American English came from British English too, but today it's not as similar. This web page is specifically concerned with the orthography (or what you and I call ‘spelling’) of words. TERMIUM Plus®, the Government of Canada's terminology and linguistic data bank Words ending in y preceded by a vowel generally retain the y before a suffix: The following are the only common words ending in ise: To this list should be added all words with wise as a suffix. Sorry to pile on here, but your discussion of verb endings is inadequate. This is a tricky one for me because, personally, I agree with you. Both publications are based on research into Canadian usage, contain specifically Canadian terms and reflect the usage of most federal government departments and agencies more closely than do American or British dictionaries. Use the suffix ize for most other words, including civilize, criticize, italicize, itemize, memorize and organize. Very helpful stuff! This is because of cultural and historical differences between the two countries. Capitalization in APA, Chicago, MLA, and AP, Working from Home as an Independent Contract Proofreader: Considerations and Qualifications. Please feel free to contact me about any words, spellings, or anything else on this webpage that you feel is incorrect, misleading, or just plain not working. Australians, New Zealanders and South Africans tend to stick much more closely with the original British spelling, but Canada is much more swayed by its powerful neighbour to the south. In two cases the final vowel of a unit prefix is omitted: megohm and kilohm. A few examples: With the word "avenue", Americans sometimes … This way, you will enable us to improve our service. Note that meter is the spelling for a measuring device, while metre is the unit of length. Many features of Canadian English come from the influence of British English. Full US English spellings are tolerated in Canada, and even often used by Canadians themselves. It also includes useful advice for drafting letters, memos, reports, indexes … While a list of words that have variant spellings in British and American practice would run into the hundreds and still not be exhaustive, the great majority of them fall into a few well-defined classes, as listed below. block (group of things; obstruct; solid piece, broach (pointed tool or rod; begin to talk about), karat (unit used to specify proportion of gold in alloy), censor (check the morality or acceptability of; person who does this), complement (complete; that which completes), pedal (operate levers with feet; activation device), principal (chief, main, leading; school administrator), therefore (for that reason, consequently). Home There is a simple solution.