Do we speak American?

Why copywriting for US audiences is more than using ‘Z’s

In 1942, Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw famously wrote: “Britain and America are two nations divided by a common language”. The same idea still holds true today, despite our respective countries sharing more slang, political and tech terminology than ever.

Websites, packaging, emails, social media... If you’re writing for a US audience, communicating convincingly goes beyond simply replacing ‘s’ with ‘z’. From punctuation to idioms, it’s understanding the subtle differences that help you sound like the real American deal.

Here are just some of the key considerations:

Find the right words

In British and American English, there many different words for the same things. Familiar UK/US equivalents are: courgette/zucchini, crisps/chips, jam/jelly, autumn/fall, pavement/sidewalk, queue/line, jumper/sweater, holiday/vacation… Where matters often get confusing (and potentially embarrassing) are with nouns such as ‘trousers’. Americans call them ‘pants’, but what the British call ‘pants’ are in fact ‘underpants’ across the pond.

Check your spelling

While US English is spelt phonetically, UK English owes its quirks to centuries of absorbing other European influences – mainly French and German. With American English, check for ‘re’ suffixes that should be ‘er’ – e.g. ‘center’. Drop the ‘u’ in words such as ‘color’ and ‘flavor’. Verbs ending with ‘ise’ change to US ‘ize’ – e.g. ‘apologize’. And ‘ence’ should change to ‘ense’– e.g. ‘defense’, not the UK ‘defence’.

Other rules include a single ‘L’ in verbs such as ‘traveled’. Double vowels ‘ae’ and ‘oe’ are shortened to an ‘e’– e.g. US ‘maneuver’, not UK ‘manoeuvre’. And remember when ‘e’ becomes ‘a’, such as with the US spelling for the colour – ‘gray’, not ‘grey’.

Sweat the small stuff

It’s easy to miss the more nuanced idiosyncrasies. Americans say ‘on the weekend’, not ‘at the weekend’. The modifier ‘quite’ is interpreted differently in that it means ‘fairly’ in the UK, but ‘very’ in the US.

Be careful too with British humour and idioms. You’re on safe ground with ‘know your onions’ and ‘a piece of cake’ as these phrases originated in America. But ‘everything has gone pear-shaped’ and ‘knackered’ are likely to go over US heads. And when it comes to style and tone of voice, if your copy seems direct, punchy, even pushy in places – it could be that you’ve got it just right. US copywriting tends to be bolder and braver than here in the UK.

Need something written for an American audience? Get in touch. We’re fluent in all things stateside.