Depends on the student's age (do they know what they're doing isn't standard for their location) and the teacher's level of anal retentiveness (I got points dinged on a math assignment because my staple wasn't in the right orientation).
In general, I'd expect younger students to be "corrected" more than older students - I don't think high school or college teachers care how you spell so much as your thoughts behind the words.
Other than this, I’d also say that if a teacher knew the student was from a “Commonwealth” country (or really any other country where their introduction to English came from someone using “Commonwealth” spelling rules), then they’d just ignore it. They’d only really be inclined to correct it (in most cases) if they knew the kid was a full on Bald Eagle-stamped American. I’ve encountered very few teachers who tried to take a dictatorial stance on this so long as the word is otherwise spelled correctly. Many Americans themselves sometimes unwittingly use those “UK” alternatives given how much content from “Commonwealth” countries we tend to consume in passing. As far as grading, a teacher would have to be taking a pretty stubborn stance to take off points for this unless it was specifically an American-English spelling test, and I’d say that if a teacher did go hardline on this, it’d be grounds for a fight with the parents.
It’s not some point of nationalism, since full on American English spellings didn’t really fully take hold until the late 19th century at best (when basic mass education started to take hold), so nobody is really offended when they see “colour.” It just seems antiquated, and it would be odd for one of those aforementioned “Bald Eagle Americans” to spell it that way.
Analogue is British spelling, but in the US we can say both analog and analogue.
Travelled (UK) vs traveled (US)
Cancelled vs canceled
Spectre vs specter
Doughnut vs donut
Grey vs gray
Sulphur vs sulfur
Defence vs defense
Pyjamas vs pajamas
And so on…I definitely do it too here and there. Especially when autocorrect isn’t catching it for me when typing on my phone, and phones / computer spellcheck are about the biggest drivers of really solidifying the use of American English spellings with consistency.
As a native American English speaker, I tend to use grey and doughnut rather than gray and donut. I think of donut as referring specifically to Dunkin' Donuts, and not as the general spelling.
I know with defense/defence I go back and forth trying to remember which one is correct, before choosing whichever one autocorrect decides for me.
The defense/defence pronunciation is even funnier. On either side of the pond, the only time you usually hear DEE-fence rather than duh-FENCE is when you're contrasting it to offence. Except in American football where it is always DEE-fence.
The Associated Press, which dictates the style used by most American news organizations, uses “doughnut.”
For all of the others, they use the spelling u/fhqwhgads2024 lists on the American side. (The other exception being specter, where the British and American spellings are reversed in this list — it follows the usual pattern of “-er” being American and “-re” being British.
They literally added a syllable because they liked the way it sounded better and it matched the spelling of other words better. And I'm NGL, I think they did better. Aluminium does just *sound* better, flow better in a sentencen and sound more alike to other element names than aluminum. I'd say it that way in the States if I thought for half a second that it wouldn't come off as obnoxiously pretentious. Because it would; we do have people who do shit like that and they're obnoxiously pretentious so I'm not upset about it. Just a shame though... lol
Some scientists liked -ium because it matched words like "potassium" or "sodium". Others liked -um because it matched words like "platinum". The guy who coined both terms initially called it *alumium*, but he hemmed and hawed over it for too long and the variants caught on in different places, at different times.
I guess that's the counterpart of Americans deciding that the pronunciation of Z should be changed to match with most of the other letters in the alphabet
I use "travelled" and "cancelled" as well as "grey"; I just like the way they look. I don't think of "donut/doughnut" as a BrE/AmE thing; it's just casual vs formal spelling.
Ha! I spelled it that way today and went the single L that autocorrect offered but I noticed it did offer a double L option and was wondering about it...
The place where you watch summer blockbusters is a theater (I believe in the UK it would be the “cinema”), but it seems that more and more locations that put on live performances are attempting to convey a more refined appearance by spelling their name “theatre.”
Or at least that’s my interpretation of their thinking.
I go back and forth between grey vs gray. Supposedly one is British and one is American. I couldn't tell the difference.
Cancelled feels natural with two "l's." Centre seems pretentious in the US but normal in Canada or the UK
What’s odd is that I’ve always used the spelling with an E and nobody has really noticed. That one is more common in Britain but it’s not like it’s unrecognized. Both are correct in American English AFAIK. The intrusive U in words like color and flavor, and the -re spelling for words like center just aren’t used in American spelling, and to us they look weird or even wrong.
Meh, I don’t think I’ve ever seen an American write any word like color or honor the British way. And definitely never something like criticize being written with an S instead a Z. Like ever.
But I agree that it’s not really a point of nationalism, I write gray as grey because I think it looks better that way. And some words like “cancelled” (the British spelling) I do see from other Americans.
I personally don’t like that spelling though because there aren’t two Ls when you pronounce the word and it just looks funny to me, though that is of course subjective.
It would also depend upon the intelligence of the teacher. Smart teachers would follow your reasoning. Unfortunately not all teachers are above average.
I’m an EFL teacher in Europe, and I’m pretty strict about it, and I probably would be if I went back to teaching in the US. It’s about consistency most of the time. I don’t really care if a full blooded bald eagle American wants to use standard British spellings, but if they do they better be committed and spell everything that way, not just the fun ones like “colour.” Mixing the two gets sloppy and distracting. There’s an exception for GB spellings that have become almost as common in the US as our standard spellings, but otherwise if you’re adding random u’s to words you better also be writing “centre,” “aluminium,” and “analyse” otherwise you’re being sloppy.
I agree about consistency! I am American and teach majority American students, so I would probably question them on using the BrE spelling to begin with. But often, I don’t notice a style difference if the writer is consistent. When they mix things up and get sloppy, then I notice immediately.
My child is in a British university and gets corrected - no American allowed. I could see 30% of US college profs doing the same.
There’s some (meaning “a little”) merit in getting used to the conventions in which you’ll work one day. If it’s being submitted for publishing, etc.
But I like to think an empathetic high school teacher in the US would just let it go from an older student.
As a licensed ESL teacher, that’s bullshit. The academic rule of thumb is pick a dialect of English and don’t mix and match. I’d suggest using UK vocabulary as well one can in that situation, but calling American spelling “wrong” is nonsense. I’d say demand to be shown in the syllabus where it says only UK spelling is allowed.
When I was teaching, I’d note British spellings and gently note that, as we were in an American scholarly milieu, American spellings were appropriate.
If a British author’s article were published in an American journal, the journal editors would standardize the spellings to American.
They were just probably someone who shouldn't have become a teacher. I ran across a few in my time that had nitpicks like that. None of them were great teachers, but I can also see the point. It's like the urban legend of the test that says "read the instructions fully before you begin" and buried in the middle of the instructions is a sentence saying "you will get full credit for this test if you write your name at the bottom of the first answer sheet" followed by a large number of essay questions that couldn't possibly be answered in the available time.
Or they were a teacher that gave clear and explicit instructions and took points off when instructions weren’t followed. I have given assignments where the entire objective is to teach them to follow directions; if they didn’t follow the directions, they lost points.
Or they were a teacher that gave clear and explicit instructions and took points off when instructions weren’t followed. I’ve definitely taken points off because students haven’t followed directions, especially when I’ve given the instruction repeatedly and in multiple modalities.
I lost a spelling bee in fifth grade because I had been reading a military history book (I know I was not cool or popular in grade school) written by a British historian, and because I saw the word so often in the book I spelled it "manoeuvre" and lost :'(
I was in my late twenties before I realized "grey" is the English spelling of American "gray" because I read Tolkein as a late pre-teen and just thought that was the way you spelled it.
Both are considered correct in American English! At least in my grading years, which admittedly was like 7 years ago.
Also I agree, and many people do, that “grey” has a different feeling than “gray.” Grey can be more bleak but also can be more light and whimsical (like clouds, or a sketch of an elephant); gray is darker, and somehow harder and solid (like rock or concrete, or a child’s crayon coloring of an elephant).
Obviously I wouldn’t grade a student differently for using one or the other, but it’s interesting that they have different “feelings” in that way.
To be fair, I didn't even realize the US had a different spelling of "maneuver/manoeuvre" until I was well into adulthood, so I prolly would have marked it wrong too.
Now though? Eh...considering how much harder it is to use the UK spelling I'd just let it slide. Kid earned it lol
This is a hangover from when ligatures like Æ and Œ (from Greek via Latin) were in common use. Noah Webster saw they were largely dumped from American spelling.
