Enrol vs Enroll: Spelling Rules by Country

Enroll (double l) is the American spelling and enrol (single l) is the British and Australian spelling. Both mean to sign up officially for something, such as a course, a school, a program or the electoral roll.

The tricky part is what happens when you add endings. In every country, the past tense and the -ing form use a double l: enrolled and enrolling. The difference shows up only in the base form (enrol/enroll), the third-person enrols/enrolls, and the noun (enrolment/enrollment).

Quick answer: US: enroll, enrolls, enrolled, enrolling, enrollment. UK and Australia: enrol, enrols, enrolled, enrolling, enrolment. Same meaning, same pronunciation: en-ROLE.

On this page

1. Full conjugation table
2. Meaning and grammar
3. The doubling rules behind the difference
4. US vs UK vs Australia
5. Examples by situation
6. Common mistakes
7. A memory trick
8. Enrol, register or sign up?
9. Re-enrol, unenroll and other prefixed forms
10. Choosing the right form
11. Practice quiz
12. The easy way to get it right

Full conjugation table

Notice the middle two rows: identical everywhere. That's where many writers slip, writing "enroled" because they've learned the British base form has one l.

Meaning and grammar

Enrol/enroll is a verb with two main uses:

1. Intransitive (no object): to sign yourself up. "She enrolled at the University of Leeds."
2. Transitive (with an object): to sign someone else up. "We enrolled our son in swimming lessons."

It's usually followed by a preposition:

• enroll in a course, program or class (US, and common in AU)
• enrol on a course (very common in UK, especially for training courses)
• enrol at a school, college or university (UK/AU)
• enrol for a term or subject (UK/AU)
• enrol to vote (AU, UK)

Pronunciation: en-ROLE, with the stress on the second syllable. It rhymes with control and patrol. Both spellings sound the same.

Where the word comes from

Enrol came into English in the late Middle Ages from Old French enroller, literally "to write in a roll", from en- ("in") and rolle ("roll, list"). Official records were kept on rolls of parchment, so to enrol someone was to write their name onto the official list. The same idea survives in electoral roll, roll call and the Australian phrase on the roll.

Medieval and early modern English used both enrol and enroll. As with a handful of similar verbs, British usage eventually preferred the single l, and American usage, particularly after Noah Webster's dictionaries, preferred the double l.

The doubling rules behind the difference

This word is part of a small family where British and American English choose differently in the base form but agree on the -ed and -ing forms.

British rule: For verbs ending in a vowel + l with stress on the final syllable, the base form uses a single l, but you double it before a suffix beginning with a vowel.

• enrol → enrolled, enrolling (but enrols, enrolment)
• fulfil → fulfilled, fulfilling (but fulfils, fulfilment)
• distil → distilled, distilling (but distils)

American rule: These verbs already end in double l, so the l stays double throughout.

• enroll → enrolled, enrolling, enrolls, enrollment
• fulfill → fulfilled, fulfilling, fulfills, fulfillment
• distill → distilled, distilling, distills

So the only places where the spellings really diverge are where no vowel follows: the bare verb, the -s form and the -ment noun.

The same family

Extol is an outlier: most Americans spell it with one l too. And install is usually double l in both countries, although instalment (UK) vs installment (US) follows the same noun pattern. You'll find more on this group in fulfil vs fulfill.

US vs UK vs Australia

United States

American English uses enroll and enrollment. You'll see "open enrollment" for health insurance, "enrollment numbers" for schools and colleges, and "enroll now" on course websites. American dictionaries list enrol as a British variant. In an American document, enrol looks like a typo.

United Kingdom

British English uses enrol and enrolment. Colleges invite students to "enrol for September", universities run "enrolment week" and adult-education centers advertise "enrol on our evening courses". British dictionaries list enroll as a variant, and some British writers use it, but enrol is clearly standard.

Australia

Australian English uses enrol and enrolment, following British spelling. You'll meet the word constantly in two contexts:

• Education: Australian schools have "enrolment forms", universities have "enrolment dates", and TAFE colleges ask students to "enrol online".
• Voting: Voting is compulsory in Australia for eligible citizens, so being on the electoral roll matters. The Australian Electoral Commission asks people to "enrol to vote" and "check your enrolment", and election campaigns remind young Australians to get enrolled before the roll closes.

Australians also tend to say "enrol in" a course or subject, a little more often than the British "enrol on".

Canada

Canadian English accepts both. Many Canadian universities and school boards use enrol and enrolment, while enroll is also common, particularly in business writing. Follow the organization's style.

