Comparison of American and British English

This article outlines the differences between American English, the form of the English language spoken in the United States, and Commonwealth English (often called British English).

For the purposes of this article:

• American English is the form of English used by people in the United States and, as a lingua franca or second language, by people in many parts of the world. American English does not include Canadian English; although Canadian pronunciation and vocabulary is very similar to that of the United States, Canadian spelling often takes the Commonwealth form. Regions and countries that tend to use American English in teaching and publishing include much of Eastern Europe (including Russia), the Far East (especially Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and the Philippines; although largely excluding the former British colonies of Hong Kong and Singapore), the Americas (excluding other former British colonies such as Canada, Jamaica, and the Bahamas) and, in Africa, Liberia, and Namibia. The World Bank, and the Organization of American States, among other organizations, also use American English.
• Commonwealth English is the form of English used across the United Kingdom and most of its former colonies in the British Empire, most notably in much of Africa (including South Africa and Egypt), the Indian subcontinent (Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh), Malta, Australia and New Zealand, and portions of Southeast Asia (Myanmar, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand), as well as Hong Kong. Like American English, it is used in many parts of the world as a lingua franca. This form of English, mostly interchangeable with British English, is sometimes called Commonwealth English because most of its speakers live in nations that are members of the Commonwealth of Nations. Other nations and groups that use British English include the European Union and, often, the United Nations. Many international organizations, like the International Olympic Committee, NATO, the World Trade Organization and ISO also use British English.
• The forms of English spoken in Canada exhibit features of both British and American dialects; while spelling is closer to British English, pronunciation and vocabulary are much closer to American English. Many words and phrases thought of as "Americanisms" are also used by Canadians.
• Although British English is a term used when describing formal written English used in the United Kingdom, the forms of spoken English used in the United Kingdom vary considerably more than in most other areas of the world in which English is spoken, even more than in the United States, despite the vastly larger population and land area of the U.S. Dialects and accents vary not only within regions of the UK—for example, in Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales—but also within England, with differences occurring within the space of a few miles in some cases. The written form of the language universally taught in schools is Commonwealth English with a slight emphasis on a few words which might be more common in the specific areas than others. For example, although the words "wee" and "small" are interchangable, one is more likely to see "wee" written by a Scot than by a Londoner.

Although spoken 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 once 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 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.

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.

Pronunciation

See: American and British English pronunciation differences

Grammar

Singular and plural for nouns

• In British English, singular nouns that describe multiple people are often treated as plural, particularly where one is concerned with the people constituting the team, rather than with the team as an entity. The singular form is usually used in American. For example, British "the team are worried"; American "the team is worried". Americans may use the plural form when the individual membership is clear, for example, "the team take their seats" (not "the team takes its seat(s)"), although it is often rephrased to avoid the singular/plural decision, as in "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). Proper nouns which are plural in form take a plural verb in both American and British English. Examples:
  • British English: "The Clash are a well-known band." American English: "The Clash is a well-known band." Both: "The Beatles are a well-known band."
  • British English: "New England are the champions." American English: "New England is the champion." Both: "The Patriots are the champions".
• Differences in which nouns are the same in both their plural and singular forms, such as the word sheep. In American English, shrimp is such a word, but in British English the plural of shrimp is shrimps. (Shrimps is occasionally heard in the southern U.S., but is otherwise rare, apart from its colloquial use as a pejorative term for small people). An unusual example is innings, which is both singular and plural in British English, but for which a separate singular form (inning) exists in American English.

Use of tenses

• British English 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 or the simple past.
  • "Have you cleaned your teeth?" / "Did you clean your teeth?"
  • "Have you done your homework yet?" / "Did you do your homework yet?"
  • "I've just got home." / "I just got home."
  • "I've already eaten." / "I already ate."
• Similarly, the pluperfect is occasionally replaced by the preterite in the USA; this is generally regarded as sloppy usage by those Americans who consider themselves careful users of the language.
• In British English, 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 Britain. American also informally uses got as a verb for these meanings, e.g. "I got two cars," "I got to go"; but these are nonstandard and will be considered sloppy usage by many American speakers.
• The subjunctive mood is more common in American English in expressions such as: "They suggested that he apply for the job". British English would have "They suggested that he should apply for the job" (or even "They suggested that he applied for the job"). However, the British usage ("should apply") is also heard in the United States.

