4. UK versus US spelling and grammar
Depending on whether you are using American (US) or British (UK) style in your paper, please apply the given spelling and grammar conventions throughout. We provide some of the most common differences between these conventions below. We recommend setting your spellcheck tool to the convention you are using. Also, the most dependable dictionary for referencing US spelling is Merriam-Webster, while for UK spelling, it is the Cambridge Dictionary.
4.1 Spelling
| UK conventions | US conventions | |
|---|---|---|
| • Nouns ending in our/or |
behaviour, neighbour, favour, colour, harbour, vapour | behavior, neighbor, favor, color, harbor, vapor |
| Note: Contour is always spelled with an “our” ending for both US and UK styles. | ||
| • Nouns ending in re/er |
centre, metre, fibre, calibre | center, meter, fiber, caliber |
|
Note 1: Past participles also take the re/er ending: centred (UK) and centered (US). Note 2: Parameter and diameter have the same spelling for both conventions. |
||
| • Nouns ending in logue/log |
catalogue, analogue, isotopologue | catalog, analog, isotopolog |
| • Nouns ending in ize/ise/yse |
analyse, summarise, organise, ionise, normalise, minimise, practise | analyze, summarize, organize, ionize, normalize, minimize, practice |
|
Note 1: The related noun endings in -ization/-isation also follow the convention: organisation, ionisation (UK) and organization, ionization (US).. Note 2: Authors can opt to use the “z” spelling in UK conventions (excluding “analyse”) as long as the use is consistent throughout a paper. |
||
| More differences in noun usage | artefact, ageing, grey, speciality, sulphur, aluminium, disc (disk is a variant) | artifact, aging, gray, specialty, sulfur, aluminum, disk |
| • Verbs ending in el |
model-modelling-modelled; label-labelling-labelled; cancel-cancelling-cancelled | model-modeling-modeled; label-labeling-labeled; cancel-canceling-canceled |
| • Verbs ending in il |
fulfil; fulfilling; fulfilled; fulfilment | fulfill; fulfilling; fulfilled; fulfillment |
| • Verbs ending in us |
focus; focussing; focussed (focusing and focused are variants) | focus; focusing; focused |
| Other examples of differences in verb usage | to inquire, to orientate (orient is a variant) | to enquire, to orient |
| • Adverb | towards, outwards, forwards | toward, outward, forward |
| Note: In UK convention, when words ending in -wards are used in the adjective form, -ward is used (e.g., the forward movement). | ||
4.2 More examples of differences between UK and US conventions
4.2.1 Formatting
Quotation marks: UK convention calls for the use of single quotation marks when formatting speech, titles, or when endowing a phrase with special meaning. US convention calls for double quotation marks in these instances. However, when quotation marks are used to show special meaning, they are only needed upon first appearance.
Note 1: If the special meaning is otherwise clear, or indicated by “so called” or similar, quotation marks or single quotation marks are not needed.
Note 2: When the end of a quote is just before a period or comma, in UK style the period or comma is outside of the closing quotation mark. In US style, the period or comma is placed inside of the quotation marks.
Examples:
- UK: Such alternative trajectories allow orbits that are along previously inaccessible field lines to 'escape'.
- US: Such alternative trajectories allow orbits that are along previously inaccessible field lines to “escape.”
- US/UK: According to Bert et al., this is a so-called rare phenomenon.
4.2.2 Hyphenation
UK convention calls for the hyphenation of certain prefixes that are merged in US English. Common examples are given below. See more on hyphenation further on in this guide.
Examples:
- UK: non-zero, north-east, multi-component, multi-wavelength
- US: nonzero, northeast, multicomponent, multiwavelength