American and British English differences

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American English in its written form is standardized across the U.S. (and in schools abroad specializing in American English). Though not devoid of regional variations, particularly in pronunciation and vernacular vocabulary, American speech is somewhat uniform throughout the country, largely because of the influence of mass communication and geographical and social mobility in the United States. After the American Civil War, the settlement of the western territories by migrants from the east led to dialect mixing and levelling, so that regional dialects are most strongly differentiated in the eastern part of the country that were settled earlier. The General American accent and dialect (sometimes called 'Standard Midwestern'), often used by newscasters, are traditionally regarded as the unofficial standard for American English.

British English has a reasonable degree of uniformity in its formal written form. On the other hand, the forms of spoken English – dialects, accents and vocabulary – used across the British Isles vary considerably more than in any other English-speaking areas of the world, and more so than in the United States, because of a much longer history of dialect development in the English speaking areas of Great Britain and Ireland. Dialects and accents vary, not only between England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales (which constitute the United Kingdom), and the Republic of Ireland, but also within these individual countries. There are also differences in the English spoken by different socio-economic groups in any particular region. Received Pronunciation (RP) (also referred to as BBC English or the Queen's English) has traditionally been regarded as 'proper English' – 'the educated spoken English of south-east England'. The BBC and other broadcasters now intentionally use a mix of presenters with a variety of British accents and dialects, and the concept of 'proper English' is now far less prevalent.



[edit] Historical background

The English language was first introduced to the Americas by British colonization, beginning in the late 16th century. Similarly, the language spread to numerous other parts of the world as a result of British colonization elsewhere and the spread of the former British Empire, which, by 1921, held sway over a population of about 470–570 million people: approximately a quarter of the world's population.

Over the past 400 years, the form of the language used in the Americas – especially in the United States – and that used in the United Kingdom and the rest of the British Isles have diverged in many ways, leading to the dialects now commonly referred to as American English and British English. Differences between the two include pronunciation, grammar, lexis, spelling, punctuation, idioms, formatting of dates and numbers, and so on, with a small number of words having completely different meanings between the two dialects or even being unknown or not used in one of the dialects. One particular contribution towards formalizing these differences came from Noah Webster, who wrote the first American dictionary (published 1828) with the intention of showing that the United States spoke a different dialect from Britain.

This divergence between American English and British English once caused George Bernard Shaw to say that the United States and United Kingdom are "two countries divided by a common language"; a similar comment is ascribed to Winston Churchill. Likewise, Oscar Wilde wrote, "We have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, the language" (The Canterville Ghost, 1888). Henry Sweet predicted in 1877 that within a century, American English, Australian English and British English would be mutually unintelligible. 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. Often at the core of the dialect though, the idiosyncrasies remain.

Nevertheless, it remains the case that although spoken American and British English are generally mutually intelligible, there are enough differences to cause occasional misunderstandings or at times embarrassment – for example, some words that are quite innocent in one dialect may be considered vulgar in the other.

[edit] Pronunciation

[edit] Grammar

[edit] Formal and notional agreement

In BrE, collective nouns can take either singular (formal agreement) or plural (notional agreement) verb forms, according to whether the emphasis is, respectively, on the body as a whole or on the individual members; compare a committee was appointed ... with the committee were unable to agree ...[1][2] Some of these nouns, for example staff,[3] actually combine with plural verbs most of the time.

In AmE, collective nouns are usually singular in construction: the committee was unable to agree ... AmE however may use plural pronouns in agreement with collective nouns: the team take their seats, rather than the team takes its seat(s). However, such a sentence would most likely be recast as 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). For instance,

BrE: The Clash are a well-known band; AmE: The Clash is a well known band.
BrE: Indianapolis are the champions; AmE: Indianapolis is the champion.

Proper nouns which are plural in form take a plural verb in both AmE and BrE; for example, The Beatles are a well-known band; The Colts are the champions.