Verb morphology

See also: the list of irregular verbs

• Verb past tenses with -ed: American dreamed, leaped, learned, spelled; Commonwealth dreamt, leapt, learnt, spelt. As with the "tre" words, the t endings are occasionally found in older American texts. The forms with -ed are also common in Commonwealth usage, and preferred by many careful writers of English since they are weak verbs. (Note that the two-syllable form learnèd /'lɜːnɪd/, usually written simply as learned, is still used as an adjective to mean "educated", or to refer to academic institutions, in both British English and American English.)
• Other verb past tense forms: American fit, forecast, knit, lit, wed; Commonwealth fitted, forecasted, knitted, lighted, wedded. The distinction is, however, not rigorous as the Commonwealth forms are also found in American, and both lit and forecast are not only found in Commonwealth English, but are generally considered standard usage.
• Also, the past participle gotten is rarely used in modern British English (although it is used in some dialects), which generally uses got (as do some Americans), except in old expressions such as ill-gotten gains. Commonwealth usage retains the form forgotten, though. Furthermore, according to the Compact Oxford English Dictionary, "The form gotten is not used in British English but is very common in North American English, though even there it is often regarded as non-standard." In North America, most people who use gotten also use got, with gotten emphasizing the action of acquiring, and got tending to indicate simple possession.
• The past participle proven is frequently used in American English, although some speakers avoid it, and it remains proved in British English (except in adjectival use; and usage is different in Scots law).
• American English further allows other irregular verbs, such as thrive (throve–thriven) or sneak (snuck), which remain regular in Commonwealth English, and often mixes the preterite and past participle forms (spring–sprang (U.S. sprung)–sprung), sometimes forcing verbs such as shrink (shrank–shrunk) to have a further form, thus shrunk–shrunken. (The Associated Press Stylebook in American English treats some irregular verbs as colloquialisms, insisting on the regular forms for the past tense of dive, plead and sneak.)

Presence or absence of syntactic elements

• Where a statement of intention involves two separate activities, it is acceptable for speakers of American English to use to go plus bare infinitive. Speakers of British English would instead use to go and plus bare infinitive: thus where a speaker of American English might say "I'll go take a bath", British English 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 American English, where speakers of British English would instead use to come and plus bare infinitive: thus where a speaker of American English might say Come see what I bought, British English speakers would say, Come and see what I've bought (notice the addition of "have": 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).
• In Britain, 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 always say "the new museum will be open starting Tuesday" or "the new museum will open Tuesday", and would probably be confused by the British saying. (This difference does not apply to phrases of the pattern from A to B, which are used in both British and American English.)
• Where an American will meet with someone, a British person can meet someone. To a British person, the use of with seems to reinforce a notion of mutuality (in this case, the usage is similar to to have a meeting with someone, thus meet with is acceptable, but visit with sounds very strange (you cannot visit someone while they are visiting you).
• British people say "I'll write to you" where Americans commonly say "I'll write you".
• Intransitive verbs often become transitive in American English; for example, British English: "The workers protested against the decision." American English: "The workers protested the decision."
• 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]. Among this group, Commonwealth English has in hospital [as a patient] and at university [as a student], where American English requires in the hospital and at the university. (A nurse, visitor, etc. would be in the hospital in both systems.)
• American English distinguishes in back of [behind] from in the back of; the former is unknown in Britain and liable to misinterpretation as the latter. Both however distinguish in front of from in the front of.
• 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.

Different prepositions in certain contexts

• In the United States, the word through can mean "up to and including" as in Monday through Friday. In Britain Monday to Friday, or Monday to Friday inclusive is used instead; Monday through to Friday is also sometimes used. (Note: In some parts of Northern England the term while can be used in the same way, as in Monday while Friday.)
• In American English on is usually used to say which street one lives in whereas British English usually uses in, eg on Churchill Street /in Churchill Street.
• After talk American can use the preposition with but British always uses to (i.e. "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 British and American English.
• In American English from is the correct preposition to use after the word different: "American English is different from British English in several respects." While considered technically incorrect, different than is also commonly heard in the US. The British phrasing different to, however, is almost entirely unknown in the US. Note that, when grammar is taught formally in Britain, both different than and different to are strictly prohibited, whereas different from is considered correct.

