Comparison of American and British English

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by JackLumber (talk | contribs) at 14:01, 20 April 2006 (N dashes). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Revision as of 14:01, 20 April 2006 by JackLumber (talk | contribs) (N dashes)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

This article outlines the differences between American English, the form of the English language spoken in the United States, and British English, or the British-based form of English spoken in most Commonwealth countries (sometimes therefore called Commonwealth English and occasionally International English).

For the purposes of this article:

American English is the form of English used by people in the United States and, as a lingua franca or second language, by people in many parts of the world. American English does not include Canadian English; although Canadian pronunciation and vocabulary is very similar to that of the United States, Canadian spelling often takes the Commonwealth form. Regions and countries that tend to use American English in teaching and publishing include much of the East Asia (especially Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, and mainland China; although largely excluding the former British colonies of Hong Kong and Singapore), the Americas (excluding other former British colonies such as Canada, Jamaica, and the Bahamas) and, in Africa, Liberia. The World Bank, and the Organization of American States, among other organizations, also use American English.
Commonwealth English is the form of English used across the United Kingdom and most of the former British Empire, most notably in much of Africa (including South Africa and Egypt), the Indian subcontinent (Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh), Malta, Australia and New Zealand, and portions of Southeast Asia (Myanmar, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand), as well as Hong Kong and all of the English speaking Caribbean, formerly known as the British West Indies. It is the first language of the vast majority of the inhabitants of Ireland. Like American English, it is used in many parts of the world as a lingua franca. This form of English, mostly interchangeable with British English, is sometimes called Commonwealth English because most of its speakers live in nations that are members of the Commonwealth of Nations. Other nations and groups that use British English include the European Union and, often, the United Nations. Many international organizations, like the International Olympic Committee, NATO, the World Trade Organization and ISO also use British English. All Middle Eastern Countries, except Israel, use British English.
Canadian English, the form of English spoken in Canada, exhibits features of both British and American dialects; while spelling is closer to British English, pronunciation and vocabulary are much closer to American English. Many words and phrases thought of as "Americanisms" are also used by Canadians.
Although British English is a term used when describing formal written English used in the United Kingdom, the forms of spoken English used in the United Kingdom vary considerably more than in most other areas of the world in which English is spoken, even more than in the United States, despite the vastly larger population and land area of the U.S. Dialects and accents vary not only between nations of the UK — in Scotland, England, Northern Ireland, and Wales — but also within these nations, with differences occurring within the space of a few miles in some cases. Northern Ireland has the most numerous accents for such a small area, and different accents can even be detected from different areas of certain towns. The written form of the language universally taught in schools is Commonwealth English with a slight emphasis on a few words which might be more common in the specific areas than others. For example, although the words "wee" and "small" are interchangeable, one is more likely to see "wee" written by a Scot than by a Londoner.

Although spoken American and British English are generally mutually intelligible, there are enough differences to occasionally cause awkward misunderstandings or even a complete failure to communicate. George Bernard Shaw once said that the United States and United Kingdom are "two countries divided by a common language"; a similar comment is ascribed to Winston Churchill. Henry Sweet predicted in 1877 that within a century, American English, Australian English and British English would be mutually unintelligible, but 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 (as, for instance, truck has been gradually replacing lorry in much of the world) or in the acceptance of wide variations as "perfectly good English" everywhere.

In addition to its use in English-speaking countries, English plays an important role as a technical language around the world, in medicine, computer science, air traffic control, and many other areas of concentrated expertise and formal communication among international professionals.

Pronunciation

See: American and British English pronunciation differences

Grammar

Singular and plural for nouns

In British English, singular nouns that describe multiple people are often treated as plural, particularly where one is concerned with the people constituting the team, rather than with the team as an entity. The singular form is usually used in American. For example, British "the team are worried"; American "the team is worried". Americans may use the plural form when the individual membership is clear, for example, "the team take their seats" (not "the team takes its seat(s)"), although it is often rephrased to avoid the singular/plural decision, as in "the team members take their seats". The difference occurs for all collective nouns, 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). Proper nouns which are plural in form take a plural verb in both American and British English. Examples:
- British English: "The Clash are a well-known band." American English: "The Clash is a well-known band." Both: "The Beatles are a well-known band."
- British English: "New England are the champions." American English: "New England is the champion." Both: "The Patriots are the champions".
Differences in which nouns are the same in both their plural and singular forms, such as the word sheep. In American English, shrimp is such a word, but in British English the plural of shrimp is shrimps. (Shrimps is occasionally heard in the southern U.S., but is otherwise rare, apart from its colloquial use as a pejorative term for small people).

