AMERICAN

ENGLISH
VESUS
BRITISH
ENGLISH
KAN/EN/19/P/62
 Abstract

The English language enjoys a great deal of

importance not just as an international language,
but as a global language. Nowadays, it is becoming
the indispensable key to the world of sciences.
However, people may have little background
knowledge about the differences between
American and British English. For this purpose .this
work attempts to give a clear picture of the
differences between American and British English.
 Contents
1) Introduction.

2) Vocabulary.

3) Pronunciation.
i) Vowel differences
ii) Diphthong differences
iii) Consonants differences

4) Spelling.
i) - our,- or
ii) - re ,-er
iii) -ce ,-se
iv) -ae , -oe
v) - ize, -ise,-yze,-yse
vi) -ogue,-og
vii) -l,-ll

5) Grammar
i) Verb
ii) Noun
iii) Preposition
6) idioms

7) punctuation

8) acronym and abbreviation

9) numerical expression
Introduction to British and
American English

History of British English.

The English language started with the arrival of three
Germanic tribes who invaded British during 5 century A.D.
These tribes included the angles, the Saxons and the jute. At
that time, the inhabitants of British spoke the Celtic language;
however, most of Celtic speakers were pushed west and north
by invaders mainly into what is now known as wales, Scotland
and Ireland. This is how English was introduced to Britain.
Later on English become their native and administrative
language.

History of American English.

The English language was introduced to America through
British colonization in the 17th century, it also spread too many
other parts of the word because of the strengths of the British
Empire. Over the years, English spoken in the United States
and in British started diverging from each other in various
aspects. This led to a new dialects known as American English.
Reason for the divergences

1. Compiling of dictionary.
In United Kingdom, the dictionary was compiled by London based
scholars. Meanwhile, in United States, the lexicographer was a man
named Noah Webster. Allegedly, he changed how the words were
spelled to make the American version different from the British as a
way of showing cultural independence from its (English) mother
country (England).

2. Speech.
In terms of speech, the differences between American and British
English took place towards the end of the 18th century. Non-rhotic
speech took off in southern England, especially among the upper class;
this “prestige” non-rhotic speech was standardized, and has been
spreading in Britain ever since. Most American speech however,
remained rhotic.

NOTE
In phonology and sociolinguistics, the term rhoticity refers broadly to
the sound of the ‘r’ family. More specifically linguistics commonly
make distinctions between rhotic and non-rhotic dialects or accents.
Simply put ,rhotic speakers pronounce the /r/ in words like large and
park, while non-rhotic speakers generally don’t pronounce the/r/ in
these words non-rhotic is also known as ‘r’ dropping.
 3. Vocabulary.
When it comes to vocabulary there were many reasons for the
divergence from mother country, which is angling such as,
 Words went out of use .some words stopped being used in British
Isles but were retained in America other disappeared in America
but retained in in England. Here are few examples

American words British words

Two weeks fortnight
autumn fall
candy sweet

 Along with this, the new world had new plants and animals to
name, so words had to be invented. Those word were not
necessarily exported back to Britain, many things were invented
and discovered after the split, and the different language
communities sometimes came up with different words to
describe the same exact thing. For example
American words British words
Eggplant aubergine
Ground wire Earth wire
Yard sale Jumble sale
inventory stock
zipper zip

4. Pronunciation
Webster expressed his opinion on pronunciation and spelling that,
“...the people of America should have an American dictionary of the
English language; for, although the body of the language is same as in
England, and it is desirable to perpetuate that sameness, yet some
differences must” .this citation does not necessarily posit any idea that
the difference between British and American way of pronunciation
and spelling that ‘exist’ today is the desire of Webster, but from the
beginning of the colonial period this difference gradually increased .
 Vocabulary.
The most noticeable difference between American and British
English is vocabulary. There are hundreds of everyday words
that are different .for example:

British English words America English words

A
Accelerator Gas-pedal
Aerial(TV, radio) Antenna
Alsatian German shepherd
Aubergine Eggplant
B
Bank holiday Federal holiday
Barrister Lawyer, attorney
Base rate Prime rate
Biscuit Cookie
Bonnet Hood
C
Candy floss Cotton candy
Car park Parking lot
Caretaker Janitor
Chemist shop Drug store ,pharmacy
Chips French fries
City Centre Downtown
Cloth peg Cloth pin
Cooker Stove
Cot Crib
Cotton wool Cotton ball
Crossroads Intersection
D
Dinner jacket Tuxedo
Diversion Detour
Double cream Thumbtack
Dressing gown Robe
Dummy Pacifier
Duvet Comforter

