Canadian English: spelling, dates and money
By Michael Ukwuma
The Canadian way to spell colour, centre and cheque, and how to write dates and amounts clearly.
CELPIP does not publish a rule that you must use Canadian spelling, and we found no official statement that British or American spelling loses marks. But your raters are Canadian, the situations are Canadian, and spelling falls under Readability. The safest path is simple: use Canadian spelling, and use it consistently.
Everything here follows the Government of Canada's Language Portal.
Spelling patterns
- Keep the u like British English: colour, favour, neighbour, behaviour, honour.
- Keep re like British English: centre, theatre, metre, kilometre, fibre.
- Use ize like American English: organize, realize, apologize, organization.
- Double the l like British English: travelled, travelling, cancelled, counselling. But: enrol, enrolment.
- Use ce for these nouns: defence, offence, licence.
- Simpler forms like American English: encyclopedia, anemia.
Word pairs that trip people up
- Cheque is a bank payment. Check means everything else. I paid by cheque. Please check the time.
- Licence is the noun. License is the verb. A driver's licence. A licensed restaurant.
- Practice is the noun. Practise is the verb. Hockey practice. I practise every evening.
- Program, not programme. Grey, not gray.
Dates
Month, day, year is the most common style in Canadian English: June 16, 2026. Day, month, year without commas is also correct: 16 June 2026.
Avoid confusion. Avoid all number dates like 06/07/2026 in your email. A Canadian, an American and a Nigerian reader could each read a different day. Write the month in words.
Money and measurements
- Write amounts as $45 or $1,200. Say forty five dollars.
- Canada uses metric: kilometres, kilograms, degrees Celsius.
- Common words: a loonie is a one dollar coin, a toonie is two dollars.
Key points
- Colour, centre, organize, travelled, cheque, licence.
- Practise is the verb, practice is the noun.
- Write the month in words in dates.
- Choose Canadian spelling and stay consistent.