The
old saying that “America and Britain are two nations divided by a common
language and culture” is largely true in one or another. Still, these two languages show
apparent differences from grammar to pronunciation. Incredibly, the
English language in the US is an inference of British colonization, which
commenced in North America in the 17th century. The dialects used in
America are American English (AmE), while the dialects used in the
British are regarded as British English (BrE).
Differences between American and British English include pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary (lexis), spelling, punctuation, idioms, and formatting of dates and numbers.
Pronunciation
British English and American English dialects
have a clear distinction in the utterance. The most obvious is the usage of
‘r”. In British English, when r comes after a vowel in the same syllable
as the r is not pronounced. In American English, the same word is pronounced
with the r.
E.g. In British English, the word car, park, form, world, and
so on, are pronounced like /kɑː/, /pɑːk/, /fɔːm/, /wɜːld/
while in American English,/kɑr/, /pa:rk/, /fɔrm/, and /wɜrld/ respectively.
In other words, as well have differences like in the verb
form, globalize, are pronounced the same in both British and American English.
But British English maintains this same pronunciation in the noun form
globalization, while American English changes the sound of the letter “i.”
Grammar
1) Use of Preposition
There
are some prepositional differences between the two dialects.
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.
E.g.
|
I’m
going to Lahore on the
weekend. |
I’m
going to Lahore at the
weekend. |
|
What
are you doing on Eid-ul-Azha? |
What
are you doing at Eid-Ul-Azha? |
|
Monday through Friday. |
Monday to Friday. |
|
It’s
different from/than the others. |
It’s
different from/to the others. |
2) Past
Simple Vs. Present Perfect
There is a slight difference in
the use of tenses. Americans use past simple instead of present perfect to
describe something that happened recently while in the UK, they tend to use present
perfect.
|
American
English |
British
English |
|
We ran toward
the goal. |
We have
run toward the goal. |
|
She went to
Lahore. |
She has
been to Lahore. |
|
Did
you get the newspaper? |
Have
you got the newspaper? |
3) Collective
nouns: singular or plural?
In British English, a collective noun is plural but can be
singular, while in the US, collective nouns are always singular. The first one
emphasizes collective nouns as the members of the group and later stresses
the group as one whole entity. Team, school, police, and all the collective noun
take the singular verbs in British English and the opposite in the US.
E.g.
The police is responsible for capturing
criminals…British
The School are experiencing water penetration problems…American
4) The
past participle of “get.”
In American English, the past
participle of get is gotten, while in British, it ‘got’ is used more argumentatively.
|
American
English |
British
English |
|
Get…..got….gotten |
Get…..got…….got |
|
We
have not gotten any information regarding the war with Russia |
Have
you got any news? |
5) Regular
or irregular verbs
There is a slight difference in
regular and irregular verbs as well. The verbs are irregular in British
dialects; regular in American English. It shows the flexibility of the English
language and eases for those who choose English as a foreign language. For
example, have been made regular in America
American British
Leaped, dreamed, burned, learned. Leapt, dreamt, burnt, learnt
Vocabulary
One
of the apparent differences between BrE and AmE language is vocabulary. It
is not so incredible a difference because the dialects within the US and
Britain also deviate to some extent. Here are some words which different in
spelling but have the same meaning and function. For example, British
Fries, flats, boots, barristers, bills, rubber, shop, zip, sweets, and trousers are
used in crispy, apartments, trunks, attorneys, erasers, stores, zipper, and
candy paints, respectively in America.
Spelling
There
are some differences in spelling as well between these two dialects. The
difference clearly shows in Noah Webster’s dictionary. For example, colour, honour,
labour, behaviour, theater, metre change into color, honor, labor, behavior, theater, and
meter respectively.
Punctuation
Full
stops; In American English, we write "Mr.", "Mrs.",
"St.", "Dr." etc., while in British it is usually
"Mr", "Mrs", "St", "Dr", In quotation marks,
there are also vivid differences like, In British English, single quotation
marks are used, and in American English, double is used. Comma, In
British English, the comma is placed outside quotation marks. However, if the
punctuation sign is a part of the quote itself, then the quotation sign is put
after the period. In American English, the period and the comma is always put
inside quotation marks.
Idioms
Then
there are differences in idioms as well. For example, in the U.S. if you want
to add your view to a conversation, you put in your two cents. In
the U.K., they put in their tuppence worth; we say, “Don’t
beat a dead horse!” The British, on the other
hand, against flogging. And, if you have
secrets in the United States, you have skeletons in the cupboard.
In Great Britain, your skeletons would be hiding in a cupboard.
Formatting
of dates and numbers
The date format in American
English
When
you prefer to write the date in American English, usually, the month comes
before the day, and then followed by the year.
September
6
September
6, 2019
Monday, September 6, 2019
The
date format in British English
In
British English, the day is followed by the month, which is then followed by
the year.
6 Sept
6 September
6 September 2019
6th September 2019
The 6th of September 2019
The 6th of September, 2019
Conclusion
British
and American English, of course, more similarities than differences. We think
the difference between American and British English is just based on
exaggeration. If anyone can understand, one easily understands
the others. Both watch each other’s TV shows and study each other’s literature
and books as well.
Wonderful
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