E
Earth wire Ground wire
Engaged Busy
Enquiry Inquiry
Everywhere Everyplace
F
Fancy dress Customers
Film Movie
Fire brigade Fire department
Fish- fingers Fish-sticks
Flat Apartment
Football Soccer
Fortnight Two weeks
Fringe Bangs
Full stop Period
G
Garden Yard
Gear lever Gear shift
Gent’s room Men’s room
H
Headmaster Principal
Hire purchase Installment plan
Holiday Vacation
Hoover Vacuum cleaner
I
Icing sugar Powdered sugar
Indicator Blinker
Inverted commas Quotation marks
J
Jumble sale Yard sale
Jumper Sweater
L
Lady bird Lady bug
Letterbox Mailbox
Lift Elevator
Lorry Truck
M
Mackintosh Raincoat
Mate Check
N
Nappy Diaper
Note Bill
Notice board Bullet-in-board
Number plate License plate
P
Pants Underpants
Paraffin Kerosene
Pavement Sidewalk
Pedestrian-crossing Crosswalk
Pepper Bell pepper
Petrol Gas
Phone box Phone booth
Post Mail
Post code Zip carriage
Q
Quid Buck
R
Railway Railroad
Reception Front desk
Ruck sack Back pack
Rubber Eraser
Rubbish Garbage
S
Share Stock
Shop Store
Shop assistant Sales clerk
Sick Nauseated
Single ticket One way ticket
Sorry Excuse me
Spanner Wrench
Sports day Field day
Stock Inventory
Sweet shop Candy store
T
Tap Faucet
Taxi Cab
Term Semester
Timetable Schedule
Tin Can
Toilet Restroom
Touch Flashlight
Trainers Sneakers
Trolley Cart
Trouser Pants
U
Underlay Carpet
V
Vest Undershirt
W
Wallet Billfold
Wardrobe Closet
Y
Year Grade
Z
Zebra-crossing Crosswalk

Examples:

Movie
“Why was nick in your apartment last night?”
By Alexander Pierce to Steve Rogers. (Captain America: the
winter soldier)

Movie
“Well, I was hiding in the wardrobe in the spare room”
By Lucy Prevensie to Mr.Tumnus (chronicles of Narnia: the
lion, the witch and the wardrobe)
Comic
“What accursed luck! The fire brigade!”
By Doctor Muller to himself (the adventure of Tin Tin: the
black island / volume 2/page 87)

Drama
“Yep! It’s the land I want .I have to be near paramount where
I’m going to shoot some films”
By Mrs. Al-Smith to Gaston (villa for sale by Sacha Guitry)

Story book
“I’ve brought a very good little stove for boiling and cooking
things”
By Mr.Luffy to others (the famous five: five go off to camp by
Enid Bryton /published by Hodder and Stoughton/ page 21/
chapter: up on the moors)
Novel (harry potter)
“Do you realise how much luggage you’ve all got between
you?”
By Mrs.Weasly to others (harry potter and the prisoner of
Azkaban by J.K. Rowling/chapter: the leaky cauldron/page
52/paragraph: 5/Bloomsbury publication)

“At one o’clock the plump witch with food trolley arrived at
the compartment door”
(Harry potter and the prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
/chapter: the dementor/last line of page 63/Bloomsbury
publication)

“Hermione had just come in, wearing her dressing-grown and

carrying crookshank…”
(Harry potter and the prisoner of Azkaban/chapter: the fire
bolt/page 167/ paragraph: last before/ Bloomsbury
publication)
 Pronunciation.

What is pronunciation?
Pronunciation is the way in which a word or a language is spoken .this
may refer to generally agreed-upon sequences of sound used in
speaking a given word or language in a specific dialect(“correct
pronunciation”), or simply the way a particular individual speakers
pronounce a word or a language.
A word can be spoken in different ways by various individual or
groups, depending on many factors, such as: the duration of the
cultural expose of their current childhood, the location of their current
residence, speech, their social class, or their education.

British pronunciation vs. American

pronunciation.
The main difficulties student face when learning English is
pronunciation, which seems to be one element which remarks foreign
accent. The most important one is standard pronunciation of British
English which is known as received pronunciation(RP) or BBC English
.the second one is general American (GA)which is the accent
considered as standard in America. The differences can be
summarized in terms of level as explained below.
 Vowel differences.

Change of vowel [ɒ].

 Letter ‘o’ is pronounced in many different ways in English.
Here we have a few illustrative example of such diversity:
hot [hɒt] in RP, but [hɑ:t] in GA; corn [kɔ:n] in RP, but [kɔ:rn]
in GA.

 The “short o”, which often appears in a stressed syllable with

one letter “o” such as in dog and modal, underwent a change
in American English.

 In British English that sound is pronounced as an open back

rounded short sound [ɒ], as in hot [hɒt], or possible [pɒsəbl].

 In American English it is pronounced either as an open back

unrounded long sound [a:],as in hot [hɑ:t], or as an open-
mid back rounded long vowel [ɔ:]as in dog [dɔ:g].

