Teach English in Shifo Zhen - Liaocheng Shi

British English vs American English The English language was first introduced to the Americans by British colonization, beginning in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The language also spread to numerous other parts of the world.  Despite how much the USA and UK have in common, there are enough differences between their two versions of the English language that someone may not always understand exactly what someone from the other country is saying. Not only are there 160 distinct dialects of the English language, but there's also different spelling and words, used to describe one or other thing. Fortunately, the US State Department has created a series of these useful graphics to help clear things up between the British English Vs. American English usage. The US and UK's imperial histories and modern influence over the world have changed the English wording forever. Because it was exported to countries all over the world, it has been forced to accept different variations of the same language, the most known one to be the British Vs. American. In terms of speech, the differences between American and British English actually took place after the first settlers arrived in America. These groups of people spoke using what was called rhotic speech, where the ‘r’ sounds of words are pronounced. Meanwhile, the higher classes in the UK wanted to distinguish the way they spoke from the common masses by softening their pronunciation of the ‘r’ sounds. Since the elite even back then was considered the standard for being fashionable, other people began to copy their speech, until it eventually became the common way of speaking in the south of England. There are most 5 differences in these two languages, let's see it one by one, Vocabulary The most noticeable difference between American and British English is vocabulary. There are hundreds of everyday words that are different. For example, Brits call the front of a car the bonnet, while Americans call it the hood. Collective Nouns There are a few grammatical differences between the two varieties of English. Let’s start with collective nouns. We use collective nouns to refer to a group of individuals. In American English, collective nouns are singular. For example, staff refers to a group of employees; band refers to a group of musicians; the team refers to a group of athletes. Americans would say, “The band is good.” But in British English, collective nouns can be singular or plural. You might hear someone from Britain say, “The team are playing tonight” or “The team is playing tonight. Auxiliary Verbs Another grammar difference between American and British English relates to auxiliary verbs. It's also known as helping verbs, are verbs that help form a grammatical function. They “help” the main verb by adding information about time, modality and voice. Past Tense You will also find some small differences with past forms of irregular verbs. The past tense of learn in American English is learned. British English has the option of learned or learn. The same rule applies to dream and dreamt, burned and burnt, leaned and leant. Tag Questions A tag question is a grammatical form that turns a statement into a question. For example, “The whole situation is unfortunate, isn’t it?” or, “You don’t like him, do you?” The tag includes a pronoun and its matching form of the verb be, have or do. Tag questions encourage people to respond and agree with the speaker. Americans use tag questions, too, but less often than Brits. Spelling There are hundreds of minor spelling differences between British and American English. Finally, While there may be certain differences between British and American English, the key takeaway is that the two have more similarities. Both languages can to talked and learned easily and could be understood by others.