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This article outlines the differences between American English, the form of the English language spoken in the United States, and British English, which is used to denote what is more precisely known as Commonwealth English. For the purposes of this article:
English in various countriesEnglish usage in other countries has traditionally followed one model or the other. Throughout most of the Commonwealth, spoken English has its roots in the language as spoken in England, though local expressions abound. Canadian English is something of an exception, taking its cue from both the UK and the US. British English is also the dialect taught in most countries where English is not a native language, though there are a few exceptions where American English is taught, such as in the Philippines and in Japan. Ireland's version of English, sometimes described as Hiberno-English, differs in some respects from British English, in so far as phrases and terms often owe their origin to the original Irish language (Gaelic). English is one of the official languages of the European Union, and the form used within the EU follows usage in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Although American and British English are generally mutually intelligible, there are enough differences to occasionally cause awkward misunderstandings or even a complete failure to communicate. George Bernard Shaw said that the United States and United Kingdom are "two countries divided by a common language". A similar comment is ascribed to Winston Churchill. Henry Sweet predicted in 1877 that within a century, American English, Australian English and British English would be mutually unintelligible, but it may be the case that increased world-wide communication through radio, television, the Internet, and globalisation has reduced the tendency to regional variation. This can result either in some variations becoming extinct (as, for instance, truck has been gradually displacing lorry in much of the world) or in the acceptance of wide variations as "perfectly good English" everywhere. In addition to its use in English-speaking countries, English plays an important role as a technical language around the world, in medicine, computer science, air traffic control, and many other areas of concentrated expertise and formal communication among international professionals. Such speakers may be fluent in English within their discipline, but not generally fluent in English. SpellingSome words shared by all English speakers are spelled one way by Americans but are spelt differently in other English speaking countries. Many of the differences were introduced into the United States by Noah Webster's dictionary in an artificial attempt to restore “etymologically correct” Latin (or Greek) spellings, often to words which English had borrowed from French and which were spelled accordingly, thus L. color, center, Gk.διαλογος > Fr. couleur, centre, dialogue > E. colour, centre, dialogue. Although many of Webster's spellings became standardized in the U.S., they never spread to other English-speaking countries, which were more influenced by Samuel Johnson's dictionary. However, in some cases the American versions have become common Commonwealth usage, for example program (in the computing sense). Latin-derived spellings... -our / -orAmerican words ending in -or may end in -our in Commonwealth English. For example, in American English, one would use color, flavor, honor, whereas in Commonwealth English one would use colour, flavour and honour. In addition, Americans replace "ou" with "o" in derivatives and inflected forms such as favorite, savory in American English versus favourite, savoury in Commonwealth English. One seeming exception (the word comes from Scots, not Latin or French) to this distinction is glamour, which is usually spelled that way in American English as well as in Commonwealth usage. In both systems, the adjectival forms that end in -ous are spelled without the u in the stem (e.g. glamorous, vigorous, humorous and laborious) as are certain other compounds (invigorate, humorist but (Commonwealth) colourist). Words in which the stress falls on the "our", such as hour, our, flour, velour, sour, and soury, are the same in both usages. Also note that words with Latin-derived agentive endings, such as professor and conductor, never end in -our, despite the corresponding French forms professeur and conducteur. ... -re / -erIn Commonwealth English, some words of French or Greek origin end with a consonant followed by -re, with the -re unstressed and pronounced /ə(r)/. Most of these words have the ending -er in the US. This is especially true of endings -bre and -tre: fibre/fiber, sabre/saber, centre/center, spectre/specter, theatre/theater (however, some American theaters have the spelling Theatre in their names). The ending -cre is retained in America: acre, massacre, and so on; this prevents the c losing its hard k sound. There are not many other -re endings, even in Commonwealth English: louvre, manoeuvre, meagre, ochre, ogre, sepulchre. In the US, ogre is standard, manoeuvre is usually maneuver, and the other -re forms listed are variants of the equivalent -er form. Of course the above relates to root words; -er rather than -re is universal as a suffix for agentive (reader, winner) and comparative (louder, nicer) forms. One consequence is the Commonwealth distinction of meter for a measuring instrument from metre for the unit of