Legal Writing

Practice or Practise?

By Maeve

Mike Stone asks about the difference between practice and practise, defence and defense.

Are they UK/US differences or is it something to with their use as nouns/verbs. I’ve never been able to find a good simple explanation.

Differences between some -ce, -se words do reflect a difference between British and American spelling.

British: defence, offence, pretence,
American: defense, offense, pretense

As for practice, practise, making a distinction in spelling between the noun and the verb is British usage:

practise [pr?k't?s] (verb) - The doctor plans to practise medicine in Yorkshire.
practice [pr?k't?s] (noun) - He hopes to build up quite a good practice.

In American usage, both the noun and verb forms are spelled the same:

The doctor practiced medicine in his home town.

In the case of advise and advice, however, both British and American usage agree:

advise [ ?d-v?z' ] verb - He advised the students to take typing.
advice [ ?d-v?s' ] noun She was glad that she followed his advice.

NOTE: I must have lived in the UK too long: pretence looks better to me than pretense!

Practice or Practise?

Full post as published by Daily Writing Tips on April 21, 2009 (boomark / email).