Engleza Americana

TITLUL LUCR ĂRII: American English

(TITLUL LUCRĂRII: Engleza Americană)

CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Conclusion

Bibliography

INTRODUCTION

Together with Icelandic, Norwegian, Danish, German, Dutch and Flemish, English belongs to the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family of languages.

It was brought into Britain as Old English or Anglo-Saxon as far back as the year 449, when the first tribes of Angles, Saxons and Jutes, coming from the north-western regions of present days Germany, began to invade the country; but it was not before the middle of the 6th century that it succeeded in replacing the native Celtic dialect (British) to a more or less considerable degree. “English” as later Anglo-Saxon authors used to call the language in which they wrote, changed gradually in accordance with its own inner laws of development as well as under various foreign influences.

Linguists have divided the history of this language into three important periods:

Old English (450-1100)

English (1100-1500)

Modern English (1500-to the present day)

From around 1600, the English colonization of North America resulted in the creation of a distinct American variety of English. Today, Americans constitute the majority of the world’s native speakers of English but there are many other varieties of English around the world, including for example Canadian English, Australian English, New Zealand English, South African English, Indian English and Caribbean English. AmE is particularly influential, due to the United States’ dominance of cinema, television, popular music, trade and technology, the internet or globalization.

What really surprised me during my research were the hidden conflict and the animosity that Great Britain and the United States continue to have over who speaks the most original language, over which has the most positive influence and contribution in the development of this language. These two nations have quite a vitriolic cultural relationship and the fact that they speak the same language even worsens things rather than help it. While some Britons consider that the language spoken in the United States is conservatory and plain old, certain Americans think that their language is more pure and more beautiful, precisely because of its numerous archaic words. The language spoken in America is closer to the common original standard than is present day British and in some ways, American English is more like the English of Shakespeare than modern British is.

The present work aims to study the peculiarities of the language spoken and written in The United States of America, showing that it isn’t just about the English language or the English dialect but about a variety of this language. The differences, apparently quite numerous but non- essential, between the American and the British English are inherent to any transplantation of a language from one territory to another in terms of geographical, economic, political or social conditions. They do not involve any kind of superiority or inferiority but simply represent an interesting topic to discuss. These differences show numerous aspects of the American way of living and the tight union between a society and its language. Its unique pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary, its uniformity and standardization, altogether show the growth and development of a dynamic and complex nation (in just 400 years) and its continuous adaptation to complex and new necessities.

The main purpose is to give a general overview of America’s history and show the phonetic, lexical, grammatical, orthographic features of American English compared to the ones from British English. These objectives are divided into categories and spread along five chapters. In the first chapter I talk about the genesis of the American English. How the continent, still unknown by the European civilization, which was populated by the natives, would soon become the American Continent populated by the European emigrants. In spite the fact that they inherited a part of the English language and their roots are in Europe, Americans are now a singular nation with a culture and customs of their own, known as the United States of America.

Chapter two contains problems of pronunciation and spelling and how these features are the most visible in a conversation between an American and a Briton. American English has adapted the spelling to reflect the way that the words actually sound when they're spoken. Except for vocabulary, it is in terms of pronunciation that British and American English differentiate the most. Studies on historical usage of English in the United States and the United Kingdom suggest that spoken American English did not simply evolve from British English, but rather retained many archaic features contemporary British English has since lost. This has been a reason for numerous debates given by linguists, etymologists, as well as writers. Americans pronounce a word in a very different way than British speakers, intonation is also different.

The third chapter, which is the largest, contains differences in vocabulary between the two dialects. Vocabulary separates these two varieties the most. One and the same meaning may be expressed by different words in in BrE and AmE or one and the same word may have the same meaning in the two dialects. These language facts are observed by considering different areas of vocabulary such as: food, drinks, clothes, dwelling and housekeeping, entertainment and sports, travelling, education, occupation and trades, administration and politics. In this chapter I also talk about social and cultural differences.

Chapter four talks about the less discussed grammatical structure regarding the morphological and syntax problems and the final chapter contains idioms in American English. English is a language particularly rich in idioms and as expected even in this category the two varieties show lexical and grammatical differences.

American English offers an interesting outlook on the most visible and curious differences between two big countries united, and at the same time separated by the same language. Either someone is a beginner or advanced learner of English, as they come across with these two varieties, people can’t help but wonder which one to study, which one best suits their preferences. This research will guide some of you into discovering interesting things about the language you study and will make you curious about a dialect you haven’t got the chance to get familiar with, but which offers the same amount of linguistic enrichment.

Chapter 1: American English – Birth and Evolution

General Overview

The English language was introduced to the Americas through British colonization when colonists from England settled along the Atlantic seaboard in the 17th century, and spread in many parts of the world. Over the years, English spoken in the United States and in Britain started diverging from each other in various aspects. This led to two dialects in the form of the American English and the British English. These changes provided opportunities for humorous comments such as George Bernard Shaw, who has a character say that the United States and United Kingdom are "two countries separated by the same language" and Oscar Wilde’s famous words "We have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, the language." In 1877, Henry Sweet incorrectly predicted that within a century, American English, Australian English and British English would be mutually unintelligible. This wasn’t the case and although the three varieties continue to differentiate in various aspects, worldwide communication through radio, television, the Internet and globalization has reduced the tendency towards regional variation and also led to the acceptance of "perfectly good English" everywhere in the world.

In relation to the history of the English Language, however, the history of American English is comparably short. First stable settlement dates back to 1607, when the Britons founded Jamestown in Virginia (named in honor of James I-king of England) under the leadership of Captain John Smith and the support of the famous Virginia Company. Most came from families of landowners and merchants. They were the ancestors of the future "aristocracy of the South", so called the First Families of Virginia. For many English people, these early years of the 17th century were a time of hunger and suffering. Many of them were unemployed and some decided that it was worth risking the possibility of hardships in Virginia to escape from the certainty of them back home. For Virginia had one great attraction that England lacked, and that was plentiful land. But as in England and all over Europe, the land was owned by the rich and a poor man could only hope for a farm of his own in order to feed his family. Europe at that time was torn by religious quarrels. For more than a thousand years, Roman Catholic Christianity had been the religion of most of its people. By the 16th century, some Europeans had begun to doubt the teachings of the Catholic Church. At that time few people believed in religious toleration. In most countries, people were expected to have the same religion as their ruler. This was the case in England.

Pilgrims were people who made a journey for religious reasons. To Americans, Pilgrims means a small group of English men and women, who sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to America, to find religious freedom. They also call them Pilgrim Fathers because they saw them as the most important of the founders of the future to be United States of America.

The Puritans also were a group of English protestants, who disliked and questioned the teachings of the churches in England.

In 1620, due to religious persecution in England, Mayflower vessel brought a new batch of immigrants to Plymouth, and ten years later many Puritans arrived, supported by "Massachusetts Bay Company". They settled in the regions of Salem and Boston. Between 1620 and 1640 about 200 ships came from England to New England ("New England Confederation" consisted of Massachusetts Bay Colony, Plymouth, Connecticut and New Haven), bringing over 15,000 settlers. Most came to the New World not for religious reasons, but simply looking for land, riches and adventure or -in the case of the poor- in search of a more humane living. And companies that financed them wanted to secure good investments, markets, commodities rare in Europe. Unlike southern plantations, here, trades and crafts were developed, thus preparing the ground for industrialization. The ideas of the Massachusetts Puritans had a lasting influence on American Society. One of their first leaders, John Winthrop, said that they should build an ideal community for the rest of mankind to learn from “We shall be like a city on a hill.” To this day, Americans continue to see their country in this way, as a module for other nations to copy.

As the number of settlers grew by expanding the families of the newcomers and through the successive waves of new groups, they spread along the Atlantic coast and took the Dutch, New Amsterdam (renaming it New York) as well as New Jersey and the Swedish, Delaware; in 1681 by founding the colony of Quakers, Pennsylvania (under the leadership of William Penn), established links with southern colonies.

By the year 1733, the English owned 13 separate colonies along the Atlantic Coast of North America. The colonies stretched from New Hampshire, in the north, to Georgia, in the south. The 13 colonies that gradually formed (Virginia, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia) shared a tradition of representative government. Each colony had its own government. At the head of this government was a governor, chosen in most cases. Each colony had its own government. At the head of this government was a governor, chosen in most cases by the English King. To rule effectively, these governors depended upon the co-operation of assemblies elected by the colonists.

France also claimed to own some towns on the river of St. Lawrence such as Louisiana and Canada (New France). This claim was based upon journeys made in the previous century by two famous explorers: Samuel de Champlain and René La Salle. This worried both the British government and the American colonists, who began the Seven Years War known as the French and Indian War. The war was ended by the Peace of Paris, signed in 1763 when France gave up its claim to Canada and to all of North America east of the Mississippi River. Britain had won an empire, but its victory led directly to conflict with its American colonies.

They rapidly and very soon began to feel the barriers and brakes imposed by the metropolis. These strains naturally led to the war of Independence. In 1776 the Continental Congress cut all political ties with Britain and proclaimed the Declaration of Independence, even to the present day known to be the most important document in American history. "The American revolution" (1775-1783) ended with the victory of former colonies, which met in a Congress in 1787. The federal Constitution approved on this occasion was ratified in 1790. This event represented the birth of a new nation, the United States. With it also closed an important period of massive immigration from Europe. The population from the Old World was now reaching approximately 4,000,000, the majority (90%) being made up of English, Irish and Scottish, due to which the English language spread all over the North American continent.

As A. H. Marckwardt once said in his work- American English, “first settlers spoke the Elizabethan English, the language of Shakespeare, Lyly, Marlowe, Lodge and Greene” when they came to the Americas and they didn’t speak the significantly different English of Dryden, Bunyan and Defoe. This is important and necessary for understanding some further distinguishing features of American English.

Although very rich, Early Modern English was not appropriate to name the countless objects, phenomena and specific American notions that did not exist in England. The new geographical conditions laid settlers all kinds of problems: economic, social, political as well as linguistic ones. They were forced to do pioneering work even in the field of their mother tongue, which they had to enrich in a more or less conscious way, by changing existing words into new notions.

