This is one of a series of articles about the differences between 'American English' and 'British English', which, ''for the purposes of these articles'', are defined as follows:
★ 'American English (AmE)' is the form of English used in the United States.
★ 'British English (BrE)' is the form of English used in the United Kingdom. It includes all English dialects used within the United Kingdom.
Written forms of American English are fairly well standardized across the United States. An unofficial standard for spoken American English has developed as a result of mass media and of geographic and social mobility. This standard is generally called a
General American or Standard Midwestern
accent and
dialect, and it can typically be heard from network
newscasters, although local newscasters tend toward more colourful forms of speech. Despite this unofficial standard, regional variations of American English have not only persisted, but have actually intensified, according to William Labov. Regional dialects in the United States typically reflect the elements of the language of the main immigrant groups in any particular region of the country, especially in terms of pronunciation and
vernacular vocabulary. Scholars have mapped at least four major regional variations of spoken American English: Northern (really north-eastern), Southern, Midland, and Western (Labov, Ash, & Boberg, 2006).
[1] After the
American Civil War, the settlement of the western territories by migrants from the east led to dialect mixing and levelling, so that regional dialects are most strongly differentiated in the eastern part of the country that were settled earlier. Localized dialects also exist with quite distinct variations, such as in the Southern Mountains and New York City.
British English also has a reasonable degree of uniformity in its formal written form. The spoken forms though vary considerably, reflecting a long history of dialect development amid isolated populations. Dialects and accents vary not only between the countries in the United Kingdom,
England,
Northern Ireland,
Scotland and
Wales, but also within these individual countries. There are also differences in the English spoken by different socio-economic groups in any particular region. ''
Received Pronunciation (RP)'', which is 'the educated spoken English of south-east England' has traditionally been regarded as 'proper English'; this is also referred to as ''BBC English'' or ''the Queen's English''. The
BBC and other
broadcasters now intentionally use a mix of presenters with a variety of British accents and dialects, and the concept of 'proper English' is now far less prevalent.
[2]
British and American English are the reference norms for English as spoken, written, and taught in the rest of the world. For instance, the English-speaking members of the
Commonwealth often closely follow British English forms while many new American English forms quickly become familiar outside of the United States. Although the dialects of English used in the former
British Empire are often, to various extents, based on standard British English, most of the countries concerned have developed their own unique dialects, particularly with respect to pronunciation,
idioms, and vocabulary; chief among them are
Canadian English and
Australian English, which rank third and fourth in
number of ''native'' speakers.
[3][4]
Historical background
The
English language was first introduced to the
Americas by
British colonization, beginning in the early
17th century. Similarly, the language spread to numerous other parts of the world as a result of British colonization elsewhere and the spread of the former
British Empire, which, by 1921, held sway over a population of about 470–570 million people: approximately a quarter of the world's population in that time.
Over the past 400 years, the form of the language used in the Americas – especially in the United States – and that used in the United Kingdom and the rest of the
British Isles have diverged in many ways, leading to the
dialects now commonly referred to as American English and British English. Differences between the two include
pronunciation,
grammar,
vocabulary (lexis),
spelling,
punctuation,
idioms,
formatting of
dates and
numbers, and so on. A small number of words have completely different meanings between the two dialects or are even unknown or not used in one of the dialects. One particular contribution towards formalizing these differences came from
Noah Webster, who wrote the
first American dictionary (published 1828) with the intention of showing that people in the United States spoke a different dialect from Britain.
This divergence between American English and British English once caused
George Bernard Shaw to say that the United States and United Kingdom are "two countries divided by a common language"; a similar comment is ascribed to
Winston Churchill. Likewise,
Oscar Wilde wrote, "We have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, the language" (''
The Canterville Ghost'', 1888).
Henry Sweet predicted in 1877 that within a century, American English, Australian English and British English would be mutually unintelligible. It may be the case that increased world-wide communication through
radio,
television, the
Internet, and
globalization has reduced the tendency to regional variation. This can result either in some variations becoming extinct (for instance, ''the wireless'', superseded by ''the radio'') or in the acceptance of wide variations as "perfectly good English" everywhere. Often at the core of the dialect though, the idiosyncrasies remain.
Nevertheless, it remains the case that although spoken American and British English are generally mutually intelligible, there are enough differences to cause occasional misunderstandings or at times embarrassment – for example, some words that are quite innocent in one dialect may be considered vulgar in the other.
Pronunciation
Main articles: American and British English pronunciation differences
Grammar
Nouns
Formal and notional agreement
In BrE,
collective nouns can take either singular (''formal agreement'') or plural (''notional agreement'') verb forms, according to whether the emphasis is, respectively, on the body as a whole or on the individual members; compare ''a committee was appointed ...'' with ''the committee were unable to agree ..''.
[5][6] Compare also
Elvis Costello's song, ''Oliver's Army is here to stay / Oliver's Army are on their way''. Some of these nouns, for example ''staff'',
[7] actually combine with plural verbs most of the time.
In AmE, collective nouns are usually singular in construction: ''the committee was unable to agree ...'' AmE however may use plural pronouns in agreement with collective nouns: ''the team take their seats'', rather than ''the team takes its seat(s).'' The rule of thumb is that a group acting as a unit is considered singular and a group of "individuals acting separately" is considered plural.
[8] However, such a sentence would most likely be recast as ''the team members take their seats''.
The difference occurs for all nouns of multitude, both general terms such as ''team'' and ''company'' and proper nouns (for example, where a place name is used to refer to a sports team). For instance,
BrE: ''
The Clash are a well-known band''; AmE: ''The Clash is a well known band''.
BrE: ''Indianapolis are the champions''; AmE: ''Indianapolis is the champion''.
Proper nouns which are plural in form take a plural verb in both AmE and BrE; for example, ''
The Beatles are a well-known band''; ''The
Colts are the champions''.
Count and mass nouns
Verbs
Verb morphology
★ The past tense and past participle of the verbs ''learn'', ''spoil'', ''spell'' (only in the word-related sense), ''burn'', ''dream'', ''smell'', ''spill'', ''leap'', and others, can be either irregular (''learnt'', ''spoilt'', etc.) or regular (''learned'', ''spoiled'', etc.). BrE allows both irregular and regular forms, but the irregular forms tend to be used more often by the British (especially by speakers using
Received Pronunciation), and in some cases (''smelt'', ''leapt'') there is a strong tendency to use them; in other cases (''dreamed'', ''leaned'', ''learned''
[9]) the regular form is somewhat more common. The forms with ''-ed'' are preferred by many careful writers of English since they are
regular verbs. In AmE, the irregular forms are never or hardly ever used (except for ''burnt'', ''leapt'', and ''dreamt'').
Nonetheless, as with other usages considered nowadays to be typically British, the ''t'' endings are often found in older American texts. However, usage may vary when the past participles are actually adjectives, as in ''burnt toast''. (Note that the two-syllable form ''learnèd'' , usually written simply as ''learned'', is still used as an adjective to mean "educated", or to refer to academic institutions, in both BrE and AmE.) Finally, the past tense and past participle of ''dwell'' and ''kneel'' are more commonly ''dwelt'' and ''knelt'' on both sides of the Atlantic, although ''dwelled'' and ''kneeled'' are widely used in the U.S. (but not in the UK).
★ ''Lit'' as the past tense of ''light'' is much more common than ''lighted'' in the UK; the regular form enjoys more use in the U.S., although it is somewhat less common than ''lit''.
[10] By contrast, ''fit'' as the past tense of ''fit'' is much more used in AmE than BrE, which generally favours ''fitted''.
[11]
★ The past tense of ''spit'' "expectorate" is ''spat'' in BrE, ''spit'' or ''spat'' in AmE.
[12]
★ The past participle ''gotten'' is rarely used in modern BrE (although it is used in some dialects), which generally uses ''got'', except in old expressions such as ''ill-gotten gains''. According to the
Compact Oxford English Dictionary, "The form ''gotten'' is not used in British English but is very common in North American English, though even there it is often regarded as non-standard." In AmE, ''gotten'' emphasizes the action of acquiring and ''got'' tends to indicate simple possession (for example, ''Have you gotten it?'' versus ''Have you got it?''). ''Gotten'' is also typically used in AmE as the past participle for
phrasal verbs using ''get'', such as ''get off'', ''get on'', ''get into'', ''get up'', and ''get around'': "If you hadn't gotten up so late, you might not have gotten into this mess." Interestingly, AmE, but not BrE, has ''forgot'' as a less common alternative to ''forgotten'' for the past participle of ''forget''.
