In fact, even native English speakers often find it difficult to spell words correctly.This is mainly because the pronunciation of many English words has changed over the last few hundred years.The spelling system, on the other hand, has stayed more or less the same.Here is a list of some common words that often cause difficulty.
Send this to a friend Send Cancel. Doubling L in American English only There are a few verbs ending in a single L in British English that more commonly end in two L s in American English in their base (uninflected) forms. For example: American English British English appa ll disti ll enro ll enthra ll fulfi ll insti ll appa l disti l enro l enthra l fulfi l insti l When these verbs attach to suffixes beginning with consonants, such as -ment or -s, these spelling differences remain: American English prefers distills, enrollment, and installment, for example, while British English prefers distils, enrolment, and instalment. These differences are most notably codified between two major English-speaking regions, resulting in American English (AmE) and British English (BrE). Its important to remember that there are many other variations Canadian English, Australian English, etc. Well start with one of the most common: words ending in -er vs. Many words in British English are spelled with -re when that ending follows a consonant. This spelling is a reflection of the French spellings of the words from which they were derived. In American English, we (almost) universally find -er after a consonant at the end of a word. This (along with many other uniquely American spelling patterns) was established by Noah Webster in the 19th century to more naturally reflect the words pronunciation. ![]() However, this is not always true; there are some vowel suffixes that, when attached to words ending in either -er or -re, cause E to be omitted in both spellings: caliber, calibrecalib rate center, centrecent ral, cent ric, cent rist fiber, fibrefib roid, fib rous luster, lustrelust rous meter, metremet ric sepulcher, sepulchresepulch ral specter, spectrespect ral theater, theatretheat rical Words that always end in -er While there are quite a few words that have different endings in American vs. British English, there are many more by far that share the same ending, most common of which is -er. For example: ang er aug er dang er badg er blubb er blust er clust er disast er eag er fing er holst er mast er met er (when used to describe an instrument that takes measurements) moth er riv er semest er sist er timb er (referring to trees or wood; has a separate meaning from timbre, referring to sound tones) trimest er udd er wat er As a suffix, -er is used to indicate a noun of agency, in which case its spelling is the same in both regions. There are far too many to include here, so well just look at a few common examples: adopt er batt er cater er defend er embroider er formatt er giv er golf er loiter er propell er read er respond er shredd er travel er writ er (Note that while traveler is spelled with -er in both AmE and BrE, there is another spelling difference between the regions: in AmE, we only spell the word with one L, while, in BrE, it is spelled with two L s. Well discuss this convention separately further on.) Words that always end in -re While the -er ending is much more common in both American and British English, there are also many words ending in -re that are standard in both regions. Almost all of these end in C -re, which ensures that we pronounce a hard C (k), rather than the soft C (s) that almost always accompanies CE. Old French adapted the Latin ending as -our, and it is this ending that originally informed the spelling in English. While British English retained the -our spelling for many words derived from Latin, American English dropped the silent U in most (but not all) spellings around the beginning of the 19th century. There are hundreds of words that take this ending, so lets just look at a few common examples: act or auth or calculat or counsel or direct or educat or elevat or generat or govern or instruct or invent or jur or liberat or motivat or narrat or process or profess or react or refrigerat or sculpt or spectat or terminat or vend or (Like traveler vs. ![]() Likewise, glam or ize is much more common than glam our ize. The suffix -ize is used to form verbs, and it is ultimately derived from the Greek verb-forming element -izein (later -izare in Latin). This Greek suffix became -iser in Old French, and it is this form from which the English ending -ise was originally derived. British English Because most vowel suffixes are able to replace silent E by preserving the root words pronunciation and meaning, we often have to double the final consonant of a root word when it precedes a vowel suffix to avoid confusion. This convention largely depends on the number of syllables and on which part of the word is stressed vocally (see the section Doubling Consonants with Vowel Suffixes to learn more about these rules). ![]() Doubling L before vowel suffixes Perhaps the most commonly confused spelling convention is whether or not to double the final L in two-syllable words before a vowel suffix. In American English, we follow the rule that if the word has an emphasis on the final syllable before the vowel suffix, then the L is doubled. If youre writing in British English, its a good bet that the L should be doubled. Doubling L in American English only There are a few verbs ending in a single L in British English that more commonly end in two L s in American English in their base (uninflected) forms. For example: American English British English appa ll disti ll enro ll enthra ll fulfi ll insti ll appa l disti l enro l enthra l fulfi l insti l When these verbs attach to suffixes beginning with consonants, such as -ment or -s, these spelling differences remain: American English prefers distills, enrollment, and installment, for example, while British English prefers distils, enrolment, and instalment.
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