Naughts and Zeds: Spelling

Naughts and Zeds is an ongoing series of posts on the differences between language, culture, and everyday items in America and in Britain. For a list of previous posts, go here.

Ever wonder why Americans have dropped the "u" out of "honour" and "colour" and other similar words? How "realise" became "realize" in the United States? These questions and more are answered in the latest podcast by one of my favorite podcasters, Grammar Girl. Check out the episode here. You can listen to the episode or read the transcript. Also, she has an episode on numbers that provide some background on how the US wound up with "math" while the UK has "maths."