Not everyone knows that there is a British and an American way of
spelling words, and they are different. The question about the
acceptable spelling came up a lot lately and I found out that many
students are unsure how to spell words in the IELTS Listening, Reading
and Writing tests – the British or the American way.
First, for
those who have no idea what I’m talking about, let me explain: if you
ask someone from the USA and someone from the UK to spell a word such as
color, the American will spell “color” and the person from the UK will spell “colour”. There are many other examples:
favorite (USA) – favourite (UK)
honor (USA) – honour (UK)
memorize (USA) – memorise (UK)
check (USA) – cheque (UK)
There is no point in listing all of the differences here, you can see the whole list on this page.
As to the question, what is the right way to spell words in IELTS, the American or the British, the answer is both. You can use either form and it will be accepted, no penalties.
The important thing is to choose one particular way and stick to it.
