"Difference in spelling"

[Rachel Adams]

Hello.

Is it better to say 1. "American English words and British English words have different spellings" instead of saying 2."American English words and British English words have difference in spelling"?
Or perhaps another way to say that would be "There is a difference in spelling between American (English words) and British English words."

 

[GoesStation]

Hello.

Is it better to say 1. "American English words and British English words have different spellings" instead of saying 2."American English words and British English words have difference in spelling"?

Yes. Sentence 2 is incorrect. Pluralizing a noun would make it grammatical, and removing both instances of the word "words" would make it natural — but sentence 1 is closer to a clear and natural way to express the idea.

Or perhaps another way to say that would be "There is a difference in spelling between American (English words) and British English words."

Leave out "words" — what other aspect of a language do you spell? — and leave only the second instance of "English" and you'll have a natural sentence.

 

[Rachel Adams]

Leave out "words" — what other aspect of a language do you spell? — and leave only the second instance of "English" and you'll have a natural sentence.

"There is a difference in spelling between American and British English."

 

[Rachel Adams]

Yes. Sentence 2 is incorrect. Pluralizing a noun would make it grammatical, and removing both instances of the word "words" would make it natural — but sentence 1 is closer to a clear and natural way to express the idea.

"American and British English have differences in spelling."
I pluralized "difference". But "different spellings" aren't wrong, are they? I mean "American and British English have different spellings."

 

[GoesStation]

"American and British English have differences in spelling."
I pluralized "difference". But "different spellings" [STRIKE]aren't[/STRIKE] isn't wrong, [STRIKE]are they[/STRIKE] is it? I mean "American and British English have different spellings."

No, that's fine. Note my corrections above: the quotation is singular even though the words it contains are plural.

 

[Rachel Adams]

No, that's fine. Note my corrections above: the quotation is singular even though the words it contains are plural.

And
"There are differences in spelling between American and British English" is also correct. Right?

 

[GoesStation]

And
"There are differences in spelling between American and British English" is also correct. Right?

Yes.

 

[Rover_KE]

You need to say "Some American English words and British English words have different spellings" and "There are some differences in spelling between American and British English".

There was no need to use quotation marks in your thread title.