Note: British English prefers a short

sound as opposed to American English,
which prefers a long sound in all cases.
Examples:

word British English American English

box [bɒks] [bɑ:ks]
chocolate [`tʃɒlət] [`tʃɑ:lət] or [`tʃɔ:klət]
clock [klɒk] [klɑ:k]
dog [dɒg] [dɔ:g]
gone [gɒn] [gɔ:n]
got [gɒt] [gɑ:t]
hot [hɒt] [hɑ:t]
job [ʤɒb] [ʤɑ:b]
lot [lɒt] [lɑ:t]
not [nɒt] [nɑ:t]
possible [`pɒsəbl] [`pɑ:səbl]
sorry [`sɒri] [`sɑ:ri] or[`sɔ:ri]
stop [stɒp] [stɑ:p]
want [wɒnt] [wɑ:nt] or[wɔ:nt]
wasn’t [wɒznt] [wʌznt]

Extra reading.
The change of vowel[ɒ] to vowel [ɑ:] and [ɔ:] took place
because of two phonological phenomena, namely, the
father-brother merger and the lot-cloth split. A split is
when a once identical sound happens to have a different
pronunciation in some instance; usually both sound
coexist. A merge is the opposite, two sound that had
formerly been contrastive become pronounced alike so
they are no longer consider different. A split can be
viewed as the appearance of a new sound and a merge
as the disappearance of an existing sound.
  The father –brother merge: this merge is responsible
for the transformation of [ɒ] into [ɑ:]. Vowel
[ɑ]underwent two main change: first, it was
lengthened to [ɒ:], and later it lost its roundedness
becoming finally [ɑ:].this change widely affected the
American English pronunciation whereas the British
English pronunciation was not.

 The lot-cloth split: the sound [ɒ]was first lengthened

to [ɒ:] and later raised to [ɔ:], the split took place
before voiceless fricative [f], [ɵ], [s], but later it was
extended to velars like[k], [g], and[ɳ] .thus in GA we
find.
[f] loft [lɔ:ft]
[ɵ] cloth [klɔ:ɵ]
[s] lost [lɔ:st]
[k] chocolate [tʃɔ:klət]
[g] dog [dɔ:g]
[ɳ] long [lɔ:ɳ]

Where as in RP they are systematically pronounced as [o].

Note: the most frequent change are from [ɒ]to [ɑ:] and [ɔ:].
However in a very few cases vowel [ɒ] is changed to [oʊ]
and[ʌ].
Change of [æ].
Vowel[æ] started to undergo a change in British English. This
near-open front unrounded vowel [æ]is first lengthened to [æ:]
and lowered to the open back unrounded vowel [ɑ:]. However,
the change did not take off in GA, bringing about a new
difference between both accents.

The change of vowel occurs under certain condition, but it is

deemed to be inconsistent, as well will see in the example below.
Vowel [æ] becomes vowel [ɑ:] in RP when.
 Vowel[ǽ] is before the sound [s], [f], and [ɵ], as in pass,
calf, and path.

 Vowel[æ] is followed by another consonants, especially in

the cases such as [ns], [nt], [ntʃ], and [mpl], as in dance,
can’t, ranch, and sample.

 The change are not applied before other consonants, as in

cat, pal, cab, and drag.

Change from [ju:] to [u:].

Similarity.
Around the beginning of twentieth century several change took
place in English vowels. One of them was “yod-dropping”, the
omission of sound [j] before[u].both RP and GA embraced the
change although GA extended the cases in which yod-dropping
was applied.
Yod-dropping before [u]takes place before [u:] takes place in RP
and GA in the following cases:

 After the post alveolar affricates [tʃ] and[ʤ] as in,

[tʃ] chew [tʃu:]
[ʤ] juice [ʤu:s]
Jew [ʤu:]

 After [r] as in,

[r] rude [ru:d]
prude [pru:d]
shrewd [ʃru:d]

 After cluster formed by a consonant followed by[l] as in,

[l] blue [blu:]
flue [flu:]
slew [slu:]

Apart from this common corpus of words, in GA as well as in many

other varieties of English we observe yod-dropping in father cases,

 After [s] and[z] as in,

[s] suit [su:t]
[z] zues [zu:s]
  Especially in GA, after [t],[d], and [n], as in :
GA RP
[t] tune [tu:n] [tju:n]
stew [stu:] [stju:]
[d] dew [du:] [dju:]
duty [du:ti] [dju:ti]
[n] new [nu:] [nju:]

Minor changes

Change of [i:] and[ɛ].

Sometimes, swap between vowels [i:] and [e]are also

found. Here we have a few instances.
.
RP GA
devolution [di:və`lu:ʃ(ə)n] [dɛvə`lu:ʃ(ə)n]
aesthetic [i:sɵɛtik] [ɛs`ɵɛtik]
evolution [i:və`lu:ʃ(ə)n] [ɛvəlu:ʃ(ə)n]
epoch [i:pɒk] [ɛpɒk]

Change of [ɛ] in RP to [i:] in GA.

RP GA
zebra [zɛbrə] [zi:brə]
 Diphthong differences

Change of diphthong [əʊ] to [oʊ].

