Cancel...

We do it with a single L in canceled and canceling. (It always looks wrong to me, too.) And, just to spice things up, we insist on two L's in cancellation. Man, I'm glad I don't have to master English.

Maryn, slow learner

Maryn said:

We do it with a single L. It always looks wrong to me, too.

Maryn, slow learner

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Me, too!! I always thought it was just me. lol

CaroGirl said:

How do Americans spell the variations of the word cancel?

canceled/cancelled
canceling/cancelling
cancelation/cancellation

Thanks for any help on this!

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Americans use either spelling, depending on what they learned. The general rule that I learned was that for words ending with a short vowel-consonant combination (el for example), one doubles the consonant and adds the suffix. I would use a double 'l' in the examples that you gave. Many other Americans would use a single 'l' in them, and the spell-checker on this browser (Sea Monkey) tell me that the first two should have a single 'l;, and the third one should have a double 'l'. No one can prove you wrong however you do it.