Examples by situation

Education

1. Mia enrolled at the University of Queensland to study marine biology. (AU)
2. Over 2,000 students enroll in the introductory psychology course each fall. (US)
3. You can enrol on the evening Spanish course at the college until 15 September. (UK)
4. Enrolment for Year 7 opens in February. (AU)
5. The district's enrollment has grown by 10% since the new housing development opened. (US)
6. Ravi enrols in a new online course almost every month. (UK)

Workplace and email

7. "Hi Grace, please enrol all new staff in the mandatory safety training by Friday." (AU)
8. "Open enrollment for health benefits ends on December 15." (US)
9. "Could you confirm whether you've enrolled the team on the leadership programme?" (UK)
10. "The pension scheme automatically enrols eligible employees." (UK)
11. "I've enrolled in the company's 401(k) plan." (US)

Voting and civic life

12. You must enrol to vote before the electoral roll closes. (AU)
13. Thousands of young people enrolled in the final week before the election. (AU, news style)
14. "Have you checked your enrolment details are up to date?" (AU)
15. Volunteers in Georgia helped residents register to vote. (US, which uses register rather than enroll for voting)

Health and other programs

16. Patients were enrolled in the clinical trial at three hospitals in Manchester. (UK)
17. The study enrolled 450 participants across Ohio and Michigan. (US)
18. We've enrolled our daughter in Saturday netball. (AU)
19. He enrolled his dog in obedience classes after it chewed the sofa. (any)

News style

20. University enrolments from overseas students rose sharply this year. (AU)
21. Enrollment at community colleges fell during the pandemic, officials said. (US)
22. The academy has seen enrolments double since it opened in Bristol. (UK)

Common mistakes

❌ She enroled in the course last week. ✅ She enrolled in the course last week. The past tense has a double l in every country.

❌ He is enroling his son at the local primary school. ✅ He is enrolling his son at the local primary school.

❌ Enrollment opens on Monday. (in an Australian school newsletter) ✅ Enrolment opens on Monday.

❌ Click here to enrol now. (on an American website) ✅ Click here to enroll now.

❌ The college enroles 5,000 students a year. (UK) ✅ The college enrols 5,000 students a year.

❌ Enrolment / enrollment / enroll in one Australian document. ✅ Choose enrol / enrolment and use them throughout.

❌ I registered to the course. (non-native pattern) ✅ I enrolled in (or on) the course. / I registered for the course.

A memory trick

Remember where the extra l goes:

Short base, long endings in Britain: enrol → enrolled. Long all the way in America: enroll → enrolled → enrollment.

Another way to picture it: Americans roll with two l's all the way, like a long ballot roll that never stops. Britons and Australians start with one l, and only add the second when an -ed or -ing comes along.

And for the past tense, everyone agrees: if you can hear -ed or -ing, double the l.

Enrol, register or sign up?

Enrol/enroll is one of several verbs for joining something officially, and the natural choice can depend on the country and the situation.

The voting row is the clearest regional difference. Americans and Britons register to vote, while Australians enrol, because the official list in Australia is the electoral roll and the Australian Electoral Commission uses enrol in its forms and campaigns. An Australian who says "I've enrolled" in an election season will be understood instantly.

Enrol also sounds more formal than sign up. In a school letter, "Please enrol your child by 1 March" is natural. In a text message to a friend, "I've signed up for the yoga class" is far more likely than "I've enrolled in the yoga class", though both are correct.

Re-enrol, unenroll and other prefixed forms

Add a prefix and the regional split comes along with it. The base word decides the spelling, so the same one-l/two-l pattern applies.

Two notes. First, re-enrol is usually hyphenated because "reenrol" puts two e's together and is harder to read; American writers sometimes close it up, but the hyphen is never wrong. Second, the past tenses still double the l everywhere: re-enrolled, unenrolled, disenrolled.

A real-world scenario

Imagine a language school with campuses in Boston and Brisbane sending the same email to both. A single line like "Re-enrolment closes Friday, so please re-enrol online" will look correct in Brisbane and misspelled in Boston. The cleanest fix is two localized versions. If that isn't possible, rewrite around the problem word: "Sign up again online by Friday" reads naturally in every country and avoids the spelling question entirely.

Choosing the right form

• Writing for the US: use enroll and enrollment everywhere.
• Writing for the UK, Australia, New Zealand or Ireland: use enrol and enrolment, but remember enrolled and enrolling.
• Writing for Canada: check house style; both are acceptable.
• International document: match the rest of your spelling system. If you write colour, write enrol.

For more on how British and American spellings handle doubled letters, see travelling vs traveling and cancelled vs canceled. Our British vs American vs Australian spelling guide gives the bigger picture, and programme vs program is useful if your enrolment form is for a course or degree.

Practice quiz

Fill in the correct form for the audience.

1. (AU) "______ for Semester 2 closes on 31 July."
2. (US) "Did you ______ in the spring semester yet?"
3. (UK) "Last year, she ______ on a part-time accountancy course."
4. (any) "They are ______ their twins in a Saturday art class."
5. (UK) "The college ______ hundreds of mature students each year."
6. (US) "School ______ has dropped in rural parts of the state."

Answers

1. Enrolment — Australian English uses one l in the noun.
2. enroll — American base form with a double l.
3. enrolled — the past tense has a double l in every country.
4. enrolling — the -ing form has a double l everywhere.
5. enrols — British third-person form keeps the single l.
6. enrollment — American noun with a double l.

The easy way to get it right

Two quick checks will keep you safe. First, if the word ends in -ed or -ing, use a double l, wherever you are. Second, for the base verb, the -s form and the noun, use enroll / enrolls / enrollment for American readers and enrol / enrols / enrolment for British, Australian and New Zealand readers. Get those two checks right and you can enrol (or enroll) anyone in anything without a red underline.