Unlike the slow landscape of most of England, in America nature gave viewers a diverse picture, majestic, often wild and scary, with unknown plants and animals which lived in a different climate. Based on natural comparisons with everything they left behind, they started to apply existing words to objects, phenomena or concepts that had a certain analogy with the already known words. Thus canyons in the mountains have suggested the terms gap (hole, hollow) and notch (cut, fissure), rivers and their tributaries were baptized creek (golf) and the watershed divide (from the verb to divide = to split); a steep shore was called bluff, a small lake pond (artificial lake) and a waterfall rapids (adjective fast). Same happened with the many living and growing things that were unfamiliar to the New World. Some names the colonists learned from Native Americans, words like moose, raccoon, skunk, opossum, chipmunk, porgy, terrapin; others they formed by a descriptive process familiar in the language: mud hen, garter snake, bullfrog, potato bug, groundhog, reed bird. Tree names such as the hickory and live oak, and the locust are new to colonial English, as are sweet potato, eggplant, squash, persimmon, pecan. Contact with Native Americans brought into English a number of words having particular reference to their way of life: wigwam, tomahawk, canoe, toboggan, mackinaw, moccasin, wampum, squaw, papoose. These are Native American words, but they also have English words formed at the same time and out of the same experience: war path, paleface, medicine man, pipe of peace, big chief, war paint, and the verb to scalp. Native American words for Native American foods were taken over in the case of hominy, tapioca, succotash, and pone. The latter is still heard in the South for corn bread, the kind of bread the Native Americans made. The individual character of America’s political and administrative system required the introduction of words such as congressional, presidential, gubernatorial, congressman, caucus, mass meeting, selectman, statehouse, land office. Many other words illustrate things associated with the new mode of life—back country, backwoodsman, squatter, prairie, log cabin, clapboard, corncrib, popcorn, hoe cake, cold snap, snow plow, bobsled, sleigh. As indicated above, the colonists got a number of the words they needed ready-made from the languages of the Native Americans. They also used various combinations of English words – backwoods, bullfrog, fox grape, garter snake, groundhog – in order to reflect their new mode of life.

Besides these new inventions, a huge part of the American vocabulary was borrowed or derived from several other languages of the people who came from other countries: from the French colonists they learned bayou, brioche , bureau, chute, crevasse, chowder, cache, caribou, levee, praline, pumpkin and others; from the Dutch boss, cookie, pot cheese, waffle, coleslaw, stoop, bowery, bush, hook, boss, Yankee cruller, scow; from German delicatessen, dunk, frankfurter, sauerkraut, schnitzel, smear case, sweitzer cheese, noodle, pretzel, smearcase; from Spanish marijuana, armadillo, bronco, burro, barracuda, bonito, coyote, mustang, palomino, ranch; from Indian canoe club, canoe fleet, canoe load, canoe racing, hominy mortar, hominy cake, homing bread, hickory, squash, hominy, pane, poke, persimmon, etc. The word “Indian” entered in numerous combinations like Indian tobacco, Indian file, Indian meal, honest Injun, Indian gift. From the Negro Slaves they borrowed okra, goober, cotter, gumbo, banjo, jazz, juke box, voodoo.

The most interesting cases are the ones in which colonists applied an old word to a slightly different thing. They applied the word turkey to a distinctive American bird, they saw some kind of resemblance of an English robin in an American red-breasted thrush so it was baptized robin and different birds with black plumage gained the name of blackbird although they had nothing to do with a common blackbird. Colonists also transferred the word corn to an entirely new cereal. Indian corn was known in England only from the accounts of travelers, and naming its various features seems to have taxed the ingenuity of the first Americans. Maize, the West Indian name that came into England through the Spanish, was seldom used by the American settler. Henry Hudson called it Turkish wheat, a designation found in French and Italian and among the Pennsylvania Germans. But the colonists used the common English word corn, which in England is used of any kind of grain – rye, barley but especially of wheat. At first they prefixed the distinguishing epithet “Indian,” but this was soon dropped, and consequently corn means something quite different in England and in America today.

Even nowadays, it is not known why for a field bunny instead of hare, Americans use rabbit (rabbit in British English for a house rabbit) despite the fact that the first settlers found no trace of house rabbits in America. And now the word hare rarely occurs in the United States, used only with reference to the so-called Belgian hare, which is ironically a species living around a household.

Tassel and silk were natural descriptions of the flower, but the ear was more troublesome. The cob was known in Virginia as the husk or huss. The outer covering, which is generally called the husk today, was variously known as the hose, the leaves, and the shuck. The latter word survives in the sociable activity of corn-shucking, the equivalent of the New England husking bee. In an instance like this we catch a glimpse of the colonists in the very act of shifting and adapting their language to new conditions, and we find them doing the same thing with lumber, freshet, and other words that have a somewhat different meaning in American and English use. American speakers were perhaps at their best when inventing simple, homely words like apple butter, sidewalk, lightning rod, spelling bee, crazy quilt, lowdown, and know-nothing, or when striking off a terse metaphor like log rolling, wire pulling, to have an ax to grind, to be on the fence.

Early on, Americans manifested imaginative and slightly humorous phrases such as to bark up the wrong tree, to face the music, fly off the handle, go on the war path, bury the hatchet, come out at the little end of the horn, saw wood, and many more.

“In this period we see the beginning of such differentiation as has taken place between the American and the British vocabulary and in this way America began her contributions to the English language.”

Chapter 2: Pronunciation

“What does an Englishman first notice on landing in America, as the contrast between the two sides of the Atlantic so far as the spoken language is concerned? The first thing which strikes him is the violent contrast in intonation.” Hilaire Belloc

“Though they use the same words, the Englishman and the American do not speak the same tune.” John Erskine

Except for vocabulary, it is in terms of pronunciation that British and American English differentiate the most. Studies on historical usage of English in the United States and the United Kingdom suggest that spoken American English did not simply evolve from British English, but rather retained many archaic features contemporary British English has since lost. This has been a reason for numerous debates given by linguists, etymologists, as well as writers. For this reason the model for American English pronunciation has been called General American.

Americans pronounce a word in a very different way than British speakers, intonation is also different. George Philip Krapp says that the differences of cadence are “subtler and more intimate.” The most evident characteristic of the American speech act regarding the cadence is the equal tone and the equal rhythm.

Regarding the stress in a word there is a tendency to fall on the first syllable such as: ordeal, princess, artisan, martial, quandary, address, ally, recess, research, romance, condolence, inquiry, defect, entire, idea, museum, pretence, create, vibrate, migrate.

Krapp says that the American way of speaking, because of the equal stress, permits a complete uttering of the unstressed syllables or a secondary stress. With the exception of the city New York and of the states in New England – Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut – the Americans speak more slowly and with less variety of tone and the speech is a bit more monotonous, is uttered with less variety in the intonation, than that of Britain.

Swan (2005:43-44) in Practical English Usage, clarifies the most important general differences between American and British speech as follows:

The three diphthongs ending in /ɪə eə ʊə/ are found only in British English. In corresponding places, American English has a simple vowel followed by /r/ and has no separate phonemic diphthongs which end in /ə/.

near AmE /nɪr/ BrE /'nɪə/

beard AmE/bɪrd/ BrE /'bɪəd/

care AmE /ker/ BrE /'keə/

where AmE /wer/ BrE /'weə/

pure AmE /pjʊr/ BrE /'pjʊə/

poor AmE /pʊr/ BrE /'pɔ:/, /pʊə/

In American English, if a /t/ sound is between two vowels, and the second vowel is not stressed, the /t / can be pronounced very quickly, and made voiced so that it is like a brief /d/ or the r-sound of certain languages.

atom AmE /ˈætəm/ BrE /ˈæt̬əm/

city AmE /'sɪt̬ɪ/ BrE /'sɪtɪ/

writer AmE /'raɪt̬ər/ BrE /'raɪtə/

get it AmE /ˈget̬ ɪt/ BrE /ˈget ɪt/

Technically, the sound is a ‘tap’, and can be symbolised by /t̬/. So Americans can pronounce potato as /pəˈteɪt̬oʊ/, tapping the second /t/ in the word (but not the first, because of the stress). British speakers don’t generally do this.

The conditions for tapping also arise very frequently when words are put together, as in not only, what I, etc. In this case it doesn’t matter whether the following vowel is stressed or not, and even British speakers can use taps in this situation, though they sound rather casual.

Certain vowels are nasal (pronounced through the nose and mouth at the same time) in some varieties of American English, but not in most British accents.

Many British speakers use /ɔː/ instead of the diphthong /ʊə/, especially in common words, so that sure becomes /ʃɔː(r)/, etc. The sound /ɒ/ does not occur in American English, and words which have this vowel in British pronunciation will instead have /ɑː/ or /ɔː/ in American English.

dog AmE /dɑːɡ/ BrE /dɒɡ/

got AmE /ɡɑːt  BrE /ɡɒt/

box AmE /bɑ:ks/ BrE /'bɒks/

hot AmE /hɑ:t/ BrE /'hɒt/

o’clock AmE /ə'klɑ:k/ BrE /ə'klɒk/

bother AmE /'bɑ:ðər/ BrE /'bɒðə/

honest AmE /'ɑ: nəst/ BrE /'ɒnɪst/

knowledge AmE /'nɑ:lɪdʒ/ BrE /'nɒlɪdʒ/

However, there are also words which are pronounced with /α:/ in both accents e.g. palm, balm, part, start, large, card, etc.

Some words written with a + consonant (e.g. fast. after) have different pronunciations: with /α:/ in standard southern British English and with /æ/ in American and some other varieties of English.

class AmE /klæs/ BrE /'klɑ:s/

last AmE /læst/ BrE /'lɑ:st/

ask AmE /æsk/ BrE /'ɑ:sk/

answer AmE / ˈ ænsər/ BrE /'ɑ:nsə/

laugh AmE /læf/ BrE /'lɑ:f/

advance AmE /əd'væns/ BrE /əd'vɑ:ns/

can’t AmE /kænt/ BrE /'kɑ:nt/

The vowel in home, go, open is pronounced /əʊ/ in standard southern British English, and /oʊ/ in American English. The two vowels sound very different.

no AmE /'noʊ/ BrE /'nəʊ/

go AmE /'goʊ/ BrE /'gəʊ/

note AmE /'noʊt/ BrE /'nəʊt/

home AmE /'hoʊm/ BrE /'həʊm/

don’t AmE /'doʊnt/ BrE /'dəʊnt/

photo AmE /'foʊ t̬oʊ/ BrE /'fəʊtəʊ/

In standard southern British English, r is only pronounced before a vowel sound. In most kinds of American English. (and other British varieties) r is pronounced in all positions where it is written in a word, and it changes the quality of a vowel that comes before it. So words like car, tum, offer sound very different in British and American speech.

car AmE /'kɑ:r/ BrE /'kɑ:/

park AmE /'pɑ:rk/ BrE /'pɑ:k/

start AmE /'stɑ:rt/ BrE /'stɑ:t/

more AmE /'mɔ:r/ BrE /'mɔ:/

course AmE /'kɔ:rs/ BrE /'kɔ:s/

morning AmE /'mɔ:rnɪŋ/ BrE /'mɔ:nɪŋ/

In many varieties of American English, t and d both have a very light voiced pronunciation (/d/) between vowels – so writer and rider, for example, can sound the same. In British English they are quite different: /’rαrtə(r)/ and /’rαɪdə(r)/ .