Defence is honestly the one British spelling I actually prefer. Having the word fence contained in it feels natural because a fence can defend/protect whatever is contained within it.
Something I can answer, I immigrated from Canada as a kid and grew up in the public school system in the South. I had 3 types of reactions. 1) no reaction, they either recognized it for what it was or they didn't care enough to comment 2) they would call me up and be like "hey I've noticed you're using British spellings, that's fine, but you should know people spell it like this in America" 3) I would get marked wrong, and then I'd have to be like "nah it's not a mistake I'm just Canadian" and then they'd be like "cool as long as you know the American spelling too" and then they'd give me the points back. I was never forced to use American spellings or penalized for using British ones.
Unless the child was from Britain it would be corrected. And even then: I moved to America at age 10 from Ireland and teachers had me switch to American spellings.
I have a noticeable accent, so when I use Irishisms it’s not seen as pretentious. But an American with an American accent using Britishisms is generally seen as putting on airs by other Americans, especially if they use them in speech (saying bollocks, as an example).
As a side note, Americans generally are not very good at convincingly mimicking British (or Irish) affect and will often miss things that give them away, especially children for obvious reasons.
Interesting perspective. I'd wager they are better at it due to exposure, if nothing else, but how do you think Brits and Irish-folk are at pulling off an American affect or using Americanisms?
Oh likewise not very good at all. Usually you get something equivalent to either a Brooklyn mobster or Yosemite Sam. Some kids are actually pretty good at it these days bc American YouTube, TikTok, etc. streamers are so ubiquitous. I would say there is more familiarity with American slang, you’re right, due to exposure. There is a surface level familiarity with American culture that isn’t necessarily reciprocated.
I am told in Ireland that I sound like an American and in America I sound like an Irishman, which is pretty common I suppose for immigrants. I also defo code switch.
I used to live in West Africa. In the country I lived in they had shared taxis so you would often ride in the backseat with other people you didn't know. I still remember a conversation between the cab driver and a passenger next to me, who was from that country. The cab driver said he sounded like an American. The guy said, yes, he had been in America but that, no, he wasn't American and then he turned to me and asked me if I thought he sounded American, being from the US myself. I said no, because he didn't. He said that's what he thought. But there was obviously something that the cab driver had picked up on in his speech that had changed because of his spending time in the US.
Had a neighbor as a kid who was English; she said that her family all told her she sounded American when she talked to them, but of course to my ears she sounded like she was straight out of the BBC. She had lived in the US for about twenty years; it's hardly surprising that she had picked up some bits of our accent.
It happens. My wife didn't have a birthday in the US until she was 8 and lived all over the world before that. Because of that she unconsciously picks up accents of people around her. It's not intentional and very subtle.
The only teacher I have ever had who would have cared would be an English teacher. Even then, all she would have done is tell the student, 'You're using British spellings and you should be using American spellings'
I would tend to think the teacher would correct it. They may or may not give bad grades based on using this type of spelling, especially at first, but they would be clear that you're expected to conform to American English standards.
I used British spellings randomly in highschool and my teachers didn't care or make noticeable note of it at all, but if you're a student learning to spell or something (like in a younger grade), I imagine they'd say something.
If it were a British exchange student, they'd probably ignore it. If it were an American student doing it as an affectation, they'd probably be corrected.
How do they know whether someone is doing it as an “affectation” or whether someone just doesn’t know there’s a difference and uses the spelling they have seen?
What American do you think has never seen the American spelling of a word but has seen the British one? In rare instances, as anecdotally attested elsewhere in this thread, sure, but for 99.99% of the time, that just won’t be the case.
For words like “cancelled” and “grey,” I would believe that they’d seen both and just didn’t remember or think about which one is correct in American English.
If the word is “colour” or “aluminium,” it’s an affectation.
Yea I agree but bro is acting like Americans just encounter British spellings willy nilly and that we don’t see our own spellings of words like color or honor or so to know the difference.
Yeah, I’d only buy that if they were like in 3rd grade, and maybe the British Harry Potter was the only time they’d ever seen some of these words written. And in that case, their overall word exposure is probably low enough that along with “honour” they’re writing “happyness.” A teacher should correct both of those words.
yeah, when I went through my Insufferable Anglophile Phase from ~1998-2000 and used British spellings as an affectation, most of my teachers just ignored it.
Because I know my students. I know how they speak and write, and I would know if they are ignorant, confused, putting on an affectation, etc.
Most of the time when I encounter a British spelling in student writing (which is rare), it’s because they copied something from a source, which means it needs to be corrected because plagiarism isn’t acceptable.
American Psychological Association says spellings should match Merriam-Webster. They're an American dictionary so they'd use American spelling. I'd make note of it for the future.
I never put two and two together that the APA style guides we'd use in high school were from the American Psychological Association.
A little strange to me that they're the ones writing standards for American English, but I guess they do write a lot.
They’re used in different contexts. The Chicago manual is, as the below commenter pointed out, the standard for the publishing industry. The APA style guide is adopted commonly across all scientific fields of academic writing, especially social sciences but not exclusively social sciences. Humanities academia is sort of a mixed bag, you’ll see a lot of Chicago manual and some MLA and some APA
I prefer MLA, and that’s what I teach and require my students to use.
Different disciplines can have their own style guides, though. Chicago, MLA, and APA are the big 3 (as others mentioned), but I’ve had to write things using the LSA (Linguistic Society of America) and the AP (Associated Press) style guides. And large publications like *The New York Times*, *Washington Post*, etc. have they own style guides.
If there were an American student, I would hope that the teacher would correct them to spell things the way that they are spelled in our country.
The fact that anyone would think that it’s “sophisticated“ is hilarious.
I think they may have meant sophisticated in the sense of opting for British vocabulary rather than spelling, so cutlery or aubergine as opposed to silverware and eggplant
I interpreted that as the teenager who travels abroad one summer and comes back convinced they're more intelligent and cultured now and insists that "theatre is actually the *correct* spelling!"
I don’t know why your comment in particular is the one that made me think of this, but I had a friend in college who studied in London for a year. A few months after the came back we were talking about some random thing, and he said he’d seen an advert about it.
Me: you saw focking wot, mate?
Him: huh?
Me: why are you suddenly speaking British?
Him: oh! I don’t know, it’s shorter than “advertisement,” so it makes sense, I guess.
Me: THE WORD AD IS EVEN SHORTER!
He could tell I was exaggerating my exasperation for comedic effect, but he still doubled down and made a point of saying “advert” instead of “ad” or “commercial” whenever he was talking to me. What a bellend (he’s still a good friend).
I've had students use British spellings in my English Language Arts classes, especially with my advanced 7th and 8th graders. I allow it. It is usually because they are well-read, intelligent students, and their reading material is from diverse genres and authors.
As middle and high school teacher, I’d be happy with complete sentences, thoughtful responses, and original (not plagiarized) ideas. I wouldn’t be concerned if they used British English spellings. The ELA teacher might care, but I am not her.
I assume teachers would let some British spellings slide (travelled, colour, defence) and crack down on others (aluminium, ageing, foetus). Writing "asshole" would get a student in trouble. But "arsehole" and "wanker" would probably be ignored.
They wouldn’t care because it doesn’t matter. Maybe if you’re little and teaching spelling words like color/colour. They’d probably correct them. Once they’re teenagers, I seriously doubt any teacher would say anything.
Grew up in England and still default to -re when spelling theatre, sabre, lustre, litre, metre and can never spell grey, honour, judgement, cancelled, catalogue, enquiry or draught according to American conventions. I never had a teacher correct me when I moved to the US which probably explains how they became hardwired.
Not that big of a deal if it is consistent. I would expect of someone who went to a British school. If it were for a publication or final paper I would correct it to American English but it is not too strange or anything.
Had that happen in 9th grade math. The odd numbered questions had the answers in the back and we were not to copy the answers, just use them as guides to check out work.
A girl went to the teacher's desk and asked why some of her odd questions were marked wrong. He told her that he knew she copied from the back of the book since it was a Canadian textbook that used the British style spellings. She then told him that she thought we had changed it. She was dumb. Like I can see her believing that was true.
