The English Cottage

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7 British/American Spellings
Some British English and American English words have the same meaning and pronunciation but different spellings. Here are seven common groups. If you are not sure about a spelling, it's best to look it up in a British or American dictionary as appropriate.

1. ogue/og
BrE: analogue, catalogue, dialogue
AmE: analog, catalog, dialog

2. our/or
BrE: colour, favourite, honour
AmE: color, favorite, honor

3. ence/ense
Bre: defence, licence
AmE: defense, license

4. s/z
BrE: analyse, criticise, organisation (but z is also used)
AmE: analyze, criticize, organization

5. l/ll
BrE: enrolment, fulfil, skilful
AmE: enrollment, fulfill, skillful

6. re/er
BrE: centre, theatre, metre
AmE: center, theater, meter

7. miscellaneous
BrE: jewellery, programme, practise, pyjamas
AmE: jewelry, program, practice, pajamas

NB1: in BrE program is used when talking about computers
NB2: in BrE practise is a verb and practice is a noun

It's a pity that English is not phonetic! In some languages, you can look at a word and know immediately how to pronounce it. But in English you need to be a little more careful.

Take the letters "ough", for example. They occur in many words, but they do not always sound the same.

1. though (like o in go)

2. through (like oo in too)

3. cough (like off in offer)

4. rough (like uff in suffer)

5. plough (like ow in flower)

6. ought (like aw in saw)

7. borough (like a in above)

So how do you know the pronunciation of a word? Well, fortunately "ough" is an extreme example. English words are not always that difficult. But in general, when you learn a new word, you should also make sure you know its pronunciation. If you do not have a teacher or someone to say the word for you, you can look in a dictionary. All good dictionaries give the pronunciation for each word, often with special symbols. So it's a good idea to look at your dictionary carefully and learn the pronunciation symbols. After that, you'll always be able to find the pronunciation of any word, easily.

7 Teens
What's a "teen", or a "teenager"? People sometimes talk about teenagers when they really mean "young people". For example, you might read: "This is a club for teenagers from 12 to 16."

Time to get accurate. Someone who is twelve years old is not a teenager. Someone who is thirTEEN years old *is* a teenager.

How old is a teenager? A TEENager is:

13 thirTEEN
14 fourTEEN
15 fifTEEN
16 sixTEEN
17 sevenTEEN
18 eighTEEN
19 nineTEEN

Note the following:

They are in their teens. (= They are aged 13 to 19.)
They are in their late teens. (eg They are aged 17 to 19.)
- early teens
- mid teens
a teen idol (an idol for teenagers)
a teenybopper - a young teenager (especially girl), who follows the latest fashions in music and clothes

Riddle No. 2 of the day:

What word begins with "e", ends with "e", and has one letter?

Riddle No. 1 of the day:

What starts with "P", ends with "E", and has millions of letters?

Hi everyone!
The English Cottage page is noe again active with some extra entertaining learning posts.

Thanks for being with us in our absence too.
I hope you all are hunky-dory.

Let's rebegin our engagements now!