It’s amusing that a Brit is wearing a New England Patriots shirt since the team name is celebrating the American Revolutionary War soldiers who fought the British for independence.
HansDelbruck53 I’m sorry. I’m confused by your response. I understood the difference in the location of the two sets of subjects. It was just a mildly amusing observation that didn’t quite rise to the level of irony. Have a nice evening.
@@Judy_R There's no irony at all in that Joel is wearing a Patriots shirt. It is a bit amusing though. I think he likes to tweak the Yanks from time to time.
Many of the British spellings (-re, -our, -oeu, etc.) are directly taken from the French word roots. In the USA, during the mid 1800's, there was a movement to make many of those words be spelled as they were spoken for simplification. I think it was led by Noah Webster, and encouraged by Websters Dictionary (a dictionary most kids had a copy of at school - prior to the internet). As far as the Patriots shirt. The New England Patriots are an American football team that plays in the Boston area (one town over from where I live) and are either loved or hated. Most people aren't shy about which side they fall on. Your shirt #59 likely has WHITE on the back for the player Chris White.
Yep, that's basically the difference between British and American spellings is that we use the Webster dictionary, and Brits use the Oxford dictionary.
I would say a lot of American spelling is closer to the origin. where the British are by rule. even if the French word is more origin base like defense. the Brits stick to their rules.
"Centre" "litre" "theatre" etc. are all French spellings. Americans have just changed the spelling to reflect the actual English pronunciation. As we have in getting rid of extra "u" s and "e"s and "o"s ("aeroplane") left over from Latin and other languages. Get Anglicized, Brits!
Interestingly enough the word Program comes from Scotland it was the English who made them change the word from Program to Programme. Pete from Australia
Language changes over time and it IS the English language so their spelling is going to be the international correct and default spelling. The changing of spelling in America was really a trivial thing to do since it was not an issue, it just was one other way to try to differentiate itself from the Empire, and it turns out every other English speaking country on the planet tends to use their spellings, so now we are differentiated from them too. When you go to Europe you will see some signs translated into english, but it will never be in British English and then also American English. So because of the tinkering with the language, Americans when they go to Canada or Europe or the United Kingdom can certainly read the words but they will never be in American english. For even important words like "this is not an authorised area" they are not going to put that again below with "authorized". These places are going out of their way to offer one English translation so they are going to use the one spoken by most people that speak english internationally, which is not American english. Americans will just have to do their best and hopefully understand "aeroplane manoeuvre programme centre" in an important situation. So even now, all of the peaceful and prosperous places that everyone wants to visit, move to and win "best places on earth" almost every year, still use the perfectly fine English spelling, meanwhile Americans look nonsophisticated , obstinate, and to many people they will appear uneducated because the spellings often look like errors, because the rest of the world that speaks English is not taught American alternates of common words. If the true goal was to change the spellings to a more of "phonetic English", Webster would have also changed words like phone, though, through, night, beautiful, lieutenant, and so many other words with silent and unnecessary letters. An English standard should be taught in all English speaking countries, including the United States. We former colonies are essentially all very close allies and better communication would only be a benefit, if we do want our countries to continue to have English traditions language and culture in the future.
I wanted to just address the "z" at the end of the words such as organize and recognize. Here in the US, the silent e on the end of the word makes the last vowel a long sound. With the 'e' at the end, the letter 'i' sounds like eye....... but without the 'e' those words would sound like 'is' ( he/she ...is). Hope that helps, US English is definitely full of exceptions to "rules" =)
@Bonnie That's the reverse way of explaining it from the way I learned in school back in the 1980s. In other words, the long vowel sound makes the e at the end silent. Another simple rule is that a double consonant makes the preceding vowel short, whereas a single consonant makes it a long vowel. But of course with the introduction of an increased number of foreign words, these sorts of basic rules are becoming more flexible and looser.
We are taught a song called “magic magic E” in primary school. 🎶 bit becomes bite with me Kit becomes kite with me Sit becomes site with me Magic magic e 🎶 It goes on with different examples. Still remember it 30 years later 😂
I'm hands up for eh-strogen, but it really should be spelled oestrogen, and pronounced eestrogen. Theres a tall, yellow flower called "Evening Primrose. It's Binomial Nomenclature(Scientific Name)is Oenothera biennis. It's pronounced ee-know-thera by-ennis. There's also the spelling of foetus and fetus(fee-tus). How do Brits pronounce it?
I didn't know about houmous vs. hummus. These videos are so informourmative! They just get bettre and bettre! Joel and Lia are such great teachours! I feel like I'm learning English all oveour again! LOL
The thing is though is that we in the U.S tend to switch our spelling depending on the context. For example: Draft refers to a step when writing; you make multiple drafts when writing an essay. But draught is when cold air suddenly comes into a room. I’ve grown up with all of these spellings, so for me it’s contextual
Indeed! I often edit stories to suit my tastes, and I get triggered every time I edit a British story with grey in it, and the spellchecker flags this as wrong when I use the spelling grey to be consistent with the original author.
American spellings are due mainly because of Webster's Dictionary written just after our Founding. It was that book that helped to formulate the way Americans pronounced words and why most Americans sound alike.