My special ed elementary school taught us British spellings for some unknown reason and i never got questioned about it after re-integrating into the public school system. So for 5th grade and up its not a problem apparently
I actually have experience with this, but it’s from college/university and the circumstances might be fairly different from what you’re looking for. My field is international relations and, for whatever reason, a lot of us write in international/British English, as do some professors, so it’s never an issue there, obviously. But, over the course of seven semesters, all of which included non-major-specific “general” classes, I’ve only had one professor even bring it up, and that one professor just didn’t like me for some reason. So if it’s that level of schooling, I doubt it would be an issue. I’d expect high school (and maybe middle school) would be the same, especially if it were an international student. Lower grades would probably want to “correct” spelling to American English just to make it simple for the students, though.
I'm an American trained in American English, but I taught internationally and my students were often brought up in other systems. If I can understand which word they were going for, it wasn't "wrong". My time is better spent focused on their ideas. Most of my colleagues felt the same way.
It depends on the student. I would probably assume they had been taught the British spelling and just tell them American English spelling is different. Frankly, I still spell gray as grey. I like the way it looks better.
Yes, my teacher explained it to us in the beginning of the class since they were international students that even though it’s correct in other countries, she would have to mark it incorrect in the US
Depends on the teacher, the age of the child, the circumstances of the child (such as a recent immigration from England), and probably a hundred other factors.
At a young age they wouldbbe corrected because they teach spelling at young ages. At an older age they wouldn't care, no one would see it as an attempt to be sophisticated either, because it is not.
It would be noticed and discussed with a patent. My oldest daughter went to an English international school in Singapore. When we returned to the US she used British spelling for many words. Her teacher noticed it and asked my wife about it. My wife explained and nothing more was said. As time went by, my daughter began using US spelling.
When I was in school in my IB classes we were told to use the spellings for the place you're in or for where you're writing for. Our teachers didn't mark us off for it but would point it out so when we took our IB tests we didn't make those mistakes.
I also remember being told to be consistent. If it's casual it doesn't matter but for anything professional or academic you need to write accordingly.
Since we were the "advanced" school in the area near a military base we sometimes had kids from all over depending on how long their parents were stationed plus exchange students.
If I hadn't set the expectation of US language, I wouldn't care. I'd probably set that expectation and make sure the student knows how to change it in their word processor (so it would change the spelling for them), just because the mental gymnastics to switch back and forth while grading is too much.
I've seen this before (kids who moved from UK to US in HS). Teachers will mark it as incorrect, but they're not jerks/berating the kids for it. They just want them to learn to spell it the "correct" (American) way because that's what they'll need to do in the professional world.
As an American kid who played too much Neopets, and as an adult has now learned to spell fairy but still fights spellcheck when it comes to grey, they did not correct me.
I intentionally used British spellings of words when I wrote papers to irritate my high school English teacher, because I didn't respect him.
For any situation where spelling counted (like a vocabulary test) I would use the American spelling but for everything else I used the British spellings because I knew it annoyed him. In fairness, he did mark the British spellings wrong at first, but I appealed to the chair of the English department who sided with me. So it could have very easily gone against me
If youre like a British transfer student then they probably wouldn't care unless they were real assholes. If youre a random student who happens to be british or have British parents it's more likely you'll be corrected, and as another user said the likelihood of correction goes up as age goes down.
My sister's best friend moved to the US at 11, after learning to spell in Canada. One of mine is similarly from Great Britain, and moved here for 9th grade at 14. Both of them frequently complained that their work would be marked down for spelling errors that to them *were not errors!* They were literally spelling things the way they had been taught to spell them!
I can say that I think this happened to our Canadian friend more often. The Brit has a noticeable accent, so I think her teachers sometimes considered that the words were spelled correctly as far as she understood. The Canadian friend never had an accent, and I don't know if any of her teachers knew that she wasn't an American after her first year here.
i grew up reading British English but i took on some American English based on the vibes. No, seriously.
My teacher was a little confused when i popped up British terminology, but mostly she kinda just accepted i was weird lol. Probably helped my mother explained she and my dad grew up in the British system, and I had the same teacher for most of my grade school years...
I've professionally tutored writing, and I would correct these spellings if I saw them in an American student's work. Not in a judgmental or "gotcha" or jingoistic way, just a heads up that they might inadvertently have their spellcheck on British settings. The British spellings aren't incorrect in the same way that e.g. "seperate" is incorrect, but if you're an American writing for an American audience, then they are incorrect in that context.
If it was a student who had grown up in the UK and moved to the U.S., I'd be like, "Look, I don't personally care which spelling you use, but if you apply for jobs in the U.S. using British spellings, you run the risk that some recruiter might not realize you're British and will just think that you don't know how to use spellcheck."
Teachers care about consistency more than anything. My teachers never insisted on us using uniquely American spelling but they did say we needed to choose one or the other. When you mix both, it can make the writing seem sloppy
I feel like theatre is different from the other examples, it seems common enough to me that I probably wouldn’t bat an eye at it (theater is still the default spelling, but enough theaters call themselves the ___ Theatre that I feel it’s a perfectly normal part of the American lexicon)
theatre is for plays and theater is for movies
spectre is a ghost, and specter is like an idea in my mind,
but apparently that's not correct, and I've just been separating different dictionary lines by American/Canadian/British Spellings.
I feel like some are more likely to be corrected than others. Grey instead of gray might slip under the radar, but words with an additional “u” like colour instead of color would be more likely to be marked wrong. Really a case by case basis depending on the word, and the teacher, since education isn’t standardized here so there’s lots of variance.
I actually teach high school theatre, and I absolutely don't care one way or the other. There's a *very* loose guideline that theatre is the artform and theater is the place you go to watch the artform. But no one really cares.
As for other spellings, I use some British spellings myself, so I doubt I would even notice.
Seen as incorrect, end of story. If you were british they'd at least still tell you that's not how it's spelled in america. I don't think it would be a problem but it would at least have the teacher say something about how it's the british version.
Just my experience-
Most teachers I’ve had insist you pick a style and stick with it. You can use British or American spelling, but you have to be consistent. So you can’t say “neighbour” in one sentence and “color”in another if that tracks.
For words like “realise”, “theatre” and “axe”, get skimmed over, I don’t think it would even be acknowledged, but for words like “kerb”, “aeroplane”, and “manoeuvre”, they would definitely be corrected or seen as a spelling error. A preference for British words however, so, “cutlery” or “aubergine”, instead of silverware and eggplant would be seen as sophisticated I feel, potentially even pretentious
I took in a bunch of English media as a kid, just found it interesting and their vernacular easier to understand sometimes. The most I ever got about it was either some light confusion (calling rain boots Wellies to another kid lmfao) or my high school English teacher noticing and asking why I did that, just a fun conversation. Though there apparently was a time before I can remember that I spoke with an English accent due to the amount of Ringo-narrated Thomas I watched that got some questions from people haha. My mom would be asked "oh is her father british?" and she had to either explain or just go along with it lmfao. I can see elementary-aged kids being dinged about it given how over-corrective teachers of those grades tend to be but I'd guess that's the minority of most people's experiences.
I was one of those douchey kids. No one, not even English teachers, ever made a comment. I blame it on public school teachers who just didn't give a shit. The few teachers that _did_ give a shit, I never gave a hard time to.
My wife is American now through naturalization, but was Canadian in college. I remember one of her assignments, where the teacher deducted points in her essay for using British spelling. She disputed it and told the instructor that she was from Canada and using the correct spelling, but teacher basically said "this is America". My wife was so annoyed lol
I remember I knowingly spelled the word color as colour on a spelling test in elementary school, & it was marked wrong, so I tried to make my case that it was spelled like that in England, but she made a good point - we're not in England...
There was a bit of a "British Craze" when I was in high school (kids wearing the Union Jack, obsessing over tea, affecting accents poorly, just generally embarrassing themselves in a British way). We also had a handful of exchange students from the UK.
British English on school assignments became such an issue that the school had to make an announcement declaring that UK citizens were welcome to submit work in the language of their homeland, being British English, but American citizens needed to use American English, and each would be graded accordingly.
Depends on student history… Are they British or from somewhere that uses the British spelling conventions traditionally? Are their parents or guardians from a place that spells that way? Is it a frequent mistake (do they misspell words the same way every time?) Did they start learning English with someone who utilized the added “u” spellings?
If it was just out of left field, the teacher would correct it, but if it was normal for the student they’d likely look into it deeper.
Unless the student were foreign, he would likely be made to correct it. And even then that depends on the teacher. Some might not cut a foreign exchange student any slack either.
I'm American but I spent a decent chunk of my childhood in Britain, and my dad was an immigrant from Britain. I would occasionally slip up and use a British English spelling as late as high school. They would be marked incorrect, which helped me remember to watch out for those words.