The shift from the British diphthong [əʊ] to [oʊ] is also very
distinguishing. The shift consisted in the change of the mid
central unrounded vowel [ə] to the close mid back rounded vowel
[o]in the first vowel of the diphthong.

word RP GA
go [gəʊ] [goʊ]
no [nəʊ] [noʊ]
crow [krəʊ] [kroʊ]
cocoa [kəʊkəʊ] [koʊkoʊ]
promotion [prə`məʊʃn] [prə`moʊʃn]
component [kəm`pəʊnənt] kəm`poʊnənt]
romantic [rəʊ`mæntik] [roʊ`mæntik]
 Consonants differences

 Rhotic accent.
BBC pronunciation and General American do not differ considerably
in the consonantal system. The two standard accent have the some
consonant phonemes. The differences are based on their phonetic
realization and their distribution. The most important difference
between the consonants of the two accents concerns the
distribution of/r/.BBC English is a Non-Rhotic accent, i.e. this
consonant occurs only before vowels. There is no such constraint on
its distribution in General American, which is a rhotic accent,i.e,/r/
is pronounced everywhere (before a vowel, after a vowel, and in
front of another consonant).
Examples;
word BBC pronunciation General pronunciation

car [ka:] kah [ka:r] kaar

fear [fiə] feeuh [fiər] feer

Moreover, there are other differences in terms of suffixes; there

is a tendency for the “ile” suffix in hostile, fragile, futile. To have
a week vowel or a syllable consonant and to be pronounced/əl/
or in /l/ in General American,
 The change of suffix “ile”.

word BBC General

pronunciation pronunciation

hostile [hɒstail] ho-strail [hɑ:stˌl] haa-stl

fragile [frædʒil] fra-jail [fræʤ`l] fra-jl

 The change of suffixes ary, ery, ory in

BBC and GA pronunciation.
The suffixes “-ary,-ery,-ory” usually have a week vowel in
BBC pronunciation but a strong one in GA,
word BBC General
pronunciation pronunciation
dictionary [dikʃənəri] [dikʃəneri]
monastery [mɒnəstəri] [ma:nəstəri]
territory [terətəri] [tərətɔ:ri]
 Spelling.
There are several area in which British and American spelling s are
different. The differences first arose at the time of the British
colonization of North America, English spelling wasn’t yet fixed.
Standardized spelling of English came about in the18th century, after
the American colonies had already declared independence.
Further the differences came because British has tended to keep the
spelling of words it has absorbed from other language (e.g. French),
while American English has adopted the spelling to reflect the way
that the words actually sound when they’re spoken. Along with this
Noah Webster (founder of Webster dictionary) attempted to simplify
spelling as he believed that the spelling of words should match their
pronunciation as much as possible.
Here are the main ways in which British and American spellings differs,

-our,-or.
Most words ending in an unstressed -our in British English (e.g. color,
flavor) end in -or in American English (e.g. colour, flavour).
Most word of this kind come from Latin, where the ending was spelling
-or. They were first adopted into English from early old French, and
the ending was spelled -our,-or, or -Ur, later the ending become -our
to match the old French spelling.
Where as in America, Webster’s 1828 dictionary had only -or and is
given much of the credit for the adaptation of -or form in America.
Examples,
British American British American
arbour arbor humour humor
armour armor labour labor
behaviour behavior neighbour neighbor
candour candor odour odor
clamour clamor parlour parlor
colour color rancour rancor
demeanour demeanor rigour rigor
endeavour endeavor rumour rumor
favour favor saviour savior
flavour flavor vigour vigor
honour honor

Similarity
Wherever the vowel is unreduced in pronunciation, e.g. contour,
velour, paramour and troubadour the spelling is consistent
everywhere.

-re, -er.
In British English, some words from French, Latin or geek end with a
consonant followed by an unstressed -re (pronounced /ə(r)). In
modern America English, most of these words have the ending -er to
better reflect American pronunciation.
The difference is most common for words ending -bre or -tre, some of
the examples are here.
British American British American
calibre caliber fibre fiber
centre center litre liter
lustre luster sabre saber
meagre meager sceptre scepter
metre meter spulchre sepulcher
theatre theater sombre somber

-ce,-se.
In British English the verb that relates to a noun ending in -ce is
sometimes given the ending -se. For example, advice (noun) /advice
(verb), device/devise, licence/ license, practice/practice. American
English uses -se for both the noun and verb form of these words. It also
uses -se for other noun which in British English are spelt -ce, including
defense, offense, and pretense.
Example:
British America
offence offense
defence defense
pretence pretense
pratice practise
licence license
advice advise

-ae, -oe.
Many words, especially medical words, which are written with ae or
oe in British English are written with just an e in American English. The
sound in question are /i: / or/ɛ/ (or, unstressed, /i/, /ɪ/ or/ə/).
Examples:
British America
anaemia anemia
caecum cecum
coeliac celian
faeces faces
gynaecology gynecology
leukemia leukemia
peadiatric pediatric
paedophile pedophile

Similarity.
Words that can be spelled either way in American English include.
aesthetics esthetics
archaeology archeology
palaestra palestra

Word that can be spelled either way in British English include.

homoeopathy homeopathy
encyclopaedia encyclopedia
mediaeval medieval

-ize, -ise, -yze, -yse.