★ In BrE, the past participle ''proved'' is strongly preferred to ''proven''; in AmE, ''proven'' is now about as common as ''proved''.
[13] (Both dialects use ''proven'' as an adjective, and in formulas such as ''
not proven'').
[14]
★ AmE further allows other irregular verbs, such as ''dive'' (''dove'') or ''sneak'' (''snuck''), and often mixes the
preterite and past participle forms (''spring''–''sprang'' (U.S. also ''sprung''–''sprung''), sometimes forcing verbs such as ''shrink'' (''shrank''–''shrunk'') to have a further form, thus ''shrunk''–''shrunken''. These uses are often considered nonstandard; the
AP Stylebook in AmE treats some irregular verbs as colloquialisms, insisting on the regular forms for the past tense of ''dive'', ''plead'' and ''sneak''. ''Dove'' and ''snuck'' are usually considered nonstandard in Britain, although ''dove'' exists in some British dialects and ''snuck'' is occasionally found in British speech.
★ By extension of the irregular verb pattern, verbs with irregular preterites in some variants of colloquial AmE also have a separate past participle, for example, "to buy": past tense ''bought'' spawns ''boughten''. Such formations are highly irregular from speaker to speaker, or even within
idiolects. This phenomenon is found chiefly in the northern U.S. and other areas where immigrants of
German descent are predominant, and may have developed as a result of
German influence.
[15] Even in areas where the feature predominates, however, it has not gained widespread acceptance as "standard" usage.
Use of tenses
★ BrE uses the
present perfect tense to talk about an event in the recent past and with the words ''already'', ''just'' and ''yet.'' In American usage, these meanings can be expressed with the present perfect (to express a fact) or the simple past (to imply an expectation). This American style has become widespread only in the past 20 to 30 years; the British style is still in common use as well.
★
★ "I've just got(ten) home." / "I just got home."
★
★ "I've already eaten." / "I already ate."
(Recently the American use of ''just'' with simple past has made inroads into BrE, most visibly in advertising slogans and headlines such as "Cable broadband just got faster".)
★ Similarly, the
pluperfect is occasionally replaced by the
preterite or the
conditional in the U.S.; this is generally regarded as sloppy usage by those Americans who consider themselves careful users of the language. ("If I would have cooked the pie we could have had it for lunch").
★ In BrE, ''have got'' or ''have'' can be used for possession and ''have got to'' and ''have to'' can be used for the modal of necessity. The forms which include ''got'' are usually used in informal contexts and the forms without ''got'' in more formal contexts. In American speech the form without ''got'' is used more than in the UK. AmE also informally uses ''got'' as a verb for these meanings, ''for example,'' "I got two cars," "I got to go"; but these are nonstandard and will be considered sloppy usage by most American speakers.
★ The
subjunctive mood is regularly used in AmE in mandative clauses (as in ''They suggested that he apply for the job''). In BrE, this usage declined in the 20th century, in favor of constructions such as ''They suggested that he should apply for the job'' (or even, more ambiguously, ''They suggested that he applied for the job''). Apparently, however, the mandative subjunctive has recently started to come back into use in BrE.
[16]
Verbal auxiliaries
★ ''Shall'' (as opposed to ''will'') is more commonly used by the British than by Americans.
[4][5]. ''Shan't'' is seldom used in AmE (almost invariably replaced by ''won't'' or ''am not going to''), and very much less so amongst Britons. American grammar also tends to ignore some traditional distinctions between ''should'' and ''would''
[6]; however, expressions like ''I should be happy'' are rather formal even in BrE.
Transitivity
The following verbs show differences in transitivity between BrE and AmE.
★ ''agree'': Transitive or intransitive in BrE, usually intransitive in AmE (''agree a contract''/''agree to'' or ''on a contract''). However, in formal AmE legal writing one often sees constructions like ''as may be agreed between the parties'' (rather than ''as may be agreed ''to'' between the parties'').
★ ''catch up'' ("to reach and overtake"): Transitive or intransitive in BrE, strictly intransitive in AmE (''to catch sb up''/''to catch up with sb'').
★ ''cater'' ("to provide food and service"): Intransitive in BrE, transitive in AmE (''to cater for a banquet''/''to cater a banquet'').
★ ''claim'': Sometimes intransitive in BrE (used with ''for''), strictly transitive in AmE.
★ ''meet'': AmE uses intransitively ''meet'' followed by ''with'' to mean "to have a meeting with", as for business purposes (''Yesterday we met with the CEO''), and reserves transitive ''meet'' for the meanings "to be introduced to" (''I want you to meet the CEO; she's such a fine lady''), "to come together with (someone, somewhere)" (''Meet the CEO at the train station''), and "to have a casual encounter with". BrE uses transitive ''meet'' also to mean "to have a meeting with"; the construction ''meet with'', which actually dates back to Middle English, appears to be coming back into use in Britain, despite some commentators who preferred to avoid confusion with ''meet with'' meaning "receive, undergo" (''the proposal was met with disapproval''). The construction ''meet up with'' (as in ''to meet up with someone''), which originated in the U.S., has long been standard in both dialects.
★ ''provide'': Strictly monotransitive in BrE, monotransitive or ditransitive in AmE (''provide sb with sth''/''provide sb sth'').
★ ''protest'': In sense "oppose", intransitive in BrE, transitive in AmE (''The workers protested against the decision''/''The workers protested the decision''). The intransitive ''protest against'' in AmE means "to hold or participate in a demonstration against". The older sense "proclaim" is always transitive (''protest one's innocence'').
★ ''write'': In BrE, the indirect object of this verb usually requires the preposition ''to'', for example, ''I'll write ''to'' my MP'' or ''I'll write ''to'' her'' (although it is not required in some situations, for example when an indirect object pronoun comes before a direct object noun, for example, ''I'll write ''her'' a letter''). In AmE, ''write'' can be used monotransitively (''I'll write my congressman''; ''I'll write him'').
Complementation
★ The verbs ''prevent'' and ''stop'' can be found in two different constructions: "prevent/stop someone ''from'' doing something"; "prevent/stop someone doing something." The latter is well established in BrE, but not in AmE.
★ Some verbs can take either a to-infinitive construction or a gerund construction (e.g., ''to start to do something''/''doing something''). For example, the gerund is more common:
★
★ In AmE than BrE, with ''start''
[17], ''begin'',
[18], ''omit''
[19], ''enjoy''
[20];
★
★ In BrE than AmE, with ''love'',
[21] ''like'',
[22], ''intend''.
[23]
Presence or absence of syntactic elements
★ Where a statement of intention involves two separate activities, it is acceptable for speakers of AmE to use ''to go'' plus bare infinitive. Speakers of BrE would instead use ''to go 'and''' plus bare infinitive: thus where a speaker of AmE might say "I'll go take a bath", BrE speakers would say "I'll go ''and'' have a bath". (Both can also use the form ''to go to'' instead to suggest that the action may fail, as in "He went to take/have a bath, but the bath was full of children.") Similarly, ''to come'' plus bare infinitive is acceptable to speakers of AmE, where speakers of BrE would instead use ''to come 'and''' plus bare infinitive: thus where a speaker of AmE might say "come see what I bought," BrE speakers would say, "come and see what I've bought" (notice the present perfect tense: a common British preference).
★ Use of prepositions before days denoted by a single word. Where British people would say "She resigned on Thursday", Americans often say "She resigned Thursday", but both forms are common in American usage. Occasionally, the preposition is also absent when referring to months: "I'll be here December" (although this usage is generally limited to colloquial speech). The first of these two examples of omitting prepositions may be seen as yet another German influence on American English.
★ In the UK, ''from'' is used with single dates and times more often than in the United States. Where British speakers and writers may say "the new museum will be open from Tuesday," Americans most likely say "the new museum will be open starting Tuesday." (This difference does not apply to phrases of the pattern ''from A to B'', which are used in both BrE and AmE.) A variation or alternative of this is the mostly American "the play opens Tuesday" and the mostly British "the play opens on Tuesday".
★ A few 'institutional' nouns take no
definite article when a certain role is implied: for example, ''at sea'' (as a sailor), ''in prison'' (as a convict), and ''at/in college'' (for students). Among this group, BrE has ''in
hospital'' (as a patient) and ''at
university'' (as a student), where AmE requires ''in 'the' hospital'' and ''at 'the' university''. (When the implied roles of patient or student do not apply, the definite article is used in both dialects.) Likewise, BrE has ''in future'' and American has ''in the future''.