All of the spellings they used were used in Britain until 1755 and America in 1828 when Johnson wrote a dictionary for Britain and Webster wrote a dictionary for America. Both Johnson and Webster chose which spellings out of the ones that were in use at the time to use. Johnson preferred the French "our" over the "or", "ur", and "our" spellings that were being used and Webster preferred the simpler "or" over the "or", "ur", and "our" spellings that were being used. Since then, many of Johnson's "our" spellings were changed by British scholars to "or" because the words were of Latin origin rather than French origin. Before the printing press came into use "ae" and "oe" were single letters written with out a space between them. Printers used an "a" and an "e" for the "ae" letter and an "o" and an "e" for the "oe" letter. The letters "ae" and "oe" were dropped from the alphabet. Americans chose to replace the obsolete "ae" and "oe" letters with a simple "e". Johnson chose the "re" spelling for some words and the "er" spelling for others whereas Webster chose the "er" spelling.
@@korbermeister1 That bothers me too...I wondered for the longest time why the two countries had different pronunciations of this word until I saw it spelled (spelt 😁) differently in a movie.
The annoying thing is the UK originally used "aluminum" as well, as that's how the inventor named it, but all of Europe decided to change it later on, and most of the world followed their lead. The US, however, kept it.
Good video. I llie your comparisons of the UK to the US. Winston Churchill once said that England and the US are two great countries separated by a common language.
I believe it was attributed to George Bernard Shaw - though like a lot of quotations can't be found in any of his writings. Definitely was not Churchill.
George Bernard Shaw The United States and Great Britain are two countries separated by a common language. George Bernard Shaw, widely attributed beginning in the 1940s, e.g. Reader's Digest (November 1942).
I’m American and I always “misspell” behavior, labor, and favor. I literally had to go back and delete the u from favor just now because I’m so in the habit of writing it in that way, and there’s really no explanation as to why.
I'm American, and for some reason, I read a lot of British English books as a kid. I remember struggling on spelling tests because I spelled a lot of words as I saw them in my books. I'd bring the book in and show my teacher so I could get credit. After a few tests, she made me start learning the American spelling 😂
My mother was British (WWII war bride) and a few spellings stuck with me. I don't know how many times I had bad marks on spelling tests using British spellings. The words I most often spelled "wrong" were colour and cheque.
The spelling for grey/gray is interchangeable here. I've spelled it both ways for the color because I'm not sure which one I should use. Tyre is an ancient city in the Middle East; tire is what you put on your car. ;-)
Depends as technically they are both right just it’s also a last name and often it depends on what the exact spelling is. But for color use grey but for a last name it’s gray.
This video is making me relive my youth as a British Canadian kid in the American public school system. At one point, a teacher called my mum in to discuss my "learning disability". She had to explain that there really were whole English-speaking countries in the rest of the world that did things differently. These days I just let my US auto-correct decide on spellings.
Really appreciate this video. Incredibly helpful and timely. My students are studying this topic currently. Good job mates! And presented with your usual humour. Thanks! L&C 👍 ♥️😘 🇬🇧
The centre/center catagory is because these are loan words from french. The French spelling is RE, so therefore, the British spelling is correct. And YES, we do spell metre that way. As for kerb/curb, two words, two meanings, one is a concrete edging strip, and one is to reduce something as in curb your enthusiasm. 🙂❤️
From what I was taught the extra "U" in British words comes from the early era of newspapers and other newsprint. It would cost more per letter to print and many words were shortened in order to save money, therefore the extra "U" in words like color/colour or humor/humour was originally present in both versions, but taken out to save money on ink for newspapers.
In a first grade spelling test, my teacher marked “grey” wrong. I showed her the color spelled that way in a book. She said the book was British. Because we lived near Canada, I learned about colour, centre, etc. And traveller.
Very interesting topic. Being close to the Canadian border, we see a lot of alternate spellings for words . I thought they were in french in origin. Now I realize they were british spellings, awsome! As for the Patriots jumper, thats definately a trigger for a lot of NFL fans, Go BILLS!!
I love the Patriot "Jumper" that Joel wore today. My husband is from Massachusetts and is a HUGE fan of the Patriots. Yes, the Patriots are an American football team that are truly hated; but not by my family! Spectre is the spelling in the States as well.
The Patriots is a football team. It's up on New England, which is often thought of as the place where our country began. Therefore, Patriots makes sense. At least that's what I think.
"Spectre" was still spelled the same here in the U.S....but I thought it was interesting that "A Simple Favor" was changed to "A Simple Favour" in the U.K. Probably just up to the marketing people...
Great topic. Love your channel. American with British grandparents here. The Brits did not come out with a dictionary for standardized spellings until 1755 which was a bit late in the game in comparison to other European countries. (The French, Spanish and Italians, for instance, already had standardized spellings for many years). The colonies had trade, government, and publishing to get on with so they often developed their own spellings in the absence of any rules. Webster would come along later and standardize or change many into what is now American spelling. The "our" words like Colour are regarded as a kind of faux French by many I think. The French themselves spell it couleur.
“re” vs “er” in British English is derived from French. Metre is an unit of measure vs Meter, an instrument for measure. This is general, not sure about the word centre vs center.
I so appreciate our American way of spelling things how they sound. I would be so screwed as a Brit. I was so caught up I raised my hand when they asked....duh.
Love you guys. I'm part english and part german though I'm American. I like learning about my past. Language has always fascinated me. One of my friends mother is pure Irish and as a teenage male her accent drove me nuts. She always wrote favorite as favourite. I noticed you missed this one.
Thank you, Teachers! 😂. (Also, there's a very interesting documentary on Netflix that involves the Patriots, or at least one of their former players. It's controversial a bit and very sad, though, but I learned a lot from it.)
Hi Joel & Lia, I just crack up every time I watch you 2! Honestly - you are adorable together!! Keep the material coming and don’t worry about people who are too critical of you. 👍🏼 - with love from Minnesota, USA. 🥰
I like the "Back to The Future" reference at 3:45. Assuming that is what you were doing. Lol. I find it funny that Joel even laughed like him a little bit. I seriously doubt it wad on purpose, but still funny to me.