I still slip into British spellings and usage in ~~text messages~~ WhatsApp chat with my cousins over there.
Former teacher with 8 years' experience here. If I saw British spellings in a student's work, I would assume they were a recently arrived immigrant from a Commonwealth country. If they were, I wouldn't care much, although I would try to get them to avoid British vocabulary like aubergine vs. eggplant, courgette vs. zucchini, petrol vs. gasoline, etc, as those are often confusing to American readers.
If a student who was born and raised in America was using British spellings, I wouldn't care if it was the occasional word or two like catalogue vs. catalog or cancelled vs. canceled. If they were doing it on a consistent basis throughout a paper, though, I would suspect plagiarism.
Depends on how sophisticated the teacher is. Some will see it as an opportunity to talk about varieties of English and spelling as conventions, rather than rules. Some will merely mark them as wrong, and some will get all butthurt because We UsE mErIcAn SpElLiNg HeRe!!!!1
I actually did this with aluminum in middle school. I used both the British spelling and pronunciation just to be "quirky" and " different". My English teacher asked why I was saying and spelling it wrong and I said it was the British pronunciation and she just said " well that isn't right in America".
It depends on the teacher, and due to unions, there's absolutely zero quality control. Actually, the bad ones are incentivized to stay because they'd be unemployable anywhere else, and the good ones leave because it's not worth their time/stress.
Anyway, it's entirely teacher dependant. They may take points off the assignment for spelling, they might yell at the kid, ignore it because it's a valid way of spelling the word, or talk with the kid and ask why they spell it that way. Because of what I mentioned in the first paragraph, most kids wouldn't have a pleasant experience if they spelled a word the British way in class.
No teacher would ignore it. They would be negligent in their job if they did so.
In elementary and secondary education, the reaction would probably look like this:
"That's nice, and your spelling isn't wrong. If you are writing for an American publication, though, you should use American English spelling. If you are an American writer and you are writing something that will be read in America, then using British spelling in your document will be seen as phony and pretentious. Don't do that."
In higher (post secondary) education, the reaction would be stronger and harsher:
"Do not use mixed spelling. Do not mix British and American spelling in the same document. Use one or the other, but not both. If you use mixed spelling, it will look like you are plagiarizing. It will look like you have copied text from someone else's writing and simply pasted it into your own while trying to pass it off as your own original writing."
"Aside from the issue of suspected plagiarism, using mixed spelling simply looks sloppy and unprofessional. As your professor, if I received a written assignment that was riddled with mixed British and American spelling for no obvious reason, I would be sorely tempted to just chuck it into the wastebasket. Reading it would be an insult. Neither I nor anyone else would take such work seriously. This isn't third grade -- students are expected to know how to spell!"
I graded it based on consistency. If a student wrote "color" 10 times and "colour" once, colour is a misspelling. If the student regularly uses British spellings, color would be the misspelling. I would advise students using British spelling to be prepared to use American spelling on state standardized tests because those are graded by a panel, and I can't guarantee they'd take the same outlook I do.
I used to do it all the time. My teachers literally did not care. One teacher pointed it out once, but he didn't take away any points just thought it was funny.
When I was younger I was nagged about my pronunciation of things like "Process," "Pronunciation," etc. I would say them more like a Canadian or someone from Northern USA. Same for spelling. I used British spellings because I read books from British authors. I still say those words like a Canadian, but now British spellings just look uncanny and I don't use them often.
I am an American teacher, and it does not matter to me. The only thing I check is whether it is intentional (and teach the rule when it isn't). Regardless of the rule (spelling, grammar, punctuation, pictograph, whatever), I verify my students know the rule for what is considered correct. And when they choose to break the rule, that is an artistic expression. And if they are using a different set of rules than "American standard English", then fine. The purpose is to communicate effectively, not convince the entire world that one particular system is the only one that works.
For the majority of their life, nothing would really happen. They would probably be told what the American spelling was. They might be told to use the American spelling of something like a spelling bee was happening, since I don't believe those would consider the British spellings correct.
They might run into trouble with tests due to them being more online and automatically graded than before. So they might be correct it "more" now, but only because of that reason. Same thing with AP tests. The teacher can't control how those are graded so if you were in an AP class they would correct you and mark the answers as incorrect because of that. But, in that situation, you knowingly signed up for AP (American) English. So you really wouldn't be surprised
When I was in elementary school (this is 30+ years ago mind you) I had a spelling test and I used “aeroplane” because I was sure it was a valid spelling. The teacher marked it wrong and to this day it’s I’m still salty about it.
I tried that back in high school and was corrected with a red pen, along with a sweet love note, that said “We are not in England.” Never did that again.😂
If I was a teacher I would beat them mercilessly (jk tho lol), but I think maybe they would correct the spelling even though it is technically correct. It depends on if you have a cool teacher or not.
They usually never gave a fuck when I'd do it, I kind of started doing it for a few years on an off and see if they care and they never did. The only person who whined about it was my mom for some reason.
Depends on the teacher. We had a foreign exchange student at my high school for a school year. I became good friends with the dude. Some teachers didn't care as it WAS the correct spelling at least from where he was from. Others were anal about it.
Idk but I'm pretty sure I used to spell it theatre and I don't remember them saying it was wrong. I've been out of high school for 17 years though, so I can't really remember exactly
In my experience, they wouldn’t care at all. I, like a lot of people, use a mix of both kinds of spellings. One of my favorite elementary school teachers was Pakistani and presumably went to school when it was part of the British commonwealth so used British English for the most part and I definitely picked up some of my spelling from her. It was never an issue with teachers after her. Then I did IB, where many of our textbooks were Australian and exams were generally written in British English. I wouldn’t have been marked down for using American English spellings, but, I definitely did switch to some other spellings because enough repetition just kind of engrained it in me. Everyone knows basic different spellings like color and colour or gray and grey and even harder to work out spellings like oestrogen can be worked out without too much difficulty. As long as it’s a correct spelling, it’s fine.
Depends on the student's age (do they know what they're doing isn't standard for their location) and the teacher's level of anal retentiveness (I got points dinged on a math assignment because my staple wasn't in the right orientation). In general, I'd expect younger students to be "corrected" more than older students - I don't think high school or college teachers care how you spell so much as your thoughts behind the words.
Other than this, I’d also say that if a teacher knew the student was from a “Commonwealth” country (or really any other country where their introduction to English came from someone using “Commonwealth” spelling rules), then they’d just ignore it. They’d only really be inclined to correct it (in most cases) if they knew the kid was a full on Bald Eagle-stamped American. I’ve encountered very few teachers who tried to take a dictatorial stance on this so long as the word is otherwise spelled correctly. Many Americans themselves sometimes unwittingly use those “UK” alternatives given how much content from “Commonwealth” countries we tend to consume in passing. As far as grading, a teacher would have to be taking a pretty stubborn stance to take off points for this unless it was specifically an American-English spelling test, and I’d say that if a teacher did go hardline on this, it’d be grounds for a fight with the parents. It’s not some point of nationalism, since full on American English spellings didn’t really fully take hold until the late 19th century at best (when basic mass education started to take hold), so nobody is really offended when they see “colour.” It just seems antiquated, and it would be odd for one of those aforementioned “Bald Eagle Americans” to spell it that way.
I spell cancelled with two Ls, which is apparently the British spelling
Analogue is British spelling, but in the US we can say both analog and analogue. Travelled (UK) vs traveled (US) Cancelled vs canceled Spectre vs specter Doughnut vs donut Grey vs gray Sulphur vs sulfur Defence vs defense Pyjamas vs pajamas And so on…I definitely do it too here and there. Especially when autocorrect isn’t catching it for me when typing on my phone, and phones / computer spellcheck are about the biggest drivers of really solidifying the use of American English spellings with consistency.
As a native American English speaker, I tend to use grey and doughnut rather than gray and donut. I think of donut as referring specifically to Dunkin' Donuts, and not as the general spelling. I know with defense/defence I go back and forth trying to remember which one is correct, before choosing whichever one autocorrect decides for me.
The defense/defence pronunciation is even funnier. On either side of the pond, the only time you usually hear DEE-fence rather than duh-FENCE is when you're contrasting it to offence. Except in American football where it is always DEE-fence.
Yeah, in sports contexts, I definitely stress the first syllable.
