US English vs UK English: How to choose

If you’re writing a document, book, or other publication, you’ll need to choose whether to write it in US English vs UK English. The typical answer is to pick an option based on where your business or publication is located, or where you live as the author (for instance, if you’re a London-based author or business, you’d choose UK English). However, it can be more nuanced than that. Your primary audience might not be located in the same place.

Let’s say you’re a UK-based author or business, but your target audience is based in the US. Maybe you’re writing a biography of an American person, or you’re a business whose primary clients are in the US. It makes sense, then, to write in US English, which is what your audience will be most familiar with.

US English vs UK English: What are the differences?

Many people assume that the only difference between US English and UK English is spellings and punctuation marks – for instance, color vs colour or using double quotation marks for quotes (“like this”), rather than single quotation marks (‘like this’).

It is indeed true that there are lots of differences in spelling and punctuation (another example is US English favouring longer em dashes as parenthetical dashes, and UK English favouring shorter ones known as en dashes). But there are many more differences to be aware of too.

Style guide choice

A style guide is a set of editorial guidelines determining which editorial rules to follow (such as the type of dash or single or double quotation marks, as mentioned above). These style guides are usually printed as books, and copyeditors will follow these guidelines when editing the text and making it fit for publishing.

The type of style guide an editor should follow usually depends on whether the text is being written in US or UK English.

In US English, the style guide of choice is often The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS). But specialist topics can follow different style guides. Scientific material tends to follow The CSE Manual, for example, and scholarly writing in the humanities in the US may adhere to The MLA Handbook.

In UK English, publications and texts tend to follow New Hart’s Rules (also known as Oxford style). Specialist humanities subjects, such as literature, language and cultural studies, would follow MHRA style.

So as you can see, there is far more to US English vs UK English than many people first assume, and it begins with the editorial style guide to be followed.

The style guide is the reason for many of the other differences between US and UK English in printed text. Here are a few…

Punctuation and quotes

In US English (or Chicago style), if something is being quoted, any final punctuation would go inside the quotation mark – “like this,” for example.

In UK English (or Oxford style), if something is being quoted, the final punctuation would go outside the quotation mark – “like this”, for example.

Date formats

Other differences between US and UK English in written text may include how a date is formatted. It can vary depending on the style guide, but in US English, it’s typical to format a date as September 8, 2026. Outside of the US, the comma tends to be omitted (September 8 2026).

There are many, many more differences – far more than can be covered in a single article!

How the wrong choice can backfire

Choosing the wrong option for your intended audience can backfire. If your audience is primarily American, and won’t be aware of spelling differences, choosing to write in UK English could lead to your audience incorrectly assuming that you’re making spelling or grammatical mistakes – even if they’re wrong about that. This can cause your text to be received badly by the reader.

This is why it’s so important to make the correct choice between US English and UK English.

US English vs UK English: The key takeaways and how to choose

There are so many differences between US English and UK English that it’s impossible to cover them all here. What really matters, though, is that the text is clear and understandable to your intended audience, and that your choice won’t take away from the message you want to put across to them.

It’s best to choose one of the following options:

1. Choose where you are based as the author/publisher/business OR
2. Choose based on your primary audience

If you have an international audience who isn’t located in the US or the UK, then the easiest solution would be option one.

Option two here is the least likely to cause issues if you have an audience that isn’t located in the same place as you.

Finally, what if you’re an international business, and you aren’t located in the US or the UK yourself, but elsewhere? This will again come down to your intended audience, and what type of English they might be used to seeing most frequently, even if they aren’t based in a certain location themselves.