Teach English in Zhangjialou Zhen - Qingdao Shi

The English language is a widely spoken language all over the world and it has many variations to it but the most common ones are the British English and American English. There has always been a debate about who speaks the best English and who has it right. The American English is not so different from the British English but there are some obvious differences that an American will notices when a British speaks English and a British will notice these differences as soon as an American speaks English. These differences can be noticed in vocabulary, the use of collective nouns, auxiliary verbs, past tense verbs, tag questions and spelling. Let us look at the spelling of some words in both languages. It is easy to identify many minor spelling differences between British and American English. The American spelling being different can be attributed to an American lexicographer, Noah Webster. You might recognize Webster’s name from the dictionary that carries his name. Spelling reform was also a way for America to show its independence from England. You can see Webster’s legacy in the American spelling of words like airplane (from aeroplane), center (from centre), and check (from cheque). The use of collective nouns is to refer it to a group of individuals or things. In American English, collective nouns are singular. For example, staff refers to a group of employees; "band" refers to a group of musicians; "team" refers to a group of athletes. An American would say, “The band is good.” N the other hand, in British English, collective nouns can be singular or plural. It is common for a British to say, “The team are playing tonight” or “The team is playing tonight.” The use of past tense verbs in sentences is also shown some differences in American English and British English. The past tense of learning in American English is learned. British English has the option of learned or learnt. The same rule applies to "dreamed" and "dreamt", burned and burnt, leaned and leant. The Americans tend to use the “–ed” ending but the British on the other hand often uses the “-t” ending. In the past participle form, Americans tend to use the “–en” ending for some irregular verbs. For example, an American might say, “She has never gotten caught” whereas a British would say, “She has never got caught”. Americans use both got and gotten in the past participle while the British only use got. When it comes to the aspect of vocabulary, the most noticeable difference between American and British English are the different words assigned to the same things. There are hundreds of everyday words that are different. For instance, the British call a pedestrian walk a pavement, while Americans call it a sidewalk. The British wear braces while an American wears suspenders. These are all words used to refer to the same thing. Another example is, Americans drive trucks while the British drive lorries. A British will use the lift to get up the building while the American will use the elevator. Another grammatical difference between American and British English is related to auxiliary verbs. Auxiliary verbs, which are 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. A British for instance will say, “I shall speak to you tomorrow.” Americans know what shall mean, but rarely use it in conversation. It seems very formal. Americans would probably use “I will speak to you tomorrow.” In a question form, a British will say, “Shall we chat tomorrow?” while an American is likely to say, “Should we chat tomorrow?” When Americans want to express a lack of obligation, they use the helping verb do with negative not followed by need. “Sarah does not need to go to school tomorrow.” British drop the helping verb and contract not. “Sarah needn’t go to school tomorrow.” Finally, the question tag is one thing that shows a difference in American English and British English. A tag question is a grammatical form that turns a statement into a question. For instance, “It’s cold outside, isn’t it?” or, “You don’t like babies, do you?” The tag includes a pronoun and its matching form of the verb “to be”, have or do. Tag questions encourage people to respond and agree with the speaker. Americans use tag questions, too, but less often than the British. Thought all these differences mean many, they are normally not that significant when it comes to the British understanding the Americans or vice versa, because the context in which a sentence is made makes it easy for them to understand each other. I would rather say apart from the accents, there are not many differences between them after all.