Many verbs that end in –ize can also end in –ise in British English. For
examples in British English, all of the following spellings are
acceptable: finalize/finalise, organize/organise, realize/ realise.
In American English, the only correct spellings are finalize, organize,
and realize.
Examples:
British –ise/-ize American -ize
realise/ realize realize
apologise /apologize apologize
organise /organize organize
recognise/ recognize recognize
finalise /finalize finalize
categorise /categorize categorize
actualise/actualize actualize
sanitise/sanitize sanitize
apologise/apologize apologize

There are also a few verbs which always end in –yse in British
English.
Examples:
analyse catalyse electrolyse
breathalyse dialyse hydrolyse
paralyse psychoanalyse

In American English, they are spelled with the ending –yze.

analyze catalyze electrolyze
breathalyze dialyze hydrolyze
paralyze psychoanalyze

Similarity.
In both American and British English, there is a small set of verbs that
must always be spelled with –ise at the end. The main reason for this
is that, in these words, -ise is part of a longer word element rather
than being a separate ending in its own right. For example: cise
(meaning ‘taking’) as in surprise, or –mise (meaning ‘sending’) in
promise.
Examples:
advertise surmise
apprise advise
comprise chastise
despise compromise
chastise devise
excise disguise
improvise exercise
revise incise
promise supervise
surprise televise

-ogue,-og.
British English uses the ending –ogue while in American English both
are acceptable.
Examples:
British American
analogue analog/ analogue
catalogue catalog/catalogue
dialogue dialog/dialogue

Word like demagogue, pedagogue, and synagogue are seldom used

without –ue even in American English.
Similarity.
Both British and America English use the spelling –gue with a silent –
ue for certain words that are not part of the –ogue set, such as tongue,
plague, vague, and league. In addition, when the –ue is not silent, as
in the words argue, ague, and segue, all varieties of English use –gue.

-l,-ll.
In written British English when a words ends in –l, the final –l is often
doubled (even when the final syllable is unstressed).
Example:
British American
cancelled canceled
counsellor counsellor
modelling modeling
traveller traveling
dishevelled disheveled

There are some words in which British writers prefer a single -l and
America writers prefer to use a double -l words with this spelling
different include:

British America
willful wilful
skillful skilful
installment instalment
enrollment enrolment
 Note: Will, skill, fill, roll, and stall are always written will -ll in
both British and American English.

 In British English a double -I is sometimes used in these words:

distill/distil, instill/instil, and enrollment/enrolment and all these
words are always have double -l in American English.

Similarity.
Lastly, in both America and British English spelling, words
normally spelled with a double -l usually drop the second –l when
used as prefixes or suffixes.
For example:
word Prefixes/ suffixes
full Useful, handful
all Almighty,
altogether
well Welfare, welcome

Dropped “e”.
British English sometimes keep a silent “e” when adding suffixes
where American English does not .generally speaking, British
English drops it in only some cases in which it is needed to show
pronunciation where as American English only use it where
needed.
Example:
British American
ageing aging
routeing routing

Similarity.
 Both form of English keep the silent “e” in the words of
dyeing(dye), singeing(singe), to distinguish from dying(die),
singing(swing).
 Both forms of English prefer cringing (cringe), hinging
(hinge), lunging (lunge), and syringing (syringe).

 Before –able, British English prefers, to keep the silent

“whereas in American English prefers to drop the “-e” in
some words.
Examples:
British American
likeable likable
liveable livable
reteable retable
saleable salable
sizeable sizable
unshakeable unshakable

Similarity.
 Both British and American English prefers breathable,
curable, datable, movables, notables, provable, quotable,
scalable, solvable, usable, and those where the root is
polysyllabic. ((Of a word) having more than one syllable).
  Both form keep the silent “e” when it is needed to preserve
a soft “c”, “ch”, or “g” such as in traceable, changeable.

 Both form of English usually keep the “e” after “-dge”, as in

knowledgeable, unbridgeable.

Hyphenation.
British English prefers hyphenation in the case of prefixes
whereas American English tends to omit the hyphen when it
comes to prefixes. Many dictionaries do not point out this
differences though.
Examples:
British American
Anti-smoking antismoking
Mid-line midline
Pre-school preschool

Similarity.
 A hyphen is mandatory in both American and British English
when prefix is applied to an adjective that is capitalized.
Example: un-American or anti-Christian.
 Prefixes (such as de-,-pre, -re, and non-) and suffixes (such as –
less, -like, -ness, and –hood) may or may not be hyphenated
unless and otherwise a lack of clarity hurts.
 Note: many long established words, such as refresh, degrade,
and disgusted do not require a hyphen.

Examples:
 Grammar.
The grammatical changes that are found between British English and
American English are usually related to verbs, nouns and prepositions.

Verb
 Tense
One of the most notable differences in the use of tenses is, British
English uses the present perfect tense when an action happened in the
past and the result of the action are in the present. These tense is often
accompanied words such as: already, just and yet. In American English
simple past is used for the same situation.
Examples:
British American
I have phoned. I phoned.
We have just returned from our We just returned from the trip.
trip.
Has he come? Did he come?

