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British English is a spoken and written language in the United Kingdom. American English which is also called United States English or U.S. English, is a spoken and written language in the United States. The English language was spread to North America by British people as a result of British trade and colonization. Over the past 4 centuries, the form of the language used in North America, especially in the United States, and that used in the United Kingdom have diverged in many ways, which leads to the occurrence of two versions: American English (AmE) and British English (BrE). Differences between these two versions include spelling, vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar, and much more. There are a group of words that has different meanings in the two versions or are not even used in one of the versions. The contributor of formalization of these differences is Noah Webster, the author of the first American dictionary. He intended to show that people in the United States spoke a different dialect from Britain and changed the spelling of the words in the intention of showing cultural independence of his country from Britain. This divergence between two versions gave birth to the following idea of George Bernard Shaw that “the United States and the United Kingdom are two countries divided by a common language". Here is the difference between the two versions one by one. 1. Spelling differences There are many spelling differences between British and American English and one man is responsible for most of the spelling differences that exist between these two versions. As we mentioned his name was Noah Webster, an American lexicographer. He was frustrated by the inconsistencies in English spelling and wanted to spell words the way they sounded. Webster reformed English spelling in the late 1700s and that reform was also a way for America to show its independence from England. 1.1. American –ize (-yze) vs. British –ise (-yse) e.g. organize-organise specialize-specialise analyze-analyse 1.2. American –or vs. British –our e.g. color-colour behavior-behaviour favor-favour 1.3. American –er vs. British –re e.g. center-centre teather-teathre 1.4. American –se vs. British –ce e.g. defense-defence offense-offence 1.5. American –og vs. British –ogue e.g. monolog-monologue dialog-dialogue 2. Vocabulary differences The most noticeable difference between American and British English is their vocabulary. There are a number of everyday words that are different between the two varieties of English. For example, Americans wear pants, while Brits wear trousers. New Yorkers go to the shores to buy cookies, Londoners go to the shops to buy biscuits. In the US apartments at street are called “the first floor”, and an apartment above it “the second floor”. In the United Kingdom, the former one is “the ground floor” and the latter “the 1st floor”. If that person above you is unable or just too lazy to take the stairs, in the US they take the “elevator”, in the UK they take the “lift”. Here there is a list of everyday words. American English British English apartment flat pants trousers store shop drugstore chemist’s soccer football (French) fries chips chips crisps cookie biscuit college university the movies the cinema vacation holiday sweater jumper sneakers / tennis shoes trainers 3. Grammar differences Aside from spelling and vocabulary, there few grammatical differences between the two varieties of English. It includes collective nouns, the past participle of ‘get’, past forms of irregular verbs. For instance, in American English, collective nouns are considered singular, emphasizing the group as one whole entity. e.g. The team is good. In comparison, collective nouns can be either singular or plural in British English, although the plural form is most often used. e.g. “The team are playing today.” or “The team is playing today.” In the US people use ‘gotten’ as the past participle of ‘get’, which in the UK is ‘got’. American English- get-got-gotten e.g. I haven’t gotten any information from you. British English- get-got-got e.g. I haven’t got any information from you. There are some small differences with past forms of irregular verbs. Americans use the –ed ending, while Brits the -t ending. For example, the past tense of dream in American English is dreamed. In British English, there are two option for it: dreamed or dreamt. The same rule applies to learned and learnt, burned and burnt, leaned and leant. In reality, British and American English have more similarities than differences. Sometimes that difference is exaggerated. If you understand one style, you should be able to understand the other one as well. Using one instead of the other will not lead to miscommunication. Most Brits and Americans can understand and communicate with each other without any difficulty. They watch each other’s movies, TV shows, sing each other’s songs, and read each other’s books.
