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Some of the differences between British and American English spellings follow well-known patterns, such as -our (British), as in “colour,” and -or (American), as in “color,” or -re (British), as in “centre,” and -er (American), as in “center.”
There are also some that are just simplifications (which resulted from Noah Webster’s spelling reforms), like “cheque” (British) and “check” (American) or “doughnut” (British) and “donut” (American).
However, while most people are familiar with these differences, there are also some weird ones that may leave even native English speakers puzzled. For me, one of the weirdest-looking is “ageing” (used in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand). Canadians like me are usually familiar with British spellings, but this is an odd one because we use “aging” (used in North America). In fact, Google Docs has placed a red underline under the word “ageing” in this article to let me know that it’s "wrong"!
So, if you see an English word spelled differently in different places, it might not be a mistake. Most dictionaries will provide information about alternate spellings, so look the word up if you’re not sure!
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