“Favors” or “Favours”—What's the difference?

Usage by country

Where each spelling is used

Of the 12 countries below, 6 prefer “favors” and 5 prefer “favours”. Usage levels are out of 100; the more common spelling in each country is in bold.

Usage level out of 100 (if available).
Country	favors	favours	Preference
United States	99	1	“favors”
United Kingdom	23	77	“favours”
India	36	64	“favours”
Philippines	94	6	“favors”
Canada	60	40	“favors”
Australia	26	74	“favours”
Liberia	0	0	Not enough data
Ireland	27	73	“favours”
New Zealand	24	76	“favours”
Jamaica	70	30	“favors”
Trinidad & Tobago	74	26	“favors”
Guyana	100	0	“favors”

Usage

Examples in context

Real sentences for each spelling. Hover an example to copy it.

“favors”

…of , the milk shark favors turbid water off sandy beaches…
…35 degrees in summer, which favors the daily bath in the…
…gain information or call in favors from).
…from Russia, while the U.S. favors some of the rebels.
…a person or political party favors in these two areas.
However, not everyone, of course, favors the idea behind wabi-sabi.
…petty corruption involving either money, favors, and gifts.
…phrase, "ANNUIT COEPTIS," meaning "He favors our undertaking."
…to not engage in what favors foreign commerce what trade likes…
Trillium grandiflorum favors well-drained, neutral to slightly acid…

“favours”

He favours a right hand outside, left…
…ask their patron for little favours, especially for rain and the…
…nothing, and the queen heaped favours on the poet.
It favours well-drained sites, especially in calcareous
…its course, even though this favours the more successful introduced species.
Blocher favours the 'framework' interpretation of the…
…has on the body...Natural selection favours some genes rather than others…
The Phoenix favours Robert, the child who put…
Rhein-Neckar-Verkehr (Rhine-Neckar Transport) favours option 2 because it would…
…bedside table and that she favours Joe over Judith as a…

Examples are Wikipedia snippets under the CC ShareAlike 3.0 license.

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