British vs American English (Part 2)

Image courtesy of Secabtien Wiertz via Flickr (CC 2.0)

 

In the first part, we spoke of how Britons and Americans tend to spell and pronounce a lot of words differently. Here are some other ways in which UK and US English differ.

3. Vocabulary

This is arguably the most striking difference between the versions of English spoken on either side of the pond. Let’s do a quick comparison: in British English ‘you take the lift from a friend’s flat to the ground floor of the building’, while in American English ‘you take the elevator from a friend’s apartment to the first floor of the building’.

 

There are hundreds of such everyday things that are described using different terms. That said, Britons and Americans are generally able to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words from the context. On rare occasions, though, it could cause confusion. For example, the phrase ‘first floor’ can be found in both versions, but it carries a different meaning in each.

 

Here are some common examples of different words describing the same things:

 

British English	American English
biscuit	cookie
flat	apartment
petrol	gas
trousers	pants
chips	French fries
crisps	potato chips
aubergine	eggplant
mobile phone	cell phone
torch	flashlight
football	soccer
the cinema	the movies

 

4. Grammar

Like spelling, the way speakers of UK and US English use grammar can also be slightly different at times. For starters, Britons use question tags (a phrase added to the end of a sentence to turn it into a question; e.g. You don’t eat meat, do you?) a lot more than speakers of American English.

 

Here are some more grammatical differences:

 

	British English	American English
Preposition	Are you in my team or his?   I’ll see you at the weekend.	Are you on my team or his?   I’ll see you on the weekend.
Tense	Use of the present perfect to describe something that has happened recently   I’ve just had dinner.	Use of the past simple to describe something that has happened recently   I just had dinner.
Verb forms	Some verbs are considered irregular   dream, dreamt, dreamt learn, learnt, learnt	The same verbs are made regular   dream, dreamed, dreamed learn, learned, learned
Collective nouns	Collective nouns can be singular or plural   My team is / are in the lead.	Collective nouns are always singular   My team is in the lead.

 

 

All in all, these two versions of English have a lot more similarities than differences, so if you can understand one, the chances are that you’ll be able to understand the other too.

 

GLOSSARY

 

the pond
Form	:	noun
Meaning	:	an informal term for the Atlantic Ocean, which lies in between Britain and America
Example	:	This rock band is huge in Britain but relatively unknown on the other side of the pond.