How Do You Spell That?

For anyone who has ever written anything, I'm sure there have been instances in which you have been unsure as to the spelling of some of our language's common words. The reason for the confusion is that the Americans began referring to the American Webster's Dictionary for their spelling, whereas the British chose to refer to the Oxford English Dictionary. Canadians (with their love for all things royal) decided to follow the Queen, and tend to favour the British way of spelling -- notice how I spelled "favour."

A few examples of words that can be seen spelled differently by Americans versus Canadians can be seen in the following chart:

You'll notice that a main difference between the British/Canadian versus American way of spelling is how the British/Canadian words tend to comprise of an "our," whereas the American spelling normally contains an "or."

One interesting little tidbit of information that I would like to bring to everyone's attention is that the American space shuttle, Endeavour, is spelled using the British/Canadian spelling rather than the typical American spelling. The reason for this is that the shuttle is named after the British HMS Endeavour, the ship which took Captain James Cook on his first voyage of discovery! Maybe this was a bit off topic, but seeing as the Americans are the "picture of patriotism," this seemed an interesting choice of name.

Oops... Wrong Captain.

With Canada being as multicultural as it is, as well as having the Americans as neighbours, there are bound to be many crossovers when it comes to spelling. Ultimately, the choice will come down to the audience you are writing for -- or whichever spelling you can remember at the time.