[edit] Verbs

[edit] Verb morphology

See also: List of English irregular verbs
  • The past tense and past participle of the verbs learn, spoil, spell (only in the word-related sense), burn, dream, smell, spill, leap, and others, can be either irregular (learnt, spoilt, etc.) or regular (learned, spoiled, etc.). BrE allows both irregular and regular forms, but the irregular forms tend to be used more often by the British (especially by speakers using Received Pronunciation), and in some cases (learnt, smelt, leapt) there is still a strong tendency to use them; in other cases (for example, dreamed), in current British usage, the regular form is more common. The forms with -ed are preferred by many careful writers of English since they are regular verbs. In AmE, the irregular forms are never or hardly ever used (except for leapt and dreamt).
  • Lit as the past tense of light is more common than lighted in the UK; the regular form enjoys more use in the U.S., although it is somewhat less common than lit. By contrast, fit as the past tense of fit is much more used in AmE than BrE, which generally favours fitted.
  • The past participle proven is frequently used in AmE, although some speakers avoid it, and it remains[citation needed] proved in BrE (except in adjectival use; and usage is different in Scots law).
  • AmE further allows other irregular verbs, such as dive (dove) or sneak (snuck), and often mixes the preterite and past participle forms (springsprang (U.S. also sprungsprung), sometimes forcing verbs such as shrink (shrankshrunk) to have a further form, thus shrunkshrunken. These uses are often considered nonstandard; the AP Stylebook in AmE 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 speech.
  • By extension of the irregular verb pattern, verbs with irregular preterites in some variants of colloquial AmE also have a separate past participle, for example, "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.[1] Even in areas where the feature predominates, however, it has not gained widespread acceptance as "standard" usage.

[edit] Use of tenses

  • BrE 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[citation needed]) or the simple past (to imply an expectation[citation needed]). This American style has become widespread only in the past 20 to 30 years; the "British" style is still in common use as well.
    • "I've just got(ten) home." / "I just got home."


  • Similarly, the pluperfect is occasionally replaced by the preterite in the U.S.[citation needed]; this is generally regarded as sloppy usage by those Americans who consider themselves careful users of the language. U.S. usage sometimes substitutes the conditional for the pluperfect ("If I would have cooked the pie we could have had it for lunch")[citation needed].
  • In BrE, 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. AmE also informally uses got as a verb for these meanings, for example, "I got two cars," "I got to go"; but these are nonstandard and will be considered sloppy usage by most American speakers.
  • The subjunctive mood is more common in AmE in expressions such as: "They suggested that he apply for the job". BrE would have "They suggested that he should apply for the job" (or even "They suggested that he applied for the job", although this last sentence can be ambiguous). However, the British usage ("should apply") is also heard in the United States, but is often regarded as erroneous in writing.

[edit] Verbal auxiliaries

  • Shall (as opposed to will) is more commonly used by the British than by Americans. [2][3]. Shan't is no longer used in AmE (almost invariably replaced by won't or not going to), and very much less so amongst Britons. American grammar also tends to ignore some traditional distinctions between should and would [4]; however, expressions like I should be happy are rather formal even in BrE.

[edit] Transitivity

The following verbs show differences in transitivity between BrE and AmE.


