British and American English


 * Some parts of this article use accent marks to indicate stress and pronunciation: for an explanation and table, see English spellings

Between British English and American English there are numerous differences in the areas of vocabulary, spelling, and phonology. This article compares the forms of British and American speech normally studied by foreigners: the former includes the accent known as Received Pronunciation, or RP; the latter uses Midland American English, which is normally perceived to be the least marked American dialect. Actual speech by educated British and American speakers is more varied, and that of uneducated speakers still more. Grammatical and lexical differences between British and American English are, for the most part, common to all dialects, but there are many regional differences in pronunciation, vocabulary, usage and slang, some subtle, some glaring, some rendering a sentence incomprehensible to a speaker of another variant.

American and British English both diverged from a common ancestor, and the evolution of each language is tied to social and cultural factors in each land. Cultural factors can affect one's understanding and enjoyment of language; consider the effect that slang and double entendre have on humour. A joke is simply not funny if the pun upon which it is based can't be understood because the word, expression or cultural icon upon which it is based does not exist in one's variant of English. Or, a joke may be only partially understood, that is, understood on one level but not on another, as in this exchange from the britcom Dad's Army:

Fraser: Did ya hear the story of the old empty barn? Mainwaring: Listen, everyone, Fraser's going to tell a story. Fraser: The story of the old empty barn:  well, there was nothing in it!

Americans would 'get' part of the joke, which is that a barn that is empty literally has nothing in it. However, in Commonwealth English, 'there's nothing in it' also means something that is trivial, useless or of no significance.

But it is not only humour that is affected. Items of cultural relevance change the way English is expressed locally. A person can say "I was late, so I Akii-Bua'd (from John Akii-Bua, Ugandan hurdler) and be understood all over East Africa, but receive blank stares in Australia. Even if the meaning is guessed from context, the nuance is not grasped; there is no resonance of understanding.  Then again, because of evolutionary divergence; people can believe that they are speaking of the same thing, or that they understand what has been said, and yet be mistaken.  Take adjectives such as 'mean' and 'cheap'.  Commonwealth speakers still use 'mean' to mean 'parsemonious', Americans understand this usuage, but their first use of the word 'mean' is 'unkind'.  Americans use 'cheap' to mean 'stingy', but while Commonwealth speakers understand this, there is a danger that when used of a person, it can be interpreted as 'disreputable' 'immoral' (my grandmother was so cheap).  The verb 'to table' a matter, as in a conference, is generally taken to mean 'to defer', in American English, but as 'to place on the table', i.e. to bring up for discussion, in Commonwealth English.

English is a flexible and quickly-evolving language; it simply absorbs and includes words and expressions for which there is no current English equivalent; these become part of the regional English. American English has hundreds of loan words acquired from its immigrants: these can eventually find their way into widespread use, (spaghetti, mañana), or they can be restricted to the areas in which immigrant populations live. So there can be variances between the English spoken in New York City, Chicago, and San Francisco. Thanks to Asian immigration, a working-class Londoner asks for a cuppa cha and receives the tea he requested. This would probably be understood in Kampala and New Delhi as well, but not necessarily in Boise, Idaho.

Cultural exchange also has an impact on language. For example, it is possible to see a certain amount of Americanization in the British English of the last 50 years. This influence is not entirely one-directional, though, as, for instance, the previously British English 'flat' for 'apartment' has gained in usage among American twenty-somethings. Similarly the American pronunciation of 'aunt' has changed during the last two decades, and it is considered classier to pronounce 'aunt' in the Commonwealth manner, even for speakers who continue to rhyme 'can't' and 'shan't' with 'ant'. Australian English is based on the language of the Commonwealth, but has also blended indigenous, immigrant and American imports.

Applying these same phenomena to the rest of the English-speaking world, it becomes clear that though the "official" differences between Commonwealth and American English can be more or less delineated, the English language can still vary greatly from place to place.

Musical notes
Most of the English-speaking world has crotchets, minims, semibreves and breves; American English calls these quarter notes, half notes, whole notes and double whole notes respectively.