Some words which are pronounced with /u:/ in most varieties of American English have /ju:/ in British English. These are words in which th, d, t or n (and sometimes s or l) are followed by u or ew in writing.

duty AmE /’du:tɪ/ BrE /’dju:tɪ/

tune AmE /tu:n/ BrE /tju:n/

new AmE /nu:/ BrE /nju:/

illuminate AmE /i'lu:mmineit/ BrE /il’ju:mineit/

Words ending in unstressed -ile (e.g. fertile, reptile, missile, senile) are pronounced with /ail/ in British English; some are pronounced with /I/ in American English.

fertile AmE /’f3:rtl/ (rhyming with turtle) BrE /'f3:taɪl/ (rhyming with her tile)

agile AmE /ˈæʤəl / /ˈæʤl/ BrE /ˈæʤaɪl /

hostile AmE /ˈhɑ:stl / BrE /'hɒstaɪl/

futile AmE /ˈfju:tl/ BrE /ˈfju:taɪl/

fragile AmE /'frædʒl/ BrE /'frædʒaɪl/

mobile AmE /ˈmoʊbl/ BrE /'məʊbaɪl/

Some long words ending in -ary, -ery, -ory or –mony are pronounced differently, with one more syllable in American English.

secretary AmE /’sekrƏteɪ/ BrE /’sekrƏtrɪ/

customary Ame /'kʌstəmerɪ/ BrE /'kʌstəmərɪ/

dictionary AmE /'dɪkʃənerɪ/ BrE /'dɪkʃənərɪ/

monastery AmE /ˈmɑ:nəsteri/ BrE /ˈmɒnəstəri/

mandatory AmE/'mændətɔ:rɪ/ BrE /'mændətərɪ/

testimony AmE /'testəmoʊnɪ/ BrE /'testɪmənɪ/

ceremony Ame /'serɪmoʊnɪ/ BrE /'serɪmənɪ/

territory Ame /'terətɔ::rɪ/ BrE /'terətərɪ/

Borough and thorough are pronounced differently.

AmE /’bɅroʊ/, 'øɅroʊ/

BrE /’bɅrƏ, 'øɅrƏ/

Other examples:

thought AmE /'θɑ:t/ BrE /'θɔ:t/

caught AmE /'kɑ:t/ BrE /'kɔ:t/

daughter AmE /'dɑ:tər/ BrE /'dɔ:tə/

author AmE /'ɑ:θər/ BrE /'ɔ:θə/

walk AmE /'wɑ:k/ BrE /'wɔ:k/

autumn AmE/'ɑ:t əm/ BrE /'ɔ:təm/

Many two-syllable verbs ending in –ate have stress on the suffix in British pronunciation but on the first syllable in American pronunciation. Also words borrowed from French are often stressed differently, especially if their pronunciation ends with a vowel sound. The final vowel is usually stressed in American English but not in British English.

rotate AmE /ˈroʊteɪt/ BrE /rəʊteɪtˈ/

donate AmE /ˈdoʊneɪt/ BrE /dəʊˈneɪt/

dictate AmE /ˈdɪkteɪt/ BrE /dɪkˈteɪt/

patѐ AmE /pæ'teɪ/ BrE /’pæteɪ/

ballet AmE /bæ'leɪ/ BrE /'bæleɪ/

The consonant / ʃ / is pronounced as / ʒ / – in a number of words:

excursion AmE /ɪkˈskɜ:r ʒ n/ BrE /ɪkˈskɜ:ʃn/

version AmE /'vɜ:rʒn/ BrE /'vɜ:ʃən/

Asia AmE /'eɪʒə/ BrE /'eɪʃə/

Persia AmE /ˈpɜ:rʒə/ BrE /ˈpɜ:ʃə/

Finally, there are a number of words the pronunciation differs in the fact that they don’t follow any predictable pattern:

schedule AmE /ˈskedju:l / BrE /'ʃedju:l/

either AmE /ˈi:ðər/ BrE /'aɪðə/

clerk AmE /klɜ: rk/ BrE /'klɑ:k/

nourish AmE /ˈnɜ:rɪʃ/ BrE /ˈnʌrɪʃ/

nougat AmE /ˈnu:gət/ BrE /ˈnu:gɑ:/

apparatus Ame /ˌæpə'rætəs/ BrE /ˌæpə'reɪtəs/

simultaneous AmE /ˌsaɪmˌlˈteɪniəs/ BrE /ˌsɪmˌlˈteiɪniəs/

Nevertheless, “the differences between British and American pronunciation are not such as should cause any alarm for the future, any fear that the British and the Americans may become unintelligible to each other.”

2.1 Spelling

Phonetic Spelling is a way of writing words so that one symbol always represents only one sound. Two words may be spelt differently in ordinary spelling, but if they sound the same then the phonetic spelling is the same.

American English spelling differs from British English largely because of the American lexicographer Noah Webster. In addition to his well-known An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828), Webster published The American Spelling Book (1783) which became one of the most widely used schoolbooks in American history. Webster's books were meant to standardize spelling in the United States by promoting the use of an American language that intentionally differed from British English. Webster was fiercely patriotic, which is reflected in his quote:

“Our honor requires us to have a system of our own, in language as well as government.”

Webster's most successful changes were spellings with er instead of re (center, theater for the British centre, theatre); or instead of our (honor, labor for the British honour, labour); with a final ck instead of que (check, mask for the British cheque, masque); with an s instead of a c (defense, license for the British defence, licence); and without a final k (traffic, public, now also used in British English, for the older traffick, publick). Later spelling reform created a few other differences, such as program for British programme. Canadian spelling varies between the British and American forms, more British in eastern Canada and more American in western Canada.

In Collection of Essays and Fugitive Writings published in 1790, Webster tried to apply his changes in writing and in a way, to make a statement in their favor. “In the essays, ritten within the last yeer, a considerable change of spelling iz introduced by way of experiment. This liberty waz taken by the writers before the age of Queen Elizabeth, and to this we are indeted for the preference of modern spelling over that of Gower and Chaucer. The man who admits that the change of housbonde, mynde, ygone, moneth into husband, mind, gone, month, iz an improovment, must acknowledge also the ritting of helth, breth, rong, tung, munth, to be an improovment. There iz no alternative. Every possible reezon that could ever be offered for altering the spelling of wurds, still exists in full force; and if a gradual reform should not be made in our language, it will proov that we are less under the influence of reezon than our ancestors.”

The differences often come about because British English has tended to keep the spelling of words it has absorbed from other languages (e.g. French), while American English has adapted the spelling to reflect the way that the words actually sound when they're spoken.

Altogether, the spelling peculiarities of the American English consist of replacing and simplifications. Examples:

Words ending in –re

British English words that end in -re often end in -er in American English:

Words ending in –our

British English words ending in -our usually end in -or in American English:

Exception: The words ending in ‘…or’ representing persons, e.g. emperor, governor, etc. are the same in both varieties.

Words ending in -ize or -ise

Verbs in British English that can be spelled with either -ize or -ise at the end are always spelled with -ize at the end in American English:

Words ending in –yse

Verbs in British English that end in -yse are always spelled -yze in American English:

Words ending in –tre

Some words end in tre in Britain but in ter in America.

British US

centre center

fibre fiber

litre liter

metre meter

theatre theater

Words ending in a vowel plus “l”

In British spelling, verbs ending in a vowel plus l double the l when adding endings that begin with a vowel. In American English, the l is not doubled:

Words spelled with double vowels

British English words that are spelled with the double vowels ae or oe are just spelled with an e in American English:

In American English, certain terms, such as archaeology, keep the ae spelling as standard, although the spelling with just the e (i.e. archeology) is usually acceptable as well.

Words ending in –ou

British US

mould    mold

moult  molt

smoulder  smolder

Words ending in –en

British US

encase    incase

enclose     inclose

endorse     indorse

enquire    inquire

ensure    insure

enure   inure

Words that contain –ae/oe in American English are –e

British US

aegis   egis (*aegis)

aesthetic  esthetic

anaesthetic  anesthetic

encyclopaedia  encyclopedia

haemoglobin   hemoglobin

haemorrhage   hemorrhage

mediaeval  medieval

amoeba   ameba

foetus  fetus

manoeuvre   maneuver

oesophagus  esophagus

Words ending in –xion

British US

connexion  connection

deflexion  deflection

inflexion  inflection

retroflexion   retroflection

Words with a single “l” in BrE and double “l” in AmE

British US

fulfil  fulfill

fulfilment  fulfillment

instalment   installment

skilful   skillful

enrol  enroll

enrolment  enrollment

enthral  enthrall

instil  instill

wilful   willful

Words ending in –ogue

British US

catalogue catalog

analogue analog

Words ending in –st

British US

amidst    amid

amongst  among

whilst  while

Nouns ending with –ence Some nouns that end with -ence in British English are spelled -ense in American English:

Nouns ending with –ogue

Some nouns that end with -ogue in British English end with either -og or –ogue in American English:

The spelling analogue is acceptable but not very common in American English; catalog has become the US norm, but catalogue is not uncommon; dialogue is still preferred over dialog.

Other words:

British US

adviser  —  advisor

aetiology  —  etiology

aluminium  —  aluminum

annexe – annex

anaemia  —  anemia

archaeology  —  archeology

axe —  ax

cosy — cozy

cheque  —  check

doughnut — donut

kerb — curb

moustache  —  mustache

manoeuvre — maneuver

programme —  program

prophecy  —  prophesy

pyjamas   —  pajamas

skeptic — sceptic

sulphur — sulfur

trapezium —  trapezoid

tyre  —  tire

yoghurt — yogurt

Chapter 3: Vocabulary/Lexis

Apart from perhaps pronunciation, it is the difference in vocabulary that separates these two varieties the most. Vocabulary is the most mobile, showing continuous changes in different spheres of activity and within the society which speaks the particular language. It is natural for the lexical peculiarities of the American English to be numerous and various.

I. Arnold, in The English Word, differentiates between the lexical peculiarities of the two languages on some interesting bases.

1. Cases in which the American term has no equivalent in BrE, such as dude ranch.

2. Cases of different words for the same notions, such as candy and sweets, truck and lorry.

3. Cases in which the same word has different meanings crazy and mad, sidewalk and pavement.

4. Cases of differences of distribution, such as ride for bikes, horses in the U.K but ride for trains and other vehicles in the U.S.A.

5. Cases of emotional and stylistic differences, such as nasty, which empresses a disapproval much more vehement in the U.S.A than in the U.K. In BrE, ugly, dirty, unpleasant and in AmE disgusting, dirty.

6. Cases of frequent differences, such as time-table, which appears rarely in AmE, being replaced in general by schedule.

One and the same meaning may be expressed by different words in in BrE and AmE or one and the same word may have the same meaning in the two dialects. These language facts will be observed by considering different areas of vocabulary such as: food, drinks, clothes, dwelling and housekeeping, entertainment and sports, travelling, education, occupation and trades, administration and politics.