Use of tenses

British English 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).
- "Have you cleaned your teeth?" / "Did you clean your teeth?"
- "Have you done your homework yet?" / "Did you do your homework yet?"
- "I've just got home." / "I just got home."
- "I've already eaten." / "I already ate."
Similarly, the pluperfect is occasionally replaced by the preterite in the U.S.; this is generally regarded as sloppy usage by those Americans who consider themselves careful users of the language.
In British English, 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. American also informally uses got as a verb for these meanings, e.g. "I got two cars," "I got to go"; but these are nonstandard and will be considered sloppy usage by many American speakers.
The subjunctive mood is more common in American English in expressions such as: "They suggested that he apply for the job". British English would have "They suggested that he should apply for the job" (or even "They suggested that he applied for the job"). However, the British usage ("should apply") is also heard in the United States.

Verb morphology

See also: the list of irregular verbs

Verb past tenses with -ed: Americans usually use dreamed, leaped, learned, spelled; the British more commonly use dreamt, leapt, learnt, spelt, particularly if the speaker uses Received Pronunciation. As with the "tre" words, the t endings are often found in older American texts. The forms with -ed are also common in British usage, and preferred by many careful writers of English since they are regular verbs. (Note that the two-syllable form learnèd /'lɜːnɪd/, usually written simply as learned, is still used as an adjective to mean "educated", or to refer to academic institutions, in both British English and American English.)
Other verb past tense forms: Americans more frequently use the irregular forms fit, forecast, knit, lit, wed; the weak forms fitted, forecasted, knitted, lighted, wedded are more common in Commonwealth use. The distinction is, however, not rigorous as the Commonwealth forms are also found in American, and both lit and forecast are not only found in Commonwealth English, but are generally considered standard usage.
Also, the past participle gotten is rarely used in modern British English (although it is used in some dialects), which generally uses got (as do some Americans), except in old expressions such as ill-gotten gains. British usage retains the form forgotten, though. Furthermore, 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 North America, most people who use gotten also use got, with gotten emphasizing the action of acquiring, and got tending to indicate simple possession (Have you gotten it?, as an example).
The past participle proven is frequently used in American English, although some speakers avoid it, and it remains proved in British English (except in adjectival use; and usage is different in Scots law).
American English 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 Associated Press Stylebook in American English 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 and even Australian speech. Both dove and snuck are used in Canada.
By extension of the irregular verb pattern, verbs with irregular preterites in some variants of colloquial American English also have a separate past participle, e.g., "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. Even in areas where the feature predominates, however, it has not gained widespread acceptance as "standard" usage.

Presence or absence of syntactic elements

Where a statement of intention involves two separate activities, it is acceptable for speakers of American English to use to go plus bare infinitive. Speakers of British English would instead use to go and plus bare infinitive: thus where a speaker of American English might say "I'll go take a bath", British English 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 American English, where speakers of British English would instead use to come and plus bare infinitive: thus where a speaker of American English might say Come see what I bought, British English speakers would say, Come and see what I've bought (notice the addition of "have": 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).
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 always 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 British and American English.) A variation or alternative of this is the mostly American "the play opens Tuesday" and the mostly British "the play opens on Tuesday".
A British person can meet someone, meaning to have a meeting with them, whereas American English would more often use meet with for this ("meet with friends"; "meet with the CEO"), reserving transitive meet for the literal act of an encounter: "I met the manager" usually means "We'd never been introduced before, but now we have been" or "We met (somewhere, to do something)". The construction meet with is not much used in Britain, but sounds natural.
The verb visit is often used intransitively in American English, with possibly the additional meaning of "to have a conversation" (as in "to visit with a friend," a construction that often sounds strange to British ears).
In British English, the indirect object of the verb "to write" usually requires the preposition "to", e.g. "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, e.g. "I'll write her a letter"). In American English, the "to" can be omitted in many circumstances, e.g. "I'll write my congressman" or "I'll write him".
Intransitive verbs often become transitive in American English; for example, British English: "The workers protested against the decision." American English: "The workers protested the decision."
The verb prevent can be found in two different constructions: "prevent someone from doing something"; "prevent someone doing something." The latter is well established in British English, but not in American English.
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 university" (for British students) or "at/in college" (for American students). Among this group, British English has "in hospital" (as a patient), where American English requires in the hospital. (A nurse, visitor, etc. would be "in the hospital" in both systems, as the implied role of patient does not apply.)
American English distinguishes in back of 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.
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.

