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    Dayne.

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Hey EC friends,

I wanted to write a blog about British and American spelling, there are some differences, most are subtle.

Many words ending in 'our' in British English, are simplified to 'or' in American English, for example colour(British) becomes color(American).

Then there is 're' and 'er' at the ends of words, centre and center for example.

Sometimes it can be more complicated, like where 'ae' 'oe' and 'oeu' are found in British English, they are often replaced simply by 'e' 'o' or 'eu' in American English. Often 'se' is replaced with 'ze' too

Then the real fun begins... Sometimes where a word has a single L - 'l' in British English, it has a double L -'ll' in American English, however this also works the other way around!
Oh cruel world!! -_- *

There are more differences in the British vs American spelling, but I think it would be more fun if we all participate here. Leave a comment with a British & American comparison that you know!

No cheating!

But for those who would like more information, a full list can be found here:
http://www.studyenglishtoday.net/british-american-spelling.html

This is taken from a document I am writing for work reasons. I thought that some members here may be able to relate:

ESL learners all have unique streanghts, as well as areas they find quite hard. What most ESL learners have in common, is a difficulty speaking, and putting what they know on paper in to practice.
A learners native language has a lot to do with how they take to spoken English, for example, a speaker of a syllable timed language will find the stress timed rhythm of English hard to master, and while they may have mastered the phonetics of English, incorrect syllable stress will change the way a word sounds and can impact their pronunciation and confidence.

My answer to a common question

Phonetics; Learn the '42 sounds of the English language', a simple online search for these will supply you with learning materials and audio files too.

Vocabulary; learn as many new words as you can, try to use your new words in speech as soon as possible.

Try to focus on learning as many common phrases as you can, this is a great way to improve your English speaking.

For those of you at an advanced level, who wish to take their speech a step further, and for those of you who wish to make learning English speech that little bit easier for you in the future, you can not go past learning intonation, and English rhythm. The rythm of English is 'stress timed', there is ssentance stress and syllable stress.

Syllable stress: Not all syllables carry the same weight, some are stressed, and articulated clearly, others are not stressed, weaker and not as clearly articulated as the stressed syllables.

Sentance stress: Each sentence has a rise and fall, they have stressed words, and unstressed words. as a general rule, content words are stressed, and structure words are unstressed. However there are exceptions, you can even place stress on an otherwise unstressed word to change the meaning of a sentence completely. - Read all about it, the internet will be your best friend here.

If you feel you have the hang of syllable stress, then now is a good time to learn a related topic, one that can take you from advanced, to sounding fluent, 'connected speech'. If you can master connected speech, you will find yourself speaking faster and with confidence. GOOD LUCK!

 (poems and tongue twisters are a fun way to practive your pronunciation, and rhythm at home)