As a reflection of our European geographical situation, the Vives Network of Universities recommends the universities in the Catalan university system to use British English in most contexts, particularly for institutional documents. At an institutional level, the UB recommends using British English combined with Oxford spelling (following the Oxford Dictionary or else the Collins Dictionary), and being guided by common sense and discretion when deciding which English to use in texts addressed to American readers. The rest of this page explains how to use Oxford spelling and reviews the main differences in usage between British English and American English.  

Oxford spelling puts emphasis on conserving the earliest known root of English words and so, generally speaking, it only differs from British English when British English doesn't do this. The most notable case is the group of verbs and verb derivatives whose origins can be traced back to the Greek root izo. Oxford spelling conserves this root by spelling these words with a z, while British English spells them with s, following a later form that was more common in Early and Middle English. American English spells these words with z too, but for a different reason to Oxford: in the American case, this comes from the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century reforms headed by Noah Webster and designed to simplify and standardize English spelling.

*For a more extensive list of verbs that follow this pattern, see Appendix I: Common verbs spelt with z using Oxford spelling.

Both British English and Oxford spelling conserve the s of those verbs whose Greek root is lys by spelling the verbs with an s, while American English uses z, again as a means to simplify and standardize writers’ spelling choices.



Remember, however, that British English, Oxford spelling and American English all spell certain words always with an s or with a z. In the case of s, this happens when the -ise part of the word is not a complete suffix but a fragment of a longer component like  -cise, -mise, -prise or -vise (often, historically, from French past participles that use s, like -mise from mettre/mis and -prise from prendre/pris):



In the case of z, this happens with a small number of words including prize, size and capsize (possibly from the Spanish verb capuzar).

Finally, in most other respects, remember that Oxford spelling follows British English and contrasts with American English in the following ways.



*British English with Oxford spelling uses this -re spelling to refer to units of measurement (so also centimetre and kilometre) but uses the -er spelling to refer to unit-measuring devices (barometer, thermometer).

A last note: remember that British usage has the form programme (as opposed to the American program) except when referring to computer code, in which case program is preferred.