[edit] Presence or absence of syntactic elements

  • Where a statement of intention involves two separate activities, it is acceptable for speakers of AmE to use to go plus bare infinitive. Speakers of BrE would instead use to go and plus bare infinitive: thus where a speaker of AmE might say "I'll go take a bath", BrE 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 AmE, where speakers of BrE would instead use to come and plus bare infinitive: thus where a speaker of AmE might say "come see what I bought," BrE speakers would say, "come and see what I've bought" (notice the present perfect tense: 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). The first of these two examples of omitting prepositions may be seen as yet another German influence on American English.
  • 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 most likely 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 BrE and AmE.) A variation or alternative of this is the mostly American "the play opens Tuesday" and the mostly British "the play opens on Tuesday".
  • 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 BrE, but not in AmE.
  • Some verbs can take either a to-infinitive construction or a gerund construction (e.g., to start to do something/doing something). Although both constructions are accepted in both dialects, their actual distribution may vary. For example, the gerund is more common:
    • In AmE, with start[5] and begin[6];
    • In BrE, with love[7].
  • 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/in college (for students). Among this group, BrE has in hospital (as a patient) and at university (as a student), where AmE requires in the hospital and at the university. (When the implied roles of patient or student do not apply, the definite article is used in both dialects.) Likewise, BrE has in future and American has in the future.
  • The use of the function word out as a preposition to denote an outward movement, as in "out the door" and "out the window", is standard in AmE, but not quite in British writing, where out of is generally the preferred choice, although the "American" usage, usually considered regional or dialectal by British dictionaries, is gaining ground in UK speech.
  • 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.
  • Dates usually include a definite article in UK spoken English, such as "the 11th of July", or "July the 11th", while American speakers say "July 11".

[edit] Different prepositions in certain contexts

  • The verb enrol(l) usually takes on in BrE and in in AmE (as in "to enrol(l) on/in a course") and the on/in difference is also used when enrolled is dropped (as in "I am (enrolled) on the course that studies....").
  • The preposition used with the word weekend is on in the U.S. and at (sometimes on; the ratio in the British National Corpus is about 9:1) in Britain - for example, in "at the weekend/at weekends" vs. "on the weekend/on weekends". Such usages as "this weekend", "over the weekend", etc. are found in both dialects, but the use of "weekends" adverbally (and also "Mondays", etc.), with no preposition, is AmE rather than BrE.
  • After talk American can use the preposition with but British always[citation needed] uses to (that is, "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 BrE and AmE.
  • In both dialects from is the preposition prescribed for use after the word different: "American English is different from British English in several respects." However, 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"), whereas different to is the alternative common in BrE.
  • It is common in BrE to say opposite to as an alternative to opposite of, the only form normally found in AmE. The use of opposite as a preposition ("opposite the post office") has long been established in both dialects, but appears to be more common in British usage.
  • BrE sometimes uses to with near ("we live near to the university"), while AmE avoids the preposition in most usages dealing with literal, physical proximity ("we live near the university"), although the "to" reappears in AmE when "near" takes the comparative or superlative form, as in, "Of all of us, she lives nearer/nearest to the deranged axe murderer's house."
  • In BrE, you call (or ring) someone on their telephone number; in AmE, you call someone at their telephone number.

[edit] Phrasal verbs

  • In the U.S., forms are usually but not invariably filled out, but in Britain they can also be filled in. However, in reference to individual parts of a form, Americans may also use in ("fill in the blanks"). In AmE the direction "fill it all in" (referring to the form as a collection of blanks, perhaps) is as common as "fill it all out."
  • British thugs will beat someone up, while their American counterparts will also beat on (as both would for an inanimate object, such as a drum) or beat up on their victim, though "beat up on" is only used in some locations, and would generally be avoided by Americans who consider themselves well-educated. Both beat on and beat up on are often considered slang in AmE.

[edit] Miscellaneous grammatical differences

  • In BrE 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-hand 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 are passive, and may imply that the subject had been involuntarily forced to sit or stand, or directed to hold that location.
  • 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 variant is also used by speakers in Minnesota and parts of the adjoining states: "Want to come with?" This is another expression possibly arising from German (kommst du mit?) in parts of the United States with high concentrations of German American populations. 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 AmE (just as as well and too are in both dialects), but not so commonly in BrE, although it is encountered in Northern Ireland. Additionally, sentence-ending as well is more formal in AmE than in BrE.

