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  • Hello, guys. Welcome back to www.engvid.com. Today, we are looking at the differences between

  • American English and British English, and in particular some of the spelling differences

  • between our two ways of doing things. I'm not saying one is correct and the other is

  • wrong, although I have a preference. So, important things to know if you want to be working in

  • one country is you will need to use that country's way of spelling.

  • I'm going to be looking at some of the ways that we differ in our ways that we end words,

  • looking at some of the consonants as well. It's not an exhaustive list, in terms of there

  • are some other differences, but these are the major differences in the spelling between

  • British and American English.

  • Let's have a look. Let's put our glasses on, have a little look. Mmm. "our" becomes just

  • "or". What is Benjamin talking about? Well, I've got four "our"-ending words from British

  • English spelling: "behaviour", "colour", "labour",-that's a little spade there for digging, doing a

  • bit of manual work-"rumour", passing a rumour about someone. So, what do our fellow Americans

  • do with this lovely "our" formation? Well, unfortunately, they take out the "u". They

  • don't seem to like the "u" very much, so it disappears. Yeah, it just becomes "or". It

  • looks a bit sad, the "r", standing there all on its own. Sorry, "r". Sorry, I... I know

  • you liked "u" a lot. Don't worry.

  • Right, moving on to "re" endings. A little bit different in the U.S. of A. They seem

  • to think the "e" goes there, so: "centre" would become "center". "Theatre", the home

  • theatre, Britain, but in America, it's "theater", "theater". A "litre", we drink pints of beer,

  • here, in Britain, but apparently you have a "liter" of beer in America. "er", okay?

  • We share some similarities, you know, some... They haven't... They haven't kind of told

  • us to completely F off, because they think, you know, words like "acre" should be spelt

  • with an "re", which indeed they should. Okay, great.

  • Moving on to the "l", "l", "l". Should we all practice saying an: "La, la, el, el, la"?

  • Yeah, that's lovely. Feel kind of... Get up, have a little bit of a dance around. Yeah?

  • I don't need to get bored, watching my videos, god's sake. Okay, "l". Well, the Americans

  • don't like doubling the "l", so they don't like two pairs of legs; they just like one-legged

  • people. Strange, I know. So, "cancelled" with my two long legs, they chop a leg off. "Jewellery",

  • okay? There's my two diamond rings just becomes one, and they seem to have got rid of an "e"

  • as well. Okay? So the... There is a couple of different ways the Americans spell "jewelry",

  • this being one, losing an "l" and an "e". "Woollen", I've got a nice woollen jumper.

  • Yeah? Two o's, two l's. Yeah? It's from two sheep, so I need to o's and two l's, but Americans

  • can't quite afford the extra "l", so it just becomes one. Right.

  • A bit more "l" action. Sometimes the Brits just like to use one "l". We are in a bit

  • of a financial crisis at the moment, so sometimes we can only afford one "l", and the American's

  • dollar doing just a balance, okay, so sometimes they have two l's. I "enrol" at university.

  • If you're going to come to Oxbridge or Cambridge, make sure it's a one "l" enrolment for you.

  • If you're going to Harvard, you're looking at two l's. If you fulfil... Fulfil the criteria...

  • "l" there, "l" there, got the yankee doodles. Like... But two l's. Okay? I know you are

  • a skilful student of English, which is why you have been attracted by the laws of the

  • universe to watch this video now. Make sure if you're in Britain, you spell it like this;

  • and if you're in America, with a double "l". Okay?

  • So, just to recap with our l's, a little bit complicated: We like to... We like our double

  • l's sometimes, and sometimes the Americans drop one. So... Okay, so you're... You've

  • got a base word: "jewel", "cancel", if I've got an "l" at the end of the word, then normally

  • I'll put an extra "l" on to the ending. Okay. Good.

  • We're looking now at the "ise" ending, so it's a verb ending. "Authorise", "authorise",

  • "authorise", it means to give permission to. Authorise your bank to give money to charity

  • or something. I don't know. "Authorise", "criticise", and "organise". The Americans don't like this

  • "s" at all, so they make it into a "z". They make it into a "z",

  • and go to McDonald's and get really fat. "Authorize" with a "ze",

  • "criticize"-I'm sure I'll get lots of criticism after this-with

  • a "z". And "organize" your days of the week; Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,

  • then go to the gym, go to the beach with a "z" on the end.

  • Well, I hope you're organised to have left a couple more minutes, now, to go do the quiz

  • on www.engvid.com and to get 10 out of 10, identifying these different spellings.

  • If you'd like to subscribe to my YouTube channel and learn lots of good British English, then

  • be my guest. Thank you so much for watching today,

  • and make sure we get clear on these differences. Thanks. Bye.

Hello, guys. Welcome back to www.engvid.com. Today, we are looking at the differences between

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