Miscellaneous grammatical differences

• In American English there is a normative rule which says that, for a non-human antecedent, which should not be used in restrictive relative clauses. According to The Elements of Style (p. 59), "That is the defining, or restrictive pronoun, which the nondefining, or nonrestrictive. See Rule 3."
• In names of American rivers, the word river usually comes after the name (for example, Colorado River), whereas for British rivers it comes before (as in River Thames). One exception present in British English is the Fleet River, which is rarely called the River Fleet by Londoners outside of official documentation. An exception in the U.S. is the River Raisin in Michigan.
• In the names of counties of the British Isles, the word county comes before the name i.e. County Limerick (Ireland) or is simply absent, i.e. Glamorgan (Wales) or Kent (England), whereas in the U.S., it comes after the name, i.e. Washington County.
• In British English 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 side of the church." This construction is not often heard outside Britain. 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 may imply that the subject had been involuntarily forced to sit or stand.
• 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" (the literal German translation "Komm mit" is occasionally heard).

Word derivation and compounds

• Directional suffix -ward(s): English forwards, towards, rightwards, etc.; American forward, toward, rightward. The forms with -s are only used as adverbs or prepositions. In American English, the -s forms are fast disappearing, except afterwards. In British English, there is a semantic difference in the usage of the two possible forms. The Oxford English Dictionary states the following about forward and forwards: "/.../ the latter expresses a definite direction viewed in contrast with other directions. In some contexts either form may be used without perceptible difference of meaning; the following are examples in which only one of them can be used: 'The ratchet-wheel can move only forwards'; 'the right side of the paper has the maker's name reading forwards'; 'if you move at all it must be forwards'; 'my companion has gone forward'; 'to bring a matter forward'; 'from this time forward'."
• Commonwealth English allows agentive -er and attributive -ing suffixes for football (also cricket; often netball; occasionally basketball). American English always uses football player rather than footballer. Where the sport's name is usable as a verb, the suffixation is standard in both American English and British English: for example, golfer, bowler, and shooter.
• English writers everywhere occasionally make new compound words from common phrases; for example, health care is now being replaced by healthcare on both sides of the Atlantic. However, American English has made certain words in this fashion which are still treated as phrases in most Commonwealth countries. For example, Americans write "trademarks," but some other countries write "trade-marks" or "trade marks."
• In compound nouns of the form <verb><noun>, sometimes American English favours the bare infinitive where British English favours the gerund. Examples include: jump rope / skipping rope; racecar / racing car; rowboat / rowing boat; sailboat / sailing boat. In each of these pairs, the former term is more common in America than Britain and the latter more common in Britain than America (although it is not necessarily the case that the former is more common than the latter within America or the latter more common than the former within Britain).
• Singular attributives in one country may be plural in the other, and vice versa. For example, Britain has a drugs problem while the United States has a drug problem (although the singular usage is also commonly heard in Britain).

Lexis

Most 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 U.S. 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 gas (as in gasoline), and stroller (in the sense of pushchair) which would be misunderstood by speakers of British English, as well as common trademark names unknown in the other country, such as Dumpster (U.S.) or Sellotape (UK). There are, however, many pitfalls that Americans can fall into without realising it; for example, referring to a woman's fanny in Britain, since the word indicates the buttocks in the U.S. but the vagina in the UK. Speakers of Commonwealth English should be cautious when asking for a fag (cigarette) in America, as it is a derogatory term referring to a homosexual in the U.S., although nowadays these alternate meanings are understood in the UK as their U.S. version, dependent 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. This meaning has become commonly known in the U.S., however, owing to its repeated usage in the popular Austin Powers films, so many or most Americans are not likely to approach with such an offer unless that is what is in mind. Similarly, avoid telling Australians or New Zealanders what team you root for, as the slang meaning of "root" in these countries is sexual intercourse.

General trends

While the use of American expressions in 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. The noun "queue" also seems to be making inroads in the U.S. as well. (The usual American equivalents of "to go missing" and "queue" are "to disappear" and "line", respectively.)