Different prepositions in certain contexts

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.
In American English, one always speaks of the street "on" which an address is located, whereas in British English "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 highway, 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 American English, the lyric suggests that the house is in the middle of the roadway.
The British say at the weekend and at weekends; Americans say on the weekend and on weekends.
After talk American can use the preposition with but British always uses to (i.e. "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 British and American English.
In American English from is the preposition prescribed for use after the word different: "American English is different from British English in several respects." While considered technically incorrect by some prescriptionists, 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"). The phrasing different to is used only in British English; when grammar is taught formally in the UK, both different than and different to are regarded as incorrect, whereas different from is considered correct by those who subscribe to grammatical prescription.
It is common in British English to say opposite to as an alternative to opposite of, the only form normally found in American English. The use of opposite as a preposition ("opposite the post office") has long been established in both dialects, but appears to be commoner 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 American English and is often regarded as a Briticism.

Miscellaneous grammatical differences

In American English, which should not be used in restrictive relative clauses for a non-human antecedent. According to The Elements of Style (p. 59), "That is the defining, or restrictive pronoun, which the nondefining, or nonrestrictive. See Rule 3." This distinction was endorsed by Fowler, but dropped out of use in Britain and is often ignored even in the U.S.
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 British English is the Fleet River, which is rarely called the River Fleet by Londoners outside of official documentation. An exception in the U.S. is the River Raisin in Michigan named by the French. This convention is mixed, however, in some Commonwealth nations, where both arrangements are often seen.
In British English 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 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 may imply that the subject had been involuntarily forced to sit or stand.
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 usage is also used by speakers in Minnesota and parts of the adjoining states: "Want to come with?" 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 American English, but not in British English, although it is encountered in Northern Ireland. Hence an American might say "we have that also", whereas a British person would say "we also have that", or "we have that too".

Word derivation and compounds

Directional suffix -ward(s): British forwards, towards, rightwards, etc.; American forward, toward, rightward. The forms with -s are only used as adverbs or prepositions in American English, though -s forms are becoming less common save for afterwards. In British English, there is a semantic difference in the usage of the two possible forms. The Oxford English Dictionary states the following about forward and forwards: "/.../ the latter expresses a definite direction viewed in contrast with other directions. In some contexts either form may be used without perceptible difference of meaning; the following are examples in which only one of them can be used: 'The ratchet-wheel can move only forwards'; 'the right side of the paper has the maker's name reading forwards'; 'if you move at all it must be forwards'; 'my companion has gone forward'; 'to bring a matter forward'; 'from this time forward'."
Commonwealth English allows agentive -er suffix for football (also cricket; often netball; occasionally basketball). American English always uses football player rather than footballer. Where the sport's name is usable as a verb, the suffixation is standard in both American English and British English: for example, golfer, bowler, and shooter.
English writers everywhere occasionally make new compound words from common phrases; for example, health care is now being replaced by healthcare on both sides of the Atlantic. However, American English has made certain words in this fashion which are still treated as phrases in most Commonwealth countries. For example, Americans write "trademarks," but some other countries write "trade-marks" or "trade marks."
In compound nouns of the form <verb><noun>, sometimes American English favours the bare infinitive where British English favours the gerund. Examples include: jump rope / skipping rope; racecar / racing car; rowboat / rowing boat; sailboat / sailing boat. In each of these pairs, the former term is more common in America than the UK and the latter more common in the UK than America (although it is not necessarily the case that the former is more common than the latter within America or the latter more common than the former within the UK).
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 read the "Sport" section.

