Bit of a learn your own grammar day today after I spotted something in a report at work.

Came across this one today and also extends into other verbs such as travelled.

Colour/Color is obvious.
Foetus/Fetus is interesting

Can someone explain to me why the BE version "ll" is technically wrong/right? How is this taught in UK/US schools and why?

Origin of the word Cancelled:

Middle English cancellen, from Old French canceller, from Latin cancellre, to cross out, from cancellus, lattice, diminutive of cancer, lattice

You will notice the TWO LLs.

One grammar explication:

"According to grade school grammar there are supposed to be 2 of the "L"s to keep the pronunciation of the word "cancel" the same, otherwise using only one "L" will make the last "E" in the word "cancel" a long "E" like the ee sound in feet. This is because the "E" in the "-ED" that is added only 1consonant away from it, and again as grade school grammar taught us, when two vowels are separated by only 1 consonant and the last of the two are a strong vowel (like "e") that will make the first vowel long. So, technically, when it is written "canceled" it should be pronounced "can-seel-d". This is why the English rule is to double the last consonant, to keep that last "E" (or any last vowel) short, which would maintain the correct pronunciation of the word. Or is it we do not remember how to read, write, or learn anything productive?"

Link: http://www.oes.org/page2/11255~Cancelled_or_Canceled.html

__________________
Do or do not, there is no try(ing). Yoda

The British English standard practice is to double any terminal consonant when adding a suffix that starts with a vowel. The reason is so that, for example, one can still differentail between words such as

strip ( -> stripped )

stripe ( -> striped)

If not done as shown, we wouldn't know what Homeland Security had done to you on the way through the airport

So why do the Americans insist on dropping the "l"???

Is there a reason also?

Well, let's put it this way - ah, never mind....

That's what I thought- whistle Wollishofner-let him do it.

I really couldn't care, but I'll chuck a coal on the fire.

Why is it "concealed" then?

that's what She said...

The "ea" forms a long "e" sound, hence a single consonant for the suffix:

Because of the double vowel as two distinct syllables before the "l", silly!

The rule is "A before E, except after C, when they will be followed by a lonely L".

Doesn't everybody learn that at school?

As per posts. British always with double 'L'. In American it's optional but single 'L' is preferred--however I have seen it spelt (or spelled) double 'L' in the USA before. English language doesn't have a language body like French, German and Spanish does. Instead individual dictionaries decide on new words but neither are consistent on how they do this and nor on the spelling they choose.

Helishly complicated, these two countries divided by a common language.

Indeed but it is not always clear cut--even though the Americans get a lot of slack, a lot of their spelling and/or words are actually old English and it's us Brits who changed later--exceptions to this are 'center' and 'color' which were made up by Webster in the US. Canadian spelling is probably a good example of "original" British spelling (pre-mid 19th/20th century changes)... e.g. Canada spells 'colour' but has 'z' in organization and uses 'tire' (Brits changed to 'tyre' later). Australian spelling is the same as British as far as I can see but they keep arguing over 'programme' and 'program'. Irish spelling is exactly the same as British. The rest of the world are just confused.

Another example is date formats... if you look at historical British items (books, papers, etc.) that have dates, mostly it's month before day (e.g. May 22nd) now it's mostly day before month (e.g. 22nd May)--probably influenced by the continent along with the 24 hour clock which is used much more in the UK compared to Australia, US and Canada (English speaking part).

I agree absolutely.

But you kinda missed the point of my post, subtle as it was.

Way too subtlle for some, I would say...

Depends whether you're reading a Murdoch paper or not. Rupert has been forcing American spelling down Australia's throat for years now. Literate Australians, on the other hand, use British spelling, by and large.

Personally, I like "programme", but in the interest of clarity, I use "program" in the IT context only.

I can see that--and if you're against the Monarchy in Australia you might want to use "program" in all cases too. Funny example of it all down there: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mic...9ogram%28me%29

Same here but then I am British.

Off topic, but Shaun Micallef = comedic genius.

Monarchy? We have a monarchy in Australia? You mean all the queens in Darlinghurst?

Right, back to cancelled ...

Not seen him actually but will have to look him up. The last comedy I saw from Australia was Fat Pizza but that's not even in the same league I'd expect.