Same word, different meanings:

administration:

BrE = the managing of public or private business affairs; a period of government by a particular political party

AmE = a period of government by a particular president

agency:

BrE = an office or organization providing a particular service

AmE = a government department or office providing a particular service

annex:

BrE = to take control and possession of land by occupation or by force; to take something without permission

AmE = the alternative spelling of “annexe” which means “anything that has been added to”

armoury:

BrE = a place where a government’s or a group’s weapons are kept; a collection of firearms

AmE = [spelling variation – armory] a place where government’s weapons are manufactured; the National Guard or Army Reserve unit building

astrodome:

BrE = a transparent covering over the fuselage of an airplane for astronomical observations

AmE = a sports center that has a transparent dome-shaped roof

backyard:

BrE = an open, usually covered with a hard surface and surrounded by a wall

AmE = the whole area covered with grass behind a house

ball game:

BrE = any game played with a ball

AmE = a baseball game

ball park:

BrE = a range of approximate numbers, prices

AmE = a baseball field

bank holiday:

BrE = an official holiday, except Saturday and Sunday, when banks and other business are closed

AmE = a period of time when banks are closed by the government to prevent money difficulties, not necessarily a public holiday for other businesses

to bathe:

BrE = to go swimming in a pond, lake, river or a sea

AmE =  to give a bath to somebody

bill:

Brit= a demand for payment of a debt

Ame= bank note

billion:

BrE = a million million

AmE= a thousand million

blackjack:

BrE = a kind of card game (also called “pontoon”)

AmE = a short heavy metal pipe covered with leather, used for hitting people (also called “cosh”)

blinkers:

BrE = the two flat pieces of leather on a horse’s bridle to prevent it from seeing things on either side

AmE = the orange lights on either side of a motor vehicle which flash when the vehicle will move in that direction – either left or right.

blotter:

BrE = a sheet of paper that absorbs ink

AmE = a book in which recorded information is written every day – a police charge-sheet

Board of Trade:

BrE = a department of Trade and Industry in the Ministry of Commerce

AmE = a local chamber of commerce

to bobble (verb):

BrE = to move up and down quickly and continuously

AmE = to do something carelessly; to fumble

boob:

BrE = a silly mistake

AmE = a silly person

brainstorm:

BrE = a mental disturbance; a moment of confusion

AmE = a spontaneous group discussion to produce ideas and ways of solving problems

bushel:

BrE = a measurement equal to 36.4 liters

AmE = a large amount or number

buzzard:

BrE = a large hawk that looks like an eagle

AmE = a vulture (a bird known as “scavenger of plains”, also called “Turkey vulture”)

car:

BrE = a motor car

AmE= a railway carriage or van; a section of a train carrying passengers

casket:

BrE = a small decorated box for holding valuables

AmE= a coffin

chancellor:

BrE = the honorary head of a university

AmE = the president of a college or a university

chandler:

BrE = (a ship’s chandler) a person who sells canvas, ropes for ships

AmE = a person who makes and sells candles

chaps:

BrE = men; fellows

AmE = leggings

checker:

BrE = a person who checks/corrects/verifies lists

AmE= an employee who works at a checkout counter at a supermarket

Chief executive:

BrE = the chief director of a government or private business establishment, a large company, etc.

AmE =  the president of the USA

clerk:

BrE = (A) an employee in a shop, office, who keeps records, accounts, etc. (B) an official who is in charge of the records of a court of law, council, a government office, etc.

AmE = (A) [desk clerk] a receptionist (B) [sales clerk) an assistant in a shop who attends and serves the customers

clinker:

BrE = someone or something that is very popular

AmE = a mistake or failure; something of poor quality

cobbler:

BrE = a person who makes and repairs old shoes

AmE = (A) a fruit pie (B) a kind of cold drink

COD (abbreviation):

BrE = Cash On Delivery

AmE = Collect On Delivery

courthouse:

BrE = a building containing several courts of law

AmE = the administrative office of a county

cowman:

BrE = a man who tends or assists in tending (looking after) cattle

AmE = a cattle ranch owner

cracknel:

BrE = a simple brittle biscuit

AmE = crispy fried pork pieces

cranky:

BrE = strange

AmE = bad=tempered

guy:

BrE = a ridiculous figure

AmE= fellow, any person

homely:

BrE = very plain or common; down to earth

AmE = ugly, unpleasant

muffler:

BrE = an item of clothing, usually wool, worn around the neck in cold weather

AmE = a piece of apparatus fixed on the exhaust pipe of a motor vehicle to reduce noise

nervy:

BrE = feeling nervous

AmE = being bold, full of nerve

pressman

BrE =an operator of a printing office

AmE=a newspaper man

Public school

BrE =a municipal-run school

AmE=a private school

to raise:

BrE = to look after and grow only cattle

AmE = to look after and grow cattle and to look after and bring up children

wrangler:

BrE = (A) a person who argues angrily and noisily (B) a university student who is placed the highest class of math exam

AmE = a cowboy who looks after horses

Different expressions:

BrE = to work out —  AmE = to figure out

BrE = to enlist/to join   —   AmE = to sign up

BrE = very much — AmE = like crazy

BrE = ‘Don’t misunderstand me.”  — AmE = “Don’t get me wrong.”

BrE = “It’s not important.” / “It doesn’t matter.”

AmE = “It’s no big deal.”

BrE = to ring someone; to ring someone up; to give someone a ring

AmE = to call someone; to call someone up; to give someone a call

BrE = “The line is busy.”

AmE = “The number is busy.”

BrE = “stand” in election

AmE = “run” for election

to tick off:

BrE = to scold somebody (to use strong words in order to make somebody think about their mistakes or wrong doings)

AmE = to make somebody angry

Same meaning, different words:

Dwelling and housekeeping:

Food and drinks:

Clothes:

Entertainment and sports:

Travelling:

Education:

Occupations and trades:

Administration and politics:

Other:

Different expressions with prepositions and particles:

The above lists are by no means exhaustive, but what is more important than completing or extending them, is the full understanding of the very relative and deceptive tendencies, as showed by specialists such as G. Ph. Krapp, A. C. Marckwardt, R. Quirk and Thomas Pyles.

3.1 Americanisms

The term Americanism has been in use since after the Revolution to refer to words or usages of supposed American origin, in a depreciatory manner. Scottish John Witherspoon, first president of Princeton University, claims the credit for coining the term and details its signification:

“…Americanisms, by which I understand an use of the phrases or terms, or a construction of sentences, even among persons of rank and education, different from the use of the same terms or phrases, or the construction of similar sentences in Great-Britain. It does not follow, from a man's using these, that he is ignorant, or his discourse upon the whole inelegant; nay, it does not follow in every case, that the terms or phrases used are worse in themselves, but merely that they are of American and not of English growth. The word Americanism, which I have coined for the purpose, is exactly similar in its formation and signification to the word Scotticism. “

Nevertheless, he does accuse American intellectuals of “errors in grammar, improprieties and vulgarisms.”

And Milford M. Mathews gives the following definition:

“ Americanism means a word or expression that originated in the United States. The term includes outright coinages and foreign borrowings which first became "English" in the United States, as well as older terms used in new senses first given them in American usage.”

Altogether, Americanisms have been created or changed from other English terms to produce a language that differs from its forefathers, signifying its uniqueness and independence. Some expressions that the British call "Americanisms" are in fact original British expressions that were preserved in the colonies while lost for a time in Britain.

In addition, I will give several examples of how these so called “Americanisms” were used in American literature, despite the fact that are considered archaisms or provincialisms, even vulgarisms by the British community (they often tend to confuse Americanisms with slang, wrongly naming it “the American slanguage”).

The fact that Britons consider Americanisms to represent nothing other than some archaic or dialectal words, doesn’t give reason to their general opinion that the language spoken in The United States is conservatory and plain old. As shown below, there are as many American words considered to be old in Great Britain, as there are British words considered to be old in the United States. Nor do I approve certain Americans who consider their language to be more pure and more beautiful, precisely because of its numerous archaic words. In fact, I think these two dialects differ far less than the local dialects of Dewsbury and Howden, two little English cities from Yorkshire, separated by only 40 miles away.

A curious metaphor I happened to stumble upon during my research is the following: “Oftentimes the British come across as a passive-aggressive older sibling envious of the younger sibling’s success.”

Present-day British is no closer to that earlier form than present-day American is. Indeed, in some ways present-day American is more conservative, that is, closer to the common original standard than is present-day British. And as Thomas Pyles once said: “American English was at first the British English of the 17th century. But it was inevitable it’s later development into the American dialect we know today from the slightly different British dialect it originally diverged from.”

The word fall derived from “the fall of the leaves” is now rarely heard in England where it has been replaced by “autumn”. Yet, in America is frequently used in phrases like “the fall rains”, “the fall term”, “the fall elections”.

“I had made up my mind to do a lot of college requirement work in the summer, and to enter the freshman class at the university without conditions in the fall.” (Willa Cather, My Antonia)

“Amory… decided the next fall would inaugurate his career…“ (F. Scott Fitzgerald, This Another Country)

“It was cold in the fall in Milan and the dark came very early.” (Ernest Hemingway, In Another Country)

Although fall is commonly used, autumn didn’t vanish and was preferred by authors such as John Steinbeck in “Travels with Charlie”- “She said the autumn never failed to amaze her; to elate.” Or Sinclair Lewis in “Young Man Axelbrod” – “Toward the autumn of the second year of his eccentric life he no longer believed that he would ever go to college.”

Baggage, as in luggage often appeared in British literature between XV – XVIII th century but nowadays is rarely used in the United Kingdom. While in America, it also led to various compound words such as baggagemaster, baggage car, baggage check, baggage room.

“The baggage man stood by his truck, waiting to get at the trunks.” (Willa Cather, The Sculptor’s Funeral)

Accomodations, which appears in the works of Defoe and Jane Austen, is now out of use in the islands but across the ocean the word kept its meaning: tourists’ accommodations, Pullman accommodations, office accommodations.

The distinction between the US and the British word is often too rigid. For example, although most Americans say apartment, they also use flat when referring to a small apartment. For example, in:

“Mr. and Mrs. Larrabee began housekeeping in a flat.” (O. Henry, A Service of Love)

“Her sister’s flat was clean.” (Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie)

Also billfold never replaced wallet like washbowl never replaced wash-bassin:

“Bill’s wallet was out. His fingers were trembling.” (Mike Quin, Untouchables)

“You’d better take your coat off an’ get washed there’s the wash-bassin – an’ then we’ll have supper.” (Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman, The Revolt of Mother)

The word cabin, now considered to be overused in Britain, gained an extreme popularity through the novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” by Harriet Beecher Stowe.

In the Elizabethan Age, to eat meant “to dine”. The word kept its meaning in the United Stated through expressions like eating club (dining club in BrE), eating hall (dining hall in BrE). Also Americans vulgarly use eats for plural as shown in R.E. Sherwood’s The Petrified Forest “You got your eats and there’s your change. Now kindly get out.”

Faucet is frequently used in American English, but we can also hear tap. Same goes for junk and rubbish, roomer and lodger, package and parcel, stairway and staircase, smoked herring and kipper, business suit and lounge-suit, schedule and time-table, etcetera.