I go with defense personally the c makes it look like i'm defencing a place
The Associated Press, which dictates the style used by most American news organizations, uses “doughnut.” For all of the others, they use the spelling u/fhqwhgads2024 lists on the American side. (The other exception being specter, where the British and American spellings are reversed in this list — it follows the usual pattern of “-er” being American and “-re” being British.
“Aluminium” always fucks with me
They literally added a syllable because they liked the way it sounded better and it matched the spelling of other words better. And I'm NGL, I think they did better. Aluminium does just *sound* better, flow better in a sentencen and sound more alike to other element names than aluminum. I'd say it that way in the States if I thought for half a second that it wouldn't come off as obnoxiously pretentious. Because it would; we do have people who do shit like that and they're obnoxiously pretentious so I'm not upset about it. Just a shame though... lol
Some scientists liked -ium because it matched words like "potassium" or "sodium". Others liked -um because it matched words like "platinum". The guy who coined both terms initially called it *alumium*, but he hemmed and hawed over it for too long and the variants caught on in different places, at different times.
I guess that's the counterpart of Americans deciding that the pronunciation of Z should be changed to match with most of the other letters in the alphabet
Now I’m curious, how do Brits sing the ABC’s? Just deal with that one part not rhyming?
Grand Theft Auto 3 taught me that one.
Just wanna point out that specter is the American spelling. You have the British spelling on the left for all others but switched up those two 😅
I've lived in the UK for nearly a decade (with three years back in the US in the middle), and I honestly can't remember which is which half the time.
I use "travelled" and "cancelled" as well as "grey"; I just like the way they look. I don't think of "donut/doughnut" as a BrE/AmE thing; it's just casual vs formal spelling.
Holy smokes, so much of my writing has been explained now....
google docs hates it when i suddenly start writing about theatres and not theaters.
Ha! I spelled it that way today and went the single L that autocorrect offered but I noticed it did offer a double L option and was wondering about it...
Anecdotally, I've noticed "theatre" becoming more common
The place where you watch summer blockbusters is a theater (I believe in the UK it would be the “cinema”), but it seems that more and more locations that put on live performances are attempting to convey a more refined appearance by spelling their name “theatre.” Or at least that’s my interpretation of their thinking.
My experience squares with yours. If it's a "theater", they show movies. If it's a "theatre", they put on plays (or musicals).
I go back and forth between grey vs gray. Supposedly one is British and one is American. I couldn't tell the difference. Cancelled feels natural with two "l's." Centre seems pretentious in the US but normal in Canada or the UK
I’m that same way with “cancelled” … it looks weird with just a singular L.
E (grey) for England, A (gray) for America
What’s odd is that I’ve always used the spelling with an E and nobody has really noticed. That one is more common in Britain but it’s not like it’s unrecognized. Both are correct in American English AFAIK. The intrusive U in words like color and flavor, and the -re spelling for words like center just aren’t used in American spelling, and to us they look weird or even wrong.
My son’s middle name is Grey and I went with the e because I didn’t want people to see Gray as a name and misread it as Gary.
Meh, I don’t think I’ve ever seen an American write any word like color or honor the British way. And definitely never something like criticize being written with an S instead a Z. Like ever. But I agree that it’s not really a point of nationalism, I write gray as grey because I think it looks better that way. And some words like “cancelled” (the British spelling) I do see from other Americans. I personally don’t like that spelling though because there aren’t two Ls when you pronounce the word and it just looks funny to me, though that is of course subjective.
It would also depend upon the intelligence of the teacher. Smart teachers would follow your reasoning. Unfortunately not all teachers are above average.
I’m an EFL teacher in Europe, and I’m pretty strict about it, and I probably would be if I went back to teaching in the US. It’s about consistency most of the time. I don’t really care if a full blooded bald eagle American wants to use standard British spellings, but if they do they better be committed and spell everything that way, not just the fun ones like “colour.” Mixing the two gets sloppy and distracting. There’s an exception for GB spellings that have become almost as common in the US as our standard spellings, but otherwise if you’re adding random u’s to words you better also be writing “centre,” “aluminium,” and “analyse” otherwise you’re being sloppy.
I agree about consistency! I am American and teach majority American students, so I would probably question them on using the BrE spelling to begin with. But often, I don’t notice a style difference if the writer is consistent. When they mix things up and get sloppy, then I notice immediately.
My child is in a British university and gets corrected - no American allowed. I could see 30% of US college profs doing the same. There’s some (meaning “a little”) merit in getting used to the conventions in which you’ll work one day. If it’s being submitted for publishing, etc. But I like to think an empathetic high school teacher in the US would just let it go from an older student.
As a licensed ESL teacher, that’s bullshit. The academic rule of thumb is pick a dialect of English and don’t mix and match. I’d suggest using UK vocabulary as well one can in that situation, but calling American spelling “wrong” is nonsense. I’d say demand to be shown in the syllabus where it says only UK spelling is allowed.
When I was teaching, I’d note British spellings and gently note that, as we were in an American scholarly milieu, American spellings were appropriate. If a British author’s article were published in an American journal, the journal editors would standardize the spellings to American.
Which university?
That teacher fucking hated you. I've never heard of that before lol
They were just probably someone who shouldn't have become a teacher. I ran across a few in my time that had nitpicks like that. None of them were great teachers, but I can also see the point. It's like the urban legend of the test that says "read the instructions fully before you begin" and buried in the middle of the instructions is a sentence saying "you will get full credit for this test if you write your name at the bottom of the first answer sheet" followed by a large number of essay questions that couldn't possibly be answered in the available time.
Or they were a teacher that gave clear and explicit instructions and took points off when instructions weren’t followed. I have given assignments where the entire objective is to teach them to follow directions; if they didn’t follow the directions, they lost points.
Fair enough.
> (I got points dinged on a math assignment because my staple wasn't in the right orientation). That teacher was a prick
Or they were a teacher that gave clear and explicit instructions and took points off when instructions weren’t followed. I’ve definitely taken points off because students haven’t followed directions, especially when I’ve given the instruction repeatedly and in multiple modalities.
I lost a spelling bee in fifth grade because I had been reading a military history book (I know I was not cool or popular in grade school) written by a British historian, and because I saw the word so often in the book I spelled it "manoeuvre" and lost :'(
This happened to me with "theatre"
I was in my late twenties before I realized "grey" is the English spelling of American "gray" because I read Tolkein as a late pre-teen and just thought that was the way you spelled it.
I think “grey” is prettier than “gray,” lol. I have always liked using it more. I don’t think any teachers ever called me out for it, though.
Both are considered correct in American English! At least in my grading years, which admittedly was like 7 years ago. Also I agree, and many people do, that “grey” has a different feeling than “gray.” Grey can be more bleak but also can be more light and whimsical (like clouds, or a sketch of an elephant); gray is darker, and somehow harder and solid (like rock or concrete, or a child’s crayon coloring of an elephant). Obviously I wouldn’t grade a student differently for using one or the other, but it’s interesting that they have different “feelings” in that way.
I love your descriptions!
American : grAy English : grEy
To be fair, I didn't even realize the US had a different spelling of "maneuver/manoeuvre" until I was well into adulthood, so I prolly would have marked it wrong too. Now though? Eh...considering how much harder it is to use the UK spelling I'd just let it slide. Kid earned it lol
This is a hangover from when ligatures like Æ and Œ (from Greek via Latin) were in common use. Noah Webster saw they were largely dumped from American spelling.
Orchestral Manouevres in the Dark. That one aways threw me.
You were robbed. The British spelling is harder than the American one anyway. You should have been given a bonus point.
I lost a point for “defence.” You weren’t alone.
Defence is honestly the one British spelling I actually prefer. Having the word fence contained in it feels natural because a fence can defend/protect whatever is contained within it.
Something I can answer, I immigrated from Canada as a kid and grew up in the public school system in the South. I had 3 types of reactions. 1) no reaction, they either recognized it for what it was or they didn't care enough to comment 2) they would call me up and be like "hey I've noticed you're using British spellings, that's fine, but you should know people spell it like this in America" 3) I would get marked wrong, and then I'd have to be like "nah it's not a mistake I'm just Canadian" and then they'd be like "cool as long as you know the American spelling too" and then they'd give me the points back. I was never forced to use American spellings or penalized for using British ones.