Lexis

Most of the differences 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.

Generally, American words can be freely interchanged with their British versions within the United Kingdom and English-speaking Commonwealth nations, without leading to confusion, though this may cause irritation. The reverse situation causes worse problems. However, there are some exceptions, such as gas (as in gasoline), and stroller (in the sense of pushchair) which would be misunderstood by speakers of British English, as well as common trademark names unknown in the other country, such as Dumpster (U.S.) or Sellotape (UK). There are, however, many pitfalls that Americans can fall into without realising it; for example, referring to a woman's fanny in the UK, since the word indicates the buttocks in the U.S. but the vulva in the UK. Speakers of Commonwealth English should be cautious when asking for a fag (cigarette) in America, as it is a derogatory term for a homosexual in the U.S., although nowadays these alternate meanings are understood in the UK as their U.S. version, dependent on context. Residents of North and South Carolina beaches should be wary of inviting their British guests to "go out shagging," (a type of dance), for the term in British English refers to sexual intercourse. This meaning has become commonly known in the U.S., however, owing to its repeated usage in the popular Austin Powers films, so many or most Americans are not likely to approach with such an offer unless that is what is in mind. Similarly, avoid telling Australians or New Zealanders what team you root for, as the slang meaning of "root" in these countries is sexual intercourse. Finally, it is perhaps best not to ask of an American to "knock me up", as the common British phrase for "wake me " is likely to be interpreted by Americans as "impregnate me."

General trends

While the use of American expressions in British English is often noted in the UK, movement in the opposite direction is less common. But recent examples exist, including the idiom "to go missing," which had been a distinctively British expression but is used increasingly in American English, at least in journalism. The noun "queue" also seems to be making inroads in the U.S. as well. (The usual American equivalents of "to go missing" and "queue" are "to disappear" and "line", respectively.) Also, the spelling of 'travelling' and 'traveller' and 'judgement' through observations appear to be creeping into American English.

Words mainly used in British English

See also: List of words mainly used in British English

Speakers of American English are likely to be aware of some British English terms, such as lorry, biscuit, chap, 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), busk (to play a musical instrument in public with the hope of getting donations from passers-by) or bloke (chap or fellow), risks rendering a sentence incomprehensible to most Americans.

Words mainly used in American English

See also: List of words mainly used in American English

Speakers of British English are likely to be aware of some American English terms, such as sidewalk, gas, cookie, 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 risks rendering a sentence incomprehensible to most British people.

Note that, largely through the influence of Hollywood, the chance of a given Americanism being understood by a British person is significantly greater than in the reverse case. However, Americans who watch britcoms and other imported BBC programs and British news re-broadcasts on American public television (PBS) are more likely to be familiar with British usages than those who do not.

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.

Words with differing meanings

See: List of words having different meanings in British and American English

Words which have become archaic in one dialect

In Southern Britain the word whilst is used almost interchangeably with while and whilst is the more common term. Whilst is more often used in instruction manuals, legal documents, etc. To Americans the word whilst, in any context, seems very archaic or pretentious or both. The words amidst (as opposed to amid), and to a lesser extent amongst (as opposed to among) are also rarer in American English. ("In the midst" is a standard idiom in both).

In the UK generally the term "fall" used in the context of the seasons became obsolete and was replaced by the word "Autumn". Although archaic, found often in Elizabethan and Dickensian literature, 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, even when used as a phrase, such as "Don't do that. Period." This in itself, though, is likely to be an American import; the use of "full stop" in its place is often preferred, as shown by the NSPCC Full Stop campaign.

Some words, although not strictly archaic, are more commonly used by the British than by Americans. An example is the use of "shall" as opposed to "will" . "Shan't" is no longer used by Americans, and very much less so amongst Britons. Americans also tend to ignore some traditional distinctions between "should" and "would" .

Numbers

See also: Names of numbers in English

When saying or writing out numbers, the British will 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, whereas the simpler "four hundred thirteen thousand" by an American speaker.

