heureusement

Why do I find this interesting?

Toward Versus Towards Jamie, Mia, Beverly, and Gen all wrote to me wondering what the difference is between the words toward and towards (with an s). The bottom line seems to be that toward and towards are both correct and interchangeable: you can use either one because they mean the same thing. Many sources say that the s is more common in Britain than in the United States (1,2,3), so you should take into account what the convention is in your country and use towards in Britain and toward in the U.S.

The story is similar when you need to decide between the words backward or backwards. Most references say that, like towards, backwards is standard in Britain and backward is standard in America. The exception is that when you are using backward as an adjective, as in her grandmother’s backward ways or the program has backward compatibility, then you never use the s. It is always backward as an adjective.