Also, in America, it's "different from", not "different to". Those of us who read the books know that James Bond had a licence to kill rather than a license to kill.
I might be late to the party but could you do a video of that talks about American vs British pronunciations if the same words- I’ll give you a few to start : Narrator, and Charades lol. Love you both!
I absolutely enjoyed watching this video. I struggle with the spelling of words in all of those categories all the time. My early years of schooling were under the British system and although I've lived in the US for close to 30 years, I still often rely on autocorrect to get the American spelling right. This makes me feel better about my spelling mistakes. At least my spelling is correct somewhere.
SEAHAWKS SUCK!!!!! GO 49ERS!!! OOPS did I write that outloud!! Don't tell the rest of Washingtone State. Tee Hee Hee. 🤣🤣🤣 I for one am NOT triggered by anything you say. It's all in fun so it's all ok.
As far as your rule about an "s" before "e" becomes a "z" sound, what about the word "vise"? And another pair under the anomaly category, "gaol" and "jail".
Completely off topic: have you done a video about how to make a proper cup of British tea v. how Americans drink our tea? I’d like to know if there is really a difference. :) Love your videos guys!!
I always spell Grey with the European "E". I have been corrected a few times, and I just tell people that both spellings are technically correct. I hate Gray with an "A". You triggered me with Kerb. Who on Earth?! No. Just no. 🤣
Great video Legends. I was always good with spelling from an early age and for the most part I will use the American spelling for most words but it is beneficial to know the British spelling of some of the words especially if you are playing games such as Scrabble or other games the require you to spell. As far as Joel's shirt the New England Patriots is an American football team and will trigger quite a few people because they were caught cheating more than once so a lot of people don't like them including me. I can and do always come away with more knowledge after watching your videos. There are a couple other RUclipsr's that I watch and learn from. Continue doing what it is that you are doing and I will continue watching. My Legends rock.
“English” spelling of words is not always considered “wrong” in school because frequently they are listed in the dictionary as alternate spellings vs common spelling
English and French have to be tied for the two most ridiculously difficult languages to spell. But your video somehow made it all more enjoyable. Thanks for the interesting topic, guys.
Canadians spell like Brits, but we do get influenced by the US so we have a lot of confusion!! I like the Brit way...just because I went to school there for awhile. Thanks for this fun video!
I don't understand why we have spelling differences, as an American most of our spelling comes from Webster's English Dictionary, do yall have that there?
Thank you for teaching me some of the UK spellings. I enjoy some UK spellings more than American spellings, especially adding u. It’s my favourite. ;) I think the James Bond movie is still Spectre here.
Someone might have already said this in the comments but I didn't read through all of them to check. In the UK we use both license and licence. Licence is used for the noun and license is used for the verb. It's like practice and practise, we use both but for different reasons. I struggle to remember which way around they are!
Love this! My kids spent nearly 3 years of their teens growing up in Bicester, Oxfordshire in England. (Air Force) They attended an American school, but had loads of friends at church and in the community who were English. When we moved back to America, they had the worst time getting spelling correct here! They will still post on social media with English spellings and their friends give them a difficult time over it. (All in fun though). Who knows why Americans had to change the spellings! Ugh. Great video 👍
Here's an interesting fact: Canadian English uses British English spelling for some words and American English spelling for other words. All of the spellings they talked about were used in both Britain and America until 1755 and 1828 respectively. Out of the "or", "ur", and "our" spellings used for words like "color", "colur", and "colour", Johnson preferred the French spelling of "our" and used that in his 1755 British English dictionary. Since then, many of Johnson's spellings were changed to "or" because British scholars determined that those words came from Latin rather than French...example "governour" became "governor". Faced with the same spellings, Webster chose the simpler "or" spelling out of the "or", "ur", and "our" spellings that were being used in America. Johnson chose "re" for some words and "er" for others while Webster chose the simpler "er". At one point, "ae" and "oe" were single letters that were written bunched together rather than spaced apart. When the printing press came into use, printers used the letters "a" and "e" to print the letter "ae" and the letters "o" and "e" to print the letter "oe" and the letters "ae" and "oe" became obsolete and were dropped from the alphabet. The Americans chose to use the simple "e" to replace the obsolete letters "ae" and "oe". Many British words that are spelled with the "a" and "e" and the "o" and "e" are spelled with the simple "e" in Scottish English just as they are in American English while Canadian English uses both the British and American spellings. It's not so much that one country or the other country changed the spellings as it is that both countries independently chose which of the spellings that were used at the time were correct in that country.
@@Judy_R That's a big part of it, but another big part of it was there was a big push during that time to change the spelling of many words to be spelled closer to how they sound.
This is way off the topic but I wanted to tell you about Josh Prosecco. I'm in the USA and buy it here and don't know if you can get it there but it's only $12 here in Tennessee. We LOVE it and thought you may want to try it.
I like the New England Patriots so I'm excited that you're wearing that shirt! Their Football stadium is in Foxburogh, Massachusetts if anyone wanted to know🤔
I've seen movie theaters here in the US use the British spelling on their marquees. The local drive in marquee uses "theatre" . BTW does the UK have Drive-in movie theatres?
In the U.S. it's supposed to be story for a story you tell and storey for floors of a building, but a lot of people misspell it. I tell a story. I fell a storey.