Some American schools teach that "and" indicates the decimal point: thus, numbers preceding "and" are integers, while the numbers following "and" are fractional (e.g. five hundred thirteen and seven tenths for 513.7 - in the UK, this would be read "five hundred and thirteen point seven). 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" unless discussing the year 1234, when "twelve thirty-four" would be the norm on both sides of the Atlantic (note that British speakers do not say "and" before the tens or units when talking about a year, except for years "two thousand and ..."). The year 2000 and beyond are read as "two thousand" rather than "twenty hundred" by both British and American speakers, but years beyond 2100 may be read as "twenty-one hundred" or "two thousand one hundred".

Similarly, 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". Between 1100 and 1900 the British commonly read numbers ending in round hundreds as, for instance, "sixteen hundred" instead of "one thousand six hundred", but from 2000 upwards usage like "thirty-two hundred" would be replaced by "three thousand two hundred".

There was 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 almost exclusively used to mean one million million (1,000,000,000,000), with one thousand million sometimes described as a "milliard", the definition adopted by most other European languages. However, the "American English" version has since been adopted for all published writing, and the word "milliard" is obsolete in English, as are billiard (but not billiards), trilliard and so on.

Nevertheless, the majority of people have no direct experience with manipulating numbers this large, so a significant proportion of international readers will interpret "billion" as 10, even if they are young enough to have been taught otherwise at school. For this reason, defining the word may be advisable when writing for the general public. However, all major British publications and broadcasters, including the BBC, which long used "thousand million" to avoid ambiguity, now use "billion" to mean thousand million.

See long and short scales for a more detailed discussion of the evolution of these terms in English and other languages.

Finally, when referring to the numeral 0, British people would use "zero", "nought", or "oh" normally, or "nil" in instances such as sports scores and voting results. Americans use the term "zero" most frequently; "oh" is also often used, 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 languages for the sake of convenience.

When reading numbers in a sequence, such as a telephone or serial number, British people will 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" due to its extensive advertising campaign with the slogan read out as "One one eight, what's your number?". In the US, 911 (the US emergency telephone number) is almost always read "nine-one-one", while 9-11 (September 11, 2001) is usually read "nine-eleven".

Monetary amounts

Monetary amounts in the range of one to two major currency units are often spoken differently. In American English one may say "a dollar fifty" or "a pound eighty" whereas in British English these amounts would be expressed "one dollar fifty" and "one pound eighty". Outside of this range, usage converges on the forms "two dollars twenty", "eighty-five pence" and "a hundred and ten pounds". It is more common to hear a British-English speaker say "one thousand, two hundred dollars" than "a thousand, two hundred dollars" or "twelve hundred dollars", although these latter constructs are common in American English.
A user of American English will often hand-write the mixed monetary amount $3.24 in the form $3 or $324⁄100 (using that solidus construction or with a horizontal division line). British English users will always write this as $3.24, $3·24, or for extreme clarity (for example on a cheque) as $3—24. In all cases there may or may not be a space after the $ symbol, a ¢ or c after the 24, or the currency symbols may be omitted depending on context.

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"; whereas normal American usage labels the entrance level as the "first floor" and does not use "ground floor." Some American buildings have a "ground floor" or another name for the entrance level, usually as part of a plan to cater to cosmopolitan persons. (This may also be the case in buildings built on hillsides or uneven ground, where the basement on one side of the structure may be at street level on the other.) Nonetheless, the rest of the floors are numbered in the usual American manner. In Montreal Canada building floors are numbered in the American or British manner according to the whim of the original owner.

Figures of speech

Both British English and American English use the expression "I couldn't care less" to mean the speaker does not care at all. In American English, the phrase "I could care less" (without the "n't") is synonymous with this in casual usage. Intonation no longer reflects the originally sarcastic nature of this variant, which is not idiomatic in British English and might be interpreted as anything from nonsense 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 British English, the phase "I can't be arsed " is approximately equivalent to the American "I can't be bothered ,". This can be extremely confusing to Americans, as the Southern British pronunciation of the former sounds the same as "I can't be asked...", which clearly sounds either defiantly rude or nonsensical.

Older British English often uses the exclamation "No fear!" where current American English has "No way!" An example from Dorothy L. Sayers:

Q.: What are the seven Christian virtues?
A.: Respectability, childishness, mental timidity; dullness; sentimentality; censoriousness; and depression of spirits.

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 American English, who are likely to interpret "No fear!" as enthusiastic willingness to move forward.

