Blame Noah Webster if you struggle with spelling words that have a British and American spelling: i.e. canceled vs cancelled
Posted By RichC on January 17, 2023
You would think that after 60+ years that I would comfortably remember which spelling of for the past tense of ‘cancel’ was the common American English version and which was British English version. When it comes to a few words that I stumble over, I still need to check with Merriam-Webster.
British vs. American English
Another fine example that has answers of varying degrees of complexity is the question of how many Ls one should use in the past or present participle form of the verb cancel. The simple answer to the question of ‘is it canceled or cancelled’ is “either one is fine.”
Now for the less simple answer. Canceled and canceling are more common in the US, while cancelled and cancelling are more common in British English. As explained by Lynne Murphy, American and British English have many similar habits when it comes to past and present participles: both double the final consonant of a word when it follows a short vowel and has the stress on the syllable attached to the suffix (such as remit/remitted/remitting). However, if the stress does not come on the syllable that attaches to the suffix then the final consonant is not doubled (as is the case with edit/edited/editing).