[edit] Word derivation and compounds

  • AmE freely adds the suffix -s to day, night, evening, weekend, Monday, etc. to form adverbs denoting repeated or customary action: "I used to stay out evenings"; "the library is closed Saturdays". This usage has its roots in Old English, but many of these constructions are now regarded as American (for example, the OED labels nights "now chiefly N.Amer. colloq."; but to work nights is standard in BrE).
  • In BrE, the agentive -er suffix is commonly attached to football (also cricket; often netball; occasionally basketball). AmE usually uses football player. Where the sport's name is usable as a verb, the suffixation is standard in both dialects: for example, golfer, bowler (in Ten-pin bowling and in Lawn Bowls), and shooter. AmE does, however, sometimes use baller as slang for a basketball player, as in the video game "NBA Ballers."
  • English writers everywhere occasionally (and from time immemorial) make new compound words from common phrases; for example, health care is now being replaced by healthcare on both sides of the Atlantic. However, AmE has made certain words in this fashion which are still treated as phrases in most Commonwealth countries. For example, Americans write trademark, but some other countries write trade-mark or trade mark.
  • More generally, AmE has a tendency to drop inflectional suffixes, thus favouring clipped forms: compare cookbook / cookery book; Smith, age 40 / Smith, aged 40; skim milk / skimmed milk. The first form is rarely encountered in British usage.
  • 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 are more likely to read the "sport" section. However, BrE maths is singular, just as AmE math is: both are abbreviations of mathematics.

[edit] Lexis

Most[citation needed] 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.

[edit] General trends


[edit] Words mainly used in a single form

Though the influence of cross-culture media has done much to familiarize BrE and AmE speakers with each others regional words and terms, many words are still recognized as part of a single form of English. Though the use of a British word would be acceptable in AmE (and vice versa), most listeners would recognize the word as coming from the other form of English, and treat it much the same as a word borrowed from any other language. For instance: an American using the word "chap" or "mate" to refer to a friend, would be heard in much the same way as an American using the Spanish word "amigo".

[edit] Words mainly used in British English


Speakers of AmE are likely to be aware of some BrE terms, such as lorry, biscuit, queue, chap, bloke, 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 - though commonly used to mean "not very good"), risks rendering a sentence incomprehensible to most Americans.

[edit] Words mainly used in American English


Speakers of BrE are likely to be aware of some AmE terms, such as sidewalk, gas (gasoline/petrol), cookie or 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 such as semi (articulated lorry), stroller (pram/pushchair) or kitty-corner (diagonally opposite) risks rendering a sentence incomprehensible to most British people.

[edit] Words with differing meanings


Words like "bill" (AmE "paper money", BrE "police") and "biscuit" (AmE: BrE's "scone", BrE: AmE's "cookie") are used regularly in both AmE and BrE, but mean different things in each form.

[edit] Word choice

  • In Southern Britain the word whilst is used almost interchangeably with while and whilst is the more common term[citation needed]. 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 AmE. ("In the midst of" is a standard idiom in both.)
  • In the UK generally the term fall meaning "autumn" is obsolete. Although 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.
  • 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.

[edit] 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, "four hundred thirteen thousand" by an American speaker.

American schools teach students to pronounce decimally written fractions (".5") as though they were longhand fractions ("five tenths"), though this formality is often dropped in common speech. For example, "five hundred thirteen and seven tenths" for 513.7 — in the UK, this would be read "five hundred and thirteen point seven", although if it was written 513 710, it would still be pronounced "five hundred and thirteen and seven tenths").

Up to 1,900 it is common in both varieties of English to count in hundreds - so 1,200 may be "twelve hundred". But Americans use this pattern more consistently and for much higher numbers than is the norm in British English, referring to "twenty-four hundred" where British English would always use "two thousand four hundred"[citation needed]. Even below 2,000, 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".

In the case of years, however, "twelve thirty-four" would be the norm on both sides of the Atlantic for the year 1234. The year 2000 and years beyond it are read as "two thousand", "two thousand (and) one" and the like by both British and American speakers, although the BBC has recently taken the step of reading dates as "twenty-oh-six" for 2006.

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".