Business

In his history of the Second World War, Winston Churchill records that differences in the interpretation of the verb "to table" caused an argument between British and American planners. The British wanted a matter tabled immediately because it was important, and the Americans insisted it should not be tabled at all because it was important. In British English, the term means "to discuss now" (the issue is brought to the table), whereas in American English it means "to defer" (the issue is left on the table).

In a similar vein, the verb "to slate" means "to schedule" in the U.S. but (informally) "to disparage" in the UK. Thus a headline such as "Third Harry Potter Film Slated" has two very different interpretations.

One usage of the word "bomb" causes similar confusion: in the U.S. "the show bombed" means it was a total failure; in the UK "the show went down a bomb" means it was a great success. The American slang phrase "the bomb," however (perhaps inspired by African American Vernacular English), almost always indicates positivity. For example, the phrase, "That show was the bomb," would mean that the show was outstanding. In this usage, the article "the" will sometimes be pronounced "da", and sometimes would be written "That show was da bomb", indicating a dialect pronunciation of the word "the".

Education

In the UK, a student is said to "read" or to "study" a subject, while in the U.S., a student either "studies" the subject or "majors" in it (except at a few Ivy League schools, such as Princeton University, Brown University, and Harvard University, where one "concentrates" in it). Unlike most of the world where university students pursue a single field of study, United States universities often require a variety of courses. "To major" refers only to the student's principal course of study, while "to study" may be refer to any class being taken.

British English:

"She read history at Oxford".

American English:

"She majored in history at Yale."

In the UK, a student "revises" or "does revision" for an examination, while in American English, the student "studies" for it. When "taking" or "writing" the examination, a student in the UK would have that examination supervised by an "invigilator" whereas in American English it would be a "proctor" (or merely "(exam) supervisor").

In the UK, a student is said to "sit" or "take" an exam, while in the U.S., a student "takes" an exam. In the UK, a teacher "sets" an exam, while in the U.S., a teacher "writes" or "gives" an exam. The expression "he sits for" an exam also arises in British English, but only rarely in American English; 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.

British English:

"I sat my Spanish exam yesterday."

"I plan to set a difficult exam for my students, but I haven't got it ready yet."

American English:

"I took my exams at Yale."

"I spent the entire day yesterday writing the exam. At last, it's ready for 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 such as a university, whilst in the UK and most Commonwealth countries it refers primarily to a tertiary institution between high 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, with the interchangeability of college with high school being rare but not unknown. Americans may be surprised to hear of a 14 year old attending college in the UK, mistakenly assuming it is at the university level. It should be noted however, that in the case of Oxford, Cambridge and Durham universities, all members are also members of a college, e.g. 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 a "college of mathematics and science". 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. American students who pursue a bachelor's degree (four years of higher education) or an associate's 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. However, a student who pursues a master's degree or a doctorate degree in the arts and sciences is a "graduate student." Students of advanced professional programmes are known by their field (business student, law student, journalism 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.

Among high school and college students in the United States, the words freshman (or the gender-neutral term frosh), sophomore, junior and senior refer to the first, second, third, and fourth year 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. In the UK, first year university students are often called freshers; 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").

In the UK, the US equivalent of a high school is often referred to as a secondary school regardless of whether it is public 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 US this is a government owned institution supported by taxpayers. In the UK it is an independent institution funded by students' fees. The United States uses several additional terms for specific types of secondary schools. A prep school or preparatory school is an independent school funded by tuition fees. A parochial school covers costs through tuition and has affiliation with a religious institution. A magnet school receives government funding and has special admission requirements. Students gain admission through superior performance on admission tests.

Transport/Transportation

Americans refer to transportation, while British people refer to transport.

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, or slip ramps, they are referring to on-ramps and off-ramps that have been rearranged (through use of a grade separation) to minimize weaving on a freeway segment between two interchanges that are too close together. These terms are almost never used by the general public in the U.S.

