Words with more than one spelling (Easy)

Vocabulary points to take away:

Some words have two possible spellings in British English, for example analogue, disc,
enquire
. Sometimes the second spelling comes from American English.


Disc can be spelt d-i-s-c or d-i-s-k for computing terms.


Some words ending in -ise or -yse are spelt -ize and -yze in American English. That spelling
is generally accepted in British English too.


apologise (BrE) / apologize (AmE/BrE)
The past form of some verbs can be spelt in two ways in British English. But the -ed ending
is preferred in American English.


spell –> spelt (BrE) / spelled (AmE/BrE)

Other words have two spellings, not from any American influence.


all right/alright, barbecue/barbeque, racket/racquet

Some American English spellings are not accepted as correct in British English. Two
common examples are words with ou in them and words ending in -re.
colour (BrE) / color (AmE), centre (BrE) / center (AmE)

Lắng nghe và điền vào chỗ trống:

Cloze Test

CLOZE TEST

AmericanBritishCatherineEnglishFinnINSERTNorthWhatsand
atawareburntcancolourcomputingdontgotin
isn'tnoticeoneoutdoorsspeltspelttalkingthatthethisuusedweword

Hello! Welcome to 6 Minute Vocabulary with me, Catherine.

Finn

And me, Finn. And today were talking about words have more than one spelling.

Catherine

Let's start by listening to Jack. Hes a professor of linguistics and hes about changes

in the English language.

Finn

While you listen, think about this question: How do you think the disc is usually spelt

in British English?

INSERT

Jack

Today most of the influence on English spelling comes from America. For example

the words analogue, disc, enquire are spelt differently in American English. And these

spellings are often in British English too. And thats generally all right by us. However,

there are other spelling differences that we think are correct in British English. For we

Brits, its definitely wrong to spell colour or neighbour without the . Its also wrong to

spell theatre in the American way.

Finn

So we asked you: how is disc usually in British English?

Catherine

And the answer is that its usually spelt with a c, so d-i-s-c---.

Finn

But American English, its spelt d-i-s-k---. So two different spellings there, but it's ok to spell

disk with a k British English when were talking about computers and computing. What

other words were mentioned? Lets have our first clip.

CLIP 1

Jack

For example the words analogue, disc, enquire are spelt differently in American English.

Catherine

So another term there: the word analogue, as in analogue clock, is spelt a-n-a-lo-g-u-e in British English. But its spelt without u-e in American English: so a-n-a-l-o-g-----.

Finn

And there are a few more words with different spellings in American British English.

Were not saying that one spelling is better than another…

Catherine

 � but it's good to be of the differences. Now, the word enquire, meaning to ask

about something, usually begins with the letter e in English: e-n-q-u-i-r-e------, whereas in

American English it's spelt with an i at the beginning, not an e. Did you the word

spelt? Thats the past participle of the verb spell.

Finn

Yes, thats s-p-e-l-t in British English. But North America, they prefer spelled, s-p-e-l-l-e-d------.

Catherine

Were happy with both nowadays. You can choose which to use. Its same for other

verbs like learn, dream and burn. You can say learnt, burnt and dreamt with a t the end

or learned, burned and dreamed with e-d-.

Finn

And there's a slight difference in pronunciation there too, there?

Catherine

Yes, even in my best British accent you can hear the d and the t sounds at end: burned,

burnt. Learned, learnt.

Finn

Now some words have two spellings - but its nothing to do with influence. Listen

to this clip.

INSERT CLIP 2

Jack

And thats generally all right by us.

Finn

And there heard all right. You can spell that as two words, all and right. Or you can

spell it as word: a-l-r-i-g-h-t------.

Catherine

It's becoming quite common to see all right as two words, although some people still think

alright as one word is incorrect when writing.

Finn

Other words with two spellings are barbecue, meaning cooking food b-a-rb-e-C-u-e or b-a-r-b-e-Q-u-e-------.

Catherine

And theres also racket as in tennis racket. Its almost always spelt r-a-c-k-e-t-----, but it be

spelt r-a-c-q-u-e-t as well. One more clip please.

INSERT 1 CLIP 3

Jack

Its definitely wrong to spell or neighbour without the u.

Finn

So colour, spelt c-o-l-o-u-r is c-o-l-o-r in American English. American spelling drops the in

words with o-u in them.

Catherine

And there are a lot of words that end in r-e in English but e-r in American English,

like theatre, centre and kilometre.

IDENT

6 Minute Vocabulary from BBC Learning English.

And right now its quiz time! Number one: Everybody knows that if you play with fire, you

might get . But what are the two possible ways to spell the past participle of the verb

burn?

Catherine

Theyre b-u-r-n-t b-u-r-n-e-d-----.

Finn

Number two. How do we spell all right when its one word?

Catherine

a-l-r-i-g-h-t------.

Finn

Number three: the American English spelling of the word flavour?

Catherine

It's f-l-a-v-o-r without the u.

Finn

Well done if you those all right. And before we go, heres a vocabulary tip. If you use a

computer to write in , use a spellchecker, and make sure you set it to your preferred

variety of English.

Catherine

Theres more about at bbclearningenglishcom..

Both

Bye!

SCORE:
 
 

 

created with the online Cloze Test Creator © 2009 Lucy Georges

BÌNH LUẬN

Chưa có bình luận

VIẾT BÌNH LUẬN