The difference between British and American English

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Introduction

English is a language that has a variety of dialects; particularly, there are three different major English segments. The English language is known in these three segments: English (American), English (Australian), and English (British or UK). The three segments have differences in the way they are written and spoken. But I will compare American English versus British English.

The two languages are very similar, so much that it is very easy to understand between the two countries. The languages do not need translation due to writing in what is called Standard English. Standard English is the written English format used in all three countries making it very versatile and easy to understand. There only a handful of similarities between American English and British English. There are actually more differences than there are similarities.

1. Grammar

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.

1. 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.»

2. Now let's look at the auxiliary verb have. Of course both of them (Brits and Americans) use this verb, but here they have a difference in using it.

Brits say:

«I have got a car, but it's broken now.»

For Americans it's too formal so they simply say:

«My sister has five dresses.»

The same thing happens with model verb have to/ have got to.

Past Tense Verbs

We can 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»

But a Brit would say:

«I have never got caught.»

Americans use both got and gotten in the past participle. Brits only use got.

People in both countries can easily understand both ways, although Brits tend to think of the American way as incorrect.

Present Perfect Tense

Speakers of American English generally use the present perfect tense (have/has + past participle) far less than speakers of British English. In spoken American English it is very common to use the simple past tense as an alternative in situations where the present perfect would usually have been used in British English. For example:

AmE: «Jenny feels ill. She ate too much.»

BrE: «Jenny feels ill. She's eaten too much.»

AmE: «I can't find my notes. Did you see them anywhere?»

BrE: «I can't find my notes. Have you seen them anywhere?»

Delexical verbs have and take

In British English, the verb have frequently functions as what is technically referred to as a delexical verb, i.e. it is used in contexts where it has very little meaning in itself but occurs with an object noun which describes an action.

For example:

«I'd like to have a bath.»

Have is frequently used in this way with nouns referring to common activities such as washing or resting. In American English, the verb take, rather than have.

For example:

«I'd like to take a bath.»

«Why don't you take a rest now?»

Prepositions

1. In British English, at is used with many time expressions. For example:

«at the weekend»

«at five o'clock»

In American English, on is always used when talking about the weekend, not at.

«Will they still be there on the weekend?»

«She'll be coming home on weekends.»

2. In British English, to and from are used with the adjective different.

In American English from and than are used with different.

BrE: «This place is different from/to anything I've seen before.»

AmE: «This place is different from/than anything I've seen before.»

3. In British English to is always used after the verb write, but in American English to can be omitted after write.

BrE: «I promised to write to her every day.»

AmE: «I promised to write her every day.»

Subjunctive mood

In subjunctive mood, American English will reserve traditional subjunctive words.

AmE: «I suggest that meeting should be postponed.»

BrE: «I suggest that meeting be postponed.»

AmE: «I wish I would have done it.»

BrE: «I wish I had done it.»

However, British English will include «should» in subordinate clause in non-formal and non-law English.

AmE: «I insist that you go.»

BrE: «I insist that you should go.»

2. 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?»

«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.

3. Spelling

english language orthography grammatical

There are hundreds of minor spelling differences between British and American English.

1. In America, for example, it is rare for a word to end with - re, whereas this is common is Britain. Some examples:

center - BrE, centre - AmE

meter - BrE, metre - AmE

2. American English also drops the u and l in British words.

For example:

colour - BrE, color

flavour - BrE, flavor

traveller - BrE, traveler - AmE

reveller - BrE, reveler - AmE

3. Some verbs end in - ize or - ise in BrE but only in - ize in AmE, for example:

realise, realize - BrE, realize - AmE

criticise, criticize - BrE, criticize - AmE

4. Some words end in - ogue in BrE and - og in AmE, for example:

analogue - BrE, analog - AmE

catalogue - BrE, catalog - AmE

Common Differences

The man chiefly responsible for these differences was Noah Webster, whose name you will still find on the front of America's most popular dictionaries. He wanted to simplify English spelling and saw the political benefits of a new country having its own language.

Vocabulary

Conclusion

Although there are many differences in detailed aspects in the use of daily British and American English, they are similar to each other in most of aspects. Therefore, they shall only be considered as different forms of the same language rather than two different languages. In addition, we cannot say which one is better or advanced. Any judgment or opinion that «British English is better or worse than American English» is biased.

References

1. http://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/six-difference-between-britsh-and-american-english/3063743.html

2. http://blog.esl-languages.com/

3. Arnold I.V., The English Word

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