★ In BrE numbered highways usually take the definite article (for example "the M25", "the A14") while in America they usually do not ("I-495", "Route 66"). Southern California is an exception, where "the 5" or "the 405" are the standard. A similar pattern is followed for named roads, but in America there are local variations and older American highways tend to follow the British pattern ("the Boston Post Road").
★ AmE distinguishes ''in back of'' [behind] from ''in 'the' back of''; the former is unknown in the UK and liable to misinterpretation as the latter. Both, however, distinguish ''in front of'' from ''in the front of''.
★ The use of the function word ''out'' as a preposition to denote an outward movement, as in "out the door" and "out the window", is standard in AmE, but not quite in British writing, where ''out of'' is generally the preferred choice, although the "American" usage, usually considered regional or dialectal by British dictionaries, is gaining ground in UK speech.
★ American
legislators and
lawyers always use the preposition ''of'' between the name of a legislative act and the year it was passed, while their British equivalents do not. Compare ''
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990'' to ''
Disability Discrimination Act 1995''.
★ ''Dates'' usually include a definite article in UK spoken English, such as "'the' 11th of July", or "July 'the' 11th", while American speakers say "July 11th".
★ AmE omits, and BrE requires, the definite article in a few standard expressions such as ''tell (the) time''.
Prepositions and adverbs
★ In the United States, the word ''through'' can mean "up to and including" as in ''Monday through Friday''. In the UK ''Monday to Friday'', or ''Monday to Friday inclusive'' is used instead; ''Monday through to Friday'' is also sometimes used. (In some parts of Northern England the term ''while'' can be used in the same way, as in ''Monday while Friday'', whereas in Northern Ireland ''Monday till Friday'' would be more natural.)
★ British athletes play ''in a team''; American athletes play ''on a team''. (Both may play ''for'' a particular team.)
★ The word ''heat'' meaning "
mating season" is used with ''on'' in the UK and with ''in'' in the U.S.
★ The intransitive verb ''affiliate'' can take either ''with'' or ''to'' in BrE, but only ''with'' in AmE.
★ The verb ''enrol(l)'' usually takes ''on'' in BrE and ''in'' in AmE (as in "to enrol(l) on/in a course") and the on/in difference is also used when ''enrolled'' is dropped (as in "I am (enrolled) on the course that studies....").
★ In AmE, one always speaks of the street ''on'' which an address is located, whereas in BrE ''in'' can also be used in some contexts. ''In'' suggests an address in a city street, so a service station (or a tourist attraction or indeed a village) would always be ''on'' a major road, but a department store might be ''in''
Oxford Street. Moreover, if a particular place on the street is specified then the preposition used is whichever is idiomatic to the place, thus "''at'' the end of Churchill Road", and thus also the lyric "our house, in the middle of our street" from "Our House" by the British band
Madness, whose intended meaning is "halfway along our street" but is confusing to many Americans—in AmE, the lyric suggests that the house is literally
in the middle of the ''roadway''.
★ BrE favours the preposition ''at'' with ''weekend'' ("at (the) weekend(s)"); the constructions ''on'', ''over'', and ''during (the) weekend(s)'' are found in both varieties but are all more common in AmE than BrE.
[24] See also ''Word derivation and compounds''.
★ Adding ''at'' to the end of a question requesting a location is common in AmE (especially in the Midwest), for example, "where are you ''at''?", but would be considered superfluous in BrE.
★ After ''talk'' American can use the preposition ''with'' but British always uses ''to'' (that is, "I'll talk with Dave / I'll talk to Dave". The American form is sometimes seen as more
politically correct in British organisations, inducing the ideal of discussing (with), as opposed to lecturing (to). This is, of course, unless talk is being used as a noun, for example: "I'll have a talk with him" in which case this is acceptable in both BrE and AmE.
★ In both dialects ''from'' is the preposition prescribed for use after the word ''different'': "American English is different from British English in several respects." However, ''different than'' is also commonly heard in the U.S., and is often considered standard when followed by a clause ("American English is different than it used to be"), whereas ''different to'' is the alternative common in BrE.
★ It is common in BrE to say ''opposite to'' as an alternative to ''opposite of'', the only form normally found in AmE. The use of ''opposite'' as a preposition ("opposite the post office") has long been established in both dialects, but appears to be more common in British usage.
★ The noun ''opportunity'' can be followed by a verb in two different ways: ''opportunity'' plus ''to''-infinitive ("the opportunity to do something") or ''opportunity'' plus ''of'' plus gerund ("the opportunity of doing something"). The first construction is the most common in both dialects, but the second has almost disappeared in AmE and is often regarded as a Briticism.
★ Both British and Americans may say (for example) that a river is named ''after'' a state, but "named ''for'' a state" would rightly be regarded as an Americanism.
★ BrE sometimes uses ''to'' with ''near'' ("we live near to the university"), while AmE avoids the preposition in most usages dealing with literal, physical proximity ("we live near the university"), although the "to" reappears in AmE when "near" takes the comparative or superlative form, as in, "Of all of us, she lives nearer/nearest to the deranged axe murderer's house."
★ In BrE, you ''call'' (or ''ring'') someone ''on'' their telephone number; in AmE, you ''call'' someone ''at'' their telephone number.
★ In AmE, the phrases ''aside from'' and ''apart from'' are used about equally; in BrE, ''apart from'' is far more common.
[25]
Phrasal verbs
★ In the U.S., forms are usually but not invariably ''filled out'', but in Britain they can also be ''filled in''. However, in reference to individual parts of a form, Americans may also use ''in'' ("fill in the blanks"). In AmE the direction "fill it all in" (referring to the form as a collection of blanks, perhaps) is as common as "fill it all out."
★ Britons facing
extortionate prices may have no option but to ''fork out'', whereas Americans are more likely to ''fork (it) over'' or sometimes ''up''; both usages are however found in both dialects.
★ In both countries,
thugs will ''beat up'' their victim; AmE also allows ''beat on'' (as both would for an inanimate object, such as a drum) or ''beat up on'', which are often considered slang.
★ When an outdoor event is postponed or interrupted by rain, it is ''rained off'' in the UK and ''rained out'' in the U.S.
Miscellaneous grammatical differences
★ In AmE, some prescriptionists feel that ''which'' should not be used as an antecedent in
restrictive relative clauses. According to ''
The Elements of Style'' (p. 59), "''that'' is the defining, or restrictive pronoun, ''which'' the nondefining, or nonrestrictive." This distinction was endorsed by
Fowler's Modern English Usage, but the use of ''which'' as a restrictive pronoun is common in great literature produced on both sides of the Atlantic
[7].
★ In names of American rivers, the word ''river'' usually comes after the name (for example, ''
Colorado River''), whereas for British rivers it comes before (as in ''
River Thames''). One exception present in BrE is the ''
Fleet River'', which is rarely called the ''River Fleet'' by
Londoners outside of official documentation. Exceptions in the U.S. are the ''
River Rouge'' and the ''
River Raisin'', both in
Michigan and named by the French. This convention is mixed, however, in some Commonwealth nations, where both arrangements are often seen.
★ In BrE the word ''sat'' is often colloquially used to cover ''sat'', ''sitting'' and ''seated'': "I've been sat here waiting for half an hour." "The bride's family will be sat on the right-hand side of the church." This construction is not often heard outside the UK. In the 1960s, its use would mark a speaker as coming from the north of England but by the turn of the 21st century this form had spread to the south. Its use often conveys lighthearted informality, as many speakers intentionally use an ungrammatical construction they would probably not use in
formal written English. This colloquial usage is widely understood by British speakers. Similarly ''stood'' can be used instead of ''standing''. To an American, these usages are passive, and may imply that the subject had been involuntarily forced to sit or stand, or directed to hold that location.
★ In most areas of the United States, the word ''with'' is also used as an adverb: "I'll come with" instead of "I'll come along". However, in some British Dialects, 'come with' is used as an abbreviation of 'come with me', as in "I'm going to the office - come with" instead of "I'm going to the office - come with me". This particular variant is also used by speakers in
Minnesota and parts of the adjoining states: "Want to come with?" This is another expression possibly arising from German (''kommst du mit?'') in parts of the United States with high concentrations of
German American populations. It is similar to
South African English, where the expression comes from
Afrikaans, and is also used by
Dutch speakers when speaking in English.
