Quote:
Originally Posted by Oswald
Americans spell words in a different fashion to us in the UK. They don't include the letter 'u' in words such as 'colour', 'favour', 'honour' etc. They swap around the 'r' and 'e' in words such as 'centre', 'fibre', 'metre' etc. They use an 'i' where we use a 'y' - in 'tyre' for example and completely miss out letters in a word such as 'axe'.
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I saw something about that on tv a few years ago. Apparently after the American Revolution one of the ways that the U.S. distanced themselves from their former colonial rulers was to change the spelling of words where possible. A lot of the words that were altered were French in spelling and the Americans simplified this and was seen as another step to an independent America.