Licence vs License

Dunjohn

I'm always getting these mixed up.

As I understand it, "licence" is a noun, i.e. a driver's licence, while "license" is a verb. But, "to grant a license" is also correct. As is "license plate." But both of those are nouns.

Am I making sense? Is this down to differences between American English and our own, or are the two words fully interchangeable?

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

MathsManiac

The noun/verb distinction is usually followed in British English, (licence for noun, license for verb).

American English uses license for both. I think this is universal in American English - I don't recall ever seeing licence used by an American author.

The above view is supported by the entries in my Concise OED (8th ed.), where the head-word licence is listed as a noun, immediately followed by (US license), and, as a separate entry, license is listed as a transitive verb, immediately followed by (also licence). This latter parenthesis indicates that it's a variant spelling in the case of a verb, and what the OED means by listing it thus is that "in all such cases the form given as the headword is the preferred form".

I would suggest therefore that in British English "to grant a licence" is preferred over "to grant a license".

The term "license plate" is relatively recent on this side of the pond; these have traditionally been referred to as "number plates" in the British Isles. I think this is still the predominant term here - Google has just given me 28,000 Irish hits for "number plate", 10,000 for "license plate" and 4,000 for "licence plate". The term used in legal contexts is "vehicle registration plate". Anyway, if I were to use either term at all, I would prefer "licence plate" over "license plate", in light of the preferred forms in British English.

Dunjohn

Yes, my own dictionary noted that "license plate" is an American term, but it was still confusing me. Cheers!