Teach English in Sijiao Zhen - Yuncheng Shi

The British actually introduced the language to the Americas when they reached these lands by sea between the 16th and 17th centuries. At that time, spelling had not yet been standardised. It took the writing of the first dictionaries to set in stone how these words appeared. In the UK, the dictionary was compiled by London-based scholars. Meanwhile, in the United States, the lexicographer was a man named Noah Webster. Allegedly, he changed how the words were spelled to make the American version different from the British as a way of showing cultural independence from its mother country. 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 were 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.   Both British and American English have numerous varieties, in order words various accents and dialects. "Disclaimer" "I'm not American, I'm Canadian. But I'm confident that we will someday be Americans after invasion. Standart Canadian English is very very close to General American English, so let's say that American examples unless there's a need to distinguish American pronounciation. There are several ways in which British English and American English different: vocabulary, accent, spelling and grammar. Let's just go through a bunch of examples. In the US people generally say "garbash" or "trash", while in the UK they generally say "rubbish". Both literally and figuratively. "The game was rubbish". Americans "go on vacation", while Brits "go on holidays". And that is also possible in American English. In the US people rent "apartments", while in the UK they rent "flats". In the US, if your apartment is at the street level, then you live on the first floor, and the person above you lives on the second floor. In the UK, you live on the ground floor, and the person above yoy lives on the first floor. If that person above you is unable or just too lazy to take the stairs, in the US they'd take the elevator. In the UK, they'd take the lift. When you are bored at home, in the US you might turn on the TV, while in the UK you would turn on the telly. When you step outside of your building to go for a walk in the US you might walk on the sidewalk, while in the UK you walk on the pavement. And if you are tired of walking in the US you might take a subway, in the UK you take the underground. Accents. The US-General American English and for the UK-Received Pronounciation. These are the accents we're likely to hear on CNN and BBC, repeatively. R-sounds: American English is rhotic- meaning that the "r" sound is always clearly pronounced. In UK English it is non-rhotic- meaning that the "r" sound is not pronounced unless it is followed by a vowel sound. T-sound: In British English- "t" sounds are pronounced as hard t's. In the US they sometimes sound like /r/ instead of /t/. This normally occurs in an unstressed syllable, between 2 vowel sounds or between a vowel and a rhotic sound(like an "r" sound). O-sounds: In the word "stop" the American "o" sound is an unrounded vowel /a/ whilr the British /a/ . And A sound. Spelling: American and British spellings are lareglely the same, but there are a few notable differences. Most (but not all) words that end in ~re in the UK end in ~er in the US. For example: cenre/center, theatre/theater, metre/meter. Some words that end in ~nce in the UK are spelled with ~nse in the US - licence/license, defence/ defense, offence/offense. Some words with "ou" in the UK are spelled with "o" in the US- colour/color, favour/favor, honour/honor ect. The ending "ise" became "ize" in the US- organise/organize, apologise/apologize. There are verbs ending with "I" that take a double "I" in British English when the suffix is added. In American English there is no double "I"- travelled/ traveled, cancelled'canceled. Aside from spelling and vocabulary, there are certain grammar differences between British and American English. For instance, in American English, collective nouns are considered singular (e.g. The band is playing). In contrast, collective nouns can be either singular or plural in British English, although the plural form is most often used (e.g. The band are playing). The British are also more likely to use formal speech, such as ‘shall’, whereas Americans favour the more informal ‘will’ or ‘should’.    Americans, however, continue to use ‘gotten’ as the past participle of ‘get’, which the British have long since dropped in favour of ‘got’. ‘Needn’t’, which is commonly used in British English, is rarely, if at all used in American English. In its place is ‘don’t need to’. In British English, ‘at’ is the preposition in relation to time and place. However, in American English, ‘on’ is used instead of the former and ‘in’ for the latter. The differences between American English and British English might seam surprising or amusing.