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 used to mean one million million (1,000,000,000,000) (although historically such numbers were not often required outside of mathematical and scientific contexts). One thousand million was sometimes described as a "milliard", the definition adopted by most other European languages. However, the "American" version has since been adopted for all published writing, and the word "milliard" is obsolete in English, as are billiard (but not billiards, the game), trilliard and so on. However the term yard, derived from milliard, is still used in the financial markets on both sides of the Atlantic to mean "one thousand million". All major British publications and broadcasters, including the BBC, which long used "thousand million" to avoid ambiguity, now use "billion" to mean thousand million.

Many people have no direct experience with manipulating numbers this large, and many non-American readers may interpret "billion" as 1012 (even if they are young enough to have been taught otherwise at school); also usage of the "long" billion is standard in some non-English speaking countries. For these reasons, defining the word may be advisable when writing for the general public. See long and short scales for a more detailed discussion of the evolution of these terms in English and other languages.

When referring to the numeral 0, British people would normally use "zero", "nought", "oh", or "nil" in instances such as sports scores and voting results. Americans use the term "zero" most frequently; "oh" is also often used (though never when the quantity in question is nothing), 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 language varieties for the sake of convenience.

When reading numbers in a sequence, such as a telephone or serial number, British people will usually use the terms double or treble/triple. 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" in Britain due to its extensive advertising campaign with the slogan read out as "One one eight, what's your number?"; however, in Ireland it is "eleven-eight". In the U.S., 911 (the U.S. emergency telephone number) is almost always read "nine-one-one", while 9/11 (in reference to the September 11, 2001 attacks) is usually read "nine-eleven".

[edit] Monetary amounts

  • Monetary amounts in the range of one to two major currency units are often spoken differently. In AmE one may say "a dollar fifty" or "a pound eighty" whereas in BrE these amounts would be expressed "one dollar fifty" and "one pound eighty". For amounts over a dollar, an American will generally either drop denominations or give both dollars and cents, as in "two-twenty" or "two dollars and twenty cents" for $2.20. An American would not say "two dollars twenty." On the other hand, in BrE, "two pounds twenty" would be the most common form. It is more common to hear a British-English speaker say "one thousand, two hundred dollars" than "a thousand, two hundred dollars" although the latter construct is common in AmE. The term "twelve hundred dollars", popular in AmE, is frequently used in BrE but only for exact multiples of 100 up to 1900. Amounts over 1900 expressed in hundreds, for example "twenty-three hundred" are very rarely heard by speakers of BrE.
  • The BrE slang term "quid" is roughly equivalent to the AmE "buck" and both are often used in the two respective dialects for round amounts, as in "fifty quid" for £50 and "twenty bucks" for $20. "A hundred and fifty grand" in either dialect could refer to £150,000 or $150,000 depending on context.
  • In order to make explicit the amount in words on a cheque, Americans write three and 24100 (using this solidus construction or with a horizontal division line): they do not need to write the word "dollars" as it is usually printed on the cheque. Britons write three pounds and 24 pence, three pounds 24 or three pounds 24p, since the currency unit is not preprinted. To make unauthorized amendment difficult, it is useful to have an expression terminator even when a whole number of dollars/pounds is in use: thus Americans would write three and 00100 or three and no100 on a three-dollar cheque (so that it cannot easily be changed to, for example, three million) and Britons would write three pounds only, or three pounds exactly.[citation needed]
  • The term 'pound sign' in BrE always refers to the currency symbol "£", whereas in AmE 'pound sign' means the number sign, which the British call the 'hash' symbol, "#".
  • In BrE, the plural of the word pound is often considered to be "pound" as opposed to "pounds." For example, a Briton would say "three pound forty," to mean three pounds and forty pence. He would not apply this practice to all currencies however, and would most likely say "two dollars eighty" if stating an amount in dollars.