In the UK, the term outside lane refers to the higher-speed passing ("overtaking" in the U.K.) lane closest to the center of the road, while inside lane refers to the lane closer to the edge of the road; these terms have the opposite meanings in American English, with the outside lane being the one near the edge and the inside lane being the one closer to the median — it is worth noting that Americans also drive on the opposite side from the British, so that the British inside lane is, like the American one, the leftmost one (going in any given direction). The British also refer to the slow, medium and fast lanes (even where minimum actual speeds are well in excess of the legal speed limit) while the people who clear up the resultant mess (firefighters and police officers) talk of Lanes 1, 2 and 3.

In the UK, Australia, and New Zealand drink driving is against the law, while in the U.S. and Canada, 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.).

Greetings

When Christmas is explicitly mentioned in a greeting, the universal phrasing is Merry Christmas. Happy Christmas is a lesser used alternative in both the UK and the USA. It is worth noting however, that Americans quite often say "Happy Holidays" when referring to the Christmas season. "Happy" is also nearly always used with other holidays, such as Chanukkah and Kwanzaa.

Writing

Spelling

Main article: American and British English spelling differences

Some words shared by all English speakers are spelled one way by Americans (and at times Canadians and Australians) but are spelt differently in some (or, at times, most) other English speaking countries.

Punctuation

Full stops/Periods in abbreviations: Americans tend to write "Mr.", "Mrs.", "St.", "Dr." etc., while British will usually, but not always, 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. However, 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). The rationale behind this usage is that it is typographically more elegant, and that the omitted full stops/periods are essentially superfluous, as the reader recognizes the abbreviation without them. It also removes ambiguity by reserving the period for ending sentences. However, the "American" usage of periods after most abbreviations is also widely used in the UK. Note that in either case it is incorrect to put a period after units such as kg for kilogram or Hz for hertz, as these are considered unit symbols, not abbreviations; however, the unit for "inch" is properly "in.", as it would be ambiguous without the period.
It is sometimes believed that British English does not hyphenate multiple-word adjectives, such as "a first class ticket". This usage is rare, and often considered incorrect. The most common form is as in American English, such as "a first-class ticket".
Quoting: Americans start with double quotation marks (") and use single quotation marks (') for quotations within quotations. In general this is also true of British English 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, whereas British people will put the punctuation inside if it belongs to the quote and outside otherwise. This means that direct speech retains punctuation inside inverted commas in British English also, 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, having to do with the aesthetics of commas and quotation marks in typeset text. It also usefully 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). This "logical" style is increasingly popular in America, although formal writing 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.

The American rule was used worldwide up to around the Second World War, after which the more logical style of presenting quotation marks took hold everywhere except America.

In both countries, the "British" style is used for quotation around parentheses, so both nations 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 American English, 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.

Another difference is with acronyms. Typically, American English capitalises all the letters (NATO, AIDS), whereas British English prefers to use the initial capital only (Nato, Aids).

Dates

Date formats are usually written differently in the short (numerical) form. Christmas Day 2000, for example, is 25/12/00 in the UK and 12/25/00 in the U.S., although occasionally other formats are encountered, such as the ISO 8601 2000-12-25, popular among programmers 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 4 June 2005 (U.S.) or 6 April 2005 (UK).

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. Apart from normally referring to 9th November, dates are not usually abbreviated in this manner in speech in the UK. Londoners would generally refer to the "the seventh of July bombings" and not 7/7. On the BBC "September the 11th" is generally used in preference to 9/11.

When writing long-form dates, the format "December 25, 2000" is generally encountered in the U.S., and widely encountered in the UK. However, the British are more likely than Americans to use the format "25 December 2000" although it is acceptable in the U.S., and the American grammarians Strunk and White, among others, recommend it. American military usage follows the British model: "25 December 2005" and "25/12/05." It is common in the UK, and somewhat less so in the U.S., to add a superscripted 'st, nd, rd' or 'th' to the day number in informal writing (thus "25 December 2000" or "December 25, 2000"), but this is generally regarded as superfluous and avoided in formal use.

Similarly, in American speech, "December twenty-fifth" is the most likely form, though "the twenty-fifth of December" is also not uncommon. In the UK the latter is more likely, and even when the month is presented first the definite article is usually inserted in speech, thus "December the twenty-fifth".

Keyboards

See: British and American keyboards

References

Peters, Pam (2004). The Cambridge Guide to English Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 052162181X.

External links

Category:

American and British English differences

Misplaced Pages