Words used only in British English

See also: List of British English words not used in American English

Speakers of American English are likely to be 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 is meant by some others, such as candy floss or driving licence. However, use of many other British words, such as naff (unstylish) or busk (to play a musical instrument in public with the hope of getting donations from passers-by), risks rendering a sentence incomprehensible to most Americans.

Words used only in American English

See also: List of American English words not used in British English

Speakers of British English are likely to be 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 is meant by some others, such as cotton candy. However, use of some other American words risks rendering a sentence incomprehensible to most British people.

Note that, largely through the influence of Hollywood, the chance of a given Americanism being understood by a British person is significantly greater than in the reverse case. However, Americans who watch britcoms and other imported BBC programs and British news re-broadcasts on American public television (PBS) are more likely to be familiar with British usages than those who do not.

• 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.

Words with differing meanings

See: List of words having different meanings in British and American English, Miscellaneous lexical differences between British and American English

Words which have become archaic in one dialect

• In Southern Britain the word whilst is used almost interchangeably with while and whilst is the more common term. Whilst is more often used in instruction manuals, legal documents, etc. To Americans the word whilst, in any context, seems very archaic and/or pretentious. The words amidst (as opposed to amid), and to a lesser extent amongst (as opposed to among) are also rarer in American English. ("In the midst" is a standard idiom in both).

• In Britain generally the term "fall" used in the context of the seasons became obsolete and was replaced by the word "autumn". Although archaic, found often in Elizabethan and Dickensian literature, understanding of the word is usually ascribed to its continued use in America.

• In Britain the term "period" for a "full stop" is now obsolete, except when used as a phrase, such as "Don't do that. Period." (although this in itself is very likely to be an American import).

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. 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" unless discussing the year 1234, when "twelve thirty-four" would be the norm. Similarly, 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". 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 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 Britain, until the latter part of the 20th century, it was almost exclusively used to mean one million million (1,000,000,000,000), with one thousand million sometimes described as a "milliard", the definition adopted by most other European languages. However, the "American English" version has since been adopted for all published writing, and the word "milliard" is obsolete in English, as are billiard (but not billiards), trilliard and so on.

Nevertheless, the majority of people have no direct experience with manipulating numbers this large, so a significant proportion of international readers will interpret "billion" as 10¹², even if they are young enough to have been taught otherwise at school. For this reason, defining the word may be advisable when writing for the general public. However, all major British publications and broadcasters, including the BBC, which long used "thousand million" to avoid ambiguity, now use "billion" to mean thousand million.

See long and short scales for a more detailed discussion of the evolution of these terms in English and other languages.

Finally, when referring to the numeral 0, British people would use "zero", "nought", or "oh" normally, or "nil" in instances such as sports scores and voting results. Americans use the term "zero" most frequently; "oh" is also often used, 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 languages for the sake of convenience.

When reading numbers in a sequence, such as a telephone or serial number, British people 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". The directory enquiries prefix 118 is also "one one eight" due to its extensive advertising campaign with the slogan read out as "One one eight, what's your number?". In the US, 911 (the US emergency telephone number) is almost always read "nine-one-one", while 9-11 (September 11, 2001) is usually read "nine-eleven".

Levels of buildings

There are also variations in floor numbering between the U.S. and U.K. — in most countries, including Britain, 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. Nonetheless, the rest of the floors are numbered in the usual American manner.

Figures of speech

Both English 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 in casual usage. Intonation no longer reflects the originally sarcastic nature of this variant, which is not idiomatic in British English and might be interpreted as anything from nonsense 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 American English, "to luck out" means to succeed by amazingly good luck, whereas in Commonwealth English "to luck out" is a recent colloquialism which means to have no success. Thus, the phrase "I lucked out on getting the free tickets" means either getting or not getting the free tickets, respectively. In some parts of America though, both meanings can and will be understood. The meaning is derived through context.

Business

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 U.S. 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 U.S. "the show bombed" means it was a total failure; in the UK "the show went down a bomb" means it was a great success. The American slang phrase "the bomb," however (perhaps inspired by African American Vernacular English), almost always indicates positivity. For example, the phrase, "That show was the bomb," would mean that the show was outstanding. In this usage, the article "the" will sometimes be pronounced "da", and sometimes would be written "That show was da bomb", indicating a dialect pronunciation of the word "the".