measurement. However, while poetic metre is often -re, pentameter, hexameter, etc. are always -er. The e preceding the r is retained in US derived forms of nouns and verbs, e.g. fibers, reconnoitered, centering, which are, naturally, fibres, reconnoitred and centring respectively in Commonwealth English. It is dropped for other inflections, e.g. central, fibrous, spectral. However such dropping cannot be regarded as proof of an -re Commonwealth spelling: e.g. entry derives from enter, which is never spelled entre. ... -ce / -seNouns ending in -ce with -se verb forms: American English retains the noun/verb distinction in advice / advise and device / devise (pronouncing them differently), but has lost the same distinction with licence / license and practice / practise that British English retains. American English uses practice exclusively for both meanings, and license for both meanings (although licence is an accepted variant spelling). Also, Commonwealth defence, offence, pretence; American defense, offense, pretense. ... -xion / -ctionThe spellings connexion, inflexion, deflexion, reflexion are now somewhat rare, perhaps understandably as their stems are connect, inflect, deflect, and reflect and there are many such words in English that result in a -tion ending. The more common connection, inflection, deflection, reflection have almost become the standard internationally. However, the Oxford English Dictionary lists the older spellings as the etymological form, since these four words actually derive from the Latin root -xio. In both forms, complexion is used in preference to complection, as it comes from the stem complex in British and in American English, just like crucifix and crucifixion. (Etymologically, the spelling *crucifiction would in any case mean not “fixing to a cross” (Lat. figere) but “moulding into a cross” (Lat. fingere)). British Methodism retains the eighteenth century spelling "connexion" to describe its national organisation, for historical reasons. Greek-derived spellings... -ise / -izeAmerican spelling accepts only colonize, harmonize, and realize. These -ize spellings are sometimes used in the Commonwealth as well, but many Commonwealth writers and publications use colonise, harmonise, and realise instead. Although most authoritative Commonwealth sources, including the Oxford English Dictionary and Fowler's Modern English Usage, prefer -ize, some give the -ise spelling first, including the Australian Macquarie Dictionary. The same pattern—the spelling -s- in Commonwealth only, -z- in either Commonwealth or American—applies to derivatives and inflexions such as colonisation and colonization. Endings in -yze are possible only in American English. Thus, Commonwealth analyse, catalyse, hydrolyse, paralyse; American analyze, catalyze, hydrolyze, paralyze. Mind that not all spellings are interchangeable; some verbs take the -z- form exclusively, for instance capsize, seize (except in the legal phrase to be seised of/to stand seised to), size and prize (to value: but prize "to lever open" is in the Commonwealth often prise), whereas others take only -s-: advertise, advise, apprise, arise, chastise, circumcise, comprise, compromise, demise, despise, devise, disguise, excise, exercise, enterprise, (en)franchise, improvise, incise, merchandise, premise, promise, previse, poise, praise, raise, reprise, revise, rise, supervise, surmise, surprise, televise and uprise. ... -ogue / -ogCommonwealth analogue, catalogue, dialogue; American analog, catalog, dialog; and inflected forms: American cataloging, Commonwealth cataloguing. This applies with any consistency only to the various words ending in -log(ue) deriving from Greek λογος, although demagog is a possible U.S. variant spelling of demagogue. All the -gue forms are also relatively common in the United States, and other words ending in -gue in Commonwealth usage generally retain -gue in America; e.g. vogue, rogue, plague, monologue (although monolog is fairly common), intrigue, fugue, colleague, tongue, harangue, argue. Greek-derived words with æ and œ
Commonwealth manoeuvre seems to be a special case: its oe was not derived from Greek, but was apparently changed to maneuver in American English on the mistaken belief that it was. British aeroplane and American airplane is a special case in that it is not a straight ae → e substitution; in fact it is a different word rather than a different spelling. Americans frequently used the accented spelling aëroplane at the beginning of the 20th century, and it was the official government spelling throughout the First World War and beyond. Some words retain the ae in American usage, such as aesthetic and archaeology, although esthetic and archeology are also encountered. (Conversely, some words which in Greek contained ae or oe have only e even in British, such as economics (the spelling œconomics is possible, but is now considered archaic)). The spelling encyclopedia is commonly used in British English, although the earlier form encyclopaedia is also commonly used. Common suffixesCommonwealth English generally doubles final -l when adding suffixes that begin with a vowel if -l is preceded by a single vowel, whereas American English doubles it only on stressed syllables. (Thus American English treats -l the same as other final consonants, whereas Commonwealth English treats it irregularly.) Commonwealth counsellor, equalling, modelling, quarrelled, signalling, travelled; American counselor (but chancellor), equaling, modeling, quarreled, signaling, traveled.