★ The word ''also'' is used at the end of a sentence in AmE (just as ''as well'' and ''too'' are in both dialects), but not so commonly in BrE, although it is encountered in
Northern Ireland. Additionally, sentence-ending ''as well'' is more formal in AmE than in BrE.
★ In AmE, the last letter of the alphabet is pronounced ''zee''; in BrE, the last letter is pronounced ''zed.''
Word derivation and compounds
★ Directional suffix ''-ward(s)'': British ''forwards'', ''towards'', ''rightwards'', etc.; American ''forward'', ''toward'', ''rightward''. In both dialects, distribution varies somewhat: ''afterwards'', ''towards'', and ''backwards'' are not unusual in America; while in Britain ''forward'' is common, and standard in
phrasal verbs like ''look forward to''. The forms with ''-s'' may be used as adverbs (or preposition ''towards''), but rarely as adjectives: in Britain as in America one says "an upward motion". The
Oxford English Dictionary in 1897 suggested a semantic distinction for adverbs, with ''-wards'' having a more definite directional sense than ''-ward''; subsequent authorities such as
Fowler have disputed this contention.
★ AmE freely adds the suffix ''-s'' to ''day'', ''night'', ''evening'', ''weekend'', ''Monday'', etc. to form adverbs denoting repeated or customary action: "I used to stay out evenings"; "the library is closed Saturdays". This usage has its roots in Old English, but many of these constructions are now regarded as American (for example, the OED labels ''nights'' "now chiefly N.Amer. colloq."; but ''to work nights'' is standard in BrE).
★ In BrE, the agentive ''-er'' suffix is commonly attached to ''
football'' (also ''
cricket''; often ''
netball''; occasionally ''
basketball''). AmE usually uses ''football player''. Where the sport's name is usable as a verb, the suffixation is standard in both dialects: for example, ''
golfer'', ''bowler'' (in
Ten-pin bowling and in
Lawn Bowls), and ''
shooter''. AmE appears to sometimes use the BrE form in ''baller'' as slang for a basketball player, as in the video game "
NBA Ballers." However, this is derived from slang use of "to ball" as a verb meaning to play a basketball.
★ English writers everywhere occasionally (and from time immemorial) make new compound words from common phrases; for example, ''health care'' is now being replaced by ''healthcare'' on both sides of the Atlantic. However, AmE has made certain words in this fashion which are still treated as phrases in BrE.
★ In
compound nouns of the form
<noun>, sometimes AmE favours the bare infinitive where BrE favours the gerund. Examples include (AmE first): ''jump rope'' / ''skipping rope''; ''racecar'' / ''racing car''; ''rowboat'' / ''rowing boat''; ''sailboat'' / ''sailing boat''; ''file cabinet'' / ''filing cabinet''; ''dial tone'' / ''dialling tone''.
★ More generally, AmE has a tendency to drop inflectional suffixes, thus favouring clipped forms: compare ''cookbook'' / ''cookery book''; ''Smith, age 40'' / ''Smith, aged 40''; ''skim milk'' / ''skimmed milk''; ''dollhouse'' / ''doll's house''; ''barbershop'' / ''barber's shop''.[26]
★ Singular attributives in one country may be plural in the other, and ''vice versa''. For example, the UK has a ''drugs problem'' while the United States has a ''drug problem'' (although the singular usage is also commonly heard in the UK); Americans read the "sports" section of a newspaper, while the British are more likely to read the "sport" section. However, BrE ''maths'' is singular, just as AmE ''math'' is: both are abbreviations of ''mathematics''.
Lexis (Vocabulary)
Most of the differences in lexis or vocabulary between British and American English are in connection with concepts originating from the nineteenth century to the mid twentieth century, where new words were coined independently. Almost the entire vocabularies of the car/automobile and railway/railroad industries (see Rail terminology) are different between the UK and America, for example. Other sources of difference are slang or vulgar terms, where frequent new coinage occurs, and idiomatic phrases, including phrasal verbs. The differences most likely to create confusion are those where the same word or phrase is used for two different concepts. Regional variations even within the U.S. or the UK can create the same problems.
General trends
While the use of American expressions in the UK is often noted, movement in the opposite direction is less common. But such words as ''book'' (meaning "to reserve") and ''roundabout'' (otherwise called a ''traffic circle'' or ''rotary'') are clearly current in AmE, although often regarded as British. Some other "Briticisms", such as ''go missing'' (as an alternative to ''disappear''), ''bespoke'' (for ''custom-made'' or ''made-to-order''), or ''run-up'' (for "period preceding an event") are increasingly used in AmE, and a few (for instance, ''early on'') are now completely standard.
Words mainly used in a single form
Though the influence of cross-culture media has done much to familiarize BrE and AmE speakers with each other's regional words and terms, many words are still recognized as part of a single form of English. Though the use of a British word would be acceptable in AmE (and vice versa), most listeners would recognize the word as coming from the other form of English, and treat it much the same as a word borrowed from any other language. For instance: an American using the word "chap" or "mate" to refer to a friend, would be heard in much the same way as an American using the Spanish word "amigo".
Words mainly used in British English
:''See also: List of British words not widely used in the United States''
Speakers of AmE are likely to be aware of some BrE terms, such as ''lorry'', ''queue'', ''chap'', ''bloke'', ''loo'', and ''shag'' although they would not generally use them, or may be confused as to whether one means the American or British meaning of some (such as ''biscuit''). They will be able to guess approximately what is meant by some others, such as ''driving licence''. However, use of many other British words, such as naff (unstylish - though commonly used to mean "not very good"), risks rendering a sentence incomprehensible to most Americans.
Words mainly used in American English
: ''See also: List of American words not widely used in the United Kingdom''
Speakers of BrE are likely to be aware of some AmE terms, such as ''sidewalk'', ''gas'' (gasoline/petrol), ''counterclockwise'' or ''elevator'', although they would not generally use them. They will be able to guess approximately what is meant by some others, such as ''cotton candy''. However, use of some other American words such as ''semi'' (articulated lorry), ''stroller'' (pram/pushchair) or ''kitty-corner''/''catty-corner'' (diagonally opposite) risks rendering a sentence incomprehensible to most BrE speakers.
Words with differing meanings
: ''See: List of words having different meanings in British and American English''
Words like ''bill'' (AmE "paper money", BrE and AmE "invoice") and ''biscuit'' (AmE: BrE's "scone", BrE: AmE's "cookie") are used regularly in both AmE and BrE, but mean different things in each form. As chronicled by Winston Churchill, the opposite meanings of the verb ''to table'' created a misunderstanding during a meeting of the Allied forces; in BrE to table an item on an agenda means to ''open it up'' for discussion, whereas in AmE, it means to ''remove'' it from discussion.
Word choice
★ In the UK, the word ''whilst'' may be used as a preposition (as an alternative to ''while'', especially prevalent in some dialects), but ''while'' is used as a noun. In AmE only ''while'' is used in both contexts. For example, "I will be a while" versus "whilst/while you were out your friend called". To Americans the word ''whilst'', in any context, seems very archaic or pretentious or both. In some regions of England, the word "while" is used to mean "until", so "whilst" may be used in spoken English to avoid confusion.
★ In the UK, generally the term ''fall'' meaning "autumn" is obsolete. Although found often from Elizabethan to Victorian literature, continued understanding of the word is usually ascribed to its continued use in America.
★ In the UK, the term ''period'' for a ''full stop'' is now obsolete. For example, Tony Blair said "Terrorism is wrong, full stop." whereas in AmE, "Terrorism is wrong, period."[27]
★ ''Fitted'' is used in both conventions as an adjective ("fitted sheets" are the same size as the mattress) and as the past tense of ''fit'' ("to suffer epilepsy", for example, "Leavitt fitted" in ''The Andromeda Strain''); however ''fit'' and ''fitting'' do not denote epileptic seizure in ordinary British use (though that usage is common within medical circles), as the same effect is achieved by ''to have a fit'' or ''to throw a fit''.
★ Media domination has seen American vocabulary encroaching on British in recent decades, so that (for example) ''truck'' is now increasingly heard in the UK instead of ''lorry'', and ''line'' is used as well as ''queue'' - so that the verb ''queue up'' or ''queue'' is now sometimes replaced with ''stand in line''.
