Comparative of the

two Varieties
BRITISH AND AMERICAN
ENGLISH
English has numerous varieties, such as American English, British
English, South African English, Australian English, Indian English,
Singaporean English, New Zealand English etc. Observation shows
that British and American English are the two major varieties of
English with a few distinctive features. We could distinguish them
from some points of view: spelling, vocabulary & pronunciation.
 Spelling
English has a minimal phonetic spelling i.e. the spelling does not always
represent the pronunciation. However, in the domain of spelling, though
both the varieties have been sharing, there are still a few differences. For
example, the spelling of the word ‘judgement’ is ‘judgment’ in American
English. But now ‘judgement’ is also spelt in the same way in British
English. Some other alike words are – abridg(e)ment, acknowledg(e)ment,
travel(l)ing etc.
 British English (BrE) American English (AmE)
ou ----- colour, favour o -------- color, favor
The commonest
re ------ centre, litre er ------- center, liter
variation of
t --------- got, burnt tt/ed -- gotten, burned
spelling in the two
ll ---- woollen, jeweller l ----- woolen, jeweler
varieties is as
follows: l ------- fulfil, skilful ll ------- fulfill, skillful
en ---------- ensure in ---------- insure
p ------------- zip pp ---------- zipper
In a word, in most of the cases, British spelling is longer than that of
American. A few words have two spellings in BrE. e.g. organize/organise.
The verbs of British English, prefer ‘–ise’ at the end while ‘–ize’ is
preferred in American English. It can be mentioned that the first one
(i.e.‘–ise’) is used in both languages. Moreover, many compilers of British
dictionaries seem to take interest in using ‘–ise’ with the verb.
 Language is mainly spoken. So,
pronunciation matters a lot in differentiating
the two varieties of English. Though the
main variation in pronunciation of the two
varieties is with ‘r’, there is also some other
of differences. Pronunciation
o The British pronunciations are based on those in the English Pronouncing Dictionary (
14th Edition by A. C. Gimson, Dent 1977)—
the pronunciation of the educated people of southern England. But the American pro
nunciations are based on the pronunciations in Webster’s
Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary (1983).

o The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) sound symbols are shown here to follow
the phonetic transcriptions. The IPA has more or less 44 sound symbols (24
consonants & 20 vowels).
BrE is Non-rhotic. That is to say, ‘r’ is not pronounced in all positions
while AmE is Rhotic and so ‘r’ is pronounced in all positions. In BrE, ‘r’ is
pronounced only if it follows a vowel.

e.g. Car Driver /kα: draivə/ (BrE) — /kα:r draivər/ (AmE)

But, Car Accident /kα:r æksidənt/ — both BrE & AmE Besides
There are some more differences in the pronunciation of the two
varieties:

BrE— Winter /wintə/, AmE — Winter /winər/

BrE— International /intənæʃnəl/ AmE– International /intərnæʃnəl/ etc.
o Moreover, the structure ‘going to’ pronounced as ‘gonna’
/gɒnə/ is used in AmE to express the future.

o In some cases, though the spelling in BrE and AmE are not
always the same, the pronunciation is almost the same. e.g.
programme (BrE) and program (AmE).
 Vocabulary
Vocabularies constitue the strength of a language. Nowadays, the two
varieties of English are becoming more expressive for a huge borrowing
of words from each other. Sometimes the alternative word(s) of the two
may cause difference in meaning and spelling.

Here are a few of them side by side

British English American English British English American English
aeroplane airplane lorry truck
announcer presenter main road high way
biscuit cookie rubber eraser
badge button shop store
cinema (a movie film) movie theater torch flashlight
domestic homely trousers pants
frying pan skillet underground (rail) subway
o In AmE, ‘school’ means even a university while in BrE, it refers to an
institution where mainly primary and secondary level of education is
given.
o Recently some new words have been coined in BrE from AmE. For
example: airline, disco, laser, radio, opera, zipper, pants, mass meeting,
teddy bear, whole hearted, Xerox etc.
The vocabulary of AmE is much easier to get the meaning than that
of BrE. e.g. ‘necktie’ (AmE) in place of ‘tie’ (BrE)
Thanks fo
r your att
ention!