Miscellaneous spelling differencesProper names formed as acronyms are often rendered in title case by Commonwealth writers, but usually as upper case by Americans: eg. Nasa / NASA or Unicef / UNICEF. This never applies to initialisms, such as USA or HTML. There is a tendency for new technical meanings of old words to be coined in America and then re-exported to the Commonwealth with the American spelling retained, thus creating a written distinction between the old and new meanings which does not exist in American English. See disk, program and possibly artifact. But compare also meter and discrete, in which an older English written distinction between etymologically related forms with different meanings was destroyed by regularization of American spellings.
Slight lexical differences
Grammar
Prepositions
Punctuation
NumbersWhen saying or writing out numbers, the British will put an "and" before the tens and ones, as in "one hundred and sixty-two" and "two thousand and three", whereas Americans usually go with "one hundred sixty-two" and "two thousand three". Americans also have a tendency to read numbers like 1,234 as "twelve thirty-four", which would be "one thousand, two hundred and thirty-four" or occasionally "twelve hundred and thirty-four" in Britain unless discussing the year 1234, when "twelve thirty-four" would be the norm. Similarly, for the house number (or bus number, etc) "272" Britons would tend to say "two seven two" while Americans would tend to say "two seventy-two". Between 1100 and 1900 the British commonly read numbers ending in round hundreds as, for instance, "sixteen hundred" instead of "one thousand six hundred", but from 2000 upwards usage like "thirty-two hundred" would be replaced by "three thousand two hundred". There is also a historical difference between billions, trillions, and so forth. Americans use "billion" to mean one thousand million (1,000,000,000), whereas in Britain, until the mid-late 20th century, it meant one million million (1,000,000,000,000), with one thousand million sometimes described as a "milliard". However, the "American English" version has since been adopted for all published writing, and the word "milliard" is obsolete in English, as are billiard, trilliard and so on, although most other European languages retain the "British" system. Nevertheless, the majority of people have no direct experience with manipulating numbers this large, so a significant proportion of lay readers will interpret "billion" as 1012, even if they are young enough to have been taught otherwise at school. For this reason, avoiding the word may be advisable when writing for the general public. Instead, one can write in terms of the unambiguous word "million", e.g. "thousand million" and "million million". Thus, 1,200,000,000 = "one thousand two hundred million" as opposed to "one point two billion". Alternatively, either SI prefixes (1,200,000,000 units = 1.2 Giga-units) or scientific notation (1,200,000,000 = 1.2 × 109) can be used. See long scale for a more detailed discussion. Finally, when referring to the numeral 0, Britons would use "zero", "nought", or "oh" normally, or "nil" in instances such as sports scores and voting results. Americans use the term "zero" almost exclusively, occasionally using 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, e.g. when reading a phone or account number aloud, is nearly always pronounced "oh" in both languages for the sake of convenience. When reading numbers in a sequence, such as a telephone or serial number, Britons will use the terms double or triple/treble. 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". See also: How to name numbers in English VocabularyMost 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 Britain 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 US or the UK can create the same problems. It should also be noted that most American words can be freely interchanged with their British versions within the United Kingdom and English-speaking Commonwealth nations without leading to confusion, though they may cause irritation. It tends to be only when the situation is reversed that real problems of understanding occur. However, there are some exceptions, such as dumpster, gas, and stroller (in the sense of pushchair) which would be misunderstood by speakers of British English. There are, however, many pitfalls that Americans can fall into without realising it. Be sure you know what you are talking about when talking about a woman's fanny in Britain, since the word indicates the buttocks in the US versus the vagina in the UK. And use caution in the US when asking to be knocked up – in the UK it means to be awakened as with a knock on the door whereas in the US it means to be impregnated. Caution should also be used when asking for a fag (cigarette) in America, as a fag there refers to a homosexual, although nowadays these alternate meanings are understood in the UK as their US version, dependant on context. Residents of North and South Carolina beaches should be wary of inviting their British guests to "go out shagging," (a type of dance), for the term in British English refers to sexual intercourse. Words used only in British EnglishSpeakers of American English are generally aware of some British English terms, such as lorry, biscuit, chap, 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 you mean by some others, such as candy floss or driving licence. However, use of as many other British words, such as semi, naff, or busk, risks rendering your sentence incomprehensible to most Americans. See List of British English words not used in American English. Words used only in American EnglishSpeakers of British English are generally