Numbers
:''See also: Names of numbers in English''
When saying or writing out numbers, the British will typically insert an "and" before the tens and units, as in "one hundred and sixty-two" and "two thousand and three", whereas Americans will typically drop the "and" as in "two thousand three"; however, "two thousand and three" is also common. The same rule applies when saying numbers in their thousands or millions: "four hundred and thirteen thousand" would be said by a British speaker, "four hundred thirteen thousand" by an American speaker.
Some American schools teach students to pronounce decimally written fractions (".5") as though they were longhand fractions ("five tenths"), such as "five hundred thirteen and seven tenths" for 513.7 . This formality is often dropped in common speech. It is steadily disappearing in instruction in more advanced mathematics and science work as well as in international American schools. In the UK, 513.7 would generally be read "five hundred and thirteen point seven", although if it were written 513 , it would still be pronounced "five hundred and thirteen and seven tenths").
In counting, it is common in both varieties of English to count in hundreds up to 1,900 — so 1,200 may be "twelve hundred". But Americans use this pattern for much higher numbers than is the norm in British English, referring to "twenty-four hundred" where British English would most often use "two thousand four hundred". Even below 2,000, Americans are more likely than the British to read numbers like 1,234 as "twelve thirty-four", instead of "one thousand, two hundred and thirty-four".
In the case of years, however, "twelve thirty-four" would be the norm on both sides of the Atlantic for the year 1234. The year 2000 and years beyond it are read as "two thousand", "two thousand (and) one" and the like by both British and American speakers. For years after 2009, they are frequently said "twenty ten", "twenty twelve" etc. by the BBC.
For the house number (or bus number, etc) "272" British people would tend to say "two seven two" while Americans would tend to say "two seventy-two".
There is also a historical difference between billions, trillions, and so forth. Americans use "billion" to mean one thousand million (1,000,000,000), whereas in the UK, until the latter part of the 20th century, it was used to mean one million million (1,000,000,000,000). It is believed that the change was started by Margaret Thatcher on advice from the Bank of England. The British prime minister, Harold Wilson, in 1974, told the House of Commons that UK government statistics would now use the short scale; followed by the Chancellor, Denis Healey, in 1975, that the treasury would now adopt the US billion version. Although historically such numbers were not often required outside of mathematical and scientific contexts. One thousand million was sometimes described as a "milliard", the definition adopted by most other European languages. However, the "American" version has since been adopted for all published writing, and the word "milliard" is obsolete in English, as are billiard (but not billiards, the game), trilliard and so on. However the term ''yard'', derived from ''milliard'', is still used in the financial markets on both sides of the Atlantic to mean "one thousand million". All major British publications and broadcasters, including the BBC, which long used "thousand million" to avoid ambiguity, now use "billion" to mean thousand million.
Many people have no direct experience with manipulating numbers this large, and many non-American readers may interpret "billion" as 1012 (even if they are young enough to have been taught otherwise at school); also usage of the "long" billion is standard in some non-English speaking countries. For these reasons, defining the word may be advisable when writing for the general public. See long and short scales for a more detailed discussion of the evolution of these terms in English and other languages.
When referring to the numeral 0 (number), British people would normally use "nought", "oh", "zero" or "nil" in instances such as sports scores and voting results. Americans use the term "zero" most frequently; "oh" is also often used (though never when the quantity in question is nothing), and occasionally slang terms such as "zilch" or "zip". Phrases such as "the team won two-zip" or "the team leads the series, two-nothing" are heard when reporting sports scores. The digit 0, for example, when reading a phone or account number aloud, is nearly always pronounced "oh" in both language varieties for the sake of convenience.
When reading numbers in a sequence, such as a telephone or serial number, British people will usually use the terms ''double'' or ''triple/treble''. Hence 007 is "double oh seven". Exceptions are the emergency telephone number 999, which is always "nine nine nine" and the apocalyptic "Number of the Beast" which is always "six six six". The directory enquiries prefix 118 is also "one one eight" in Britain. In the U.S., 911 (the U.S. emergency telephone number) is almost always read "nine-one-one", while 9/11 (in reference to the September 11, 2001, attacks) is usually read "nine-eleven".
Monetary amounts
★ Monetary amounts in the range of one to two major currency units are often spoken differently. In AmE one may say "a dollar fifty" or "a pound eighty" whereas in BrE these amounts would be expressed "one dollar fifty" and "one pound eighty". For amounts over a dollar, an American will generally either drop denominations or give both dollars and cents, as in "two-twenty" or "two dollars and twenty cents" for $2.20. An American would not say "two dollars twenty." On the other hand, in BrE, "two pounds twenty" would be the most common form. It is more common to hear a British-English speaker say "one thousand, two hundred dollars" than "a thousand, two hundred dollars" although the latter construct is common in AmE. The term "twelve hundred dollars", popular in AmE, is frequently used in BrE but only for exact multiples of 100 up to 1900. Amounts over 1900 expressed in hundreds, for example "twenty-three hundred" are very rarely heard by speakers of BrE.
★ The BrE slang term "quid" is roughly equivalent to the AmE "buck" and both are often used in the two respective dialects for round amounts, as in "fifty quid" for £50 and "twenty bucks" for $20. "A hundred and fifty grand" in either dialect could refer to £150,000 or $150,000 depending on context.
★ A user of AmE may hand-write the mixed monetary amount $3.24 as $324 or $324 (often seen for extra clarity on a check); BrE users will always write this as £3.24, £3·24 or, for extra clarity on a cheque as £3—24. In all cases there may or may not be a space after the currency symbol, or the currency symbols may be omitted depending on context.[28]
★ In order to make explicit the amount in words on a cheque, Americans write ''three and '' (using this solidus construction or with a horizontal division line): they do not need to write the word "dollars" as it is usually printed on the cheque. UK residents write ''three pounds and 24 pence'', ''three pounds 24'' or ''three pounds 24p'', since the currency unit is not preprinted. To make unauthorized amendment difficult, it is useful to have an expression terminator even when a whole number of dollars/pounds is in use: thus Americans would write ''three and '' or ''three and '' on a three-dollar cheque (so that it cannot easily be changed to, for example, ''three million'') and UK residents would write ''three pounds only'', or ''three pounds exactly''.[29]
★ The term 'pound sign' in BrE always refers to the currency symbol "£", whereas in AmE 'pound sign' means the number sign, which the British call the 'hash' symbol, "#" (The British telephone company BT in the 60's to the 90's called this 'gate' on the keypads).
★ In BrE, the plural of the word pound is often considered to be "pound" as opposed to "pounds." For example, "three pound forty," and "twenty pound a week" are both legitimate British English. This does not apply to other currencies however, so that the same speaker would most likely say "three dollars forty", "twenty dollars a week", "three euros forty" and "twenty euros a week" in similar contexts.
★ In BrE, the use of ''p'' instead of ''pence'' is common in spoken usage. Each of the following have equal legitimacy: "three pounds, twelve p", "three pounds and twelve p", "three pounds, twelve pence", "three pounds and twelve pence", as well as just "eight p" or "eight pence".
★ AmE uses words like ''nickel'', ''dime'', and ''quarter'' for small coins. In BrE, the usual usage is ''10-pence piece'' or ''10p piece'' for any coin below £1, with ''piece'' sometimes omitted, but ''pound coin'' and ''two-pound coin''. BrE did have specific words for a number of coins prior to decimalisation.
Time-telling
Fifteen minutes after the hour is called ''quarter past'' in British usage and ''a quarter after'' or, less commonly, ''a quarter past'' in American usage. Fifteen minutes before the hour is usually called ''quarter to'' in British usage and ''a quarter of'', ''a quarter to'' or ''a quarter till'' in American usage; the form ''a quarter to'' is associated with parts of the Northern United States, while ''a quarter till'' is found chiefly in the Appalachian region. Thirty minutes after the hour is commonly called ''half past'' in both BrE and AmE. In informal British speech, the preposition is sometimes omitted, so that 5:30 may be referred to as ''half five'' (by contrast, in the German ''halb fünf'' is half-an-hour ''before'' five, i.e. 4:30). ''Half after'' used to be more common in the U.S. The AmE formations ''top of the hour'' and ''bottom of the hour'' are not commonly used in BrE. Forms like ''eleven forty'' are common in both dialects. See below for variation in written forms.
Selected lexical differences
Levels of buildings
There are also variations in floor numbering between the U.S. and UK. In most countries, including the UK, the "first floor" is one above the entrance level while the entrance level is the "ground floor". Normal American usage labels the entrance level as the "first floor" or the "ground floor", the floor immediately above that is the "second floor".