Bildung

In the UK, a student is said to "read" or to "study" a subject, while in the U.S., a student either "studies" the subject or "majors" in it. The latter refers only to the student's principal course of study, while the former may be refer to any class being taken.

British English:

"She read history at Oxford".

American English:

"She majored in history at Yale."

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" (or merely "(exam) supervisor").

In the UK, a student is said to "sit" or "take" an exam, while in the U.S., a student "takes" an exam. In the UK, a teacher "sets" an exam, while in the U.S., a teacher "writes" or "gives" 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, and American master's and doctoral students may "sit for" their comprehensive exams, but in nearly all other instances, Americans "take" their exams.

British English:

"I sat my Spanish exam yesterday."

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

American English:

"I took my exams at Yale."

"I spent the entire day yesterday writing the exam. At last, it's ready for my students."

Another source of confusion is the different usage of the word college. In the U.S., this refers to a post-high school institution such as a university, whilst in the UK and most Commonwealth countries it refers primarily to a tertiary institution between high 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 high school being rare but not unknown. Americans may be surprised to hear of a 14 year old attending college in the UK, mistakenly assuming it is at the university level. In both the U.S. and UK, college can refer to some division within a university such as a "college of mathematics and science". 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 (for example, masters, doctorate) are called a university. However, Americans attending either a college or university are often collectively called "college students", and the institutions themselves "colleges", regardless of their status. The words freshman (or the gender neutral term frosh), sophomore, junior and senior refer to the first, second, third, and fourth year respectively of both high school and college (university) students in the U.S. 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".

In the UK, first year university students are often called freshers; however, there are no specific names for those in other years, nor for school pupils.

In the UK, the US equivalent of a high school is often referred to as a secondary school regardless of whether it is public or private. In addition, a public school in the UK is, in fact, a private school, while the UK equivalent to public school is a state (funded) school.

Transport

Americans refer to transportation, while British people refer to transport.

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 or expressway 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.

In the UK, the term outside lane refers to the higher-speed passing lane closest to the centre of the road, while inside lane refers to the lane closer to the edge of the road; these terms have the opposite meanings in American English, with the outside lane being the one near the edge and the inside lane being the one closer to the median — it is worth noting that Americans also drive on the opposite side to British people, so that the British inside lane is, like the American one, the leftmost one (going in any given direction).

Greetings

In the US, when Christmas is explicitly mentioned in a greeting, the universal phrasing is Merry Christmas. The British alternative, Happy Christmas, is entirely unknown in America, and while its meaning is obvious, it might still garner the speaker some odd looks.

Writing

Spelling

Main article: American and British English spelling differences

Some words shared by all English speakers are spelled one way by Americans (and at times Canadians and Australians) but are spelt differently in some (or, at times, most) other English speaking countries.

• Traditionally, many English verbs have been spelled with both -ize and -ise. The -ise is often used over -ize (e.g. organise, legalise) in British English, but -ize is always used in American English. The American usage is the result of several reforms spearheaded by Noah Webster in the 19th century, while the British usage (where -ize was traditionally dominant) comes from 19th-century French influence. Perhaps because of this, -ize is preferred by Oxford University Press, is listed first in most British Dictionaries, and is preferred by many careful users of English in England; see Oxford's rationale on the matter for more information. The same is true of nouns and adjectives derived from such verbs: organisation vs. organization, etc. One notable exception is the verb to analyse, which although spelled to analyze in American English was never spelled that way in British English. Furthermore, not all such words are spelled with -ize even in American English: for example, incise, circumcise.

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" (or even "D'r"), 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 Britain. 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, the unit for "inch" is properly "in.", as it would be ambiguous without the period.
• It is sometimes believed that British English does not hyphenate multiple-word adjectives, such as "a first class ticket". This usage is rare, and often considered incorrect. The most common form is as in American English, such as "a first-class ticket".
• Quoting: Americans start with double quotation marks (") and use single quotation marks (') for quotations within quotations. In general this is also true of British English 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 inverted commas in British English also, with a full stop changing into a comma if followed by explanatory text.
  • Carefree means "free from care or anxiety." (American style)
  • Carefree means "free from care or anxiety". (British style)
  • "Hello world," I said. (both styles)

