Written English: UK vs US

[Peninha]

What are the main differences between the written English from the US and from the UK? I thought that this was mainly at a verbal level, but are there words or sentences that are written differently?

[lizbeth19hph]

American English idiomatic expressions are fairly different from British English expressions. There are also words as well which have the same meaning in both American and British but of different spellings. Examples: colors-colours, organize-organise, etc. British spelling of some words use "s" instead of the usual "z" in American.

[Baburra]

As already previously stated, the most prominent difference would probably be the use of "OU" in place of "O". Also, another one that stands out in my memory is their variation and pronunciation of the word "programme" (pronounced pro-grum) in place of "program".

[Firelily99]

I have nothing to add to what the others have said.  Its all English but the idiomatic differences and some spelling can make them seem like totally different languages at times.  I do enjoy the UK way, I find it quite charming.  Its been the way it is for a very long time and I suspect it won't change.  The Aussies have also come up with a few English language quirks that are delightful as well.

[Rosa]

The only difference that I know of with regards to UK vs US written English is that of the spelling. Some other words that I am familiar with are words that end with re in UK ends with er in the US, for example, metre and centre.

[senji]

This is a bit colloquial, but I found this quite funny

[Daimashin]

From what I know, they are different in terms of a number spelling for certain words like realize/realise, honour/honor, and so on. US and UK also have different terms for the same things like hood/bonnet, trunk/boot, and etc. There are plenty of other things too but it's going to take a very long time to explain everything.

[Denis Hard]

It wouldn't be OK to re-post what has been posted in another thread. There's a kind of detailed explanation here if you'd care to take a look:

http://linguaholic.com/english-lounge-conversations-in-english-only/english-practice/15/

[Lodismel]

It's mostly culturally based things that are different between UK English and US English. There's not a lot of difference structurally. Some words are spelled very slightly different. Inflection is also a bit different between the two.