I know this video is not about you two visiting the states or trying American food, but one of your videos should be about trying Red Robin when you come back to America. I know you don't like beef Joel, but I promise you both that you will love this restaurant. I recommend The Burning Love and the Steak Fries from the menu.
I've seen things in the US spelled with the re like theatre and yes, Spectre was the Bond film. You see draught in America but it always refers to beer. I've always thought the differences in spellings were because we had to teach English to people from around the world. The one I don't get is how Brits spell words like "sceptic" We were taught that when C precedes E or I, it takes the soft S sound and before A, O, or U, it takes the hard K sound. That's why we spell it "skeptic" Also, double-consonants follow the vowel with the emphasis.
We use both theater and theatre here in the U.S. Theater if you're talking about a movie theater/cinema, but theatre if you're talking about a live play or musical.
* e at the end of a word makes it long vowel... In the 70s in America you could get away with spelling color colour. But toward the end of the 70s it was then considered incorrect if you put the U in it... my teacher marked mine wrong and I told her that's the most correct way to spell that word!
It’s amusing that a Brit is wearing a New England Patriots shirt since the team name is celebrating the American Revolutionary War soldiers who fought the British for independence.
Well, they are both from England, while the team in question represents New England.
HansDelbruck53 I’m sorry. I’m confused by your response. I understood the difference in the location of the two sets of subjects. It was just a mildly amusing observation that didn’t quite rise to the level of irony. Have a nice evening.
@@michaelrutledge3750 I was only pointing out that the two locations have the word England in common.
@@Judy_R There's no irony at all in that Joel is wearing a Patriots shirt. It is a bit amusing though. I think he likes to tweak the Yanks from time to time.
HansDelbruck53 Okay. Thanks for the additional context.
🇬🇧 The letter "Zed"
🇺🇸 The letter "Zee"
Aitch vs. Haitch as well.
@@SuperMagnetizer those are words ?
@@lanceic
Wait, the letter H is pronounced Haitch? Seriously?
The letter Z in French is also pronounced “Zed”
The letter " zed" 🇨🇦
Many of the British spellings (-re, -our, -oeu, etc.) are directly taken from the French word roots.
In the USA, during the mid 1800's, there was a movement to make many of those words be spelled as they were spoken for simplification. I think it was led by Noah Webster, and encouraged by Websters Dictionary (a dictionary most kids had a copy of at school - prior to the internet).
As far as the Patriots shirt. The New England Patriots are an American football team that plays in the Boston area (one town over from where I live) and are either loved or hated. Most people aren't shy about which side they fall on.
Your shirt #59 likely has WHITE on the back for the player Chris White.
Yep, that's basically the difference between British and American spellings is that we use the Webster dictionary, and Brits use the Oxford dictionary.
I would say a lot of American spelling is closer to the origin. where the British are by rule. even if the French word is more origin base like defense. the Brits stick to their rules.
Both the "or" and "our" spellings were used in Britain and the US until both countries independently standardized the spellings.
@@chiprbob I understand Draft .I thought Draught was Drought spelled wrong..{a dry spell}
Some differences, like "paediatric," have to do with Greek roots.
In the US "theatre" is the stage for acting and "theater" is the movie theater.
Nope
I use whatever one comes to my mind
@@pjschmid2251 do your MATHS
Actually, I believe "theater" is the preferred spelling for all meanings of the word in American English.
That’s how I was taught too.
Uh, we pronounce thesaurus the same way. In fact, joke time: what do you call a well spoken dinosaur? Thesaurus Rex.
What does he eat for breakfast?: Synonym rolls 😉
@@susanramirez
I actually laughed at that one. Well done.
We say it the same. Who in the world says "thea- a -ras" lol strike that one off your list 🤣
"Centre" "litre" "theatre" etc. are all French spellings. Americans have just changed the spelling to reflect the actual English pronunciation. As we have in getting rid of extra "u" s and "e"s and "o"s ("aeroplane") left over from Latin and other languages. Get Anglicized, Brits!
Well you can thank William The Conqueror for that French influence.
Interestingly enough the word Program comes from Scotland it was the English who made them change the word from Program to Programme. Pete from Australia
Language changes over time and it IS the English language so their spelling is going to be the international correct and default spelling.
The changing of spelling in America was really a trivial thing to do since it was not an issue, it just was one other way to try to differentiate itself from the Empire, and it turns out every other English speaking country on the planet tends to use their spellings, so now we are differentiated from them too.
When you go to Europe you will see some signs translated into english, but it will never be in British English and then also American English.
So because of the tinkering with the language, Americans when they go to Canada or Europe or the United Kingdom can certainly read the words but they will never be in American english. For even important words like "this is not an authorised area" they are not going to put that again below with "authorized".
These places are going out of their way to offer one English translation so they are going to use the one spoken by most people that speak english internationally, which is not American english.
Americans will just have to do their best and hopefully understand "aeroplane manoeuvre programme centre" in an important situation.
So even now, all of the peaceful and prosperous places that everyone wants to visit, move to and win "best places on earth" almost every year, still use the perfectly fine English spelling, meanwhile Americans look nonsophisticated , obstinate, and to many people they will appear uneducated because the spellings often look like errors, because the rest of the world that speaks English is not taught American alternates of common words.
If the true goal was to change the spellings to a more of "phonetic English", Webster would have also changed words like phone, though, through, night, beautiful, lieutenant, and so many other words with silent and unnecessary letters.
An English standard should be taught in all English speaking countries, including the United States.
We former colonies are essentially all very close allies and better communication would only be a benefit, if we do want our countries to continue to have English traditions language and culture in the future.