aware of some American English terms, such as sidewalk, gas, cookie, elevator although they would not generally use them. They will be able to guess approximately what you mean by some others, such as cotton candy or driver's license. However, use of as many other American words risks rendering your sentence incomprehensible to most Britons. See List of American English words not used in British English. Words with differing meaningsSee List of words having different meanings in British and American English. PronunciationConsonantsBritons and Americans pronounce some instances of t and d differently. In British pronunciation, the two sounds are always distinct and prounounced as /t/ and /d/ respectively. In American English, when either a 't' sound or a 'd' sound occurs between two vowels and before an unstressed syllable, it changes to an alveolar flap, similar to the 'r' in Spanish 'pero'. Consequently, to a speaker of both dialect groups, an American's pronunciation of atom and Adam are homophonous in casual speech. Many Americans, however, slightly aspirate this sound when it derives from a 't' and follows a short i (/I/) or long a (/eI/) sound, thus bitter and rated are distinguishable from bidder and raided. See linguistics and allophones for more information on this category of phenomenon. Though most British accents pronounce the t in words as a distinctive t, it is common, particularly in Estuary English, to replace the t with a glottal stop. Most American dialects have not lost the non-prevocalic r. That is, "standard" American English preserves the sound of "r" in all occurrences, whereas British English only preserves it when it is followed by a vowel (see rhotic). However, this holds true neither for all American dialects nor for all British dialects; the dialects of New England and the American South both exhibit a similar sound change found in southern England. In England, however, when a former syllable final /r/ appeared before a consonant not at a word boundary, a schwa was substituted for it, giving British English a new class of falling diphthongs. The non-rhotic North American dialects do not show this. This phenomenon also partially accounts for the interlocution of 'r' between a word ending in a vowel and one beginning with a vowel (such as "the idear of it") exhibited both in some dialects of Britain and in the Boston (USA) dialect of American English. Most other American dialects interpose a glottal stop where "r" appears in the Boston example, and appears to perform the same function of separating adjacent (non-dipthongized) vowels. VowelsAmerican English generally has a simplified vowel system as compared to the British dialects. In particular, many Americans have lost the distinction between the vowels of awl and all, as well as caught and cot, the so-called cot-caught merger tending to pronounce all of these with something between a long form of the sound in cot and the "a" of father (those two sounds being distinct in British English). The long "a" of father, the famous British broad A, is used in many British RP words, especially common ones, in two phonetic situations. Firstly, before three of the four voiceless fricatives, as in path, laugh, pass, past, though not before sh. Secondly, before some instances of n and another consonant, as in aunt, plant, dance. In most northern dialects, not to mention Scotish and Irish, though, the short "a" is the norm (Australian usually follows RP in the first case, though dance and graph, among others, often have the short vowel, aunt and can't invariably have the broad one, and castle has both depending on where a speaker comes from). An "a" at the beginning of a word (such as "ant") is usually short throughout the country, just as in the American. British Received Pronunciation has generally lost the long /ɔː/ as in boat, replacing it with a diphthong that is close to /əʊ/. Some British speakers still have /ɔː/, but it appears only as a result of a lost /ɹ/, in words like force. More northerly and westerly British speech preserves /ɔː/. The British diphthong /əʊ/ is enunciated as /oʊ/ or sometimes as /o/ in general American. In American English, words of two or more syllables, where the first syllable ends with a single consonant, usually use the long vowel sound:
In British English the short vowel sound is usually employed:
In both British and American English a double consonant ending the first syllable usually means the short vowel sound is used.
/u/ vs /ju/ etc.Commonwealth speakers insert /j/ before /u/ (a glide) after more consonants than do American speakers. Both distinguish coot from cute, but most Americans do not distinguish do from due or dew. The major exception among American English is in the Southern dialect, which closely follows the Commonwealth usage. The relevant consonants are /t/, /d/, /θ/, /s/, /z/, /n/, /l/.
StressFor some words, British speakers stress a different syllable from American speakers. This is true in particular for many loanwords from French, where Americans retain final-syllable stress while Britons have an anglicized first-syllable stress. Such words include adultA1,B2, ballet, beret, bidet, blasé, brevet, brochureB2, caféA1, chaletA1, chiffon, cliché, detailA1, flambé, frappé, garage, gateau, gourmet, lamé, montage, pastel, paté, sachet, salon, soupcon ; also some French names, including Calais, Degas, Manet, Monet, Renault, RenéB2. By extension, trisyllabic words may have second-syllable stress in British as opposed to first- and third-syllable stress in American usage, as in exposé and Renaissance. Conversely, m(o)ustache and cigarette always have final-syllable stress in Britain, but have first-syllable stress for some Americans.
