mistake.
Im from Brazil, i've learned british english in class but most media I consume is in american english so most of the time I use a mishmash of them. It's really hard to know which spell belongs to what origin at least for me. This video will actually help me to do know better in the future.
You missed a reason why Webster simplified American English: he used those word origins to help. The "our" became "or" because he pulled from Latinate forms, and "ise/yse" became "ize/yze" from Greek forms.
It doesn't hold for everything (e.g., "program" was simplified, even though the British spelling is closer to Greek "programma"), but it holds for a lot of words.
Also, Britain **and** the US also had both spelling variants (e.g. "tire/tyre", "aeroplane/airplane") as technology emerged and sometimes Britain fell on one side as the US fell on the other.
This is the essence, and the Latinate form -or was only an "original" Websterism where it had hitherto had no precedent in English: the purest example I can think of is "color". Others, such as "honor" and "labor", have been widely used by English people for centuries, although the -our form was commonly preferred, and likely far more commonly written by about 1850 - except where it fell out of fashion, such as in "horrour" or "mirrour".
In The Netherlands, it is a mess. Textbooks really like to teach us British English, but in daily life, we are mostly exposed to American English. Primary school teachers, who have to master all subjects on primary school, are not all equally knowledgeable about the English language. Thus, they teach British words from the textbooks, American words to complement their sentences, all with an American pronunciation.
In the meantime, I am at middle school with a bilingual education. My classmates speak near flawless American. I, however, once decided I wanted to speak British, but I reckon it is not entirely perfect. I never unlearned it.
Bravo
I like both, as my teachers accept both ways words are spelt. It helps a lot when you spelled a word “wrong” (you intent to write colour, but write color) it might be the only reason I am passing English.
Mad respect to those who learn English as a 2nd language considering all the different English speaking with different word spelling. I'm American and I still can't spell half of my language right without the help of auto correct -_-
In Finland, both British and American English are taught at the same time so it makes my English a weird combination
Warning, The Comment Section Contains Different Types Of English..
You Have Been Warned..
*gasp*
s
There is English and there is wrong.
That is all, oh and the ones who invented the langue are the only ones anyone should listen to.
@@King_Cova Did you invent the language
@@ABHyt I think he/she did indeed do that.
I'm Japanese. I've been to the UK to study English. I love BRITISH ENGLISH🇯🇵🇬🇧
My personal version of English is a hybrid of American and British english.
I prefer to spell color without the u since this is slightly simpler.
I also use the words Fries and Crisps to avoid confusion around what Chips means.
I'd also use some spellings which aren't in both versions of english, like boogyman without the e, since they're very close to known English spellings but I found a way to make them even simpler while only changing 1 letter.
Also, I'd sometimes come up with word combinations as replacements for rarely-needed words I don't know, home sandals being a good example.
And Canadian English seems to be a mix of British and American English.
Australia seems to have a mix as well, but it closer to British English
No it's not
faded bul yes it is
Yea mate, Aussie's bit closer to British English
British English is my favourite English Language I don't care what my friends gonna say about that. I'm still learning. From the Philippines.
I live and grew up New Zealand and being a part of the common wealth we technically speak British English however because of large amounts of American content, speaking with people world over because of the internet and the inconsistenties of terms in programming languages (I.e. Color is used in American programs instead of colour). I think, speak and write in a sort of hybrid English, often using a mixture of words and even interchanging them regularly.
I live in Germany, (in the state of Baden-Württemberg) and we've learned the first year British English, the second was split between British and American English, in the third year we had American and Australian English and after that another year of American English. In the following years we could choose for ourselves, which version we want to use. In the end, as far as I know, most students use a wild mixture out of American, British and other forms of English. But it all depends on the teacher and which version he likes to use.
Speaking of another video, please go over vocab differences between American and British English!
Man, even the Brits can't sort that shit out amongst themselves lol
Best example I heard from a comedian.