[edit] Time-telling

Normally, Britons tell the time and Americans tell time. Fifteen minutes after the hour is called quarter past in British usage and a quarter after or, less commonly, a quarter past in American usage. Fifteen minutes before the hour is usually called quarter to in British usage and a quarter of, a quarter to or a quarter till in American usage; the form a quarter to is associated with parts of the Northern U.S., while a quarter till is found chiefly in the Appalachian region. Thirty minutes after the hour is commonly called half past in both BrE and AmE. In informal British speech the preposition is sometimes omitted, so that 5:30 may be referred to as half five (by contrast, the German halb fünf is half-an-hour before five, i.e. 4:30). Half after is sometimes heard in both countries, and used to be predominant in the U.S. The AmE formations top of the hour and bottom of the hour are not commonly used in BrE. Forms like eleven forty are common in both dialects. See below for variation in written forms.

[edit] Selected lexical differences

[edit] 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.

[edit] Figures of speech

Both BrE and AmE use the expression "I couldn't care less" to mean the speaker does not care at all. In AmE, 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 BrE and might be interpreted as anything from nonsense (or sloppiness) 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 BrE, the phrase "I can't be arsed [to do something]" is a vulgar equivalent to the British or American "I can't be bothered [to do something]". 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 sounds either defiantly rude or nonsensical.

In Appalachia, some speakers use "I don't care to" (as in "I don't care to talk to him") as the equivalent of "I don't mind (talking to him)." This usage is confusing (and sometimes offputting) to both non-Appalachian users of AmE and users of BrE.


Q.: Wilt thou be baptised in this faith?
A.: No fear!
— from A Catechism for Pre- and Post-Christian Anglicans


[edit] Idioms


sweep under the carpet sweep under the rug
touch wood knock on wood
see the wood for the trees see the forest for the trees
tuppence worth
also two pennies' worth, two pence worth, two pennyworth, two penny'th or two pen'th)
two cents' worth
skeleton in the cupboard skeleton in the closet
a home from home a home away from home
blow one's trumpet blow (or toot) one's horn
storm in a teacup tempest in a teapot
a drop in the ocean a drop in the bucket
flogging a dead horse beating a dead horse
haven't a clue have no clue

In some cases the "American" variant is also used in BrE, or vice versa.

[edit] Education

In the UK, a student is said to study a subject (or, at Oxford or Cambridge, to read 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 refer to any class being taken.

At the tertiary level in BrE, a module is taught by a lecturer, while in AmE, a class is generally taught by a professor (at some institutions, "professor" is reserved for tenure-track faculty with other members of the faculty referred to as "lecturers" or "instructors"). At the primary and secondary levels the term "teacher" is used instead in both BrE and AmE. The term "lecturer," in an educational context, would be perceived in AmE as denoting anyone, professor or special guest, giving an actual lecture before a class.


"She studied history at Bristol."
"She read history at Oxford."


"She majored in history at Yale."
"He majored in Elementary Education at the University of Minnesota."

The word course is ambiguous in American usage. It may refer to a student's major (as in the phrase "course of study") but more commonly it refers to the study of a restricted topic (for example, "a course in Early Medieval England", "a course in Integral Calculus") and is equivalent to a module at a British University.

In the UK, a student is said to sit or take an exam, while in the U.S., a student takes an exam. The expression he sits for an exam also arises in BrE, but only rarely in AmE; 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. When preparing for an exam, students revise (BrE)/review (AmE) what they have studied; the BrE idiom to revise for an exam has no direct AmE equivalent.

Examinations are supervised by invigilators in the UK and proctors (or (exam) supervisors) in the U.S. In the UK, a teacher sets an exam, while in the U.S., a teacher writes or gives an exam.


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


"I took my exams at Yale."

