🇬🇧 British v 🇺🇸 American

#031

Afternoon everyone 👋

As you know, English is spoken in both Britain and the U.S.A.

Our American cousins not only speak with different accents, but they also like to spell words differently. Here are two ways in which they do this:

  • Words Ending in “-our” simply become “-or” in American English

    • Colour becomes Color

    • Flavour becomes Flavor

    • Honour becomes Honor

    • Favourite becomes Favorite

  • Words sending in “se” are spelt “-ze”

    • Analyse becomes Analyze

    • Realise becomes Realize

    • Criticise becomes Criticize

    • Organise becomes Organize

Now as a Brit I am biased, but in general I think you should use the British versions.

Until next week!

Is that British or American spelling?

This week’s three tips:

SOMETHING TO AVOID 🫣

🤦🏻‍♀️ “We were to the park”

It’s not clear what you mean. Perhaps you want to say:

We were in the park

or

“We went to the park”

So you can either “be in the park” (estar), or “go to the park” (ir).

We went to the zoo last weekend

SOMETHING TO SOUND CONFIDENT 🧐

👔 Business jargon explained

“Red tape”

Something that takes longer than it should due to the unnecessary bureaucracy of procedures, forms and rules.

Politicians said BREXIT would remove red tape, but has it?

SOMETHING FUNNY 👀

Keep learning,

The Crystal Clear English Team

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