Why do we spell Brasil with an s in America but with a Z in the other countries?
480258
Because we as Americans will not accept the fact that we cannot use our language and adapting said language to pronounce words are they are pronounce for other languages, we are just idiots
972779
in latin america it would be:\n\nzara = s-ah-r-ah\n\nin spain:\n\nzara = th-ah-r-ah
538378
sounds to me like the difference between British English and American English.  \n\nsince Canada is/was more influenced by the united kingdom than the US, it's probably more normal for you to use aeroplane , which i'm assuming is the british word for it.
1043152
The full name of the country is The United States of America. \n\n"America" is  a shortened version of the full name. \n\nTrust me on this one, most Americans are well aware that the Continent of North America also includes Canada and Mexico!!\n\nIt is simply a shortened version of our country's name. We also refer to our country as the USA.\n\nPlease, please, please, can everybody just get over this for once and for all, and find something more important to take umbrage about?
521970
My guess is that you're looking primarily at people writing online. AOLspeak/chatspeak is not representative of American spelling ability. Note also that this is rampant in the UK and Australia as well. I've such things in French and German too. There's an annoying perception that spelling just doesn't matter online, and it's not just in America.\n\nAdditionally, however, English is a hybrid between Anglo-Saxon (Old English, or 'Englisc') and Old French (Latin-based). Because of this, there's a lot of inconsistency in the language. Also, since most of us don't study Latin or Anglo-Saxon, we don't know the roots from which the words are formed.\n\nTo add on, the above answers complaining about your grammar and such are wrong in that:\n* 'Spelt' is a word. It's chiefly British, but is a perfectly acceptable alternate to 'spelled'\n* It's not 'grammer', but 'grammar'. Common mistake they should have caught while whining about your other minor errors and non-errors. 9They also failed to capitalise 'English'.)\n* 'Spellings' is a plural noun. The spelling of a word can be right or wrong, and the spellings of words can be right or wrong.\n\n(Yeah, Shawn's answer was just awful.)
192914
Because our country's whole name is "The United States of AMERICA"  and also because we are the dominating force in all of the Americas.\n\nBut not everyone calls it "America" outside of the US.  It is often frequently called "The States."\n\nMost of the time we're just called "Those Terrorists" lol
452919
i'm not sure how accurate this is but apparently the dollar ($) symbol originally started off as a letter "U" superimposed onto a letter "S" to indicate that the currency was from the US and over time the bottom of the U was dropped off as the dollar was adopted by other countries so it was just left as an S with 2 vertical lines through it.\ni'm not too sure about the other currency symbols though.
460380
I have never thought about it, but now that you mention it, yes you are right, the S is silent, but the name would look silly and incorrect if it wasn't there....\n\nYou know what else? I think spelling like this with the pronunciation that we have all grown up with, we can blame the French! LOL! I'm only half joking, but there's a grain of truth when it comes to some place names because they (as a nation) were there, and other European languages do the same.\n\nIt's even worse sometimes with peoples first names and surnames.
595302
Because the united-statesians think they are the center of the universe.  Many will argue that there is only ONE America.  I think the US is the only COUNTRY with America in its name, but they forget that all of North, Central, and South America are THE Americas.
999330
I think brazil is english which is how brazilians spell it, and i think brasil is for spanish
784280
I think "jail" is the American spelling. A lot of the American dictionary writers in the 18th century wanted to create an American spelling system that better reflected its pronunciation. This is why a lot of American spellings differ from British spellings. Some people/places just develop preference for one or the other, as they seemed to with "jail".
78245
An apostrophe should be added at the end when the word ends in s, as in walrus'.\n\nZ is treated like any other letter and you add the 's at the end.
543803
Both are correct, but the natives like Brasil more. Plus their capital is Brasilia not BraZilia.\n\nThe S makes it more hip, I suppose.
1048226
Because the official language in all countries of South America is Spanish (except in Brazil). Since the same language is spoken in Mexico, ignorants say that Mexico is in South America.\n\nThe truth is that Canada and the USA for "Angloamerica", whereas all other countries in American continent form "Latin America", and such division also rises the mess in understanding the difference between geographical and social borders.
1049723
The same reason that citizens of Mexico call it "Mexico" when it is actually "Los Estados Unidos Mexicanos" The United States of Mexico. So therefore The United States of America is "America". I dont want to say the whole thing all the time, it is too much. I am against people living in a pro-American, anti-anything else bubble, but I dont think that is the reason behind THIS!
925759
Hate to tell you this, but America has a lot of names of other Country's cities, towns, states ect. ect.
1032994
Either pronunciation is correct.  Common usage in North America is "eg zit".