Funny to hear Lia say that "tire" seems old timey like Shakespeare... Because that's how I feel when I see "tyre"
I wanted to just address the "z" at the end of the words such as organize and recognize. Here in the US, the silent e on the end of the word makes the last vowel a long sound. With the 'e' at the end, the letter 'i' sounds like eye....... but without the 'e' those words would sound like 'is' ( he/she ...is). Hope that helps, US English is definitely full of exceptions to "rules" =)
Bonnie that’s the same in the uk 🤷🏽♀️
@Bonnie That's the reverse way of explaining it from the way I learned in school back in the 1980s. In other words, the long vowel sound makes the e at the end silent.
Another simple rule is that a double consonant makes the preceding vowel short, whereas a single consonant makes it a long vowel. But of course with the introduction of an increased number of foreign words, these sorts of basic rules are becoming more flexible and looser.
We are taught a song called “magic magic E” in primary school.
🎶 bit becomes bite with me
Kit becomes kite with me
Sit becomes site with me
Magic magic e 🎶
It goes on with different examples. Still remember it 30 years later 😂
Just wanted to add that us Americans use both draft and draught... it just depends on the situation
Bonnie pop p
Hands up for eh-strogen 🙋🏼♀️
I'm hands up for eh-strogen, but it really should be spelled oestrogen, and pronounced eestrogen. Theres a tall, yellow flower called "Evening Primrose. It's Binomial Nomenclature(Scientific Name)is Oenothera biennis. It's pronounced ee-know-thera by-ennis.
There's also the spelling of foetus and fetus(fee-tus). How do Brits pronounce it?
@@aprilkurtz1589
I have no idea but I'm afraid to ask.
@@aprilkurtz1589 fee-tus but spell it foetus
I didn't know about houmous vs. hummus. These videos are so informourmative! They just get bettre and bettre! Joel and Lia are such great teachours! I feel like I'm learning English all oveour again! LOL
Triggered AF by estrogen lmao, I can’t even.
The thing is though is that we in the U.S tend to switch our spelling depending on the context. For example:
Draft refers to a step when writing; you make multiple drafts when writing an essay. But draught is when cold air suddenly comes into a room.
I’ve grown up with all of these spellings, so for me it’s contextual
“It is a damn poor mind that can think of only one way to spell a word.” - President Andrew Jackson
Wikiquote lists that as "likely misattributed."
en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Andrew_Jackson
That’s bullshit
U R reit thair.
Indeed! I often edit stories to suit my tastes, and I get triggered every time I edit a British story with grey in it, and the spellchecker flags this as wrong when I use the spelling grey to be consistent with the original author.
American spellings are due mainly because of Webster's Dictionary written just after our Founding. It was that book that helped to formulate the way Americans pronounced words and why most Americans sound alike.
All of the spellings they used were used in Britain until 1755 and America in 1828 when Johnson wrote a dictionary for Britain and Webster wrote a dictionary for America. Both Johnson and Webster chose which spellings out of the ones that were in use at the time to use. Johnson preferred the French "our" over the "or", "ur", and "our" spellings that were being used and Webster preferred the simpler "or" over the "or", "ur", and "our" spellings that were being used. Since then, many of Johnson's "our" spellings were changed by British scholars to "or" because the words were of Latin origin rather than French origin. Before the printing press came into use "ae" and "oe" were single letters written with out a space between them. Printers used an "a" and an "e" for the "ae" letter and an "o" and an "e" for the "oe" letter. The letters "ae" and "oe" were dropped from the alphabet. Americans chose to replace the obsolete "ae" and "oe" letters with a simple "e". Johnson chose the "re" spelling for some words and the "er" spelling for others whereas Webster chose the "er" spelling.
You guys missed "aluminum" and "aluminium". These drive me crazy!
. ..Except they're not pronounced the same
USA: ah-LU-mih-num = aluminum
UK: ah-lu-MI-nee-um = aluminium
Both of these spelling comes from UK too .. go figure.
@@korbermeister1 That bothers me too...I wondered for the longest time why the two countries had different pronunciations of this word until I saw it spelled (spelt 😁) differently in a movie.
The annoying thing is the UK originally used "aluminum" as well, as that's how the inventor named it, but all of Europe decided to change it later on, and most of the world followed their lead. The US, however, kept it.
@@Trifler500 They changed it to "aluminium" so that it would follow the format of other elements: Sodium, chromium, helium, etc.
Good video. I llie your comparisons of the UK to the US. Winston Churchill once said that England and the US are two great countries separated by a common language.
Thanks so much Bob! Yeah that's a great quote!
I believe that quote is more often attributed to George Bernard Shaw
I believe it was attributed to George Bernard Shaw - though like a lot of quotations can't be found in any of his writings. Definitely was not Churchill.
@@charlesstuart7290 I've seen it several times over the years as Winston.
George Bernard Shaw
The United States and Great Britain are two countries separated by a common language. George Bernard Shaw, widely attributed beginning in the 1940s, e.g. Reader's Digest (November 1942).
I’m American and I always “misspell” behavior, labor, and favor. I literally had to go back and delete the u from favor just now because I’m so in the habit of writing it in that way, and there’s really no explanation as to why.
I'm American, and for some reason, I read a lot of British English books as a kid. I remember struggling on spelling tests because I spelled a lot of words as I saw them in my books. I'd bring the book in and show my teacher so I could get credit. After a few tests, she made me start learning the American spelling 😂
As an American I never heard of tHes-a-rAs either. The person probably just pronounced it wrong. We say Thesaurus the same way you guys do.