British and American have several differences with respect to the past
tense and past participle of the verbs.
Examples:
infinitive Past tense Past participles
fit Fitted;(NAmE usually Fitted;(NAmE usually
fit) fit)
dive Dived;(NAmE also Dived
dove)
get Got Got;(NAmE also
gotten)
burn Burnt;(NAmE also Burnt; (NAmE also
burned) burned)
kneel Knelt;(NAmE also Knelt;(NAmE also
kneeled) kneeled)
plead Pleaded ;( NAmE also Pleaded ;( NAmE also
pled) pled)
prove Prove Prove;(also proven
especially in NAmE)
saw Sawed Sawn ;( NAmE also
sawed)
spit Spat ;(also spit Spat ;(also spit
especially in NAmE) especially in NAmE)
spring Sprang ;( NAmE also Sprung
sprung)
strike Struck Struck ;( NAmE also
stricken)
dream Dreamt ;( NAmE also Dreamt ;( NAmE also
dreamed) dreamed)

lean Leaned;(BrE also Leaned;(BrE also

learnt) learnt)
shit Shit ,shat; (BrE also Shit, shat; (BrE also
shitted) shitted)
smell Smelled ; (BrE also Smelled ; (BrE also
smelt) smelt)
spill Spilled ; (BrE also Spilled ; (BrE also
spilt) spilt)
spoil Spoiled ; (BrE also Spoiled ; (BrE also
spoilt) spoilt)
quit Quit ; (BrE also Quit ; (BrE also
quitted) quitted)
Note: in British English, many simple past can end in “ed” or in “t”, but in
American English the ending of “ed” is normally preferred.
Example:
British American
She learnt to play the piano. She learned to play the piano.
He always dreamt of being a foot He always dreamed of being a
baller. footballer.

Examples:

Quote

“Blood’s been spilled to afford us this moment now! Now! Now!”

-Abraham Lincoln-

Quote.
“I’ve discovered that people don’t actually want to have things spoiled, and
they really try to avoid spoilers.”

- Rebecca Eaton -
(American television producer)
Movie.
“No, ‘Grover told me. “We’ve learned that your plan really, really
bite!”
By Grover to Percy (Percy Jackson and the lightning thief)

TV series.
“I don’t think that bolt of lightning struck you, Barry. I think it chose
you.”
By Oliver queen to berry Allen (flash). (The flash/ season one)

Quote.
“The time spat at me .I spit back at the time.”
-Andrei Voznesenski-

“Have got” or “have”

In British English, the phrase ‘have got’ denote possession or
obligation and is often used in an informal context. Whereas in
American English, a single word ‘have’ is used. The ‘have got’ is also
used in American English but mostly to indicate obligation.

British American
I have got a book. I have a book.
I have got a good friend. I have a good friend.

Examples:
Comic
“We’ve got to get out of here…”
 (The adventure of Tin Tin: the black island/page 14)
  Present subjunctive
The “present subjunctive “is regularly used in American English in
mandative clause. In British English, this usage decline in the 20th
century and replaced by “should + infinitive”
Example
British American
They suggested that he should They suggested that he apply for
apply for the job. the job.

However, the madative subjunctive has always been used in British

English, especially in formal writing.

Note: The mandative subjunctive is used with clause that usually,

but not always, being with that and express a demand, requirement,
request, recommendation or suggestion.it is indicated by the use of the
base form of the verb (love, skip, hate, and jump) with singular
subjects.
Example: It is recommended that the board approve the policy.

 Verbal auxiliaries.

Shall/shan’t
Shall is commonly used by the British than by modern-day Americans,
who generally prefer will.
British American
I shall stay long. I will stay long.
I shall be able to come tomorrow. I will be able to come tomorrow.
Shan’t is regarded by Americans as a stereotypical construction; in
America, it is almost invariable replaced by won’t or am/is/are +not
going to.
Examples:
British American
I shan’t tell her. I am not going to tell her.
I shan’t miss her at all. I won’t miss her at all.

Examples:

Novel.
“The first term will be devoted to reading the tea leaves. Next term we
shall progress to palmistry.
(Harry potter and prisoner of Azkaban/chapter: talons and
leaves/paragraph: 3/page: 80)
Comic.
“Fully loaded: that’s better still, I hope I shan’t need to use it…Now,
let’s go…”
(The adventure of Tin Tin: the black island/page 117)

Should/would
In both British and American English grammar, would and should have
different meanings. However, in British English it is also possible for
should and would to have the same meaning, with a difference only in
term of formality (should doing more formal than would) whereas in
American English only would is being used in both contexts.
 British American
formal I should be happy to go. I would be happy to
go.
informal I would be happy to go. I would be happy to
go.

Do
Brits preserves “do” in its place, whereas Americans sometimes omit
it.
British American
Has Anne closed the door? Did Anne close the door?
She must have done. She must have.

Go/come+ bare infinitive

When the verb go and come are followed by another verb, british
people use the conjunction “and” whereas Americans uses a bare
infinitive.
British
Go and + I will go and have/take a bath.
bare
infinitive.
Come and + Come and see what I have bought you.
bare
infinitive.

