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American and British English | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Scherlin Newbie ItalyRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3909 days ago 6 posts - 6 votes Speaks: Italian* Studies: French, English | Message 1 of 16 14 March 2014 at 1:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi everybody!
I would like know what the pricipal differences between American and British English are. In your opinion, it's important know these differences? How does pronunciation change? Thanks! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4707 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes  Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 2 of 16 14 March 2014 at 1:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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The differences in pronunciation are pretty marked between both variants of the language.
I recommend sticking with one variant, and learning to understand the other. It's important to understand both variants (as well as anything else you may come across, namely Australian, Canadian, Nigerian, etc.) Pronunciation is especially different in the vowel sounds (/a/, /u/ have very different qualities for example), intervocalic /t/, and the /r/ sound (which is always pronounced in the States but vaguely disappears in coda in England). 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Scherlin Newbie ItalyRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3909 days ago 6 posts - 6 votes Speaks: Italian* Studies: French, English | Message 3 of 16 14 March 2014 at 2:38pm | IP Logged | ||
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I see, thanks for you help!
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| Mattvonparis Diglot Newbie France Joined 3924 days ago 3 posts - 5 votes Speaks: French*, EnglishC2 Studies: Spanish, Dutch | Message 4 of 16 14 March 2014 at 3:48pm | IP Logged | ||
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There are also spelling differences, ie : coulour (BE) is spelt color in American English.
Some irregular verbs may differ as well, ie : get got got in British English, get got got or gotten in American English. Some words may differ as well : autumn (BE)=> fall (AE). After living several years in the UK and in the US, I also noticed some differences in the use of tenses. Americans tend to use more frequently the -ING forms to make emphasis. They also tend to use less frequently the present perfect than British people. Those two points may be taken cautiously because they are rather tendencies than certainties and may vary a lot according to contexts or situations. Differences between British and American English are generally well documented in most English grammar books. So you may refer to a good grammar book to learn more about them. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4828 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 5 of 16 14 March 2014 at 5:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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For passive reading, especially in the higher registers, it's almost a non-issue, IMHO.
I've been known to read American novels and serious works of non-fiction and literally not notice the spelling differences, unless I looked out for them. Apart from a relatively small amount of vocabulary and any specialist language reflecting the different cultural and social environments, and some fairly subtle nuances of grammatical usage, you would hardly notice a difference. It's a completely different story in the spoken language, and in more informal written language. There are quite a few well-known (and probably a lot more less-widely known) differences in everyday vocabulary: Faucet (US); tap (Br) Sidewalk(US); pavement or footpath (BR) Pavement (US); (probably road or carriageway (UK)). Diaper (US), nappy (BR) Probably only really an issue if you are actually living in either of the countries for any length of time. EDIT: And of course, words & phrases cross the Atlantic, usually from west to east, but sometimes in the other direction, I gather. Edited by montmorency on 14 March 2014 at 5:23pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| dampingwire Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4665 days ago 1185 posts - 1513 votes Speaks: English*, Italian*, French Studies: Japanese | Message 6 of 16 15 March 2014 at 1:46am | IP Logged | ||
I've read plenty of works by American authors that I've checked out from the library and for most of them it seems that they've been edited for the UK market to conform to the house style of whichever publisher it happens to be. I'm fairly sure that the same thing generally happens for books going the other way. Sometimes even the title changes (ISTR that Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone became Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the US). I work with colleagues in the US on an almost daily basis and I very rarely notice any obvious differences other than the occasional difference in orthography. As for accents, I suppose these could be a problem but I'd say that within the British Isles Mancunian, West Country, Geordie, Black Country and Essex vary a fair bit too. Throw in the various Scottish accents and a bit of Welsh and NI and you have a great deal of variation already without needing to cross the pond. Edited by dampingwire on 15 March 2014 at 1:46am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Medulin Tetraglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 4668 days ago 1199 posts - 2192 votes Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali | Message 7 of 16 15 March 2014 at 6:21pm | IP Logged | ||
you should try this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_American_and_Brit ish_English 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Scherlin Newbie ItalyRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3909 days ago 6 posts - 6 votes Speaks: Italian* Studies: French, English | Message 8 of 16 16 March 2014 at 11:35am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks a lot!!
I understand very well. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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