For some strange reason, it seems like the British spelling of canceled (cancelled) is becoming increasingly common in the United States. In a meeting today, someone was writing on the whiteboard, and paused after the first "l" to ask "how do you spell canceled?" Right away, someone piped up "l-l-e-d".
I did manage to stifle my internal pedagogue.
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In the past, as an American (and former spelling bee finalist in my city), I always spelled canceled with two Ls--never realizing that it was the British spelling.
ReplyDeleteHowever, it's only been in the last couple of years that I've dropped the extraneous L in canceled, canceling, traveled, and traveling.
I find myself always trying to spell as "cancelled" but being sometimes corrected by a spell-checker. Interestingly, sometimes -- but not always. Similar experiences happened to me with "colour", "behaviour", and other such words -- can't remember from the top of my head. Is this not English? :-)
ReplyDeleteMy personal favorites are "programme" and "artefact" -- but I personally never make these mistakes :-)