American
Go + bare I will go have/take a bath.
infinitive.
Come + bare Come see what I have bought you.
infinitive.
 Transitivity.
In many cases, a verb that’s transitive in American English will be
intransitive in British English. Other times, the intransitive American
English verb will be transitive in British English so you’ll see that they
need to use prepositions in different context as well.
Examples:
British American

agree Transitive or intransitive. Intransitive.(agree a

(usually intransitive except contract/agree to or on a
with objective clause) contract)

cater Intransitive.(to provide Transitive or intransitive.(to

food and service) cater a banquet/ to cater a
banquet)

claim Sometimes intransitive Strictly transitive

(used with for)
appeal Usually intransitive(used transitive
with against)

Knowing which verb are transitive or intransitive take a lot of

practice, and the best way to learn it is simply listen to native
speakers.
  Compliment.
Some verbs can take either a to + infinitive construction or a
gerund construction. For example, the Gerung is more
common:
 In America than Britain, with start, begin, omit, enjoy,
meet; and in Britain than America, with love, kind,
intend.
For example, it is becoming increasingly common in
American English to hear people say “ Nice meeting [gerund]
you” when they are being introduced to another person,
whereas in British English , it would be “Nice to meet
[infinitive] you”.

Note: “Nice meeting you” is the shorted form of “it was

nice meeting you” and might be used in British English
when a person is leaving after a meeting.
Nouns.

 Collective nouns

 In British English, collective nouns can take either singular or

plural verb forms, according to whether the emphasis is on
the body as a whole or on the individual members
respectively.
Example:
British
The committee were able to cope with the task very efficiently.
Or
The committee was able to cope with the task very efficiently.

A committee was appointed with the committee were unable to

agree.

Note: In the official setting, British always uses the term “the
government” with the plural form of a verb.

 In American English, collective nouns are almost always

singular in construction.
Example:
American
The committee was able with the task very to cope efficiently.

The committee was able to cope with the task very efficiently.
  Proper nouns
Proper nouns that are plural in form take a plural verb in both
American and British English.
Example: The Beatles are a well-known band.
The diamond back are the champions.
Note: the United States is almost universally used with a singular verb.

 Articles
Another important group of differences is related to the use of articles
before certain nouns. Such institutional nouns as hospital and
university do not take any article in British English but take the
definite article in American English (although American uses “in
college” and “in school” which is similar to British).

Examples:
British American
Mark is studying at university. Mark is studying at the
university.
Mary is admitted in hospital. Mary is admitted in the
hospital.

Furthermore, dates in British English include the article “the” while

dates in American English are without any article.

Example:
British American
The twenty-second of May. May twenty second.
 Extra reading.

British English distinguishes between “in future” (from this time

on) and “in the future” (at some time later), whereas American
English use the same from for both meanings: “in the future”.

American English distinguishes between “in back of” (behind)

and “in the back of” (in the rear part), but British English does
not recognize the former form and meaning.

Prepositions.

What is a preposition?
Prepositions are short words which serve to indicate relation between
words in a sentence.

Use of prepositions
At/on
In British English and American English, at is used with many time
expressions (at Christmas, at five ‘o’ clock) but the difference is, in
British English at is used when talking about the weekend whereas in
American English on is used when talking about the weekend.
Examples:

British American
She should be coming home at She will be coming home on
weekends. weekends.
Would they still be there on Will they still be there at the
the weekend? weekend?

At/in
In British English, at is often used when talking about universities or
other institution. Whereas in American English, in is often used.
Examples:
British American
She studied French at high She studied French in high
school. school.

To/than
In British English, to from are used with the adjective “different”
whereas as in American English from and then are used with the
adjective “different”.

Examples:
British American
This place is different to This place is different than
anything I have seen before. anything I have seen before.
similarity
This place is different from This place is different from
anything I have seen before. anything I have seen before.
To write /write
In British English, to is always used after the verb write, whereas in
American English, to can be omitted after write.
Examples:
British American
I promised to write to her every I promised to write her every
day. day.
He write to you every Christmas. He write you every Christmas.
 Idioms.
An idiom is a phrase whose meaning is difficult or sometimes
impossible to guess by looking at the meaning of the individual words
it contains. For example, the phrase be in the same boat has a literal
meaning that is easy to understand, but it also has a common
idiomatic meaning:
 I found the job difficult at first. But we were all in the same
boat; we were all learning.
Here, be in the same boat means ‘to be in the same difficult or
unfortunate situation’.

Types of idioms
Some idioms are imaginative expressions such as proverbs and
sayings:
 Too many cooks spoil the broth. (If too many people are
involved in a work or something, it will not be well done.)

Other idioms are short expressions that are used for a particular
purpose:
 Get lost!( a rude way of saying ‘go away’)

Many idioms, however are not vivid in this way. They are considered
as idioms because their form is fixed:
 for certain
British American Meaning
As red as beetroot As red as beet To become very red
in face, especially
when someone is
embarrassed
Lie of the land Lay of the land To get a general
state or condition of
affairs under
consideration; the
fact of a situation
A new lease of life A new lease on A substantially
life improved prospect
of life or use after
rejuvenation or
repair
To slip on a banana To slip on a To make a silly,
skin banana peel embarrassing ,or
Avoidable mistake.
A storm in a teacup A tempest in a A great anger or
teacup excitement about a
trivial matter.
To take it with a pinch To take it with a View something with
of salt grain of salt skepticism or not
interpret something
literally.
Jump the queue Cut in line Going unfairly ahead
of others while
waiting in line.
To do the washing up To do the dishes washing the dishes