I used to say it that way until someone corrected me and I'm an American 😂 I felt so validated after this vid lol
Some of us here in the US pronounce it "the-SAR-us".
Yeah I've never heard tHes-a-rAs either.
Love your shirt!!!
I love when Lia says "they can have that one."
They gave us more than half. Id pay money to hear Them pronounce Aluminum..I laugh every time
@@jamesware5100 people here in northern IL say it the british way lol
@@thomas9152 my tongue gets confused
@James Ware And urinal. I almost fell over the first time I heard it pronounced "your-EYE-nal"! Sounds nuts! ;)
@@mandeskelton9548 HaHa My Greek friend asked me if i would take her to aam a Zing.. I didnt understand ..aam ah Zing ? she meant Amazing Savings
My mother was British (WWII war bride) and a few spellings stuck with me. I don't know how many times I had bad marks on spelling tests using British spellings. The words I most often spelled "wrong" were colour and cheque.
The spelling for grey/gray is interchangeable here. I've spelled it both ways for the color because I'm not sure which one I should use. Tyre is an ancient city in the Middle East; tire is what you put on your car. ;-)
Depends as technically they are both right just it’s also a last name and often it depends on what the exact spelling is. But for color use grey but for a last name it’s gray.
Did it today!
@@yugioht42 What about Grey's Anatomy? 😁
Grey is actually correct!
@@busimagen You mean 'former' porn actress, Sasha Grey. :) She is FAF too lol.
This video is making me relive my youth as a British Canadian kid in the American public school system. At one point, a teacher called my mum in to discuss my "learning disability". She had to explain that there really were whole English-speaking countries in the rest of the world that did things differently. These days I just let my US auto-correct decide on spellings.
Really appreciate this video. Incredibly helpful and timely. My students are studying this topic currently. Good job mates! And presented with your usual humour. Thanks! L&C 👍 ♥️😘 🇬🇧
That's great! Thanks Tek!
Good teachers. Great job Joel and Lia.
The centre/center catagory is because these are loan words from french. The French spelling is RE, so therefore, the British spelling is correct. And YES, we do spell metre that way. As for kerb/curb, two words, two meanings, one is a concrete edging strip, and one is to reduce something as in curb your enthusiasm. 🙂❤️
Brits have Meter and metre. Metre is a unit of measure (kilometre etc.), and meter is an instrument used for measuring (voltmeter, ammeter etc.)
From what I was taught the extra "U" in British words comes from the early era of newspapers and other newsprint. It would cost more per letter to print and many words were shortened in order to save money, therefore the extra "U" in words like color/colour or humor/humour was originally present in both versions, but taken out to save money on ink for newspapers.
So so fun; great topic lovelies! You're looking absolutely gorgeous!💗🌷
Aw thanks so much Kimberly!
In a first grade spelling test, my teacher marked “grey” wrong. I showed her the color spelled that way in a book. She said the book was British. Because we lived near Canada, I learned about colour, centre, etc. And traveller.
Lia, “we’ve got absolutely no qualifications,” and she busts out laughing. I love your humor girl!
You guys crack me up! Thanks for your positivity and awesome videos
9:29 without the ‘e’ then it would be paral(iss) like “abyss”. In American English, the ‘e’ at the end gives the ‘i’ the “eye” sound
Very interesting topic. Being close to the Canadian border, we see a lot of alternate spellings for words . I thought they were in french in origin. Now I realize they were british spellings, awsome! As for the Patriots jumper, thats definately a trigger for a lot of NFL fans, Go BILLS!!
The e is at the end of the z words so you know the vowel preceding the z is a long one.
Lia's facial expressions are great with Joel's commentary so I just subbed after a few videos
😂😂
We spell “program” like that, while you spell it with an extra “me”- programme.
I love you two. Joel and the "Jumper" I'm loosing it...keep it up. I love the differences but it does freak some out.
I love the Patriot "Jumper" that Joel wore today. My husband is from Massachusetts and is a HUGE fan of the Patriots. Yes, the Patriots are an American football team that are truly hated; but not by my family! Spectre is the spelling in the States as well.
Yes. The film explained the acronym of it
Thoroughly enjoyed this video. I was laughing out loud when you were laughing. Thank you both!
The Patriots is a football team. It's up on New England, which is often thought of as the place where our country began. Therefore, Patriots makes sense. At least that's what I think.
Our country was founded in Philadelphia.
You guys are great! You always make me smile. 😊 thank you
"Spectre" was still spelled the same here in the U.S....but I thought it was interesting that "A Simple Favor" was changed to "A Simple Favour" in the U.K. Probably just up to the marketing people...
Great video! I learned quite a bit, thanks.
Ever notice it seems that Brits lose their accent when they sing?
Ever hear of Ozzy Osbourne? When he talks I can barely understand a word he says but when he sings everything is understandable.
@@etonbachs4226 God bless Ozzy!
And the there are a lot of American singers who mysteriously become British when they sing.
@@MarkTitus420 who?
@@MarkTitus420 yea who?
Great topic. Love your channel. American with British grandparents here. The Brits did not come out with a dictionary for standardized spellings until 1755 which was a bit late in the game in comparison to other European countries. (The French, Spanish and Italians, for instance, already had standardized spellings for many years). The colonies had trade, government, and publishing to get on with so they often developed their own spellings in the absence of any rules. Webster would come along later and standardize or change many into what is now American spelling. The "our" words like Colour are regarded as a kind of faux French by many I think. The French themselves spell it couleur.
You two are just adorable !
I love your jumper Joel bc I’m a New England girl ! 😊 Great video ! 🐝😊💕
It's a T shirt not a jumper.
