AMERICAN ENGLISH VERSUS BRITISH ENGLISH

Pronunciation, Spelling, Morphology & Vocabulary

Germn Calvo Martnez Prof. Jos Navarro

INDEX
1. INTRODUCTION 2. HISTORY OF BRITISH VS AMERICAN ENGLISH

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2.1 2.2

American vs. British Accent Differences in use of tenses

3. DIFFERENCES IN SPELLING

4. DIFFERENCES IN PRONUNCIATION 5. DIFFERENCES IN VOCABULARY 6. DIFFERENCES IN MORPHOLOGY 7. CONCLUSION

1. INTRODUCTION English is spoken in many countries, both as a mother language or second language. That's why there are I many variations and American think these differences differences in the language, English compared to British English, but
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including

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are smaller

due

to the

current

internationalization of our modern world. I think the American version of English is my impact becoming dominant for why American on English, is turn

several reasons. In English has a stronger the television original version,

opinion, an example of than the British

in Spain. You

can see American shows or films in people the

which causes young

to learn, assimilate, and use much more American vocabulary. It follows that British English is much more likely to be influenced by American English. However, as with any other subject, there more variations which I will detail later.

are many

2. HISTORY OF BRITISH VS AMERICAN ENGLISH

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The English language was introduced into the U.S. through British colonization in the 17th century and spread to many parts of the world because of the strength of the British Empire. Over the years, English spoken in the United from each two dialects in the form States and other in several of American

Great Britain began to diverge respects. This led to English and British English.

2.1 American vs. British Accent Before the Revolutionary War and American independence from the British in 1776, United States and British separated, but accents were the English similar. Since 1776, the accents were on Britain. Towards among then. There are some exceptions: New York and England became nonbecause of the British however, connections in the remained rhotic. the end the upper

accent in America has changed drastically to less emphasis

of 18 century, the discourse rhotic off in southern England, especially class, the "prestige" of speech is rhotic not widespread in Britain since

rhotic accents,

region. Irish and Scottish accents,

To be fair, both Americans and British have various accents and there is a typical American or British accent.

2.2 Differences in use of tenses

British English uses the present perfect to talk about an event in the recent past and using the
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words already, just and

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yet. In American English, these meanings can be expressed with the present perfect (to express a fact or the simple past (which implies an expectation). The American 30 Recently used. style has years, the become the British American use widespread only in the last 20 or style remains also commonly

of just with simple past has made inroads into British English, most visibly in advertising slogans and headlines such as "Cable broadband just got faster". Examples: "I've just arrived home." / "I just arrived home." "I've already eaten." / "I already ate." 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 that include got are usually used in informal contexts and the forms without got in contexts that are more formal. In American speech the form without got is used more than in the UK, although the form with got is often used for emphasis. Colloquially, American English informally uses got as a verb for these meanings. Examples: I got two cars I got to go In conditional pluperfect Examples: If you'd leave now, you'd be on time If I would have cooked the pie we could have had it for lunch This tends to be avoided in writing because it is often still considered non-standard although such use of would is widespread in spoken American English in all sectors of society. Some reliable sources now label this usage as acceptable American English and no longer label it
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sentences,

United

States

spoken

usage

often

substitutes would and would have for the simple past and for the

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as colloquial. (There are situations where would is used in British English too in seemingly counterfactual conditions, but these can usually be interpreted as a modal use of would: If you would listen to me once in a while, you might learn something. In cases in which the action in the if clause takes place after that in the main clause, use of would in counterfactual conditions is, however, considered standard and correct usage in even formal UK and US usage: If it would make Bill happy, I'd give him the money. The subjunctive mood is regularly used in American English

in mandative clauses. In British English, this usage declined in the 20th century in favour of constructions such as they suggested that he should apply for the job. However the mandative subjunctive has always been used in British English.

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3. DIFFERENCES IN SPELLING

There are multiple spelling differences between American and British English, and speakers of both often end up misusing certain words and spellings. Here I add some of the more common spelling differences, it is not an exhaustive list but should give you a good idea of how to deal with other, similar words. Color vs. Colour (-or vs. -our) An extra u in British spellings is one of the most common spelling differences. Color vs. colour is a common one to see around the internet though you'll also come across this spelling difference in words like flavor vs. flavour, humor vs. humour, honor vs. honour and so on with the American spelling leaving out the u. A notable exception to this rule is glamour. While glamor is acceptable in American English, for some reason the British spelling seems to be used more often.

Gray vs. Grey

This is one of the spelling differences that confuses people on a regular basis, whichever version of English they speak. Generally speaking, gray is the American spelling and grey is the British

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spelling but you will see plenty of British people using gray and vice versa. Grey tends to be the spelling of choice in Canada.

Licence vs. License

In American English, license is used both as a noun and a verb. In British English, licence is only the noun and license is used as the verb. Examples: American: Mike hoped the licensed instructor would soon award him his license. British: Mike hoped the licensed instructor would soon award him his licence. Meter vs. Metre (-er vs. -re) Once again, this is one of the spelling differences you'll see on a regular basis. Center vs. centre, theater vs. theatre, fiber vs. fibre etc. Unfortunately, this spelling difference isn't something you can completely rely on since many words in British English actually use the -er ending. See letter, number and proper as examples of this awkwardness.