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 that grants bachelor's degrees, while in the UK it refers primarily to a tertiary institution between secondary 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 secondary school being rare but not unknown. It should be noted, however, that in the case of Oxford, Cambridge, London and Durham universities, all members are also members of a college, for example, 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 the "college of business and economics". 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. (There are exceptions, of course: Boston College, Dartmouth College and The College of William and Mary are examples of colleges that offer advanced degrees.) (An obvious sign that an educational institution aspires to a better station in life may be seen when it drops "college" from its name and substitutes "university.") American students who pursue a bachelor's degree (four years of higher education) or an associate 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. A student who pursues a master's degree or a doctorate degree in the arts and sciences is in AmE a graduate student; in BrE a post-graduate student although graduate student also sometimes used. Students of advanced professional programmes are known by their field (business student, law student, medical student, the last of which is frequently shortened to med 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.


There is additionally a difference between American and British usage in the word school. In British usage "school" by itself refers only to primary (elementary) and secondary (high) schools, and to sixth forms attached to secondary schools — if one "goes to school", this type of institution is implied. By contrast, an American student at a university may talk of "going to school" or "being in school". U.S. law students and med students almost universally speak in terms of going to "law school" and "med school," respectively. However, the word is used in BrE in the context of higher education; to describe a division grouping together several related subjects in a university, for example a "School of European Languages" containing departments for each language, and also in the term "art school".

Among high school and college students in the United States, the words freshman (or the gender-neutral term frosh or first year), sophomore, junior and senior refer to the first, second, third, and fourth years, 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. One exception is the University of Virginia; since its founding in 1819, the terms "first-year", "second-year", "third-year", and "fourth-year" have been used to describe undergraduate university students. At the United States military academies, at least those operated directly by the federal government, a different terminology is used, namely "fourth class", "third class", "second class", and "first class" (note that the order of numbering is the reverse of the number of years in attendance). In the UK, first year university students are often called freshers, especially early in the academic year; 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"; law students are generally not referred to as "nth-year law students", but rather "1L", "2L", or "3L").

While anyone in the U.S. who finishes studying at any educational institution by passing relevant examinations is said to graduate and to be a graduate, in the UK only degree and above level students can graduate. Student itself has a wider meaning in AmE, meaning any person of any age studying at any educational institution, whereas in BrE it tends to be used for people studying at a post-secondary educational institution.


A public school has opposite meanings in the two countries. In the U.S. this is a government-owned institution supported by taxpayers. In England and Wales, the term strictly refers to a select group of prestigious private independent schools funded by students' fees, although it is often more loosely used to refer to any independent school. Independent schools are also known as private schools, and the latter is the correct term in Scotland and Northern Ireland for all such fee-funded schools. Strictly, the term public school is not used in Scotland and Northern Ireland in the same sense as in England, but nevertheless, Gordonstoun, the Scottish private school which Charles, Prince of Wales attended, is sometimes confusingly referred to as a public school. Government-funded schools in Scotland and Northern Ireland are properly referred to as state schools — but are sometimes confusingly referred to as public schools (with the same meaning as in the U.S.); whereas in the U.S., where most public schools are administered by local governments, a state school is typically a college or university run by one of the states.



[edit] Transport/Transportation

Main article: Car terminology


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 last two 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 overtaking lane (passing lane in the U.S.) 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 AmE, with the outside lane being the one near the edge and the inside lane being the one closer to the median. In much of the U.S., outside lane is only used in the context of a turn, in which case it depends on which direction the road is turning (i.e. if the road bends right the left lane is the outside lane, but if the road bends left the right lane is the outside lane). Both also refer to slow and fast lanes (even though all actual traffic speeds may be at or even above the legal speed limit). UK traffic officials, firefighters, and police officers refer to Lanes 1, 2 and 3, referring to the 'slow', 'middle' and 'fast' lanes respectively. In the U.S. the meanings are exactly reversed with Lane 1 referring to the fast lane and so on.

In the UK, drink driving is against the law, while in the U.S. 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.). The equivalent legal phrase in the UK is to be found "drunk in charge" of a motor vehicle (DIC).

[edit] Greetings

When Christmas is explicitly mentioned in a greeting, the universal phrasing in North America is Merry Christmas. In Britain and Ireland, Happy Christmas is common, although Merry Christmas is often used. It is worth noting, however, that Americans quite often say "Happy Holidays" or "Season's Greetings" when referring to all winter holidays (Christmas, New Year's Day, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa) as a single event.