Lexis and idiom

 * The expression 'I guess', meaning 'I think', common in American English, is not used in British English.
 * In British, one goes 'to hospital' or 'to university'; in American, one goes 'to the hospital' or 'to the university'. However, one goes 'to college' in both.
 * Toss and flip: in British English, one tosses a coin, but in American, it is usually flipped.
 * In British, an ass (rarely used nowadays) is a donkey or a fool; in American it is used instead of 'arse'.
 * In British, mad means crazy; in American angry.
 * In British, to wash up, or to do the washing up, is to do the dishes; in American however it is to wash oneself, where British English would say to wash one's face or have a wash.
 * What Americans call public schools are in Britain 'state schools', because 'public school' is the British term for a non-profit-making independent school, of which Eton is the most famous example.
 * 'Uptown' and 'downtown' are not widely used outside America. In British English, the former is rendered variously as 'in the suburbs' or 'on the outskirts', 'suburban' or 'residential', whichever is most appropriate. 'Down town' (two words) means to or in the city or town centre.
 * American English usually omits the 'and' in numerals: 'two thousand eight', where BrE has 'two thousand and eight'.
 * British English has 'UK' and 'US', American English 'U.S.' and 'U.K.'
 * A frying-pan can also be called a fry-pan or a skillet in American English.
 * The situation regarding the use of 'trapezium' and 'trapezoid', whether referring to geometrical shapes or to bones, is complicated, and may be a question of idiolect.
 * In British, 'sport' is used as an uncountable noun where Americans talk of 'sports'. In contrast, British has 'maths' and American 'math'.
 * In British, the 'first floor' is the first floor up, that is, above the ground floor, which is at street level. In American 'ground floor' may occasionally be used that way, but is more often figurative ('I got in on the ground floor', that is, at the beginning); it is the first floor that is at street level.
 * British English introduces a motion by tabling it; American postpones discussion by tabling it (that is, shelving it).
 * In British, 'bacteria' is the plural of 'bacterium'; in American, 'bacterias' of 'bacteria'.
 * Anymore' can be one word in American, and mean 'nowadays', even with a positive verb, in some varieties of AmE.

Grammar

 * American English generally prefers the singular for collective nouns: 'the government is considering' where British has 'the government are...' Thus, while 'the United States is topping the medals table', 'England are losing another Test Match'.
 * Where a verb has both regular and irregular past forms, American English prefers the regular, and British the irregular: for example, for 'spell' BrE prefers past tense and past participle 'spelt'; AmE the regular 'spelled'.

The date
There are no hard and fast rules, but Americans tend to put the month before the day, so where Britons will more often say 'the thirtieth of July', an American might prefer 'July the thirtieth'; although omitting the article, as in 'July thirtieth' is distinctly American. And so in writing, British English tends toward '30 July 2009', American towards 'July 30, 2009', the numbers separated by a comma.

Wikipedia has helped to popularise the notion that there is a strict difference between the two idioms here, but this seems to be for its own, conflict-resolving, convenience: for example, the expression 'The Fourth of July' is as American as is the importance of the date.

Spelling
There are a number of spelling differences, some systemic (most notably in suffixes), and others in individual words.

Suffixes
The most striking differences between the spelling of American English and British English are in these suffixes. (The accents, which are not used in English, show stress and pronunciation: see English spellings for a table and English phonemes for a comparison with the International Phonetic Alphabet.)

-ise and -ize
It is normal to see spellings with -ize, such as rêalize, in American English, and those with -ise in British English, but -ize has been for centuries the standard spelling of Oxford University Press (in contrast to Cambridge UP which uses either form at the option of the author) and there is some evidence to suggest that -ise predominated in the UK only after 1945. The -ise spelling reflects the French from which these words were borrowed, though many originally came from Greek -ιζειν (-izein, with a zeta) via Latin. Some words, such as ádvertise, can supposedly only be spelt with -s- regardless of which side of the Atlantic they are used; however, spellings such as ádvertize are readily found nowadays. For examples, see English spellings/Catalogs/Retro E.

ae and oe become e
In Latin and Greek words where British has ae or oe, American English usually has a solitary e: aesthétic is esthétic and foêtus fêtus.