The American style was established for typographical reasons, having to do with the aesthetics of commas and quotation marks in typeset text. It also usefully eliminates the need to decide whether a period or comma belongs to the quotation. However, many people find the usage counterintuitive. Hart's Rules and the Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors call the British style "new" or "logical" quoting; it is similar to the use of quotation marks in many other languages (including Spanish, French, Italian, Catalan, Dutch, and German). This "logical" style is increasingly popular in America, although formal writing generally calls for the "American" style. In fact, the British style is often the de facto standard among Americans for whom formal or professional writing is not a part of their daily life; many are in fact unaware that the normative American usage is to place commas and periods within the quotation marks. (This rule of placing all punctuation inside quotation if and only if it belongs to the quotation is expressly prescribed by some American professional organisations such as the American Chemical Society; see ACS Style Guide.) According to the Jargon File, American hackers have switched to using "logical" British quotation system, because including extraneous punctuation in a quotation can sometimes change the fundamental meaning of the quotation. More generally, it is difficult for computer manuals, online instructions, and other textual media to accurately quote exactly what a computer user should see or type on their computer.

The American rule was used worldwide up to around the Second World War, after which the more logical style of presenting quotation marks took hold everywhere except America.

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

Titles and headlines

Use of capitalisation varies.

In American English, a capital letter is typically used after an exclamation point, as in: "Good grief, Jim! Leave the man alone." In British English the expression would usually be rendered as 'Good grief, James! leave the man alone.'

Sometimes, the words in titles of publications, newspaper headlines, as well as chapter and section headings are capitalised in the same manner as in normal sentences (sentence case). That is, only the first word is capitalised, along with proper nouns, acronyms, etc.

However, publishers sometimes require additional words in titles and headlines to be capitalised, for added emphasis, as it is often perceived as appearing more professional. In American English, this is common in titles, but less so in newspaper headlines. The exact rules differ between publishers and are often ambiguous; a typical approach is to capitalise all words other than short articles, prepositions, and conjunctions. This should probably be regarded as a common stylistic difference, rather than a linguistic difference, as neither form would be considered incorrect or unusual in either Britain or the U.S. Many British newspapers use fully capitalised headlines for impact, as opposed to readability (examples include The Sun, The Daily Sport, News of the World).

Dates

Date formats are usually written differently in the short (numerical) form. Christmas Day 2000, for example, is 25/12/00 in Britain and 12/25/00 in the U.S., although occasionally other formats are encountered, such as the ISO 8601 2000-12-25, popular among programmers 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 (U.S.) or 6 April 2005 (Britain).

When writing long-form dates, the format "December 25, 2000" is generally encountered in the U.S., and widely encountered in the UK. However, the British are more likely than Americans to use the format "25 December 2000" although it is acceptable in the U.S., and the American grammarians Strunk and White, among others, recommend it. It is common in Britain, and somewhat less so in the U.S., to add a superscripted 'st, nd, rd' or 'th' to the day number in informal writing (thus "25th December 2000" or "December 25th, 2000"), but this is generally regarded as superfluous and avoided in formal use.

Similarly, in American speech, "December twenty-fifth" is the most likely form, though "the twenty-fifth of December" is also not uncommon. In Britain 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".

Keyboards

See: British and American keyboards

See also

• American English
• British English
• Commonwealth English

Other varieties

• Australian English
• Canadian English
• New Zealand English
• Hiberno-English
• Scottish English
• Caribbean English
• South African English
• Jamaican English
• Liberian English

English in Asia

• Hong Kong English
• Indian English
• Malaysian English
• Philippine English
• Singapore English

Other linguistic topics

• Classification of Germanic Languages
• Anglic languages
• Scots language
• Yinglish
• Regional accents of English speakers
• Manual of Style

References

• Peters, Pam (2004). Template:Googleprint. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 052162181X.

External links

• Proper Treatment: British vs. American (Harvard University)
• The American•British British•American Dictionary
• The English-to-American Dictionary
• British to American Translator
• United Kingdom English for the American Novice
• List of American and British spelling differences
• British English vis American English with Portuguese/Japanese translation
• Americanisms (from The Economist's style guide)
• Differences between British and American editions of a published novel (example is Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone)
• American Canadian British English lexical differences in one table
• Grammatical differences between American and British English