"Favour" or "favor"

Question

Are the terms favour and favor interchangeable ? Or is there a slight difference perhaps? This is nitpicking but just curious.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/info/spelling-reform.htm there are other words like this : defence and defense . Why do we have different American and British versions? How did they come to existence? What purpose do they serve?

"Regular spelling"? From my vantage point, it's the other way around. — phenry, Jan 17 '14 at 18:03
ELU does not underline anything: I would guess your browser, being set to English, thinks the American word a misspelling. — Tim Lymington, Jan 17 '14 at 18:17
@TimLymington I knew that , just wanted to know was it Elu or something else — Argot, Jan 17 '14 at 18:35
“Defense” or “defence” on en.se. Wikipedia can be helpful as well. — None, Jan 17 '14 at 19:15
The whys and hows is a very interesting story, but one that can be researched without EL&U answers. Just google "History of American spelling" or similar. — nxx, Jan 17 '14 at 19:54
Like I knew , it was duplicate...how could have I known...your Elu algorithms did not show me this option , not my fault .i don't even care for the question ,just wanted to see if someone could answer such a question. — Argot, Jan 18 '14 at 11:45

score 6 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 17 '14 at 17:57

6

There is no difference between the two. Favour is the spelling used in the UK and other Commonwealth countries, while favor is the spelling used in the United States.

answered Jan 17 '14 at 17:57

phenry

18,259

And applies to countless other words ending in ...our; colour, honour, rumour, etc. – WS2 Jan 17 '14 at 19:27

"Favour" or "favor"

1 Answers1