Other spellings
Other individual spelling variations are:

Also: dôve is an American alternative to dîved as past tense of dîve, with the same spelling as the bird dòve; matinée (pronounced mátinèe) can have a written é accent in British English but no accent in American English.

The spelling dísc is preferred in Britain, except for computer disks, which are often spelt thus, while American prefers dísk, mainly confining the -c spelling to musical recordings. 

Initial capital letters
Champâgne *shám-pâin and Cointreau *quàn-trô have initial capitals in American English, as they are proprietary names; in British they both normally begin with a lower-case letter.

Pronunciation
The pronunciations discussed here are standard British (also called Received Pronunciation), which is associated with London and the Home Counties, and General American, heard in much of the United States and Canada.

Postvocalic r
Most strikingly, ‘postvocalic’ r, that is to say r after a vowel and in the same syllable, is silent in British English but pronounced in American English, in words like fàrm, càrve, cürve, swërve, fïrst, nŏrth, cŏrd, bïrth, ëarth. So càrd, *càd in BrE, contrasts with cád, and chàrted (-íd in most pronunciations, but -əd in some Commonwealth English) with chàrtered (-rd in AmE, but -əd in BrE).

For some speakers of both, postvocalic r is heard finally before a vowel in the next word: Mŷ càr ísn't réady (*rízzent) and an invisible 'r' can sometimes be heard between words: relâtions betwêen Chîna(r)and Rússia; this however is less common in British English than it used to be.

In American English an r between two vowels can have an effect on the first vowel: márry can sound to British ears like Mãry; the e in véry can sound like a stressed schwa. British English has -ór- before a vowel but American English always has -ŏr-: British English órifice, órigin, fóreign, American English ŏrifice, ŏrigin, fŏreign. So móral can in American English sound to British ears like *mŏrrl.

British English úr is American English ür: British English coúrage, cúrrency American English coürage, cürrency, and British English òr is similarly altered: British English wòrry, American wörry.

à versus á
British English à is very often in American English a long á: cán’t, lást, fást, hálf, ráther, láther. But not in fàther, Coloràdo, Chicàgo (Sh-), pajàmas (British English pyjàmas) nor before r: fàrm, stàrve nor before -lm: càlm, pàlm, bàlm. And in some place names where British English has á, à is preferred by many Americans: one hears Milàn, Vietnàm, Ugànda, Srì Lànka, Caràcas and Ànkara, where BrE has Milán, etc. This extends also to commercial names: BrE Níssán, AmE Nìssàn.

-ary, -ory and -ony
The suffix -ary has a silent a in traditional British English, but in American English it sounds like an é: díctionãry, vocábulãry (*dícshənérry, vəcábyəlérry). A similar example is Rôsemary, pronounced with a schwa a in BrE, but as if two words, Rôse Mãry, in American. In the equivalent adverbs, the ã sound is clearly pronounced in both varieties: momentãrily (*momentérily), necessãrily. Featuring as it does so much in popular culure, the American English sound has become increasingly common in British English, especially in broadcasting, with American pronunciations of some common words, such as nécessary, sécretary and mílitary, often being heard instead of the more typically British *nécəssry, *sécrətry, even though the same speakers when using other words with this ending – the likes of córonary, hónorary and heréditary – will not normally depart from the British *córonry, etc. Not untypically, a BrE-speaking presenter on the BBC in 2010 tailored her pronunciation to the office, referring to 'The Foreign *Sécrətry and the *Sécrətérry of State...' (This invites comparison with weak and strong forms).

Similarly in British English labóratory and American láboratŏry, one o is stressed, rendering the other redundant: British English *labóratry, American English *lábratŏry. Other American pronunciations are cátegŏry, perémptŏry, stâtionéry and mónastéry; and also céremôny, álimôny and ácrimôny where British English has silence or schwa for o or e.

However, both varieties have a schwa or no sound for the a when the preceding syllable is the stressed one: suppleméntary (*súpləméntəry), compliméntary (*compləméntəry), but there is a difference where there is an o: AmE perémptŏry, BrE *perémptəry.