Affixes-ileWords ending in -ile (fertile, docile, missile) are pronounced with the last syllable sounding the same as isle in Commonwealth English (/ˈfɜːtaɪl/), and in American with a short, reduced schwa (rhyming with turtle (/ˈfɝɾəl/), and with fossil and whistle respectively), although exceptions can be found, such as reptile. -ineSome multisyllabic words such as iodine and melamine are pronounced with the last syllable sounding the same as dean or mean in Commonwealth English (/ˈaɪədiːn/), and like dine or mine in American (/ˈaɪədaɪn/). -aryWhere the syllable preceding -ary is unstressed, Americans pronounce the suffix as two syllables, with secondary stress on the first of these. British speakers elide the a to give a single unstressed syllable. So military is American /ˈmɪlɪˌtɛɹi/ and British /ˈmɪlɪtɹɪ/. Words ending in -rary form an exception in British English, where in careful speech some may feel obliged to distinguish the two r's. Thus arbitrary would be pronounced /ˈɑːbɪtɹəɹɪ/ rather than /ˈɑːbɪtɹɪ/; Americans would further expand the schwa to a fully-fledged /ɛ/: /ˈɑɹbətɹɛɹi/. Adjectives ending -ary form adverbs ending -arily. Formerly the British-American distinction carried over to these, but nowadays most British speakers adopt the American practice of shifting the stress to the antepenultimate syllable: militarily is thus /ˌmɪlɪˈtɛɹɪlɪ/ rather than /ˈmɪlɪtɹɪlɪ/. Miscellaneous pronunciation differencesThe slashes normally used to enclose phonetic transcriptions have been omitted from the following table to improve legibility.
MiscellaneousBoth British and American English use the expression "I couldn't care less" to mean the speaker does not care at all. In American English, the phrase "I could care less" (without the "n't") is synonymous with this, while in British English, "I could care less" is most certainly not synonymous with this, and might be interpreted as anything from nonsense to an indication that the speaker does care. In his history of the Second World War, Winston Churchill records that differences in the interpretation of the verb "to table" caused an argument between British and American planners. The British wanted a matter tabled immediately because it was important, and the Americans insisted it should not be tabled at all because it was important. In British English, the term means "to discuss now" (the issue is brought to the table), whereas in American English it means "to defer" (the issue is left on the table). In a similar vein, the verb "to slate" means "to schedule" in the US but (informally) "to disparage" in the UK. Thus a headline such as "Third Harry Potter Film Slated" has two very different interpretations. One usage of the word "bomb" causes similar confusion: in the US "the show bombed" means it was a total failure; in the UK "the show went down a bomb" means it was a great success. In the UK, a student is said to "read" or to "study" a subject, while in the US, a student either "studies" the subject or "majors" in it.
In the UK, a student "revises" or "does revision" for an examination, while in American English, the student "studies" for it. When "taking" or "writing" the examination, a student in the UK would have that examination supervised by a "invigilator" whereas in American English it would be a "proctor". In the UK, a student is said to "write" or "take" an exam, while in the US, a student "takes" an exam. In the UK, a teacher "sets" an exam, while in the US, a teacher "writes" an exam. The expression "he sits for" an exam also arises in British English, but only rarely in American English; American lawyers-to-be "sit for" their bar exams, but in nearly all other instances, Americans "take" their exams.
In the UK, "a couple of" tends to refer to exactly two of something, even though the term is informal. In American English, it often means a few (maybe rather more than two) and the "of" is frequently omitted. While the use of American expressions in British English is often noted in Britain, movement in the opposite direction is less common. But recent examples exist, including the idiom "to go missing," which had been a distinctively British expression but is used increasingly in American English, at least in journalism, and the noun "queue" and verb "queue up," which seem to be making inroads in the U.S. as well. (The usual American equivalent of "to go missing" is "to disappear" and that of "queue (up)" is "line (up).") Building layoutAmerican English and British English differ in how they describe the floor levels of buildings, a distinction that often causes confusion in each other's countries.
Put simply:
Compounding the confusion for travelers, some American elevators have a "G" button for an underground garage, while many British lifts use "G" for the Ground floor. In North America, some buildings may have entrances on two different floors, such as those built into a hill. In these cases, the ground floor is the lower and the first floor is the upper. Most European countries, countries of the Commonwealth, and former British colonies like Hong Kong, follow the same convention as the British, although Russia, some countries of East Europe, and Japan follow the American convention. Some U.S. high-rise buildings follow the British system, often out of a desire on the part of the building's architect or owners to suggest a posh U.K./European setting. Additionally, some US high-rise buildings try to have it both ways, and skip from ground floor directly to the second floor, especially in the upper Midwest. (Floor numbering schemes in the USA sometimes skip the number 13 for the sake of the superstitious. In the UK, buildings of this height are less common anyway.) See also
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