[edit] Writing

[edit] Spelling

Main article: American and British English spelling differences

[edit] 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, in non-scientific contexts, the unit for "inch" is often written "in.", as it would be ambiguous without the period.
  • Quoting: Americans start with double quotation marks (") and use single quotation marks (') for quotations within quotations. In general this is also true of BrE, 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 the quotation marks in BrE also, with a full stop changing into a comma if followed by explanatory text.
    • "Hello, world," I said. (both styles)




  • 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[citation needed], and it would be regarded as a highly formal usage by most Americans.

[edit] Titles and headlines

Use of capitalisation varies.



[edit] Dates

Date formats are usually written differently in the short (numerical) form. Christmas Day 2000, for example, is 25/12/00 or 25.12.00 (dashes are occasionally used) in the UK and 12/25/00 in the U.S., although the formats 25/12/2000, 25.12.2000, and 12/25/2000 now have more currency than they had prior to the Year 2000 problem. Occasionally other formats are encountered, such as the ISO 8601 2000-12-25, popular among programmers, scientists, 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 (if read as U.S. format), 6 April 2005 (if seen as in UK format), or even 5 April 2006 if taken to be an older ISO 8601-style format where 2-digit years were allowed.

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. On the BBC, "September the 11th" is generally used in preference to 9/11, although 9/11 is commonplace in the British press. 11/9 is occasionally used deliberately to emphasise the distinction.

When writing long-form dates, the format "December 25, 2000" is widely encountered in primarily the U.S. and sometimes the UK, and it is the form generally used in the U.S. In the UK and elsewhere, it is more common to use the format "25 December 2000" or "25 December 2000", more so than Americans. It is, however, acceptable in the U.S., and the American grammarians Strunk and White, among others, recommend it. Similarly, in American speech, "December twenty-fifth" is the most likely form, though "the twenty-fifth of December" is also not uncommon. For example, many Americans refer to Independence Day as the "fourth of July". 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". American military usage follows the British model: "25 December 2000" and "25/12/00".

The use of the word "week" is different in British and U.S. English. Phrases such as "a week today", "a week tomorrow", "a week on Tuesday", and "Thursday week" in Britain and Ireland are unknown in the U.S., where "a week from today" or "a week from tomorrow" is the standard construction. "Friday week" in Britain and Ireland is rare in many areas but similarly rendered as "a week from Friday" in the U.S. "Friday week" being the Friday after "Friday next" (or next Friday), which may be itself distinct from "this Friday" (the closest one). Those british speakers who habitually use "Friday week" and "Friday next" will also use "Friday last" interchangably with "last Friday", and occasionally "Friday week last", meaning the friday before "last friday". Finally, "Friday fortnight" (2 weeks after "next friday") is occasionally heard, usually only if the speaker is counting weeks or dates in their head in a conversation.

[edit] Times

Americans always write digital times with a colon, thus 6:00, whereas Britons often use a full stop, 6.00, although it is becoming increasingly popular[citation needed] to use a colon. Also, the 24-hour clock (18:00 or 1800), which in the UK would be considered normal in many applications (for example, air/rail/bus timetables) is largely unused in the U.S. outside of military or medical applications. Often in the UK 18:00 will be written as 1800h or 09:00 as 0900h - representing the military speak "oh-nine-hundred-hours", even if people would almost always read it aloud as "nine o'clock". This has become popular in text messaging since it is easier to type a "h" than a colon.

[edit] Keyboard layouts

See: British and American keyboards

[edit] See also

[edit] Sources


[edit] References

  1. ^ Peters, p. 23
  2. ^
  3. ^ Peters, p. 24
  4. ^ Peters, p. 512
  5. ^ Peters, p. 515.
  6. ^ Peters, p. 67.
  7. ^ Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

[edit] External links

In other languages