An American doesn’t ask: “Has the post arrived?” and doesn’t say: “I want to post this letter”, he uses mail, to mail. Although the noun mailman or the letter carrier is used often, postman is also familiar to American vocabulary as shown in James M. Cain’s book entitled “The Postman always rings twice”

Also, a large number of Americanisms have become common in British English, due to radio, television, newspapers, movies and literature. Even the famous “Radio Times” which for decades has been broadcasting programme listings, slowly has replaced wireless with radio, telly with TV, leading article with editorial, etcetera.

In England pitcher is nowadays considered a poetic or archaic word and is usually replaced with jug. But, in America the word is still in the everyday use. “She brought him pulque to drink in a little pitcher…” (John Steinbeck, The Pearl)

Also platter, has become old in British English but is frequently seen and heard in American vocabulary. For example in Hemingway’s The Killers “George, put the two platters, one of ham and eggs, the other of bacon and eggs, on the counter.”

In Shakespeare’s and Milton’s work we often find the adjective homely as a reference to people who are ugly, unattractive but sometimes as a meaning of familiar, close. The first meaning was only kept in the United States, where an English writer who held a lecture was surprised to see the indignation of the audience after hearing his introduction “I’m very glad to see so many homely faces here.”

In England the word nasty has lost its original meaning of dirty, disgusting, gaining a brighter meaning “a nasty day/weather”. In America the word is rarely used and it means “disgustingly dirty, abominable”

In the United Kingdom, slim doesn’t mean anymore inconsistent or insubstantial but thin, slender. Still, over the ocean expressions such as slim arguments, a slim chance, a slim dinner, slim evidence, a slim income are quite common.

In British English, tardy generally means sluggish, meaning we can for instance find in Romeo and Juliet “Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.”; and it’s other meaning- unpunctual, delayed is much more used in America “Don’t shoot your husband when he is two hours tardy for supper.”

Another word considered Americanism, really often used in common language is to guess as in to believe, to suppose or even to be sure. I gesse is a favourite expression of Chaucer's “Of twenty years of age he was, I gesse” / “Mo than a thousand stories as I gesse koude I now telle.” (The Canterbury Tales) Even Shakespeare had a minor tendency to use it: “Not all together, better far, I guess/ That we do make our entrance several ways.” (Henry VI)

In Twelfth Night, by Shakespeare, Olivia’s maid is called chambermaid. This word, in England, only refers to a woman working at a hotel and instead the word housemaid is used for a woman working in a particular house. In the United States chambermaid is used for both meanings. For example in an advertisement “Wanted: a neat young girl as chambermaid and waitress in small private family.”

Horwill’s commentaries regarding the word through are quite amusing: “The difference between the English and American uses of this word caused some confusion when the Anglo-American telephone was introduced. When the London operators asked “Are you through?, meaning “Are you connected?”, they were understood in New York to mean “Have you finished?”

Through is still used in Scotland and Northern England but in expressions such as: to be through with, to get through with.

It’s worthy to mention many other words, which I can’t group in a particular section, but can also be added as typical Americanisms: anyway (BrE at any rate), advocate, awesome, blank (opposed to BrEform), bosom, bunch, back-number (antiquated), carom (BrE cannon), chore (BrE charwoman), citizen (opposed to BrE civilian), copybook (BrE copier), deck, fair, fleet, forehanded, influential, just (quite, or very—“just lovely”), standpoint (point of view), some (to some extent) ledger, likely, lengthy, merchant, overly, perhaps (opposed to maybe), reliable, right along (continuously), talented, tradesman, tremendous, to fix up (organize), to back of (behind), to develop, to quit, to admire, to approbate, to loan, valise.

3.2 Social and cultural differences:

Numbers

The British use and between hundred and the rest of a number, but Americans can leave it out.

GB/US: one hundred and twenty

US only: one hundred twenty

Dates

There are a number of different ways of saying and writing dates. Americans often say November eleventh. In Britain the eleventh of July and July the eleventh are the most usual.

In Britain, the commonest way to write the day's date is as follows. (with capital letters)

22 March 2012 / 19 July 2009

The last two letters of the number word are sometimes added (e.g. 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 6th). Some people write a comma before the year, but this is no longer very common in Britain except when the date comes inside a sentence.

22nd June(,) 2005 He was born in Bucharest on 18 December, 1956.

The date may be written entirely in figures.

22/12/04 12-4-95 11.6.09

In the USA it is common to write the month first and to put a comma before the year.

March 17, 2008 •

All-figure dates are written differently in Britain and America, since British people put the day first while Americans generally start with the month. So for example, 7.1.07 means '7 January 2007' in Britain, but 'July 1, 2007' in the USA.

Meals

There are regional and social differences in the names for meals.

British usage

The midday meal is often called dinner, especially if it is the main meal of the day. People who are 'higher' in the social scale usually call it lunch.

Some people have a light meal of tea and biscuits or cakes, called tea, at four or five o'clock in the afternoon.

Many people have a cooked meal around five or six o'clock. This is often called tea or high tea; some people call it supper.

A meal later in the evening is often called supper (and some people use the same word for a bedtime snack). Some people use dinner for the evening meal if it is the main meal of the day. A more formal evening meal with guests, or in a restaurant, is usually called dinner.

American usage

“Americans generally use lunch for the midday meal and dinner or supper for the evening meal. However, in rural areas it is still common for the main meal of the day to be eaten at midday and called 'dinner', with the evening meal being called 'supper'. Celebration meals at Christmas and Thanksgiving are called Christmas/Thanksgiving dinner, even if they are eaten at midday.”

British money

A pound means 100 pence. Sums of money are named as follows:

1p one penny (informal one p (/pi:/) or a penny)

5p five pence (informal five p)

£3.75 three pounds seventy-five (pence) OR three pounds and seventy-five pence (more formal)

Some people now use the plural pence as a singular in informal speech; pound is sometimes used informally as a plural.

Examples:

That's eight pounds and two pence, please.

It cost me four pound forty.

American money

One dollar ($) means 100 cents (¢). Some coins have special names-one-cent coins are called pennies; five-cent coins are nickels; ten-cent coins are dimes; a twenty-five cent coin is a quarter.

Punctuation

While the British would write Mr, Mrs, Dr, the Americans would write Mr., Mrs., Dr.

In British English, it is unusual for a capital letter to follow a colon (except at the beginning of a quotation). However, this can happen if a colon is followed by several complete sentences.

Example: My main preferences are as follows:

First of all, I need bigger space.

Secondly, the chair needs to be changed

In American English, colons are more often followed by capital letters. Americans usually put a colon after the opening salutation (Dear . .. ) in a business letter.

“Dear Mr. Smith:

I am writing to … “

British usage prefers a comma or no punctuation mark at all in this case.

Apologies

British people say Excuse me before interrupting or disturbing somebody, and Sorry after doing so. For example:

Excuse me. Could I use your phone? Oh, sorry, did you ask me something?

Excuse me, could you tell me the way to the airport?

Americans also use excuse me to apologise after disturbing somebody. I beg your pardon is a more formal way of saying “Sorry”.

I beg your pardon. I didn't know you were here.

-asking people to repeat

If British people do not hear or understand what is said, they may say Sorry?

(GB) What? (informal), (I beg your) pardon? or Pardon me? (US).

“Kim is at the door.”- Sorry? – “I said Kim is at the door.”

“Talk to you soon” – What? – “Talk to you soon”.

“You're going deaf.” – “I beg your pardon?”

Chapter 4: Structure

The few and non-essential differences between British and American grammar are the reason why authors such as A.H. Markwardt, G. Ph. Krapp or H.L. Mencken dedicated only a small number of pages in their works regarding the morphological and syntax problems and instead chose to pay attention to the much larger lexical and phonological structure.

The Article

In British English, they say: the day after tomorrow, the day before yesterday, the month after next, etc. Exceptions: all day, all night. In American English, the article does not appear in the following structures.

eg: all morning, all week, all summer, week before last, year after next

“That he kept these divergent elements together is an indication of the President’s greatness.”

“The Substitution of iron for wood hastened the decline of the railing vessel.”

“Size shape and position of Asiatic countries all combine to produce climatic variations.”

Americans do not omit the definite article in the following structures.

eg: “She is in the hospital” / “We were at the table”/ “She looked out of the window.”

OR: the gangrene, the jaundice, the pneumonia, the tuberculosis

The indefinite article is used before the words: hour, minute, dozen, million, etc.

“I’ll expert you back in a half hour.” (William Saroyan, The Time of Your Life)

“A half-dozen policemen emerged out of darkness…” (James Thurber, The Night the Ghost Got in)

“But the median of one agent to a half-million people was, in probability, a fairly accurate one for the whole country.” (Thomas Wolfe, The Company)

The definite article is used twice, as follows:

“He was always coming and sitting down in the back of the room for about a half an hour.” (J.D. Salinger, the Catcher in the Rye)

The Noun

In terms of number, in American English there is coal instead of coal, inning instead of innings. There are nouns at plural, which in British English are always used at singular, like: accommodations, beets, buckwheats, candies, foods, cramps, doggerels, activities, developments, policies, progresses, tactics. In BrE it is considered inacceptable to use: informations, knowledges.

When we use two nouns together, the first is not normally plural: a grocery store, a word processor. There are some exceptions in Britain but Americans almost always use a singular noun.

GB: a careers adviser an antique/antiques dealer

US: a career counselor an antique dealer

Plural forms: GB: attorneys general, courts martial, knights errant, sons-in-law, innings, coal, accommodation, candy, food.

US: attorney generals, court martials, knight errants, son-in-law, inning, coals, acommodations, candies, foods.

The British can use a singular or a plural verb after a group noun.

GB: The team needs/need more encouragement.

Manchester isn't/aren't going to win.

The Americans prefer a singular verb.

US: The team needs more encouragement.

After a name the Americans always use a singular verb.

US: Manchester isn't going to win.

The genitive of the noun is: the agreement’s application, the moratorium’s duration, senate’s commitee, the car’s light, employee morale, pupil’s homework, teacher’s effort, energy resources, language usage, human body.

A noun can have the same structure as a verb: audition – to audition, host – to host, moon – to moon, package – to package, pressure-to pressure, solo – to solo, etc.

Some nouns at plural form, can be used as adverbs: “What do you do here nights?, Al asked.” (Ernest Hemingway, The Killers)

“I went over there afternoons. Weekends I could go home.”

A noun can be an adjective: “… it sounds like a fool question…” (foolish)

In colloquial speech, almost incorrectly, the noun plenty is often used as an adverb of manner (she likes him plenty) or as an adverb of degree (he was plenty tired). It can also be used as an adjective, as it was once used in England. For instance, H.W. Horwill’s example: “Opportunities for advancement do not seem to be as plenty as they were.”

“The” with musical instruments

The British use the with a musical instrument (play the piano), but Americans sometimes leave it out (play piano).

“The” with hospital and university

The British talk about a patient in hospital and a student at (the) university. Americans say that someone is in the hospital or at the university.