Differing e sound
British lêver is American léver; also in inflected forms: lêverage/léverage.

Similarly, evolûtion, ecológical, equiláteral, methane and pederasty have é- in American, ê- in British.

Short o
The [ɒ] (ó) vowel in British English hót does not exist for the vast majority of American English speakers, as it developed following the establishment of colonies in the New World (Australians do use it, since Australia was colonised later). American English may employ a variety of vowels in this position, depending on the phonological context and the speaker's regional background - [ɔ], [ɑ] or others in roughly the same area of the mouth, low and towards the back. They also make distinctions through the use of r, which for British English speakers are homophonous: cŏurt and cåught both use [ɔː], whereas American English speakers pronounce the r in the former: [kɔɹt] and [kɔt], for example. So also, American hót sounds like British heàrt, American póssible like British pàssable.

Short u and its o grapheme
The [ʌ] (ú) vowel in British English hút does not exist in American English: a stressed schwa is used instead, as it is also when the spelling is o, as in òther.

wh-
In words beginning wh- (apart from who, which is pronounced *hoô in both varieties) the h is ignored in British English but sounded before the w in American English, so that whén and whístle are pronounced *hwén and *hwíssle.

-ile
The suffix -île in British English is usually schwa in American English so that vólatîle is pronounced *vólatle, stérîle *stérral, and frágîle *frájle. míssîle projectile is like míssal prayers and hóstile enemy sounds like hóstel shelter.

-duce
The suffix -dûce, as in redûce, indûce, prodûce verb and próduce noun is -dyoôss or -joôss in British English but can also be -doôss in American English.

-age
In three words from French with the suffix -age, where British English has an anglicised version, American English prefers to keep the French model, so á in the first syllable cedes its stress to the suffix (this is not to be confused with the cockney pronunciation of, for example, gárage as *garridge):

-t- and -d- between vowels
In American English -t- and -d- between vowels, of which the first vowel is stressed, are voiced and sound like -d-, though actually the sound is a [ɾ] (a 'tap' or 'flap', i.e. a very rapid contact just behind the top front teeth): lâter *lâ[ɾ]er, bútter *bú[ɾ]er, líttle *lí[ɾ]le, shoôting *shoô[ɾ]ing; British English speakers keep these as -t- or -d-. In American English twénty, the -t- blends with the -n- and disappears altogether. The 'flap' often appears as the Scottish English pronunciation of /r/. British English speakers often partially or completely 'glottalise' -t- where American English speakers produce a flap. This glottal stop [ʔ] is common in London English, for example: *bú[ʔ]er for bútter. It also often replaces /t/ at the end of a syllable: *ca[ʔ] for cát. The glottal stop, which is formed by the vocal cords briefly coming together to restrict airflow, is not a phoneme of English and so speakers will usually identify it as a variant of -t-.

-euse
This ending has two pronunciations in American English: in words such as American English 'masseûse, the final e can also be sounded: chanteûsê. British English has only the French-style massëuse, rhyming with the masculine plural form massëurs.

-ative
When preceded by an unstressed syllable, this ending has a secondary stress on the â in American, which is schwa in British, so American authŏritâtive is British authóritative, with a schwa, -tət-, and likewise British méditative is American méditâtive.

-rsion
Words with this ending, such as vërsion and excürsion, have the 'sh' sound in British and the 'zh' sound in American.

Other pronunciations
This table lists further examples of pronunciation differences. See the spelling section above for a table of items, such as kílomêtre/kilómeter, that are also spelt differently. The equals sign, =, means that the following word has the same pronunciation.

Punctuation
In British English, a punctuation mark (usually a comma) goes before closing inverted commas (or a closing inverted comma, if single quotation marks are being used) to indicate dialogue, but is otherwise put, if needed, after the quotation marks. American English does not make this distinction, and punctuation always precedes closing quotation marks.

American English: The tip material in modern fountain pens is still conventionally called "iridium," although there is seldom any iridium in it.

British English: The tip material in modern fountain pens is still conventionally called "iridium", although there is seldom any iridium in it.

Both British and American: "Today: iridium," the teacher announced.