Figures of speech
Both BrE and AmE use the expression "I couldn't care less" to mean the speaker does not care at all. In AmE, the phrase "I could care less" (without the "n't") is synonymous with this in casual usage, despite technically meaning the opposite. Intonation no longer reflects the originally sarcastic nature of this variant, which is not idiomatic in BrE and might be interpreted as anything from nonsense (or sloppiness) to an indication that the speaker ''does'' care.
In both areas, saying "I don't mind" often means "I'm not annoyed" (for example, by someone's smoking), while "I don't care" often means "the matter is trivial or boring". However, in answering a question like "Tea or coffee?", if either alternative is equally acceptable, an American may answer "I don't care", while a British person may answer "I don't mind". Either sounds odd to the other.
In BrE, the phrase "I can't be arsed [to do something]" is a vulgar equivalent to the British or American "I can't be bothered [to do something]". This can be extremely confusing to Americans, as the Southern British pronunciation of the former sounds similar to "I can't be asked...", which sounds either defiantly rude or nonsensical.
Older BrE often uses the exclamation "No fear!" where current AmE has "No way!" An example from Dorothy L. Sayers:
:Q.: Wilt thou be baptized in this faith?
A.: No fear!
:— from ''A Catechism for Pre- and Post-Christian Anglicans''
This usage may confuse users of AmE, who are likely to interpret and even use "No fear!" as enthusiastic willingness to move forward.
Idioms
A number of English idioms that have essentially the same meaning show lexical differences between the British and the American version; for instance:
| British English | American English |
|---|
| ''not touch something with a bargepole'' | ''not touch something with a ten-foot pole'' |
| ''sweep under the carpet'' | ''sweep under the rug'' |
| ''touch wood'' | ''knock on wood'' |
| ''see the wood for the trees'' | ''see the forest for the trees'' |
| ''throw a spanner (in the works)'' | ''throw a ''(''monkey'')'' wrench (in the works)'' |
''tuppence worth''
also ''two pennies' worth'', ''two pence worth'', ''two pennyworth'',
''two penny'th'', ''two penn'orth'' or ''two pen'th'') | ''two cents' worth'' |
| ''skeleton in the cupboard'' | ''skeleton in the closet'' |
| ''a home from home'' | ''a home away from home'' |
| ''blow one's trumpet'' | ''blow ''(or'' toot'')'' one's horn'' |
| ''a drop in the ocean'' | ''a drop in the bucket'' |
| ''storm in a teacup'' | ''tempest in a teapot'' |
| ''flogging a dead horse'' | ''beating a dead horse'' |
| ''haven't a clue'' | ''have no clue'' |
| ''a new lease of life'' | ''a new lease on life'' |
In some cases, the "American" variant is also used in BrE, or vice versa.
Education
In the UK, a student is said to ''study'', or, at Oxford and Cambridge, to ''read'' a subject (''read'' is now more commonly being used in reference to other universities). In the U.S., a student ''studies'' or ''majors in'' a subject (although "concentration" or "emphasis" is also used in some U.S. colleges or universities to refer to the major subject of study). ''To major in'' something refers to the student's principal course of study, while ''to study'' may refer to any class being taken.
At the tertiary or university level in BrE, a ''module'' is taught by a ''lecturer'', while in AmE, a ''class'' is generally taught by a ''professor'' (at some institutions, "professor" is reserved for tenure-track faculty with other members of the faculty referred to as "lecturers" or "instructors"). At the primary and secondary levels, the term "teacher" is used instead in both BrE and AmE. The term "lecturer," in an educational context, would be perceived in AmE as denoting anyone, professor or special guest, giving an actual lecture before a class.
BrE:
:"She studied history at Bristol."
:"She read history at Oxford."
AmE:
:"She majored in history at Yale."
:"He majored in Elementary Education at the University of Minnesota."
The word ''course'' in American use typically refers to the study of a restricted topic (for example, "a course in Early Medieval England", "a course in Integral Calculus") over a limited period of time (such as a semester or term) and is equivalent to a ''module'' at a British University. In the UK, a "course of study" is likely to refer to a whole program of study, which may extend over several years, and made up of any number of "modules."
In the UK, a student is said to ''sit'' or ''take'' an exam, while in the U.S., a student ''takes'' an exam. The expression ''he sits for'' an exam also arises in BrE, but only rarely in AmE; American lawyers-to-be ''sit for'' their bar exams, and American master's and doctoral students may ''sit for'' their comprehensive exams, but in nearly all other instances, Americans ''take'' their exams.
When preparing for an exam, students ''revise'' (BrE)/''review'' (AmE) what they have studied; the BrE idiom ''to revise for'' an exam has no exact equivalent in the U.S.
Examinations are supervised by ''invigilators'' in the UK and ''proctors'' (or ''(exam) supervisors'') in the U.S. In the UK, a teacher ''sets'' an exam, while in the U.S., a teacher ''writes'' or ''gives'' an exam.
BrE:
:"I sat my Spanish exam yesterday."
:"I plan to set a difficult exam for my students, but I haven't got it ready yet."
AmE:
:"I took my exams at Yale."
:"I spent the entire day yesterday writing the exam. I'm almost ready to give it to my students."
Another source of confusion is the different usage of the word ''college''. (See a full international discussion of the various meanings at college.) In the U.S., this refers to a post-high school institution that grants bachelor's degrees, while in the UK it refers primarily to an institution between secondary school and university (normally referred to as a ''Sixth Form College'' after the old name in secondary education for Years 12 and 13, the ''6th form'') where intermediary courses such as A Levels or NVQs can be taken and GCSE courses can be retaken. College may sometimes be used in the UK or in Commonwealth countries as part of the name of a secondary or high school (for example, Dubai College. It should be noted, however, that in the case of Oxford, Cambridge, London and Durham universities, all members are also members of a college, for example, one is a member of St. Peter's College, Oxford and hence the University.
In both the U.S. and UK, ''college'' can refer to some division within a university such as the "college of business and economics". Institutions in the U.S. that offer two to four years of post-high school education often have the word ''college'' as part of their name, while those offering more advanced degrees are called a ''university''. (There are exceptions, of course: Boston College, Dartmouth College and The College of William and Mary are examples of colleges that offer advanced degrees.) (An obvious sign that an educational institution aspires to a better station in life may be seen when it drops "college" from its name and substitutes "university.") American students who pursue a ''bachelor's degree'' (four years of higher education) or an ''associate degree'' (two years of higher education) are ''college students'' regardless of whether they attend a college or a university and refer to their educational institutions informally as ''colleges.'' A student who pursues a master's degree or a doctorate degree in the arts and sciences is in AmE a ''graduate student''; in BrE a ''post-graduate student'' although ''graduate student'' also sometimes used. Students of advanced professional programmes are known by their field (''business student'', ''law student'', ''medical student'', the last of which is frequently shortened to ''med student''). Some universities also have a residential college system, the details of which may vary from school to school but generally involve common living and dining spaces as well as college-organized activities.
"Professor" has different meanings in BrE and AmE. In BrE it is the highest academic rank, followed by Reader, Senior Lecturer and Lecturer. In AmE "Professor" refers to academic staff of all ranks, with (Full) Professor (largely equivalent to the UK meaning) followed by Associate Professor and Assistant Professor.
There is additionally a difference between American and British usage in the word ''school''. In British usage "school" by itself refers only to primary (elementary) and secondary (high) schools, and to ''sixth forms'' attached to secondary schools — if one "goes to school", this type of institution is implied. By contrast, an American student at a university may talk of "going to school" or "being in school". U.S. law students and med students almost universally speak in terms of going to "law school" and "med school," respectively. However, the word is used in BrE in the context of higher education; to describe a division grouping together several related subjects in a university, for example a "School of European Languages" containing ''departments'' for each language, and also in the term "art school".