I really like your accent guys 😍
id be chilling in South Africa waiting until 00:00 am just to watch ur videos after uploading them, love u guyzzz
“re” vs “er” in British English is derived from French. Metre is an unit of measure vs Meter, an instrument for measure. This is general, not sure about the word centre vs center.
The E after Z in words like organize is to make the "i" pronounced as /ai/ rather than /I/.
you guys are such a dynamic duo! u guys compliment eachother so well!! ur vids are so funny!
I don’t know if anyone else said this, but I remember Grey/Gray this way: GrEy = England, GrAy = America
Great video, guys! ❤️
I so appreciate our American way of spelling things how they sound. I would be so screwed as a Brit. I was so caught up I raised my hand when they asked....duh.
I am from New England and was so shocked to see you in your Patriots T-shirt. It’s so funny that it is perceived as a brand in the UK!
You still need the E at the end of the word to make the Y say "I"
Thanks guys! These are my favorite.
Watching the impeachment. Will have to catch you later. Love you guys! 😊❤
Dorothy Paul I like his hair.
Don't do it. It'll make you poke pencils in your ears just to make it stop.
My mind has been opened by this lesson. Thanks Joel and Lia.
Americans say "Z" not " Zed" as in " "x,y,z" not "x,y, Zed." Now won't you sing with me.
Love you guys. I'm part english and part german though I'm American. I like learning about my past. Language has always fascinated me. One of my friends mother is pure Irish and as a teenage male her accent drove me nuts. She always wrote favorite as favourite. I noticed you missed this one.
Thank you, Teachers! 😂. (Also, there's a very interesting documentary on Netflix that involves the Patriots, or at least one of their former players. It's controversial a bit and very sad, though, but I learned a lot from it.)
I love u guys , I don’t see many youtubers who embrace our culture with near as much patriotism as you too!! ( enjoying my Tetley ☕️🇬🇧)
One of my favorite subjects!!!
Hi Joel & Lia, I just crack up every time I watch you 2! Honestly - you are adorable together!! Keep the material coming and don’t worry about people who are too critical of you. 👍🏼
- with love from Minnesota, USA. 🥰
OMG love the Patriots shirt!!!
I like the "Back to The Future" reference at 3:45. Assuming that is what you were doing. Lol. I find it funny that Joel even laughed like him a little bit. I seriously doubt it wad on purpose, but still funny to me.
Also, in America, it's "different from", not "different to".
Those of us who read the books know that James Bond had a licence to kill rather than a license to kill.
I might be late to the party but could you do a video of that talks about American vs British pronunciations if the same words- I’ll give you a few to start : Narrator, and Charades lol.
Love you both!
As a huge “50 Shades of Grey” fan... Christian Grey is spelled with a (ey.)
The graphics were hilarious. 🤣😂 Well done!!! Meter. Metre. Lol.
When a place is trying to be posh, they might spell their name XYZ Centre. Lol.
Same with "theater/theatre". I see that and silently pronounce it in my mind as " thee-ah-trah", lol.
I absolutely enjoyed watching this video. I struggle with the spelling of words in all of those categories all the time. My early years of schooling were under the British system and although I've lived in the US for close to 30 years, I still often rely on autocorrect to get the American spelling right. This makes me feel better about my spelling mistakes. At least my spelling is correct somewhere.
Patriots lost in the first round of the playoffs, were all happy over here
Larry Page, Jr. Go Titans!
yep!
SEAHAWKS SUCK!!!!! GO 49ERS!!! OOPS did I write that outloud!! Don't tell the rest of Washingtone State. Tee Hee Hee. 🤣🤣🤣
I for one am NOT triggered by anything you say. It's all in fun so it's all ok.
It’s ok-it wouldn’t be right to win EVERY year...enjoy it until next year!
As far as your rule about an "s" before "e" becomes a "z" sound, what about the word "vise"? And another pair under the anomaly category, "gaol" and "jail".
It's called Independence baby! 😄🇺🇸💕
Completely off topic: have you done a video about how to make a proper cup of British tea v. how Americans drink our tea? I’d like to know if there is really a difference. :)
Love your videos guys!!
I always spell Grey with the European "E". I have been corrected a few times, and I just tell people that both spellings are technically correct. I hate Gray with an "A". You triggered me with Kerb. Who on Earth?! No. Just no. 🤣
The way to remember it is that "Grey" is the name as used in the famous anatomy book.
@@jwb52z9 the better way to remember it is GrEy= England GrAy=America
I agree with you on grey! Kerb, meh. I know what it and tyre mean, but don't get any kind of worked up over them.
i use both but my teachers don’t care bc they’re both acceptable spellings
Great video Legends. I was always good with spelling from an early age and for the most part I will use the American spelling for most words but it is beneficial to know the British spelling of some of the words especially if you are playing games such as Scrabble or other games the require you to spell. As far as Joel's shirt the New England Patriots is an American football team and will trigger quite a few people because they were caught cheating more than once so a lot of people don't like them including me. I can and do always come away with more knowledge after watching your videos. There are a couple other RUclipsr's that I watch and learn from. Continue doing what it is that you are doing and I will continue watching. My Legends rock.
My personal triggering pet peeve - "The untucked period." "Blah, blah, blah". Tuck that period ya'll!
I find it looks better untucked when I text or type it out on an i-device or a computer.
I agree! Tuck!
@@lorilaruehueg1006 I read a lot of history written by British authors. And, I got marked down for not tucking my periods in a paper I wrote. :(
@@edwardmiessner6502 What does an untucked or tucked period really mean? I've never heard of it. Thank you
I can't stand that either. Tuck please.