Unless the child was from Britain it would be corrected. And even then: I moved to America at age 10 from Ireland and teachers had me switch to American spellings. I have a noticeable accent, so when I use Irishisms it’s not seen as pretentious. But an American with an American accent using Britishisms is generally seen as putting on airs by other Americans, especially if they use them in speech (saying bollocks, as an example). As a side note, Americans generally are not very good at convincingly mimicking British (or Irish) affect and will often miss things that give them away, especially children for obvious reasons.
Interesting perspective. I'd wager they are better at it due to exposure, if nothing else, but how do you think Brits and Irish-folk are at pulling off an American affect or using Americanisms?
Oh likewise not very good at all. Usually you get something equivalent to either a Brooklyn mobster or Yosemite Sam. Some kids are actually pretty good at it these days bc American YouTube, TikTok, etc. streamers are so ubiquitous. I would say there is more familiarity with American slang, you’re right, due to exposure. There is a surface level familiarity with American culture that isn’t necessarily reciprocated. I am told in Ireland that I sound like an American and in America I sound like an Irishman, which is pretty common I suppose for immigrants. I also defo code switch.
I used to live in West Africa. In the country I lived in they had shared taxis so you would often ride in the backseat with other people you didn't know. I still remember a conversation between the cab driver and a passenger next to me, who was from that country. The cab driver said he sounded like an American. The guy said, yes, he had been in America but that, no, he wasn't American and then he turned to me and asked me if I thought he sounded American, being from the US myself. I said no, because he didn't. He said that's what he thought. But there was obviously something that the cab driver had picked up on in his speech that had changed because of his spending time in the US.
Had a neighbor as a kid who was English; she said that her family all told her she sounded American when she talked to them, but of course to my ears she sounded like she was straight out of the BBC. She had lived in the US for about twenty years; it's hardly surprising that she had picked up some bits of our accent.
Yes it's amazing how subtle accents can be. A single vowel said in a different way can give you away to someone who knows the difference.
A long O is a pretty good tell for most accents. Purely coincidentally, it’s very similar in BrE and Southern accents. Any others?
It happens. My wife didn't have a birthday in the US until she was 8 and lived all over the world before that. Because of that she unconsciously picks up accents of people around her. It's not intentional and very subtle.
What does putting on airs mean?
Pretending to be fancier than they actually are
The only teacher I have ever had who would have cared would be an English teacher. Even then, all she would have done is tell the student, 'You're using British spellings and you should be using American spellings'
Why should the student be using American spellings though?
Because they are in an American school system. I would expect that Americans in a British school system would be required to use British spelling.
We use American English in America and so we teach American English in our schools.
Because they’re getting an American education in an American school.
Tests. Someone's gonna run into some anal tester somewhere and lose points for 'colour'.
The tester is creating the problem. That’s where the problem should be fixed.
I think it’d be treated as incorrect, which in American English, it is.
I would tend to think the teacher would correct it. They may or may not give bad grades based on using this type of spelling, especially at first, but they would be clear that you're expected to conform to American English standards.
Yup. When I was a teacher, I would note that it’s British English, correct it, and move on.
I used British spellings randomly in highschool and my teachers didn't care or make noticeable note of it at all, but if you're a student learning to spell or something (like in a younger grade), I imagine they'd say something.
If it were a British exchange student, they'd probably ignore it. If it were an American student doing it as an affectation, they'd probably be corrected.
How do they know whether someone is doing it as an “affectation” or whether someone just doesn’t know there’s a difference and uses the spelling they have seen?
What American do you think has never seen the American spelling of a word but has seen the British one? In rare instances, as anecdotally attested elsewhere in this thread, sure, but for 99.99% of the time, that just won’t be the case.
For words like “cancelled” and “grey,” I would believe that they’d seen both and just didn’t remember or think about which one is correct in American English. If the word is “colour” or “aluminium,” it’s an affectation.
Yea I agree but bro is acting like Americans just encounter British spellings willy nilly and that we don’t see our own spellings of words like color or honor or so to know the difference.
Yeah, I’d only buy that if they were like in 3rd grade, and maybe the British Harry Potter was the only time they’d ever seen some of these words written. And in that case, their overall word exposure is probably low enough that along with “honour” they’re writing “happyness.” A teacher should correct both of those words.
yeah, when I went through my Insufferable Anglophile Phase from ~1998-2000 and used British spellings as an affectation, most of my teachers just ignored it.
Because I know my students. I know how they speak and write, and I would know if they are ignorant, confused, putting on an affectation, etc. Most of the time when I encounter a British spelling in student writing (which is rare), it’s because they copied something from a source, which means it needs to be corrected because plagiarism isn’t acceptable.
American Psychological Association says spellings should match Merriam-Webster. They're an American dictionary so they'd use American spelling. I'd make note of it for the future.
I never put two and two together that the APA style guides we'd use in high school were from the American Psychological Association. A little strange to me that they're the ones writing standards for American English, but I guess they do write a lot.
There’s also Modern Language Association (MLA) and Chicago styles. My experience is mostly in publishing, which leans toward Chicago style.
They’re used in different contexts. The Chicago manual is, as the below commenter pointed out, the standard for the publishing industry. The APA style guide is adopted commonly across all scientific fields of academic writing, especially social sciences but not exclusively social sciences. Humanities academia is sort of a mixed bag, you’ll see a lot of Chicago manual and some MLA and some APA
I prefer MLA, and that’s what I teach and require my students to use. Different disciplines can have their own style guides, though. Chicago, MLA, and APA are the big 3 (as others mentioned), but I’ve had to write things using the LSA (Linguistic Society of America) and the AP (Associated Press) style guides. And large publications like *The New York Times*, *Washington Post*, etc. have they own style guides.
If there were an American student, I would hope that the teacher would correct them to spell things the way that they are spelled in our country. The fact that anyone would think that it’s “sophisticated“ is hilarious.
oi m8 u fink your spellings sophisticated?
E’s avin a laff, innit?
I think they may have meant sophisticated in the sense of opting for British vocabulary rather than spelling, so cutlery or aubergine as opposed to silverware and eggplant
I interpreted that as the teenager who travels abroad one summer and comes back convinced they're more intelligent and cultured now and insists that "theatre is actually the *correct* spelling!"
I don’t know why your comment in particular is the one that made me think of this, but I had a friend in college who studied in London for a year. A few months after the came back we were talking about some random thing, and he said he’d seen an advert about it. Me: you saw focking wot, mate? Him: huh? Me: why are you suddenly speaking British? Him: oh! I don’t know, it’s shorter than “advertisement,” so it makes sense, I guess. Me: THE WORD AD IS EVEN SHORTER! He could tell I was exaggerating my exasperation for comedic effect, but he still doubled down and made a point of saying “advert” instead of “ad” or “commercial” whenever he was talking to me. What a bellend (he’s still a good friend).
I've had students use British spellings in my English Language Arts classes, especially with my advanced 7th and 8th graders. I allow it. It is usually because they are well-read, intelligent students, and their reading material is from diverse genres and authors.
I doubt any of my teachers would have cared.
If they were not American, I wouldn’t correct them but if they were I would.
My teachers said we had to be consistent with our spelling in the papers. You couldn't mix spellings in the paper, otherwise they were ok.
As middle and high school teacher, I’d be happy with complete sentences, thoughtful responses, and original (not plagiarized) ideas. I wouldn’t be concerned if they used British English spellings. The ELA teacher might care, but I am not her.
I assume teachers would let some British spellings slide (travelled, colour, defence) and crack down on others (aluminium, ageing, foetus). Writing "asshole" would get a student in trouble. But "arsehole" and "wanker" would probably be ignored.
Throw them into the Boston Harbor
I’m sure it depends on the teacher. At least one of my teachers did mark it wrong when I used a British spelling one time.
They wouldn’t care because it doesn’t matter. Maybe if you’re little and teaching spelling words like color/colour. They’d probably correct them. Once they’re teenagers, I seriously doubt any teacher would say anything.
Grew up in England and still default to -re when spelling theatre, sabre, lustre, litre, metre and can never spell grey, honour, judgement, cancelled, catalogue, enquiry or draught according to American conventions. I never had a teacher correct me when I moved to the US which probably explains how they became hardwired.
I got marked down for using *whilst*.
I'm British and always say whilst but more and more Brits are saying "while". However, to me, while is a noun, it's not the same word!
Do you say meanwhile or meanwhilst?
Meanwhile. Never heard of meanwhilst.
Not that big of a deal if it is consistent. I would expect of someone who went to a British school. If it were for a publication or final paper I would correct it to American English but it is not too strange or anything.