Among high school and college students in the United States, the words ''freshman'' (or the gender-neutral term ''frosh'' or ''first year''), ''sophomore'', ''junior'' and ''senior'' refer to the first, second, third, and fourth years, respectively. It is important that the context of either high school or college first be established, or else it must be stated directly (that is, "She is a high school freshman." "He is a college junior."). Many institutions in both countries also use the term ''first-year'' as a gender-neutral replacement for ''freshman'', although in the U.S. this is recent usage, formerly referring only to those in the first year as a graduate student. One exception is the University of Virginia; since its founding in 1819, the terms "first-year", "second-year", "third-year", and "fourth-year" have been used to describe undergraduate university students. At the United States military academies, at least those operated directly by the federal government, a different terminology is used, namely "fourth class", "third class", "second class", and "first class" (note that the order of numbering is the reverse of the number of years in attendance). In the UK, first year university students are often called ''freshers'', especially early in the academic year; however, there are no specific names for those in other years, nor for school pupils. Graduate and professional students in the United States are known by their year of study (a "second-year medical student" or a "fifth-year doctoral candidate"; law students are generally not referred to as "nth-year law students", but rather "1L", "2L", or "3L").
While anyone in the U.S. who finishes studying at any educational institution by passing relevant examinations is said to ''graduate'' and to be a ''graduate'', in the UK only degree and above level students can ''graduate''. ''Student'' itself has a wider meaning in AmE, meaning any person of any age studying at any educational institution, whereas in BrE it tends to be used for people studying at a post-secondary educational institution.
In the UK, the U.S. equivalent of a ''high school'' is often referred to as a ''secondary school'' regardless of whether it is state funded or private. Secondary education in the United States also includes ''middle school'' or ''junior high school'', a two or three year transitional school between elementary school and high school.
A ''public school'' has opposite meanings in the two countries. In the U.S. this is a government-owned institution supported by taxpayers. In England and Wales, the term strictly refers to a select group of prestigious private independent schools funded by students' fees, although it is often more loosely used to refer to any independent school. Independent schools are also known as ''private schools'', and the latter is the correct term in Scotland and Northern Ireland for all such fee-funded schools. Strictly, the term ''public school'' is not used in Scotland and Northern Ireland in the same sense as in England, but nevertheless, Gordonstoun, the Scottish private school which Charles, Prince of Wales attended, is sometimes confusingly referred to as a ''public school''. Government-funded schools in Scotland and Northern Ireland are properly referred to as ''state schools'' — but are sometimes confusingly referred to as ''public schools'' (with the same meaning as in the U.S.); whereas in the U.S., where most public schools are administered by local governments, a ''state school'' is typically a college or university run by one of the states.
Speakers in both the United States and the United Kingdom use several additional terms for specific types of secondary schools. A ''prep school'' or ''preparatory school'' is an independent school funded by tuition fees; the same term is used in the UK for a private school for pupils under thirteen, designed to prepare them for fee-paying public schools. An American ''parochial school'' covers costs through tuition and has affiliation with a religious institution. In the UK, the state-funded education system grew from parish schools organised by the local established church, the Church of England (C.of E., or C.E.), and many schools, especially primary schools (up to age 11) retain a church connection and are known as ''church schools'', ''C.E. Schools'' or ''C.E. (Aided) Schools''. There are also ''faith schools'' associated with the Roman Catholic church and other major faiths, with a mixture of funding arrangements.
In the U.S., a ''magnet school'' receives government funding and has special admission requirements: students gain admission through superior performance on admission tests. The UK has city academies, which are independent privately sponsored schools run with public funding, and which can select up to 10% of pupils by aptitude.
Transport/Transportation
Main articles: Car terminology
Americans refer to ''transportation,'' while British people refer to ''transport.'' As ''transportation'' in Britain was a penalty for a crime, that is, ''deportation'', the British use the word ''communication'' to include goods and persons, whereas in America the word primarily refers to messages sent by post or electronics. The British devised the term ''telecoms'' for this last use; it is not quite standard in America.
Differences in terminology are especially obvious in the context of roads. The British term ''dual carriageway'', in American parlance, would be a ''divided highway''. ''Central reservation'' on a ''motorway'' in the UK would be a ''median'' on a ''freeway'', ''expressway'', ''highway'', or ''parkway'' in the U.S. The one-way lanes that make it possible to enter and leave such roads at an intermediate point without disrupting the flow of traffic are generally known as ''slip roads'' in the UK, but U.S. civil engineers call them ''ramps,'' and further distinguish between ''on-ramps'' (for entering) or ''off-ramps'' (for leaving). When American engineers speak of ''slip roads'', they are referring to a street that runs alongside the main road (separated by a berm) to allow off-the-highway access to the businesses that are there, sometimes also known as a frontage road.
In the UK, the term ''outside lane'' refers to the higher-speed ''overtaking lane'' (''passing lane'' in the U.S.) closest to the center of the road, while ''inside lane'' refers to the lane closer to the edge of the road. In the U.S., ''outside lane'' is only used in the context of a turn, in which case it depends on which direction the road is turning (i.e., if the road bends right the left lane is the ''outside lane'', but if the road bends left the right lane is the ''outside lane''). Both also refer to ''slow'' and ''fast'' lanes (even though all actual traffic speeds may be at or even above the legal speed limit). UK traffic officials, firefighters, and police officers refer to Lanes 1, 2 and 3, referring to the 'slow', 'middle' and 'fast' lanes respectively. In the U.S. the meanings are exactly reversed with Lane 1 referring to the fast lane and so on.
In the UK, ''drink driving'' is against the law, while in the U.S. the term is ''drunk driving''. The legal term in the U.S. is "driving while intoxicated" (D.W.I.) or "driving under the influence" of alcohol (D.U.I.). The equivalent legal phrase in the UK is to be found "drunk in charge" of a motor vehicle (DIC), or more commonly Driving with Excess Alcohol.
Greetings
Main articles: Holiday Greetings
When Christmas is explicitly mentioned in a greeting, the universal phrasing in North America is ''Merry Christmas''. In the UK, ''Happy Christmas'' is also heard. It is increasingly common for Americans to say ''Happy Holidays'', referring to all winter holidays (Christmas, New Year's Day, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa) while avoiding any specific religious reference. ''Season's Greetings'' is a less common phrase in both America and Britain.
Writing
Spelling
:''Main article: American and British English spelling differences''
In the early 18th century, English spelling was not standardised. Different standards became noticeable after the publishing of influential dictionaries. Current BrE spellings follow, for the most part, those of Samuel Johnson's ''Dictionary of the English Language'' (1755). Many of the now characteristic AmE spellings were introduced, although often not created, by Noah Webster in his ''An American Dictionary of the English Language'' of 1828.
Webster was a strong proponent of spelling reform for reasons both philological and nationalistic. Many other spelling changes proposed in the U.S. by Webster himself, and, in the early 20th century, by the Simplified Spelling Board never caught on. Among the advocates of spelling reform in England, the influences of those who preferred the Norman (or Anglo-French) spellings of certain words proved decisive. Subsequent spelling adjustments in the UK had little effect on present-day U.S. spelling, and vice versa. While, in many cases, AmE deviated in the 19th century from mainstream British spelling; on the other hand, it has also often retained older forms.
Punctuation
★ 'Full stops/Periods in abbreviations': Americans tend to write ''Mr.'', ''Mrs.'', ''St.'', ''Dr.'' etc., while British will most often write ''Mr'', ''Mrs'', ''St'', ''Dr'', etc., following the rule that a full stop is used only when the last letter of the abbreviation is not the last letter of the complete word; this kind of abbreviation is known as a ''contraction'' in the UK. Many British writers would tend to write other abbreviations without a full stop, such as ''Prof'', ''etc'', ''eg'', and so on (so recommended by some Oxford dictionaries). However, the "American" usage of periods after most abbreviations is also widely used in the UK. In either case, it is incorrect to put a stop / period after unit symbols such as ''kg'' or ''Hz''; however, in non-scientific contexts, the unit for "inch" is often written ''in.'', as it would be ambiguous without the period.
★ It is sometimes believed that BrE does not hyphenate multiple-word adjectives (e.g. "a first class ticket"). The most common form is as in AmE ("a first-class ticket"), but some British writers omit the hyphen when no ambiguity would arise.
★ 'Quoting': Americans start with double quotation marks (") and use single quotation marks (') for quotations within quotations. In general, this is also true of BrE, but can be the opposite when used in book publishing, for example. In journals and newspapers, quotation mark double/single use depends on the individual publication's house style.
★ 'Contents of quotations': Americans are taught to put commas and periods inside quotation marks (except for question marks and exclamation points that apply to a sentence as a whole), whereas British people will put the punctuation inside if it belongs to the quotation and outside otherwise. With direct speech, both styles retain punctuation inside the quotation marks, with a full stop changing into a comma if followed by explanatory text.