Organize vs. Organise (-ze vs. -se) Another common spelling difference between American English and British English is the use of -ze over -se. In British English, -se is the accepted usage as in organise, recognise, serialise etc. In American English it's -ze, as in organize, recognize, serialize and so on.

Practice vs. Practise (-ce vs. -se)

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The spelling difference between practice and practise is similar to that between license and licence in that UK English uses a different spelling for noun vs. verb, whereas US English uses the same spelling for both. In this case, apparently just to confuse us, the American spelling uses practice (note the -ce ending) for both whereas with license the American spelling uses the -se ending. The British usage is practice for the noun and practise for the verb. Examples: American: Mike practiced hard, and hoped one day to open his own practice. British: Mike practised hard, and hoped one day to open his own practice.

4. DIFFERENCES IN PRONUNCIATION

There are dozens if not hundreds of different ways to speak English. I can't cover all the varieties of accents, dialects and derivations of spoken English in this essay. I am going to focus in the basic differences in pronunciation. As we already know, there are two major standards of spoken English -- British and American English. Interestingly enough "RP" ("Received Pronunciation", which is also known as "Queen's English" or "Oxford English") is spoken only by about 5% of the UK population, which means there are many different dialects to be found in the British Isles. If you travel around the UK you will notice that the differences in pronunciation are stronger and wider than in the United States although the latter clearer is the bigger country. I think this is due to the fact that statistically the average US American relocates more often within the US than his British
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counterpart. A dialect develops when people live closely together for a longer period of time and the community creates their own unique way of speaking. No doubt people in the southern US states have that distinctive different. Americans usually pronounce the letter "r" by rolling their tongue back and pressing it to the roof of their mouths whereas most British people don't pronounce the letter "r", especially when it occurs at the end of a word. In American English the words "can" and "can't" sound very much alike while in British English you can clearly make out a difference. Americans tend to pronounce words like "reduce", "produce", "induce", "seduce" -- mostly verbs that end with "duce" -- more relaxed, that means after the letter "d" there follows the vowel "u". In British English after the letter "d" you can make out a little "j". Americans have a tendency to reduce words by omitting letters. The words "facts" for example sounds in American English the same as "fax" -- the "t" is not spoken. Sometimes letters are omitted in British English such as in the words "secretary", where the "a" is not spoken. In American English, the letter combination "cl" in words such as "cling", "climate", "club" etc., sound more fricative. You can produce these sounds by straining your vocal cords. Word Stress sometimes is different in both versions: British English Advertisement Details American English advertisement details
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"drawl"

whereas

people

from

Boston

sound

pretty

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Advertisement sounds completely different in both versions.

5. DIFFERENCES IN VOCABULARY Most of the differences in lexis or vocabulary between British and American English are in connection with concepts originating from the 19th century to the mid 20th century, when new words were coined independently. Almost the entire vocabularies of the car/automobile and railway/railroad industries are different between the UK and US, for example. Other sources of difference are slang or vulgar terms 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.

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There are some words and terms that are either used only in British or American English. However, with new media like the internet and in the more internationalized world these words become fewer and fewer. What's really important is not that there are differences but that any British person understands any American without great difficulty and the other way round. Don't forget that British and American English are more similar than different. Examples: British English Lift Boot Autumn Litter Crossroad Trousers Taxi American English Elevator Trunk Fall Garbage Crossing Pants Cab

Well, we could add to this list a couple of hundred words and phrases and even then the vast majority of the almost 1 million English words would be the same in both versions of English.

6. DIFFERENCES IN MORPHOLOGY Morphological English all expressions differences between American are not absolute of the same form, it English and British is undeniable and British, the time differences, but alternative

that the media and living together have had American

have contributed to many of them often used not only morphological forms, but also American and British syntactic forms, indiscriminately and without any prejudice. As for the spelling, the differences between American English and British English are:
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In American English, almost all regular vowel, and whose last syllable is

verbs of it

two doubles -er, -or,

or more syllables, ending in a single consonant, preceded by a single not accented, suffixes the final consonant before adding the -ed, - ing, many

-ous. For example (focus-focused, program-programed ...). In British English, many verbs follow this as (devil - Devilled, label - Labelled...). Almost all regular verbs in British English are spelled with the endingise, in American English are spelled with-ize. Examples: Analyze (American); Analyse (British) In American English, the infinitive and present while in British English are written with l. Examples: Install installment (American) Instal instalment (British) In American English, is past and past preferred to of use the regular form of the simple of verbs and rule, but others, in addition to the above features, double the final consonant, such

their derivatives with the suffix -ment, are spelled with double l,

participle

these verbs, while in British

English is preferred the form irregularly. Examples: Burn Burned (American) Burnt (British)

7. CONCLUSION British and American English are more similar than they are different. New media and globalization enable more and more people to participate in an active exchange of ideas and experiences and therefore the geographical differences in the versions of English are becoming less instead of greater.
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