"You say 'erb. I say herb. Because there's a fu*king "H" in it!" 😂
Some people said that Australian or New Zealander English accents are hard for foreigners. Btw i'm from Indonesia, Australia's closest neighbor, one of my friend said that in his school there was an English teacher from Australia and almost everybody had no idea what he was talking about. In Indonesia people mostly understand British or American English since almost every English language movies or shows in here came from UK or USA, FYI in Indonesia, foreign medias or shows are subtitled
@Ian Thompson
Calm your tits! It can be spelled (spelt) both ways.
Draught / draft probably isn’t the best example. We use both in Britain for different things. Draught is the board game that’s also called checkers, we also have draught beers, whereas as a draft is a rough copy of something.
I learned a combination of both, and sometimes use both versions of a word (like colour and color)
IMO, spelling reform in American English should have gone all the way or not at all. Now it's a Frankenstein of an orthography.
Rait. It wud bi a gud aidia tu fix thö inglish spelling kompliitli.
@@OldieBugger Ai, laaf jår aidia! Ålso it wud luk mor Tschörmänik, bat meibi it shud häf ä diffrent spälling, bikåås it luks wird dis wei!
Just make digraphs/letters like:
i=[əi] e=[i] z=[ʃ] eg=[eɪ] ol=[ʊ] (but u=[ʊ] too. 'ol' and 'eg' are mainly for etymological reasons) gh=[d͡ʒ] kh=[t͡ʃ] ...
And the result looks much better (a little bit like a mix of dutch and german):
I laaf jår idea!
Ålso et wolt lugg moor Ghörmänek, bat megbe et zolt häf ä diffränt spälleng, bekås et luggs werd des weg!
you forgot 2 modern versions of English: Spanglish and Engrish
and Franglais !
Greeklish anyone?
I call them all globish
An' wha' 'bout Aussie English mate?
Russish
I use whichever I feel right to me. I like to write colour, aluminium and draught as well as tire, truck and program. I understand the meaning of the writing and I see it as a written accent, sort of. Much like how many pronounce some words differently to each other.
After watching this video I am weirdly aware that while I was learning English (from a lot of different teachers and schools) I've been thought spelling in both ways. Know I know why I sometimes get so confuse while writing in English
loved the etymology of upper case I didn't know that that's really interesting
Neither did I. From now on I will try to slip that casually into future conversations.
Speaking: American. Written: British.
South Africa
Don't forget the Afrikaans accent when speaking English! I really like to listen to that.
LOL I use it time and again
Actually it depends. Like a whole bunch of old white people speak more British English but young black people speak more American English
Thank you. I neglected to clarify this.
@Cyrus the Great that's so your scammers can ring us all up, trying to get our bank details.
Native American English speaker and a grammar Nazi here, and I had no idea "gray" was the American spelling. I loved this video.
In Cameroon, a bilingual nation, we are taught obviously "British English" (spoken and written British English). But I'm much more exposed to "American English" when browsing the Internet so I'm used to the two forms. But to be honest American English spelling is simpler than British English spelling. I prefer speaking standard British English because I consider it more prestigious and writing a mix of British and American english because after all they are just forms of the English Language.
I was taught american english as my 2nd language in school and it stuck with me for the most part.
3:42 Two of those helpers: Blackadder and Baldrick. :)
Baldrick had conceived a cunning plan! 😀
In Canada we use a weird mixture of the two. We spell colour with a u and favourite with a u but also use the American spelling of meter, tire and analyze.
I live in the US but I am more likely to use the UK spelling of "grey", I can't really find a reason for it though.
Even as an American I’ve used words like burnt and spelt a lot.
I'm Dutch and I learned British in school, but American in games. My English is a bit of a mix without really knowing what's what.
I was born in the Netherlands but moved to the US when I was 6. Dutch was my first language and Austrian German my second cuz of my dad. Obviously spending the last 15 years in the US and going to school there I learned American English and even speak in an American accent when I speak English. My parents on the other hand learned British English as my mom spent her whole life in the Netherlands and my dad in Bavaria. We often had long debates on how to pronounce and write things and my parents had quite a bit of adjusting to the new English.
Do Briitish and Americans sound different in Dutch or is it all just bad Dutch? Lol
Matthew Kistler like as in them speaking Dutch?