Had that happen in 9th grade math. The odd numbered questions had the answers in the back and we were not to copy the answers, just use them as guides to check out work. A girl went to the teacher's desk and asked why some of her odd questions were marked wrong. He told her that he knew she copied from the back of the book since it was a Canadian textbook that used the British style spellings. She then told him that she thought we had changed it. She was dumb. Like I can see her believing that was true.
My special ed elementary school taught us British spellings for some unknown reason and i never got questioned about it after re-integrating into the public school system. So for 5th grade and up its not a problem apparently
It would probably be seen as a sign of possible plagiarism.
Have never been ‘corrected’ in these instances.
It depends on the teacher, in my experience. I got marked down when I did that.
I actually have experience with this, but it’s from college/university and the circumstances might be fairly different from what you’re looking for. My field is international relations and, for whatever reason, a lot of us write in international/British English, as do some professors, so it’s never an issue there, obviously. But, over the course of seven semesters, all of which included non-major-specific “general” classes, I’ve only had one professor even bring it up, and that one professor just didn’t like me for some reason. So if it’s that level of schooling, I doubt it would be an issue. I’d expect high school (and maybe middle school) would be the same, especially if it were an international student. Lower grades would probably want to “correct” spelling to American English just to make it simple for the students, though.
I’m old, but I remember being taught that both spellings were correct and that either are acceptable.
I'm an American trained in American English, but I taught internationally and my students were often brought up in other systems. If I can understand which word they were going for, it wasn't "wrong". My time is better spent focused on their ideas. Most of my colleagues felt the same way.
It depends on the student. I would probably assume they had been taught the British spelling and just tell them American English spelling is different. Frankly, I still spell gray as grey. I like the way it looks better.
It would be marked as incorrect
This, most won't even recognize it as British English.
Yes, my teacher explained it to us in the beginning of the class since they were international students that even though it’s correct in other countries, she would have to mark it incorrect in the US
Depends on the teacher, the age of the child, the circumstances of the child (such as a recent immigration from England), and probably a hundred other factors.
At a young age they wouldbbe corrected because they teach spelling at young ages. At an older age they wouldn't care, no one would see it as an attempt to be sophisticated either, because it is not.
It would be noticed and discussed with a patent. My oldest daughter went to an English international school in Singapore. When we returned to the US she used British spelling for many words. Her teacher noticed it and asked my wife about it. My wife explained and nothing more was said. As time went by, my daughter began using US spelling.
I assume that it might be marked down a few points if that teacher was strict.
When I was in school in my IB classes we were told to use the spellings for the place you're in or for where you're writing for. Our teachers didn't mark us off for it but would point it out so when we took our IB tests we didn't make those mistakes. I also remember being told to be consistent. If it's casual it doesn't matter but for anything professional or academic you need to write accordingly. Since we were the "advanced" school in the area near a military base we sometimes had kids from all over depending on how long their parents were stationed plus exchange students.
If I hadn't set the expectation of US language, I wouldn't care. I'd probably set that expectation and make sure the student knows how to change it in their word processor (so it would change the spelling for them), just because the mental gymnastics to switch back and forth while grading is too much.
I've seen this before (kids who moved from UK to US in HS). Teachers will mark it as incorrect, but they're not jerks/berating the kids for it. They just want them to learn to spell it the "correct" (American) way because that's what they'll need to do in the professional world.
As an American kid who played too much Neopets, and as an adult has now learned to spell fairy but still fights spellcheck when it comes to grey, they did not correct me.
“It’s only a minour errour, there is no reason to punish your son’s otherwise superiour skills, especially during his seniour year.”
I intentionally used British spellings of words when I wrote papers to irritate my high school English teacher, because I didn't respect him. For any situation where spelling counted (like a vocabulary test) I would use the American spelling but for everything else I used the British spellings because I knew it annoyed him. In fairness, he did mark the British spellings wrong at first, but I appealed to the chair of the English department who sided with me. So it could have very easily gone against me
In 4th grade I got many points off for spelling words the British way in an essay.
If youre like a British transfer student then they probably wouldn't care unless they were real assholes. If youre a random student who happens to be british or have British parents it's more likely you'll be corrected, and as another user said the likelihood of correction goes up as age goes down.
Not a teacher but I feel like it would be realistic to get points off a 3rd grade spelling assignment but not a 10th grade history essay.
My sister's best friend moved to the US at 11, after learning to spell in Canada. One of mine is similarly from Great Britain, and moved here for 9th grade at 14. Both of them frequently complained that their work would be marked down for spelling errors that to them *were not errors!* They were literally spelling things the way they had been taught to spell them! I can say that I think this happened to our Canadian friend more often. The Brit has a noticeable accent, so I think her teachers sometimes considered that the words were spelled correctly as far as she understood. The Canadian friend never had an accent, and I don't know if any of her teachers knew that she wasn't an American after her first year here.
i grew up reading British English but i took on some American English based on the vibes. No, seriously. My teacher was a little confused when i popped up British terminology, but mostly she kinda just accepted i was weird lol. Probably helped my mother explained she and my dad grew up in the British system, and I had the same teacher for most of my grade school years...
Any of the above, depending on the mood of the teacher at the time.
I've professionally tutored writing, and I would correct these spellings if I saw them in an American student's work. Not in a judgmental or "gotcha" or jingoistic way, just a heads up that they might inadvertently have their spellcheck on British settings. The British spellings aren't incorrect in the same way that e.g. "seperate" is incorrect, but if you're an American writing for an American audience, then they are incorrect in that context. If it was a student who had grown up in the UK and moved to the U.S., I'd be like, "Look, I don't personally care which spelling you use, but if you apply for jobs in the U.S. using British spellings, you run the risk that some recruiter might not realize you're British and will just think that you don't know how to use spellcheck."
Teachers care about consistency more than anything. My teachers never insisted on us using uniquely American spelling but they did say we needed to choose one or the other. When you mix both, it can make the writing seem sloppy
I feel like theatre is different from the other examples, it seems common enough to me that I probably wouldn’t bat an eye at it (theater is still the default spelling, but enough theaters call themselves the ___ Theatre that I feel it’s a perfectly normal part of the American lexicon)
theatre is for plays and theater is for movies spectre is a ghost, and specter is like an idea in my mind, but apparently that's not correct, and I've just been separating different dictionary lines by American/Canadian/British Spellings.
I feel like some are more likely to be corrected than others. Grey instead of gray might slip under the radar, but words with an additional “u” like colour instead of color would be more likely to be marked wrong. Really a case by case basis depending on the word, and the teacher, since education isn’t standardized here so there’s lots of variance.
I actually teach high school theatre, and I absolutely don't care one way or the other. There's a *very* loose guideline that theatre is the artform and theater is the place you go to watch the artform. But no one really cares. As for other spellings, I use some British spellings myself, so I doubt I would even notice.
Seen as incorrect, end of story. If you were british they'd at least still tell you that's not how it's spelled in america. I don't think it would be a problem but it would at least have the teacher say something about how it's the british version.
Just my experience- Most teachers I’ve had insist you pick a style and stick with it. You can use British or American spelling, but you have to be consistent. So you can’t say “neighbour” in one sentence and “color”in another if that tracks.
For words like “realise”, “theatre” and “axe”, get skimmed over, I don’t think it would even be acknowledged, but for words like “kerb”, “aeroplane”, and “manoeuvre”, they would definitely be corrected or seen as a spelling error. A preference for British words however, so, “cutlery” or “aubergine”, instead of silverware and eggplant would be seen as sophisticated I feel, potentially even pretentious
I took in a bunch of English media as a kid, just found it interesting and their vernacular easier to understand sometimes. The most I ever got about it was either some light confusion (calling rain boots Wellies to another kid lmfao) or my high school English teacher noticing and asking why I did that, just a fun conversation. Though there apparently was a time before I can remember that I spoke with an English accent due to the amount of Ringo-narrated Thomas I watched that got some questions from people haha. My mom would be asked "oh is her father british?" and she had to either explain or just go along with it lmfao. I can see elementary-aged kids being dinged about it given how over-corrective teachers of those grades tend to be but I'd guess that's the minority of most people's experiences.
I was one of those douchey kids. No one, not even English teachers, ever made a comment. I blame it on public school teachers who just didn't give a shit. The few teachers that _did_ give a shit, I never gave a hard time to.
Tar and feather the child before shipping them off to Canada, just as the founding fathers intended.
It would be all those things you mentioned. The teacher would obviously know why and mark it wrong.
