NORTH AMERICAN ENGLISH EN-US

Canadian spellings are primarily based on British usage, as a result of Canada's longer-standing connections with the United Kingdom. Canadians are generally tolerant of both British and American spellings, with British spellings being favored in more formal settings and Canadian print media. Spellings in American English have been highly influenced by lexicographers like Noah Webster, who sought to create a standardized form of English that was independent of British English. Despite these differences, the dialects of both Canada and the United States are similar. The United Empire Loyalists who fled the American Revolution (1765–1783) have had a large influence on Canadian English from its early roots. Some terms in North American English are used almost exclusively in Canada and the United States (for example, the terms diaper and gasoline are widely used instead of nappy and petrol). 

 

Although many English speakers from outside North America regard such terms as distinct Americanisms, they are often just as common in Canada, mainly due to the effects of heavy cross-border trade and cultural penetration by the American mass media. The list of divergent words becomes longer if considering regional Canadian dialects, especially in the Atlantic provinces and parts of Vancouver Island, where significant pockets of British culture remain.

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English is the most common language in the United States, and despite the US federal government having no official language, English is considered the language of the United States because of its widespread use, with 225 million speakers only in the United States.

American English and British English differ at the levels of phonology, phonetics, vocabulary, and, to a lesser extent, grammar and orthography. Differences in grammar are relatively minor and normally do not affect mutual intelligibility. The most noticeable difference between American English and British English is the spelling of certain words, and in some cases, different spelling reflects a slightly different pronunciation.

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