Ja, exactly i wasnt sure if we even sound distinct even in a differnt language.
Matthew Kistler I mean if you’re not a native speaker you’re going to have an accent. I’d say yes there is a difference when Brit’s or Americans speak it but it’s not huge. Most English speakers sound somewhat similar when speaking Dutch with some differences
A few comments:
You mention Samuel Johnson's 1755 dictionary as being responsible for standardizing the English language, but when I went through John Lawson's "A New Voyage to Carolina" in a facsimile edition of the original 1709 printing, the spelling was already pretty standardized. Excepting words that now end in "c" usually ending in "ck" and the suffix "-ed" added to verbs being half the time "-'d" (that is, two variant spellings such as "walked" and "walk'd" might be seen, even on the same page) the spelling was almost identical to what we would recognize today. I counted about one substantial spelling difference per page.
As for Noah Webster's spelling changes - something that very few people know these days is that it wasn't accepted throughout the United States. Books published in southern cities like Charleston frequently continued to use the traditional spellings until after Mr Lincoln's war.
As for which is correct, both are. The point of standardized spelling is simply clarity in understanding, and the two are similar enough that it shouldn't be a problem to use either British or American spellings, with possibly a few exceptions of words that are both not used commonly enough to be familiar with both and where the spelling doesn't match the pronunciation (like "draught" instead of "draft"). Much more troublesome are issues such as phrases having opposite meanings - like "tabling an issue" meaning to bring it up for discussion in British English and meaning to set it aside and defer discussion in American English.
As a Canadian I learned a weird cluster combo of both of them.
In germany we learn both ways. It's confusing. But I think AE is more used. I personally just use a mixture of both
As german myself i mostly use the american way to spell things. It’s a lot easier.
As an American, I still prefer 'grey' to 'gray'. The latter is more phonetic, but the former is more evocative of the color (colour?) to me.
I never realized there are 2 ways to spell this, and now I have no idea which one I normally use !
They look equally phonetic to me.
fey, whey, hey, grey
fay, way, hay, gray
@@kentix417 The letter 'e' does not have an "-ay" sound. Yes, we sound it that way with the 'ey' spelling, but that's not phonetic.
In Canada, we use a mix of the two, but there's one that I think is a bit more complicated than British vs. American: the theatre/theater split. In show business, theatre refers to the art form, and theater refers to the buildings it takes place in. Theatre happens in the theater.
I don't think this is just a Canadian thing, but anyone in the industry somewhere else can feel free to correct me!
In Australia we use British English too, so usually I refer to it as ‘Commonwealth English’
Yes. Although sometimes I spell with american english just to annoy teachers!
I'm Jamaican and in our school system we learn British English thanks to our Commonwealth status. As I get older I find it more complicated to use British English when typing so when in doubt I use the easier American versions of spelling. I still put a U whenever I spell Colour!
I learnt British English And OMG The Oats Joke Made Me Laugh My Head Off xD
English is my second language and the way it was tested in school was by doing tons of comprehension and grammar tests, as well as a wired way of testing called "seen and unseen dictation" where we transcribe a passage (seen or unseen, and usually make no sense contextually) spoken by the teacher with correct spelling and punctuation. We knew nothing about the differences in pronunciation and spelling in American/British English, so we ended up having a lot of arguments with English teachers. I still remember the test where the passage contains this sentence, " ... data representing the amount of burnt tomatos is incorporated into a colourised map at the centre ...", I lost 9 marks over 100 in this single sentence because I spelt it in the British way (-1 each) and didn't know in American English "data" and "tomato" is pronounced differently (-3 each), I am still salty after 10+ years.
I am an American, so I speak American English. However, I watch a lot of British TH-camrs and TV shows, so I have a bit of British English in my vocabulary too. I spell it “grey,” rather than “gray.” I use “theater” when referring to a movie theater, but I use “theatre” when referring to war (like the Pacific Theatre in WW2). I also sometimes use “loo” or “aubergine,” though that is more because I find those words funny.