British English and American English: Spelling Differences

British English and American English: Spelling Differences

British and American variants of spelling are used internationally in various fields. However, language learners should stick to the spelling variant that corresponds to the variant of English that they are studying. Be consistent in your choice: if you write "centre" in one sentence and "center" in another, it might be regarded as a mistake, especially in examination papers. The chart below gives examples of spelling differences between BrE and AmE. Some derivative words are also given in the chart; some of them are the same in British and American English, others are not. Note that British spelling variants often exist as secondary spelling variants in American English. You can check British and American spelling in online dictionaries, for example, Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary and Merriam-Webster Online.

10 tips to help you improve your English writing skills

1. Write in English every day

This is the most important tip to improve your writing skills in English. Start by thinking of a theme, for example, you could start writing a diary of something that happens to you every day, you can write a few lines of a story each day or you could write emails to your friends in English. This might be difficult at first but the more you continue, the easier it will become and you might even end up enjoying it!

Punctuation

Punctuation

Good punctuation is crucial for successful academic writing. Many students’ essays use little punctuation beyond commas and full stops. But to be restricted to just two forms of punctuation mark, when writing your essay, is like building a house using only a hammer and a saw: you can do it; but not very well. By

learning to use more, or all, of the available forms of punctuation you will be able to communicate and express your ideas, and arguments, more clearly.

Improving English writing skills

How to improve your English writing skills

There are many reasons why you might need or want to improve your writing skills in English. Perhaps you need to reply to emails at work in English or take an English language exam, for example, TOEIC or IELTS. Or maybe you need to write essays in English for university, write letters to English friends or relatives or you might want to start writing a blog in English!

Adding Suffixes

Adding Suffixes

Formation of derivative words with the help of suffixes and main rules for adding suffixes are described in this material. It is necessary to stress that language learners should not try to create new words by adding suffixes, even if you know how to do it. Use only those English words which already exist and are listed in dictionaries.

Suffixes with similar spelling and pronunciation (ance, ence, ant, ent, er, or, able, ible, ize, ise), together with recommendations for choosing suffixes, are described in Difficult Suffixes of Nouns and Adjectives and Difficult Suffixes of Verbs in the section Writing.