4.2.5 “This” and “that” on the telephone

People in both countries say “this is…” to say who they are, but usage is different when they ask who the other person is.

GB: Who is that?

Mainly US: Who is this?

The Pronoun

Americans avoid using the British “It is me” and instead choose to use “It is I”. But if the pronoun isn’t preceded by it is, then, the pronoun is often used in the accusative case. “Would you go to South America with me? Why me?” / “If I were him I would go.”

Although, there are exceptions, such as: “I saw him in Hamlet. D.B. took Phoebe and I to see it last year.” (J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye)

Sometimes, in the southern states especially, people frequently use you all for the 2nd person plural forms, even for the singular ones.

“… I reckon I won’t be riding back with you-all.” (Mac Kinlay Cantor, The Romance of Rosy Ridge)

“Didn’t you all have a kid of some kind? I don’t remember if it was a boy or a girl.” (Tennessee Williams, Period of Adjustment)

Americans tend to keep in their speech the form whom, while Britons have replaced it with who. Thomas Pyle recounts that in 1957, while on a visit in America, Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain wowed the crowd when she asked the journalists the newspapers they were working for, by using “Who are you with?”

The relative pronoun is sometimes omitted, when its presence is compulsory in British English.

“It’s cleverness does it?, said the doctor, and slapped him on the back.” (Stephen Vincent, Johnny Pye and the Fool-killer)

“… a hyena crossed the open on his around the hill.”

“He’s the one who makes the noise at night.” (Ernest Hemingway, The Snows of Kilimanjaro)

GB “It’s cleverness that does it/ the one that makes the noise.”

The demonstrative pronouns this, that and the indefinite pronouns some, any and none are used as adverbs much more frequently in America than in Britain.

“How can you be that silly.” / “It can’t be this hot next month.”

“-When did you say you got married?”

“-Yesterday, yesterday morning.”

“-That lately?” (Tennessee Williams, Period of Adjustement)

Americans do not often use one meaning 'people in general'; and they do not use one's or oneself.

GB: One must consider one's legal position.

US: You must consider your legal position.

People must consider their legal position.

The Adjective

In AmE, the word well can be used as an adjective and as an adverb.

“He could work only with his well hand.”

“Get along and doctor your sick… Leave a well woman alone.” (Katherine Anne Porter, The Jilting of Granny Weatherall)

Sometimes, in American English, unusual superlative adjectives are being used:

“I’ve loved Africa. If you’re all right it’s the most fun I’ve ever had.” (Ernest Hemingway, The Snows of Kilimanjaro)

“The furthest south I ever got in my whole life was the great state of Maryland.” (John Updike, The Centaur)

In British English, the degrees of comparison are sometimes archaic: honester, solider, crookedest, wonderfullest.

Older and oldest in British English become elder and eldest.“Where is your older brother?”

In the U.S.A we often encounter adjectives used as adverbs.

eg: “I’ll drive careful.” (Albert Maltz, The Happiest Man on Earth)

“But the lady acted strange.” (Sally Benson, Profession: Housewife)

“When you’re like that, you can do anything wrong.” (John Steinbeck, The Chrysanthemums)

The adjectives well, fine, ill and unwell referring to health usually come in predicative position.

GB/US: Our mother is ill.

But they can be attributive, especially in America.

Mainly US: an ill man

Sick and healthy can go in both positions. In Britain be sick means to vomit, to bring up food.

GB: Tyler's son was sick all over the carpet.

Sometimes the adjective “good” is used instead of the adverb “well”, in familiar language.

eg: “I don’t feel good at all.” (Erskine Cladwell, My Old Man)

“-How’s Ella?” (Albert Maltz, The Happiest Man on Earth)

“-Oh, she’s pretty good.”

The adjective “good” followed by the conjunction “and” is used as the adverb “very”.

“I am good and tired.” (I am very tired.)

“The boy hit his brother good and hard.” (very hard)

In informal speech we can sometimes use an adjective form instead of an adverb. Americans do this more than the British.

GB/US: That was really nice of him.

It certainly is snowing.

Mainly US: That was real nice of him.

It sure is snowing.

In informal American English everyplace, someplace and no place can be used as well as everywhere, somewhere and nowhere.

GB/US: Let's go out somewhere.

US only: Let's go out someplace.

The Numeral

Americans use nineteen hundred when referring to years, but also for objects and persons. The hour is also showed, sometimes with the aid of numerals from thirteen to twenty-four.

The Verb

Verb agreement with collective nouns

In British English collective nouns can be followed by a singular or plural verb depending on whether the group is thought of as one idea, or as many individuals.

e.g: My family is winning.

The other class are all sitting down.

In American English collective nouns are always followed by a singular verb, so an American would usually say: Which team is losing?

Whereas in British English, both plural and singular forms of the verb are possible.

e.g: Which team is/are losing?

Linking verb + noun phrase

“The British can use a noun phrase after a linking verb such as be, seem, look, feel.”

Mainly GB: It looks a pleasant morning.

She seemed to be an intelligent girl.

The Americans do not use this pattern except with be and become.

US: It looks like/It looks to be a pleasant morning.

She seemed to be an intelligent girl.

Past tense forms

Below is a table showing verbs which have different simple past and past participle forms in American and British English. The irregular past forms burnt, dreamt and spoilt are possible in American English, but less common than the forms ending in -ed.

Have got is possible in American English, but is used with the meaning 'have', gotten is the usual past participle of get. 

Some verbs have both regular and irregular forms: learned or learnt, dreamed /dri:md/ or dreamt/dremt/ etc. The irregular forms are not very usual in America. The British say dreamed or dreamt; the Americans say dreamed.

The verbs dive and fit are regular in Britain but they can be irregular in America.

GB/US: dive – dived – dived fit – fitted – fitted

US only: dive – dove – dived fit-fit-fit

Fit is irregular in America only when it means “be the right size”.

GB: The dress fitted her very well.

US: The dress fit her very well.

It is always regular when it means “make something the right size” or “put something in the right place. GB/US: The designer fitted her with a new dress.

The subjunctive

In the USA the synthetically subjunctive it has maintained in a higher degree than in the UK.

“I’m only demanding you do your duty.” (Eugene O’Neill, Ah, Wilderness!)

“It was extremely important that he remain in school, in order to prepare for the West Point examinations…” (John Reed, Broadway Night)

In such cases, normally in British English should do, should remain are used.

“If it be necessary to shoot a man, ' said my grandfather, ' then I suppose I shall shoot him.” (Mike Quin, The Man They Couldn’t Draft)

Present perfect and past simple

Both the British and the Americans use the present perfect for something in the past which is seen as related to the present.

GB/US: We've just met our new teacher.

Mike has already eaten his cake.

Have you ever seen Statue of Liberty?

I've never had a car.

But Americans sometimes use the past simple in such contexts especially with just, already, yet, ever and never.

Mainly US: She just met her new teacher.

John already ate his cake.

Did you ever see the Statue of Liberty?

I never had a car.

Use of auxiliaries and modals:

In British English, the auxiliary DO is often used as a substitute for a verb when replying to a question.

e.g: A: Are you coming with us?

B: I might do.

In American English, do is not used in this way

e.g: A: Are you coming with us?

B: I might.

Do for an action

In American dialect, the verb to do is used with the verb to have even if it has the meaning of possession: “He ran among running people, overtaking and passing them, since he had an objective and they did not…” (William Faulkner, Percy Grimm) BrE – had not

“What is his name? Is he married or single? Does he have any children?” (Mike Quin, The Man They Couldn’t Draft) BrE – has he got

An anecdote regarding this particular usage tells the story of a female American tourist visiting Britain who asked another woman: “Do you have many children?” followed by the answer: “Oh, no, only one every couple of years.”

Instead, quite common in both countries is the verb to do used with the verb to have got: “Has he got the ability to laugh at himself and at life and at human situations?” (Tennessee Williams, Period of Adjustment)

In unpolished language, have may be omitted. For example:

“I got to get rid of that girl. I got to get rid of her quick. Jesus! You got to help me.” (Tennessee Williams, Period of Adjustment)

“Joe, I got to marry Kitty.” (William Saroyan, Time of Your Life)

The British sometimes use do to refer to an action.

GB: He practices the piano, but not as often as he might (do).

You should reply if you haven't (done) already.

This usage is not found in American English.

US: He practices the piano, but not as often as he might.

You should reply if you haven't already.

But Americans use do so.

GB/US: You should reply if you haven't done so already.

Do for emphasis

The British can use do to emphasize an offer or invitation in the imperative form.

GB: (Do) have a glass of water.

This usage is less common in American English.

US: Have a glass of water.

Americans also avoid the emphatic Do let's… and the negative Don't let's…

GB/US: Let's not call them.

GB only: Don't let's call them.

NOTE: Let's don't call them is possible in informal American English but not in Britain.

Have, have got and have gotten

It is quite common in America to use have gotten instead of to have got. For example:

“You never would have gotten anything like that in Paris.” (Ernest Hemingway, The Snows of Kilimanjaro)

“… I’ve gotten so very nervous not being able to do anything.” (Ibid.)

“He’s gotten back in the car and driven off.” (Tennessee Williams, Period of Adjustment)

Also, the unpolished typical American often uses such expressions:

“… I been looking for you.” (Lillian Hellman, The Little Foxes)

“… I been trying to tell you.” (William Saroyan, Time of Your Life)

“I been away, traveling around.” (William Saroyan, Going Home)

“… I done a despicable thing. I married a girl that had no attraction for me.” (Tennessee Williams, Period of Adjustment)

“If you think about me, you never known me.” (Ibid.)

In British English, the verb have frequently functions as what is technically referred to as a delexical verb, i.e. it is used in contexts where it has very little meaning in itself but occurs with an object noun which describes an action.

e.g.: I'd like to have a cold shower.

Have is frequently used in this way with nouns referring to common activities such as washing or resting.

e.g: He's having a little nap.

I'll just have a quick shower before we go to the concert.

In American English, the verb take, rather than have, is used in these contexts

e.g: Amelia's taking a shower.

I'd like to take a bath.

Let's take a long vacation.

Why don't you take a rest now?

Have and have got are used differently:

GB: I've got/I have some problems.

US (spoken): I've got some problems.

US (written: I have some problems.

Negatives and questions with have and have got:

GB/US: We don't have much money. Do you have enough time?

Mainly GB: We haven't got much money. Have you got enough time?

GB only: We haven't much money. Have you enough time?

Negatives and questions with have to and have got to

GB/US: You don't have to go. Do you have to go?

GB only: You haven't got to go. Have you got to go?

Got and gotten:

GB: He's got a new girlfriend. (= He has a new girlfriend.)

Your driving has got better. (= It has become better.)

US: He's got a new girlfriend. (= He has a new girlfriend.)

He's gotten a new girlfriend. (= He has found a new girlfriend.)

Your driving has gotten better. (= It has become better.)

Get someone to do something and have someone do something

GB/US: We got the waiter to bring another plate.

