distinguish between british English and American English
Answers
There is an old saying that America and Britain are “two nations divided by a common language.”
No one knows exactly who said this, but it reflects the way many Brits feel about American English. My British friend still tells me, “You don’t speak English. You speak American.”
But are American and British English really so different?
Vocabulary
The most noticeable difference between American and British English is vocabulary. There are hundreds of everyday words that are different. For example, Brits call the front of a car the bonnet, while Americans call it the hood.
Americans go on vacation, while Brits go on holidays, or hols.
New Yorkers live in apartments; Londoners live in flats.
There are far more examples than we can talk about here. Fortunately, most Americans and Brits can usually guess the meaning through the context of a sentence.
Collective nouns
There are a few grammatical differences between the two varieties of English. Let’s start with collective nouns. We use collective nouns to refer to a group of individuals.
In American English, collective nouns are singular. For example, staff refers to a group of employees; band refers to a group of musicians; team refers to a group of athletes. Americans would say, “The band is good.”
But in British English, collective nouns can be singular or plural. You might hear someone from Britain say, “The team are playing tonight” or “The team is playing tonight.”
Auxiliary verbs
Another grammar difference between American and British English relates to auxiliary verbs. Auxiliary verbs, also known as helping verbs, are verbs that help form a grammatical function. They “help” the main verb by adding information about time, modality and voice.
Let’s look at the auxiliary verb shall. Brits sometimes use shall to express the future.
For example, “I shall go home now.” Americans know what shall means, but rarely use it in conversation. It seems very formal. Americans would probably use “I will go home now.”
In question form, a Brit might say, “Shall we go now?” while an American would probably say, “Should we go now?”
When Americans want to express a lack of obligation, they use the helping verb do with negative not followed by need. “You do not need to come to work today.” Brits drop the helping verb and contract not. “You needn’t come to work today.”
Past tense verbs
You will also find some small differences with past forms of irregular verbs.
The past tense of learn in American English is learned. British English has the option of learned or learnt. The same rule applies to dreamed and dreamt, burned and burnt, leaned and leant.
Americans tend to use the –ed ending; Brits tend to use the -t ending.
In the past participle form, Americans tend to use the –en ending for some irregular verbs. For example, an American might say, “I have never gotten caught” whereas a Brit would say, “I have never got caught.” Americans use both got and gotten in the past participle. Brits only use got.
Don’t worry too much about these small differences in the past forms of irregular verbs. People in both countries can easily understand both ways, although Brits tend to think of the American way as incorrect.
Tag questions
A tag question is a grammatical form that turns a statement into a question. For example, “The whole situation is unfortunate, isn’t it?” or, “You don’t like him, do you?”
The tag includes a pronoun and its matching form of the verb be, have or do. Tag questions encourage people to respond and agree with the speaker. Americans use tag questions, too, but less often than Brits. You can learn more about tag questions on a previous episode of Everyday Grammar.
Spelling
There are hundreds of minor spelling differences between British and American English. You can thank American lexicographer Noah Webster for this. You might recognize Webster’s name from the dictionary that carries his name.
Noah Webster, an author, politician, and teacher, started an effort to reform English spelling in the late 1700s.
He was frustrated by the inconsistencies in English spelling. Webster wanted to spell words the way they sounded. Spelling reform was also a way for America to show its independence from England.
You can see Webster’s legacy in the American spelling of words like color (from colour), honor (from honour), and labor (from labour). Webster dropped the letter u from these words to make the spelling match the pronunciation.
Other Webster ideas failed, like a proposal to spell women as wimmen. Since Webster’s death in 1843, attempts to change spelling rules in American English have gone nowhere
If you are planning a trip to America but you’ve been studying British English (or vice versa), you could have a few problems on your trip if you don’t understand the difference between British English and American English. For example, imagine one day that you really fancy eating this:
If you ask someone in the UK where you can buy ‘chips’ from, they’ll probably send you to a local chippy (fish and chips shop) or to MacDonald’s. However, if you ask someone in America the same question, they will probably tell you to go to a supermarket, thinking you want this:
Although technically we all speak the same language (English), there are many differences between British English and American English:
Pronunciation – Although the word might be spelt the same, it is possible that people from the UK and America pronounce it differently. E.g. the word ‘tomato’ is pronounced ‘tom-ah-to’ in the UK but ‘tom-ay-to’ in the USA and the word ‘mobile’ is pronounced ‘mow-bile’ in the UK but ‘mow-bl’in the USA.
Spelling – There are a few major spelling differences between British and American English. This is because British English has generally kept the spelling of words that it has taken from other languages but American English has changed the spelling to look more like how the word actually sounds when you say it. For example:
Difference between British English and American English, woman talking to a confused man
British English American English
colour colour
centre center
organise organise
travelling traveling
licence licence
programme program
Grammar – There are many grammatical differences between American and British English. For example, if someone asks if you are hungry but you have just finished your lunch, in British English you would need to use the present perfect tense, “No, I’ve eaten already”, but in American English you can use the past tense, “No, I ate already” (this would be incorrect in British English).
Vocabulary – As you can see, there are many differences between British English and American English. However, the most complicated for English language learners is probably the differences in vocabulary, including idioms and phrasal verbs. Below you will see a few of the main vocabulary differences between British and American English:
British English American English
anti-clockwise counter-clockwise
autumn fall
boot (of a car) truck
chips fries or french fries
crisps potato chips
dustbin or bin garbage can or trash can
film movie or film
flat (to live in) apartment
garden yard
As you can see, there are many differences between British English and American English but don’t worry about it too much. Most Americans and Britons know many of the differences so you shouldn’t find yourself in too much trouble when you go on holiday! The most important thing to remember is try to be consistent (especially when you are writing English) – decide which type of English you are going to use and stick with it.