★
★ Carefree means "free from care or anxiety." (American style)
★
★ Carefree means "free from care or anxiety". (British style)
★
★ "Hello, world," I said. (both styles)
: The American style was established for typographical reasons, an historical holdover from the days of the handset printing press. It also eliminates the need to decide whether a period or comma belongs to the quotation. However, many people find the usage counterintuitive. ''Hart's Rules'' and the ''Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors'' call the British style "new" or "logical" quoting; it is similar to the use of quotation marks in many other languages (including Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian, Catalan, Dutch, and German). For this reason, the more "logical" British style is increasingly used in America, although formal writing still generally calls for the "American" style. In fact, the British style is often the ''de facto'' standard among Americans for whom formal or professional writing is not a part of their daily life; many are in fact unaware that the normative American usage is to place commas and periods within the quotation marks. (This rule of placing all punctuation inside quotation if and only if it belongs to the quotation is expressly prescribed by some American professional organisations such as the American Chemical Society; see ''ACS Style Guide''.) According to the Jargon File, American hackers have switched to using "logical" British quotation system, because including extraneous punctuation in a quotation can sometimes change the fundamental meaning of the quotation. More generally, it is difficult for computer manuals, online instructions, and other textual media to accurately quote exactly what a computer user should see or type on their computer if they follow American punctuation conventions.
:In both countries, the "British" style is used for quotation around parentheses, so in both nations one would write:
"I am going to the store. (I hope it is still open.)"
:But:
"I am going to the store (if it is still open)."
★ 'Letter-writing': American students in some areas have been taught to write a colon after the greeting in business letters ("Dear Sir:") while British people usually write a comma ("Dear Sir,") or make use of the so-called ''open punctuation'' ("Dear Sir"). However, this practice is not consistent throughout the United States, and it would be regarded as a highly formal usage by most Americans.
Titles and headlines
Use of capitalisation varies.
Sometimes, the words in titles of publications, newspaper headlines, as well as chapter and section headings are capitalised in the same manner as in normal sentences (sentence case). That is, only the first letter of the first word is capitalised, along with proper nouns, etc.
However, publishers sometimes require additional words in titles and headlines to have the initial capital, for added emphasis, as it is often perceived as appearing more professional. In AmE, this is common in titles, but less so in newspaper headlines. The exact rules differ between publishers and are often ambiguous; a typical approach is to capitalise all words other than short articles, prepositions, and conjunctions. This should probably be regarded as a common stylistic difference, rather than a linguistic difference, as neither form would be considered incorrect or unusual in either the UK or the U.S. Many British tabloid newspapers (such as ''The Sun'', ''The Daily Sport'', ''News of the World'') use fully capitalised headlines for impact, as opposed to readability (for example, BERLIN WALL FALLS or BIRD FLU PANIC). On the other hand, the broadsheets (such as ''The Guardian'', ''The Times'', and ''The Independent'') usually follow the sentence style of having only the first letter of the first word capitalised.
Dates
Dates are usually written differently in the short (numerical) form. Christmas Day 2000, for example, is 25/12/00 or 25.12.00 (dashes are occasionally used) in the UK and 12/25/00 in the U.S., although the formats 25/12/2000, 25.12.2000, and 12/25/2000 now have more currency than they had prior to the Year 2000 problem. Occasionally other formats are encountered, such as the ISO 8601 2000-12-25, popular among programmers, scientists, and others seeking to avoid ambiguity. The difference in short-form date order can lead to misunderstanding. For example, 06/04/05 could mean either June 4, 2005 (if read as U.S. format), 6 April 2005 (if seen as in UK format), or even 5 April 2006 if taken to be an older ISO 8601-style format where 2-digit years were allowed.
A consequence of the different short-form of dates is that in the UK many people would be reluctant to refer to "9/11", although its meaning would be instantly understood. On the BBC, "September the 11th" is generally used in preference to 9/11, although 9/11 is commonplace in the British press. 11/9 is occasionally used deliberately to emphasise the distinction.
When writing long-form dates, the format "December 25, 2000" is the form generally used in the U.S., and it is sometimes encountered in the UK as well. In the UK and elsewhere, it is more common to use the format "25 December 2000" or "25th December 2000". This format is, however, acceptable in the U.S., and the American grammarians Strunk and White, among others, recommend it. Similarly, in American speech, "December twenty-fifth" is the most likely form, though "the twenty-fifth of December" is also not uncommon. Note, though, that Americans normally refer to Independence Day as the "Fourth of July". In the UK the day-first style is more likely, and when the month is presented first the definite article is usually inserted in speech, thus "December ''the'' twenty-fifth". American military usage follows the British model: "25 December 2000" and "25/12/00".
Phrases such as the following are common in Britain and Ireland but are unknown in the U.S: "A week today", "a week tomorrow", "a week on Tuesday", "a week Tuesday", "Tuesday week", "Friday fortnight", "a fortnight on Friday" and "a fortnight Friday" (these latter referring to two weeks after "next Friday"). In the US, the standard construction is "a week from today", "a week from tomorrow" etc. BrE speakers may also say "Friday last" or "Friday gone" instead of "last Friday".
Times
Americans always write digital times with a colon, thus ''6:00'', whereas Britons often use a point, ''6.00'', although it is becoming increasingly popular to use a colon. Also, the 24-hour clock (''18:00'' or ''1800''), which, in the UK, would be considered normal in many applications (for example, air/rail/bus timetables), is largely unused in the U.S. outside of military or medical applications. Often, in the UK, 18:00 will be written as 1800h, or 06:00 as 0600h - representing the military speak "oh-six-hundred-hours", even if people would almost always read it aloud as "six o'clock". This has become popular in text messaging since it is easier to type an "h" than a colon.
Keyboard layouts
:''See: British and American keyboards''
See also
★ List of dialects of the English language
★ Classification of Germanic Languages
★ Anglic languages
★ Scots language
★ Yinglish
★ Regional accents of English speakers
Sources
★ Algeo, John (2006). ''British or American English?''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-37993-8.
★ Hargraves, Orin (2003). ''Mighty Fine Words and Smashing Expressions''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-515704-4
★ McArthur, Tom (2002). ''The Oxford Guide to World English''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-866248-3.
★ Peters, Pam (2004). ''The Cambridge Guide to English Usage''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-62181-X.
★ Trudgill, Peter and Jean Hannah. (2002). International English: A Guide to the Varieties of Standard English, 4th ed. London: Arnold. ISBN 0-340-80834-9.
References
1. Labov, William; Sharon Ash; & Charles Boberg. (2006). Atlas of North American English: Phonetics, Phonology and Sound Change. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. ISBN 311-016746-8.
Compare with Labov, Ash, & Boberg. (1997). ''A national map of the regional dialects of American English.'' Linguistics Laboratory, University of Pennsylvania. [1]. Accessed 16 April 2007.
2.
3. For the most part, American vocabulary, phonology, and syntax are used, to various extents, in Canada; therefore, many prefer to refer to ''North American English'' rather than American English (Trudgill and Hannah, 2002). Nonetheless, Canadian English features also many British English items, and is often described as a unique blend of the two main varieties.
4. Indian English has actually more English language speakers than the total of North American, British, Australian, and New Zealand combined (Crystal, 2005). [2] Indian English speakers typically are learning multiple "first" languages within an English-as-a-foreign-language context which has a decided impact on the phonological structure of Indian English.
5. Peters, p. 23
6. learnenglish.org.uk
7. Peters, p. 24
8. Chapman, James A. ''Grammar and Composition IV''. 3d ed. Pensacola: A Beka Book, 2002.
9. Peters, pp. 165 and 316.
10. Peters, p. 322.
11. Peters, p. 208.
12. Peters, p. 512
13. [3]
14. Peters, p. 446.
15. http://www.bartleby.com/61/72/B0417200.html
16. Peters, pp. 520 f.
17. Peters, p. 515.
18. Peters, p. 67.
19. Algeo, p. 248.
20. Algeo, p. 247
21. Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary
22. Algeo, p. 245.
23. p. 245.
24. Algeo, pp. 163 f.
25. Peters, p. 50; cf. OALD.
26. ''Cookbook'' is now standard in BrE. [8]
27. PM's Press Conference
28. BSA changes to cheque writing see end of numbered item 9
29. [9] see end of numbered item 9
External links
★ Proper Treatment: British vs. American (Harvard University)
★ List of American and British spelling differences
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