Mainly US: We had the waiter bring another plate.

Need and dare

Need and dare, can be ordinary verbs. The British can also use them as modal verbs.

GB/US: She doesn't need to see the injury. / We don't need to come to school today.

Do we dare to ask?

Mainly GB: He needn't see the injury. / They needn't come to school today.

Dare we ask?

In American English needn't is very unusual and the usual form is don't need to

i.e.: They don't need to come to school today.

Will/would and shall

Americans use will and would at all persons.

“Good day, Madam ', he said. ' I will be back later.” (Sally Benson, Profession: Housewife)

“How’s she going to like it when you get killed?”

“Maybe I won’t… I’ve got to have some luck sometime.” (Albert Maltz, The Happiest Man on Earth)

“You’d cry, ' Caddy said.

' Caddy! ', father said.

' I wouldn’t, Jason said.” (Wililiam Faulkner, That Evening Sun Go Down)

“He’s not here, ' father said.' I would have seen.' ”(Ibid.)

The British use will or shall in the first person although recently there has been a slight tendency to use will/would instead of shall. The British use shall in offers or asking for advice or an opinion, but Americans prefer should.

Mainly GB: Shall I meet you at the theatre?

Mainly US: Should I meet you at the theatre?

The British can also use Shall we… ? in suggestions.

Mainly GB: Shall we go for a run?

Americans would say “How about a walk?” or “Would you like to take a walk?”

As Charles Barber shows, the old anecdote that said a foreigner who didn’t know English well, fell into a river and lost his life because he shouted: “I will be drowned, no one shall save me!” instead of “I shall be drowned, no one will save me!”, has lost its meaning and amusement.

G. Graf and H. Spitzbardt gave some other examples in which the American would corresponds to the British should in the following rhetorical questions: “How would I know?”/“Why would she die?” or in final sentences such as “I took care that there would be no delay.”

Also, would appears in American English in the expression “would better” (had better in BrE). Sometimes, would or ‘d disappear completely as in the example: “You better leave before it is too late.”

Gone and been

The British use been for gone and come back, but the Americans mostly use gone.

GB/US: Have you ever been to Germany?

US only: Have you ever gone to New York?

Can't and mustn't

In Britain one use of must is to say that something is necessarily true. The negative is can't. Americans can also use mustn't.

GB/US: There's no light on. They can't be in the room.

US only: There's no light on. They mustn't be in the room.

The Adverb

According to H.W. Horwill, the adverb has a more important role in American English than in British English. The adverbs intensify some verbs such as: to beat up, to check up, to close/shut down, to figure out, to hide out, to offer up, to rest up, to sober up, to strip down, to try out, to win out, etcetera.

Horwill underlines the importance of the adverb in the formation of complex verbs, such as: to call down, to count out, to get away(with), to get there, to lay off, to stop by/in.

Americans say more often to go out than to collapse, to throw down and to turn down than to reject, to pass up than to decline or to refuse, to let up than to desist, to slip up than to err.

Sometimes, a complex American verb has an equivalent containing the exact same verb in BrE. For example: to come out and to come off, to fill out and to fill up, to get by and to get through, to melt up and to melt down.

Sometimes, the adverb is the same in both dialects: to crowd out and to drive out, to crowd up and to drive up, to fetch up and to finish up. And sometimes, a complex verb from AmE corresponds to a complex verb in BrE without having to have a common word: to come by and to look in.

Prepositions

At first, it was concluded that America uses a much larger amount of prepositions than Great Britain but as H. W. Horwill shows, this belief is far from being completely true, proving that there are still situations in which prepositions are not so necessary, for example: all of, feel of, off of, remember of, smell of, visit with.

“Nowadays all of nations of the world are neighbors one to the other.” (Theodor Roosevelt)

“This is illustrated by the use of salt to melt the ice off of sidewalks.” (J.L. Howe)

“Do you remember of ever making a purchase as a result of an advertisement?” (H.M. Shaw)

Some situations in which prepositions are simply omitted: of, at, by or through, after, out.

“… he walked past the machines and out the door…” (Ernest Hemingway, In Another Country)

“… I looked out the window for a while.” (J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye)

“The next day the smoke’ll be pushing out the chimneys…” (Lillian Hellman, The Little Foxes)

Americans say: sales at auction vs. sales by auction, at retail vs. by retail, imprisonment at hard labor vs. imprisonment with hard labor, to name for vs. to name after, the worst accident in years vs. the worst accident for years, five minutes of vs. five minutes to, after three vs. past three, on hand vs. at hand, the man on the street vs. the man in the street, etcetera.

Out (of) and round/around

The British normally say look out of the window, although look out the window is possible in informal speech. Americans prefer look out the window.

The British say either round the park or around the park/ the corner/nine o’clock/80 dollars. Americans prefer around the park/the corner/nine o’clock/80 dollars.

Except for and aside from

Where the British use except for/besides/apart from, Americans can also use aside from.

GB/US: I'm fine now, except for a scare.

US only: I'm fine now, aside from a scare.

Through and till/until

Americans can use through for the time when something finishes.

US: We will stay in Los Angeles (from February) through June.

GB/US: We will stay in Los Angeles (from February) till/until June.

With through June, the time includes the whole of June. With until June they may leave before the end of June. We can also express the meaning of through like this.

GB/US: We will stay in Los Angeles until the end of June.

In British English we can also use inclusive. This is rather formal.

Mainly GB: Wednesday to Saturday inclusive

US only: Wednesday through Saturday

Prepositions after different

GB: Your car is different from/to ours. / This city is different from/to anything I've seen before.

US: Your car is different from/than ours. / This city is different from/than anything I've seen before.

In British English, at is used with many time expressions.

e.g.: at Easter/five 'o' clock

at the weekend

Also, when talking about universities or other institutions.

e.g: I studied American literature at university.

In American English, on is always used when talking about the weekend, not at.

e.g: Will she still be there on the weekend?

She'll be coming here on weekends. 

In American English, in is often used

e.g: He studied Spanish in high school.

In British English to is always used after the verb write.

e.g: I promised to write to my mother every evening.

In American English to can be omitted after write.

e.g: I promised to write my mother every evening.

Conjunctions

Go/Come and…

Americans can leave out and from this pattern.

GB/US: Go and take care of your friend.

Mainly US: “Go take care of the colored boy.” (William Saroyan, The Time of Your Life)

In case and lest

The British use in case meaning 'because something might happen'. Americans use so or lest. Lest is formal.

Mainly GB: Go quietly in case anyone hears you.

GB/US: Go quietly so no one can hear you.

Mainly US: Go quietly lest anyone hear you. (formal)

In America, in case often means 'if.

US: If you need/In case you need any information, let me know.

Immediately

Americans do not use immediately as a conjunction.

GB/US: As soon as I heard her, I recognized her.

GB only: Immediately I heard her, I recognized her.

Like and as

GB: She was just as I thought she would be.

US: She was just like I thought she would be.

Question tags

“Americans use tags much less often than the British. The British may use them several times in a conversation, but this would sound strange to an American. Americans use tags when they expect agreement. They do not often use them to persuade or argue.”

GB/US: Jim likes swimming, doesn't he?

GB only: You'll just have to be stronger, won't you?

Both varieties use the tag right but Americans use the tags right? or OK? more often.

Mainly US: You're going to help us, right?

We'll take the bus, OK?

In informal situations, AmE speakers often use a tag with rising intonation in responses which show surprise or emotional involvement. The tag has the same form as the statement the speaker is responding to (affirmative statement → affirmative tag; negative statement → negative tag). This is not common in BrE:

AmE A: I took the driving test course last summer.

B: Oh, you di↗d? (BrE preferred form Oh, did you? with fall-rise or rising intonation)

AmE A: Lindsey’s father prefers driving her to school.

B: He does? (BrE preferred form Does he?)

Tags at the end of affirmative statements which have an affirmative form occur in both varieties but are quite rare in AmE:

BrE He studies really hard, he does.

AmE And so when she went to another country, in the beginning, I think she kind of hated it. She did consider returning, she did, yeah.

Chapter 5: Idioms

English is a language particularly rich in idioms. An idiom is a group of words or a phrase that means something different than the individual words it contains. Although idioms defy logical and grammatical rules, they add color and texture to language and provide insight into history, culture and even into people’s character.

“Idioms can be either complimentary or insulting. They can express a wide range of emotions from excitement to depression, love to hate, heroism to cowardice and anything in between. Idioms are also used to express a sense of time, place, or size. The range of uses for idioms is complex and widespread. The complexity of idioms is what makes them so difficult for non-native speakers to learn. However, this complexity is also what can make idioms so interesting to study and learn; they are rarely boring.”

Some idioms, known to be included in the “world-wide English” category, have first been seen in the works of writers like Shakespeare, Sir Walter Scott, Lewis Carroll or even contemporary novelists. An example of Shakespearean quotation is the following: “As a social worker, you certainly see the seamy side of life”.

In the past, English idioms rarely originated from any other form of English than British English. Nowadays, the roles have turned and American English is in this position. Some examples of early American English idioms are to get something off one’s chest, show one’s teeth, to bark up the wrong tree or to paddle one’s own canoe. They were derived from the speech of the American natives, like the phrase someone speaks with a forked tongue and the happy hunting ground. Through centuries, these idioms have filtered to British English through books, newspapers, and most recently through powerful mediums like radio, television and movies.

Some idiomatic expressions have undergone radical changes in meaning. The phrase “There is no love lost between them” nowadays means that some people dislike one another but originally, when there was only the British English form, it meant exactly the opposite.

A number of English idioms that have essentially the same meaning show lexical differences between the British and the American version. For instance:

Other idioms denote different things, for example the word pissed, which in BrE means drunk but, in AmE means angry.

While some idioms mean the exact same thing, but originated in American English and were also used in British English. For example:

– to have the edge on/over someone is originally an American English idiom, now established in almost every other form of English, including British English;

– a happy hunting ground – place where one often goes to obtain something or to make money, originally was an American English idiom.

Another idiomatic category consists of made-up words, for example, the words twaddle is a British word for nonsense, an American word is hogwash.

Also there are “idioms which are not normally used in the other variety.” For example:

USA A day late and a dollar short GB All talk and no trousers

All hat, no cattle At the end of your tether

At a drop of a dime At a loose end

There are idioms which consist entirely of grammatical words as: be, may, it, oneself. Every idiom contains two or more words. Above is a larger list of American Idioms.

