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Guest blogger Virginia St-Denis provides the answers to these questions and walks us through Canadian, British and American spelling variations in nine different word families.
Word FamilyCanadian Oxford SpellingConcise Oxford (british) SpellingMerriam-webster (american) SpellingWords with -our or -orlabour honour humour laborious honorary ...labour honour humour laborious honorary ...labor honor humor laborious honorary ...Words with -re or -ercentre fibre sombre meter (device) metre ...centre fibre sombre meter (device) metre ...center fiber somber meter (all uses)Words with -yze, -yse, -ize or -ise and ...analyze paralyze organize analysis ...analyse paralyse organise analysis ...analyze paralyze organize analysis ...Words with -ce or -sedefence offence licence (noun) license ...defence offence licence (noun) license ...defense offense license (noun and verb) ...- Spelling
- Units of Measurement
- Phrasing
- Vocabulary
- French Influence
You may notice that Canadian English prefers to use “ou” in words like “humour” and “behaviour” as well as flipping the American use of “er” to “re” in certain words like “theatre” and “centre.” Canada isn’t alone in preferring these spellings. British spellings of these wordsare taught across most of the world. Another difference between American ...
The United States uses its own customary system of units. Canada, like most of the world, officially uses the metric system. That does not, however, always transfer into practice, especially in everyday conversation. For example, many Canadians still prefer to announce their baby’s weight in pounds, rather than kilograms, and Canadian dealerships m...
We cannot discuss the difference between American and Canadian English without touching on question tags. Like nearly all languages across the world, Canadians and Americans both use question tags. However, Canadians tend to endure more flak for theirs. Canadians can turn any statement into a question by adding the question tag “eh.” As in: “Making...
Though Americans and Canadians easily understand one another, there are a few vocabulary differences that cause some confusion. For example, a Canadian acquaintance puts on runners while an American one prefers to use sneakers.Americans may be surprised that, when a Canadian friend talks about paying their hydro bill, they mean their electric bill....
It’s important to note that both English and French are listed as official languages of Canada; some parts of Canada mainly use Canadian French. Surprisingly, this hasn’t affected Canadian English much outside of those regions. Even within those areas, its influence is limited to personal preference. Canadian English and American English are both c...
Canadian English (CanE, CE, en-CA) encompasses the varieties of English used in Canada. According to the 2016 census, English was the first language of 19.4 million Canadians or 58.1% of the total population; the remainder spoke French (20.8%) or other languages (21.1%).
Grammar and Colloquialism Guide. Canadian English is a blend of both British and American English language rules due to Canada’s close proximity to the United States and because it is a member of the British Commonwealth. Canadian English also consists of many unique terms called Canadian-isms (slang terms used only in Canada).
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Grammar. Variation in grammar—morphology and syntax—can also be found in Canadian English. Reported since the early 1980s, but never thoroughly studied, Standard Canadian English allows (to give just one example) the placing of as well sentence-initially.
Oct 3, 2016 · Where American and British spellings vary, Canadian English opts for the British version in most cases, but not all. Canadians use the double L in words like traveller , retain the U in neighbour, and favor the -re ending for theatre and centre .
Mar 15, 2019 · Canadian English follows most British spelling, grammar, and punctuation rules. As such, most of the differences between British and American English also apply to Canadian English. However, there are several areas where Canadian and American English overlap, including: Find this useful?
