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I wrote 2 sentences:

The distances from A to B via different routes are summarized in Table 1.

When traveling from A to B, note the signs.

One person from UK told me 'summarized' and 'traveling' are not British English.

I am in USA learning English. Are there really British words for 'summarized' and 'traveling'?

Thanks.

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    It's not about word choice, it's about spelling. The person you were talking to could have been more helpful and told you "most British English speakers would use the spellings 'summarised' and 'travelling'". That said, using -ize spellings is still considered a respectable option in British English, even if it isn't the most popular: using z in such words in British English is a feature of "Oxford" style.
    – herisson
    Commented Aug 16, 2017 at 0:44
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    There are prior questions on this site that cover these topics separately. For "-ling" vs. "-lling", see When is “L” doubled? and Why is the 'L' in detailed not doubled?
    – herisson
    Commented Aug 16, 2017 at 0:47
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    For "-ise" and "-ize" see Are the endings “-zation” and “-sation” interchangeable?; the top answer is not the best (it says " the "s" is British", which is an oversimplification), but all of the answers collectively seem to cover most of the relevant points of usage. If I find another question on this subject with a better answer I will post a link to it instead.
    – herisson
    Commented Aug 16, 2017 at 0:53

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British English uses "-ise" or "-ised" where American English would use "-ize" or "-ized".

Travelling is the correct British English spelling of "traveling" - presumably because the double "l" preserves the "short e" (as in hello, bet, tell). Pronunciation of an e followed by a single consonant and another vowel is typically pronounced as a "long e" (as in evil, below, elicit).

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  • Hello Vocoder; just so you know, this question is (in a way) a duplicate of some previously-asked questions. While the entire question probably has not been asked before, there are a number of prior questions that cover the topics of "-ise" vs "-ize" spellings and double "ll" in British English verb forms. I posted some links in the comments above; I would recommend looking at the answers there and maybe updating your answer to incorporate some of the more detailed information they have (e.g. "-ize" is also possible in British English,...
    – herisson
    Commented Aug 16, 2017 at 0:57
  • ... and double "ll" is a special case and British English speakers don't generally double other letters after unstressed "short" vowels —e.g. "reckon" + "-ed" = "reckoned" not "reckonned", "bracket" + "-ed" = "bracketed" not "bracketted")
    – herisson
    Commented Aug 16, 2017 at 0:59

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