5.1 American Idioms:

The Great Divide for the Rocky Mountains

The Big Drink for Mississippi River

The Big Maundy for Missouri River

The Bear State (Arkansas)

The Blue Hen State or the Diamond State (Delaware)

The Cotton State (Alabama)

The Ever Green State (Washington)

The Golden State (California)

The Lake State (Michigan)

The Panhandle State (West Virginia)

The Windy City (Chicago)

The Monumental City (Baltimore)

The City of Magnificent Distances (Washington)

The City of the Golden Gate (San Francisco)

Forest City (Cleveland)

Puritan City (Boston)

The Blue and the Grey for Civil War

a big noise = a person who is famous

horse opera = a western film

he's so dumb you can sell him the Brooklyn Bridge = really dumb

codfish aristocracy = a person of humble origin who has gained wealth

cut from the same cloth = sharing a lot of similarities

cub reporter = a trainee reporter

easy money

like a cat in a stage garret = feeling of uncertainty

like a hog on ice = clumsy

that’s like taking a candy from a baby = when something is easy to obtain

under the weather = feel sick/tired

spring chicken = very young

as funny as a crotch = not funny

the four hundred = rich people

the invisible government = monopoly

the big stick policy, the brink of war policy = the dollar diplomacy

up to the armpits = to be sick of something

-What’s eating you? = question of concern

peanut politics, peanut politician = the petty, mean character of a politician

the boys in blue = policemen

fat cat = manager

dog-eat-dog = egotism

loan shark = moneylender

-to take up the hatchet = to declare war

-to bury the hatchet/ to smoke the pipe of peace = to make peace

-to let the cat out of the bag = a secret or some hidden information has been revealed

-to pull someone’s leg = a form of light hearted joke 

-to bend over backwards = expression used when someone makes an exceptional effort

-to smell a rat = suspect something is not right

-to get the pink ship (to get fired)

-the forgotten man = jobless

-to get on the bandwagon = to be involved in a successful activity

-to tap the barrel = to get money from public founds

-to beat somebody to a frazzle = to beat somebody really bad

-to be off one’s base = to be unrealistic

-to spill the beans = to give away a secret

-to go it blind = to act reckless

-to get down to brass tacks = to discuss something important

-to sell somebody a gold brick = to cheat

-to gang the bush, to drag the bush up, to take the rug of the bush = to overcome

-to take a chance

-to chew the rag = to mumble

-to fall over oneself = to be very hurried, in a hurry

-to make the fur fly = to create a scandal

-to get off the wrong foot

-to make one’s get away = to escape, to flee

-to hang one’s hat on somebody = to depend on somebody

-to pump somebody’s hand = to shake hands

-to get a move on = to hurry

-to get someone’s number = to understand a person’s character

-to be left to hold the sack = to pay for someone else’s actions

-to get oneself into a pot = to be in trouble

-to lay it on thick = to exaggerate

-to keep a stiff upper lip = to not be upset

-to hitch one’s wagon to a star = to be very ambitious

-to throw one’s weight around = to act as if one has a lot of power

-to get one’s hook into = to get control over someone/ something

-to give someone the air = to break off relations with someone

-to give the best one has in the shop = to do all one’s best

-to give somebody the glad hand = to greet someone with open arms

-to throw a scare into somebody = to frighten somebody

-to hit the ceiling = to get very angry

-to have one’s head in a tar barrel = to be in trouble

-to blow the lid off something = to divulge information

– to be dead above the ears = to be stupid

-take the show leather express = travel on foot

-to cook someone’s goose = to spoil someone’s plan

-to swap lies = to gossip

-to lose one’s shirt = to lose a lot of money

-to spit nails = to speak angrily

Even though American idioms tend to spread faster and further, British Idioms remain more familiar to other Europeans than to Americans despite the fact that the language is the same.

CONCLUSION

English is clearly a hegemonic language in the contemporary world due to its economical, technological, cultural and political dominance. Moreover, English has become lingua franca that stands out from other languages, it is widely learned as a second language and is an official language of the United Nations, of the European Union, and of many other world and regional international organisations.

Either you are teaching English as a foreign language or you are a student, it is as important to know the essential differences between American and British dialects as it is to know its grammar or vocabulary. This paper can guide teachers and students alike to avoid embarrassing questions and to eliminate any kind of misunderstanding or confusion concerning the proper usage of this complex language. I have mentioned differences in the choices of pronunciation, spelling, vocabulary, grammar, idiomatic expressions and even a few interesting social and cultural differences.

In Romania, traditional teaching materials on English grammar adopt the rules of British English. But American English is more widely used in international level, which confuses those English learners who have not been systematically trained and results in “mixed” English. Although the difference between British English and American English is not that huge, the improper use of English will still make foolish figure or cause troubles.

There are people who think that British and American English are already two different languages. However, as this paper showed, this is far from the truth. Moreover, the fear that the two varieties would drift away to the point of mutual unintelligibility has proved to be unfounded, and American English combines both vibrant diversity and relative commonality. Evidently, over time, both varieties will consequently change, but that is a normal thing and it is what languages have always done, since every language has a dynamic character.

Leaving aside some isolated opinions and incidents, most people, either native or foreign, do consider and acknowledge the fact that there is indeed a difference between British and American English and I, personally, couldn’t disagree. But, regarding this aspect, over the last centuries and especially in this century, the two versions of English have been coming even closer together and I believe any educated person, no matter his or her nationality, for sure experiences no difficulty in comprehending a British or an American accent in an ordinary everyday conversation. British and American English are both variants of the same language and these variants are more similar than different; we cannot say which one is better or advanced, and any opinion or judgment in favour of BrE and against AmE or vice versa is unfairly prejudiced; if there is still a divergence between the two countries it is only because of national history and cultural development, regional and local idioms and colloquialisms, and advertising or media influences.

This paper is significant and valuable thanks to an extended bibliographical list of journals, articles and books that have served as an indication and guide so much appreciated. Sources are infinite and this work tries to synthetize some of them in one concise and helpful research, all through the eyes of a curious, passionate and enthusiastic English learner.

Bibliography

Arnold, Irina The English Word (1986, Moscow: Vyssaja Skola)

Bădescu, Alice, Gramatica Limbii Engleze, Editura Stiintifică si Enciclopedică, 1993

Baugh, Albert C. / Cable, Thomas A history of the English language (2002)

Baugh, Albert C. and Cable, Thomas A History of the English Language, Fifth Edition

Brook, G.L. A History of the English Language (London, 1960)

Enciclopedia Britannica vol 12, editia 15, 1995

Eastwood, John Oxford Guide to English Grammar (Oxford University Press 1994)

Francis, W.N. The Structure of American English (New York, 1958)

Fries, Ch. C. American English Grammar (New York, 1940)

Graf, Gerhard – Spitzbardt, Harry Amerikanisches Englisch (Leipzig, 1965)

Gunnel Tottie, An Introduction To American English, Wiley, 2001 

Iarovici, Edith – Engleza Americană (Teora, Bucuresti, 1999)

Krapp, G. Ph. The English Language in America (2 vols, New York, 1960)

Mencken, H.L. The American Language (New York, 1955)

Milford M. Mathews, A Dictionary of Americanisms, 1951

King, A., Flynn, R. English Idioms & Idiomatic Expressions (2010)

Office of English Language Programs United States Department of State  In the Loop: A Reference Guide to American English Idioms (2010)

Pyles Thomas, Words and Ways of American English, London, 1954

Swan, Michael Practical English Usage (Oxford University Press, 2005)

Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language (Cleveland and New York, 1959)

Dictionaries:

Dictionary of Idioms Copyright © 2003, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions, 2006, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Fowler H.W., A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (London, 1960)

Horwill H. W., A Dictionary of Modern American Usage (Oxford, 1954)

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Pearson/Longman, 2009

Macmillan English Dictionary, Macmillan, 2007, Second Edition

Moss Norman, The Hutchinson British-American Dictionary, 1973

Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, Second Edition , Cambridge University Press, 2005

Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 2005

Oxford Collocations Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 2009Oxford Wordpower Dictionary

Oxford Wordpower Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 2003

The Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms, Cambridge University Press, 2001

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms, Cambridge University Press, 2003

The Wordworth Dictionary of Idioms, Denmark: Wordsworth Editions, 1995

Cited sites:

http://browsingthemind.com/2011/07/22/50-americanisms-grammar-man-responds

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/

https://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/british-american.htm

https://merikari.wordpress.com/2007/01/23/idioms-differences-and-usage-in-american-english-and-british-englih/

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/words/british-and-american-spelling

http://www.onestopenglish.com/grammar/grammar-reference/american-english-vs-british-english/differences-in-american-and-british-english-grammar-article/152820.article

http://www.thefreedictionary.com

http://www.weblearneng.com/same-word-british-american>

Bibliography

Arnold, Irina The English Word (1986, Moscow: Vyssaja Skola)

Bădescu, Alice, Gramatica Limbii Engleze, Editura Stiintifică si Enciclopedică, 1993

Baugh, Albert C. / Cable, Thomas A history of the English language (2002)

Baugh, Albert C. and Cable, Thomas A History of the English Language, Fifth Edition

Brook, G.L. A History of the English Language (London, 1960)

Enciclopedia Britannica vol 12, editia 15, 1995

Eastwood, John Oxford Guide to English Grammar (Oxford University Press 1994)

Francis, W.N. The Structure of American English (New York, 1958)

Fries, Ch. C. American English Grammar (New York, 1940)

Graf, Gerhard – Spitzbardt, Harry Amerikanisches Englisch (Leipzig, 1965)

Gunnel Tottie, An Introduction To American English, Wiley, 2001 

Iarovici, Edith – Engleza Americană (Teora, Bucuresti, 1999)

Krapp, G. Ph. The English Language in America (2 vols, New York, 1960)

Mencken, H.L. The American Language (New York, 1955)

Milford M. Mathews, A Dictionary of Americanisms, 1951

King, A., Flynn, R. English Idioms & Idiomatic Expressions (2010)

Office of English Language Programs United States Department of State  In the Loop: A Reference Guide to American English Idioms (2010)

Pyles Thomas, Words and Ways of American English, London, 1954

Swan, Michael Practical English Usage (Oxford University Press, 2005)

Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language (Cleveland and New York, 1959)

Dictionaries:

Dictionary of Idioms Copyright © 2003, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions, 2006, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Fowler H.W., A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (London, 1960)

Horwill H. W., A Dictionary of Modern American Usage (Oxford, 1954)

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Pearson/Longman, 2009

Macmillan English Dictionary, Macmillan, 2007, Second Edition

Moss Norman, The Hutchinson British-American Dictionary, 1973

Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, Second Edition , Cambridge University Press, 2005

Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 2005

Oxford Collocations Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 2009Oxford Wordpower Dictionary

Oxford Wordpower Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 2003

The Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms, Cambridge University Press, 2001

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms, Cambridge University Press, 2003

The Wordworth Dictionary of Idioms, Denmark: Wordsworth Editions, 1995

Cited sites:

http://browsingthemind.com/2011/07/22/50-americanisms-grammar-man-responds

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/

https://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/british-american.htm

https://merikari.wordpress.com/2007/01/23/idioms-differences-and-usage-in-american-english-and-british-englih/

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/words/british-and-american-spelling

http://www.onestopenglish.com/grammar/grammar-reference/american-english-vs-british-english/differences-in-american-and-british-english-grammar-article/152820.article

http://www.thefreedictionary.com

http://www.weblearneng.com/same-word-british-american>