“English” spelling of words is not always considered “wrong” in school because frequently they are listed in the dictionary as alternate spellings vs common spelling
And then you have southern illinois where me spelling "theater" like "theatre" got a point taken off of my test 🤧
English and French have to be tied for the two most ridiculously difficult languages to spell. But your video somehow made it all more enjoyable. Thanks for the interesting topic, guys.
First off, great video! Second off, DID JOEL JUST ASK FOR A CAN OF WATER⁉️ I did not know canned water was a thing outside of sparkling drinks😂
Canadians spell like Brits, but we do get influenced by the US so we have a lot of confusion!! I like the Brit way...just because I went to school there for awhile. Thanks for this fun video!
Virginia Canada seems to be a mix...we spell tire...organize, curb, etc. the American way.
We were always taught that the e at the end of a word makes the preceding vowel long. It doesn’t affect the preceding consonant.
Oh I love the Patriots! I'm from Boston!
I don't understand why we have spelling differences, as an American most of our spelling comes from Webster's English Dictionary, do yall have that there?
Thank you for teaching me some of the UK spellings. I enjoy some UK spellings more than American spellings, especially adding u. It’s my favourite. ;) I think the James Bond movie is still Spectre here.
Someone might have already said this in the comments but I didn't read through all of them to check. In the UK we use both license and licence. Licence is used for the noun and license is used for the verb. It's like practice and practise, we use both but for different reasons. I struggle to remember which way around they are!
Love this! My kids spent nearly 3 years of their teens growing up in Bicester, Oxfordshire in England. (Air Force) They attended an American school, but had loads of friends at church and in the community who were English. When we moved back to America, they had the worst time getting spelling correct here! They will still post on social media with English spellings and their friends give them a difficult time over it. (All in fun though). Who knows why Americans had to change the spellings! Ugh. Great video 👍
Here's an interesting fact: Canadian English uses British English spelling for some words and American English spelling for other words. All of the spellings they talked about were used in both Britain and America until 1755 and 1828 respectively. Out of the "or", "ur", and "our" spellings used for words like "color", "colur", and "colour", Johnson preferred the French spelling of "our" and used that in his 1755 British English dictionary. Since then, many of Johnson's spellings were changed to "or" because British scholars determined that those words came from Latin rather than French...example "governour" became "governor". Faced with the same spellings, Webster chose the simpler "or" spelling out of the "or", "ur", and "our" spellings that were being used in America. Johnson chose "re" for some words and "er" for others while Webster chose the simpler "er". At one point, "ae" and "oe" were single letters that were written bunched together rather than spaced apart. When the printing press came into use, printers used the letters "a" and "e" to print the letter "ae" and the letters "o" and "e" to print the letter "oe" and the letters "ae" and "oe" became obsolete and were dropped from the alphabet. The Americans chose to use the simple "e" to replace the obsolete letters "ae" and "oe". Many British words that are spelled with the "a" and "e" and the "o" and "e" are spelled with the simple "e" in Scottish English just as they are in American English while Canadian English uses both the British and American spellings. It's not so much that one country or the other country changed the spellings as it is that both countries independently chose which of the spellings that were used at the time were correct in that country.
@@Judy_R That's a big part of it, but another big part of it was there was a big push during that time to change the spelling of many words to be spelled closer to how they sound.
@@chiprbob my Canadian stepfather got on me for spelling color or some such word without a U. I just told him "blow it out your ear"
This is way off the topic but I wanted to tell you about Josh Prosecco. I'm in the USA and buy it here and don't know if you can get it there but it's only $12 here in Tennessee. We LOVE it and thought you may want to try it.
I like the New England Patriots so I'm excited that you're wearing that shirt! Their Football stadium is in Foxburogh, Massachusetts if anyone wanted to know🤔
JoeWest I’m a big Pats fan too! I just saw a comment saying go Titians and it got me mad lol
I've seen movie theaters here in the US use the British spelling on their marquees. The local drive in marquee uses "theatre" . BTW does the UK have Drive-in movie theatres?
You lot spell storey, and we Yanks spell it story. Enjoy your vids!
Julie Barlow we use story too. for telling a story
But storey for a building. A 3 storey building.
In the U.S. it's supposed to be story for a story you tell and storey for floors of a building, but a lot of people misspell it.
I tell a story. I fell a storey.
I know this video is not about you two visiting the states or trying American food, but one of your videos should be about trying Red Robin when you come back to America. I know you don't like beef Joel, but I promise you both that you will love this restaurant. I recommend The Burning Love and the Steak Fries from the menu.
I've seen things in the US spelled with the re like theatre and yes, Spectre was the Bond film. You see draught in America but it always refers to beer. I've always thought the differences in spellings were because we had to teach English to people from around the world.
The one I don't get is how Brits spell words like "sceptic" We were taught that when C precedes E or I, it takes the soft S sound and before A, O, or U, it takes the hard K sound. That's why we spell it "skeptic"
Also, double-consonants follow the vowel with the emphasis.
I absolutely love the word 'whilst'. I wish I could use it every single day. 🇺🇸 🇬🇧
We use both theater and theatre here in the U.S. Theater if you're talking about a movie theater/cinema, but theatre if you're talking about a live play or musical.
* e at the end of a word makes it long vowel...
In the 70s in America you could get away with spelling color colour. But toward the end of the 70s it was then considered incorrect if you put the U in it... my teacher marked mine wrong and I told her that's the most correct way to spell that word!