Easy game Easy game Someone who is

easily fooled or
victimized.
 A home from home A home away A place where one is
from home as happy, relaxed, or
comfortable as in
one’s own home.
Not to touch Not to touch To avoid something
something with a something with a at all cost; to refuse
bargepole ten-foot pole to associate with
something or to be
unable to approach
something or
someone.(this
expression is nearly
always used in the
negative)
To sweep under the To sweep under To hide a problem or
carpet the rug try to keep it secret
instead of dealing
with it

Examples:
 Whenever I talked about his past life, he would go as red as
beetroot/beet.
 When she realized her mistake, she turned as red as
beetroot/beet.
 Her grandchildren have given her a new life.
 The director has slipped on a banana peel/skin in his latest
film.
 Many countries would enjoy seeing china slip on a banana
skin/peel.
 I am sure this disagreement is all a storm/tempest in a teacup.
 He is known to exaggerate so take anything he says with a
grain /pinch of salt.
 Take whatever that paper publishers with a grain/pinch of
salt.
 Excuse me, I am in a hurry, could I please cut in line.
 The old man just jumped the line without any excuse.
 Today is Jane’s turn to do the washing up/dishes.
 He is an easy mark/game for her.
 This is the only food we have left, and if you don’t like it,
hard/stiff cheese.
 Anne visits Paris so often, it has become his home away from
home.
 Get that cocaine away from me .I don’t touch that stuff with
a barge /ten-foot pole.
 Punctuations.
Punctuation marks British American
the “.” symbol is A full stop A period
called
the “!” symbol is An exclamation mark An exclamation point
called
the “()” symbol is brackets parentheses
called
the “[]” symbol is square brackets brackets
called

Quotation marks
American style use double quotes (“”) for initial quotations, then
single quotes (‘’) for quotations within the initial quotation. Whereas
in British style uses single quotes (‘’) for initial quotation, then double
quotation (“”) for quotation within the initial quotation but double
quotes are now increasingly common even in British.

Example:
British American
‘Tom told me the new star wars “Tom told me the star wars
movie will be “terrible”. I can’t movie will be ‘terrible’. I can’t
believe it.’ believe it.”
The above examples also show that the American style places commas
and periods inside the quotation marks, even if they are there or not
there in the original material. British style places periods/commas
inside the quotation marks if they are there in the original material
and outside if they are not in the original material.
Similarity
Semicolon or colon “quote”; / “quote”:
Exclamation mark, “quote!” / “quote?”/ “quote…”/
question mark, ellipsis “quote--”
points, dash. If the terminal punctuation marks
belong to the quotation.
“quote”!/ “quote”?/ “quote”…/
“quote”—
If the terminal punctuation marks
doesn’t to the quotation.
Acronyms and abbreviations.
Acronyms
In British English, only the initial letter of an acronym is capitalized if
the acronym is read as a word, e.g., “Unesco” whereas in American
English most of the time the whole word is capitalized.
British American
Nasa NASA
Sos SOS
Unicef UNICEF
Nato NATO

This does not apply to abbreviations that are pronounced as

individual letters, such as US, UK, or IBM, which are virtually always
written in capitals. However, sometimes only the initial letter is
capitalized still in Britain, such as Pc (police constable).

Contractions
In British English, a common convention is to omit the full stop it the
abbreviation or contraction ends in the same letter as the original
word (e.g., Dr, Mr, Mrs).however, if the last letter has been altered, a
full stop is included (e.g., Prof., vol.,etc.) whereas in American
English, it is common to follow an abbreviation or contraction with a
full stop (e.g., Dr.,Mr.).
 Numerical expressions
Date
Writing the numbers
Americans write dates in the order of month, day, and year but in brits
write dates in the order of day, month, and year, to avoid confusion,
we can write out the month.
Examples:
British American
12/05/20 05/12/20
12 may 2020 May 12,2020

Reading the numbers

When saying dates, British people would include “of” and “the”
whereas Americans omit.
Example:
British American
The nineteenth of May, two May nineteenth, two thousand
thousand twenty. twenty.

Time
Brits tends to use the full stop when telling, whereas Americans use
colons.
Examples:
British American
11.00 11:00
Fifteen minutes after the hour is called quarter past in British usage
and in American usage it is called as a quarter after.
Fifteen minutes before the hour is called quarter to in British usage
and in American usage it is called as a quarter of, or a quarter to.

Similarity
Thirty minutes after the hour is commonly called half past in both brits
and American English.
In both dialects to be simple and direct in telling time, no terms
relating to fifteen or thirty minutes before / after the hour are used:
rather the time is told exactly as for example nine fifteen, ten forty-
five or six thirty.

Money (monetary amounts)

In America one may say a dollar fifty or a pond eighty, whereas in
Britain these amount would be expressed one dollar fifty or one
pound eighty.

For amount over a dollar an American will generally either drop

denominations or give both dollars and cents. Example,
$2.20 Two dollars and twenty cents two-twenty
On the other hand British would say,
€2.20 Two-twenty two pounds twenty

American use words such as a nickel, dime, and quarter for small coins.
In Britain the usual usage is a 10-pence/piece or simply a 10p for any
coin below 1 pound.