Page 41 - Perfect English Grammar: The Indispensable Guide to Excellent Writing and Speaking

the best advice I can give is to use the spelling your audience knows. It’s a
common myth that British English is the proper version; in fact, both varieties of

English have changed substantially since 1776 but in different ways. Don’t
assume one is superior to the other in all situations.

For example, when I wrote a regular column about language for the
Malaysia Star, I used spellings that would seem unusual to Americans, because

Malaysia tends to follow the British way of spelling.

By the way, even the British don’t always spell things the “British” way, and
Canadians and Australians each have their own hybrid spelling that is neither

completely British nor American.
Be on the lookout for these commonly confused British versus American

spellings in your writing:

British American
aeroplane airplane

calibre caliber

centre center
colour color

defence defense

honour honor
litre liter

neighbour neighbor

traveller traveler

Keep in mind these are spelling variants. Neither word in each pair is the one
true correct choice in all situations; they are perfectly acceptable variants that

both have a home in English. Like so much with language, context matters. Use
the spelling that fits the place and audience.

Also, don’t worry about these particular spelling differences too much. For

one thing, everyone will still understand what you mean if you use the wrong
spelling. The spelling variants are mostly just one letter different.