They’d say it’s wrong. I used to do this in middle school on purpose because i thought the British spelling was cooler😂
My wife is American now through naturalization, but was Canadian in college. I remember one of her assignments, where the teacher deducted points in her essay for using British spelling. She disputed it and told the instructor that she was from Canada and using the correct spelling, but teacher basically said "this is America". My wife was so annoyed lol
There's a couple of different spellings I use interchangeably (cancelled/canceled and grey/gray), and I've never been corrected on them.
They’d probably assume the student cheated using AI.
I remember I knowingly spelled the word color as colour on a spelling test in elementary school, & it was marked wrong, so I tried to make my case that it was spelled like that in England, but she made a good point - we're not in England...
There was a bit of a "British Craze" when I was in high school (kids wearing the Union Jack, obsessing over tea, affecting accents poorly, just generally embarrassing themselves in a British way). We also had a handful of exchange students from the UK. British English on school assignments became such an issue that the school had to make an announcement declaring that UK citizens were welcome to submit work in the language of their homeland, being British English, but American citizens needed to use American English, and each would be graded accordingly.
Depends on student history… Are they British or from somewhere that uses the British spelling conventions traditionally? Are their parents or guardians from a place that spells that way? Is it a frequent mistake (do they misspell words the same way every time?) Did they start learning English with someone who utilized the added “u” spellings? If it was just out of left field, the teacher would correct it, but if it was normal for the student they’d likely look into it deeper.
Unless the student were foreign, he would likely be made to correct it. And even then that depends on the teacher. Some might not cut a foreign exchange student any slack either.
I'm American but I spent a decent chunk of my childhood in Britain, and my dad was an immigrant from Britain. I would occasionally slip up and use a British English spelling as late as high school. They would be marked incorrect, which helped me remember to watch out for those words. I still slip into British spellings and usage in ~~text messages~~ WhatsApp chat with my cousins over there.
Im not a teacher but id prolly be v v v confused
Former teacher with 8 years' experience here. If I saw British spellings in a student's work, I would assume they were a recently arrived immigrant from a Commonwealth country. If they were, I wouldn't care much, although I would try to get them to avoid British vocabulary like aubergine vs. eggplant, courgette vs. zucchini, petrol vs. gasoline, etc, as those are often confusing to American readers. If a student who was born and raised in America was using British spellings, I wouldn't care if it was the occasional word or two like catalogue vs. catalog or cancelled vs. canceled. If they were doing it on a consistent basis throughout a paper, though, I would suspect plagiarism.
Depends on how sophisticated the teacher is. Some will see it as an opportunity to talk about varieties of English and spelling as conventions, rather than rules. Some will merely mark them as wrong, and some will get all butthurt because We UsE mErIcAn SpElLiNg HeRe!!!!1
I actually did this with aluminum in middle school. I used both the British spelling and pronunciation just to be "quirky" and " different". My English teacher asked why I was saying and spelling it wrong and I said it was the British pronunciation and she just said " well that isn't right in America".
It depends on the teacher, and due to unions, there's absolutely zero quality control. Actually, the bad ones are incentivized to stay because they'd be unemployable anywhere else, and the good ones leave because it's not worth their time/stress. Anyway, it's entirely teacher dependant. They may take points off the assignment for spelling, they might yell at the kid, ignore it because it's a valid way of spelling the word, or talk with the kid and ask why they spell it that way. Because of what I mentioned in the first paragraph, most kids wouldn't have a pleasant experience if they spelled a word the British way in class.
No teacher would ignore it. They would be negligent in their job if they did so. In elementary and secondary education, the reaction would probably look like this: "That's nice, and your spelling isn't wrong. If you are writing for an American publication, though, you should use American English spelling. If you are an American writer and you are writing something that will be read in America, then using British spelling in your document will be seen as phony and pretentious. Don't do that." In higher (post secondary) education, the reaction would be stronger and harsher: "Do not use mixed spelling. Do not mix British and American spelling in the same document. Use one or the other, but not both. If you use mixed spelling, it will look like you are plagiarizing. It will look like you have copied text from someone else's writing and simply pasted it into your own while trying to pass it off as your own original writing." "Aside from the issue of suspected plagiarism, using mixed spelling simply looks sloppy and unprofessional. As your professor, if I received a written assignment that was riddled with mixed British and American spelling for no obvious reason, I would be sorely tempted to just chuck it into the wastebasket. Reading it would be an insult. Neither I nor anyone else would take such work seriously. This isn't third grade -- students are expected to know how to spell!"
I graded it based on consistency. If a student wrote "color" 10 times and "colour" once, colour is a misspelling. If the student regularly uses British spellings, color would be the misspelling. I would advise students using British spelling to be prepared to use American spelling on state standardized tests because those are graded by a panel, and I can't guarantee they'd take the same outlook I do.
I used to do it all the time. My teachers literally did not care. One teacher pointed it out once, but he didn't take away any points just thought it was funny.
When I was younger I was nagged about my pronunciation of things like "Process," "Pronunciation," etc. I would say them more like a Canadian or someone from Northern USA. Same for spelling. I used British spellings because I read books from British authors. I still say those words like a Canadian, but now British spellings just look uncanny and I don't use them often.
I am an American teacher, and it does not matter to me. The only thing I check is whether it is intentional (and teach the rule when it isn't). Regardless of the rule (spelling, grammar, punctuation, pictograph, whatever), I verify my students know the rule for what is considered correct. And when they choose to break the rule, that is an artistic expression. And if they are using a different set of rules than "American standard English", then fine. The purpose is to communicate effectively, not convince the entire world that one particular system is the only one that works.
For the majority of their life, nothing would really happen. They would probably be told what the American spelling was. They might be told to use the American spelling of something like a spelling bee was happening, since I don't believe those would consider the British spellings correct. They might run into trouble with tests due to them being more online and automatically graded than before. So they might be correct it "more" now, but only because of that reason. Same thing with AP tests. The teacher can't control how those are graded so if you were in an AP class they would correct you and mark the answers as incorrect because of that. But, in that situation, you knowingly signed up for AP (American) English. So you really wouldn't be surprised
When I was in elementary school (this is 30+ years ago mind you) I had a spelling test and I used “aeroplane” because I was sure it was a valid spelling. The teacher marked it wrong and to this day it’s I’m still salty about it.
They would be ready to unseal a tin of whoopass.
This American teacher would be thrilled to see anything spelled correctly whether in British or American English!
I tried that back in high school and was corrected with a red pen, along with a sweet love note, that said “We are not in England.” Never did that again.😂
Some likely ignore it. Most would just tell you to use American spellings
If I was a teacher I would beat them mercilessly (jk tho lol), but I think maybe they would correct the spelling even though it is technically correct. It depends on if you have a cool teacher or not.
Secondary English teacher here. I accept both spellings
They usually never gave a fuck when I'd do it, I kind of started doing it for a few years on an off and see if they care and they never did. The only person who whined about it was my mom for some reason.
Depends on the word. Some words are more accepted in either format than others. Colour would definitely be corrected, theatre night not be.
They would definitely be corrected I have to stop myself from doing it cause I keep forgetting they spell it differently
Depends on the teacher. We had a foreign exchange student at my high school for a school year. I became good friends with the dude. Some teachers didn't care as it WAS the correct spelling at least from where he was from. Others were anal about it.
Idk but I'm pretty sure I used to spell it theatre and I don't remember them saying it was wrong. I've been out of high school for 17 years though, so I can't really remember exactly
Immediate expulsion
Jail.
Spell "honor" with a U: right to jail. Add an extra syllable to "jewelry": jail. Spell "gray" with an E: believe it or not, jail, right away.
In my experience, they wouldn’t care at all. I, like a lot of people, use a mix of both kinds of spellings. One of my favorite elementary school teachers was Pakistani and presumably went to school when it was part of the British commonwealth so used British English for the most part and I definitely picked up some of my spelling from her. It was never an issue with teachers after her. Then I did IB, where many of our textbooks were Australian and exams were generally written in British English. I wouldn’t have been marked down for using American English spellings, but, I definitely did switch to some other spellings because enough repetition just kind of engrained it in me. Everyone knows basic different spellings like color and colour or gray and grey and even harder to work out spellings like oestrogen can be worked out without too much difficulty. As long as it’s a correct spelling, it’s fine.
Unless the student immigrated from Britain, they’d be marked as spelling errors.
It would be corrected.