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GRAMMATICAL DIFFERENCES
We’ve read the book written by John Algeo “British or American English. A Handbook of Word and Grammar Patterns” and have found some grammatical differences of American variant:
British normally uses the perfect in the environment of adverbs like already, ever, just and yet. American has a tendency to use the simple preterit in such cases, although the perfect is also acceptable.
“I just returned the book” instead of “I’ve just returned the book”.
English has two main verb signals of future time: “will” or “shall” and “be going to”. In general, British favors “will” or “shall”, and American - “be going to”, notably in American conversation and fiction. “Shall” is rare in both varieties, but is more frequent in British than in American.
The passive voice has some distinctive uses in British English.
It was told me in confidence.
“Have” or “have to” is not generally used as an operator, especially in American English.
“I don’t have a clue” and “I haven’t a clue”.
To / in THE hospital instead of to/in hospital in British English.
On the weekend/ on weekend instead of at the weekend/at weekend.
On a street instead of in a street.
Past Participle of "got" is "gotten"
To burn, to spoil and other verbs, which can be regular or irregular in the British variant, in the American variant are always regular.
British English may use the in certain expressions of time where American English would have no determiner: all the afternoon/morning/evening - all afternoon/morning/evening; in the night - at night
SPELLING
When it comes to different spellings there isn’t really that much to say because in the near future the world will more or less agree on one uniform version.
British English has a tendency to keep the spelling of many words of French origin whereas Americans try to spell more closely to the way they pronounce words and they remove letters not needed, which makes sense to me. Here are some examples:
British English
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American English
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centre
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center
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theatre
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theater
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realise
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realize
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to practise (verb)
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to practice (verb)
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practice (noun)
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practice (verb)
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colour
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color
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favour
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favor
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programme
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program
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travelled
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traveled
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ǽgrey
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gray
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cheque
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check (noun)
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Again, these are to our opinion examples for the most important spelling differences between British and American English. Of course, there are more of them and the purpose of this article is not to elaborate on orthography but to raise your awareness of the subject so you can make your own observations and draw conclusions.
British and American English are the reference norms for English as spoken, written, and taught in the rest of the world. For instance, the English-speaking members of the Commonwealth often closely follow British English forms while many new American English forms quickly become familiar outside of the United States.
PRONUNCIATION
The phonetic variations of British and American English have served to differentiate one accent from another. By no means have we suggested that there only two varieties of British and American pronunciation form. There are variations of different accents spoken in the British Isles and in the USA.
The greatest difference between British and American is in the intonation that accompanies sentences. Other pronunciation differences exist in stress patterns and in consonant and vowel articulation and distribution. The major difference in American and English pronunciation is in voice timbre. Americans speak with less variety of tone than the English. American voice timbre seems harsh or tinny to the English, theirs gurgling or throaty to Americans.
English conclusion: Americans speak shrilly, monotonously, and like a schoolboy reciting. American conclusion: the English speak too low, theatrically, and swallow their syllables.
The more precise differences include:
Americans pronounce[æ] in such words as ask, brass, can't, dance, fast, grass, half, last, and path as a short, flat [æ]; the English pronounce it more as the broad [a:] in father. American shorter, flatter [a] is just a continuation of the way first colonists from Southern England pronounced it; the English dropped this pronunciation in the 18th century and began to use the broad [a:] (this same change took place in parts of New England and the South, giving some Americans the pronunciation of aunt as [ænt] and vase as [væz] .
And some more examples of pronunciation:
- ate: Americans say [eit]; [et] is an accepted English pronunciation.
- been: Americans say [bin]; the English say [bi:n].
- either, neither: most Americans say [eðer], [neðer]; [aiðə], [naiðə]" is the English pronunciation.
- issue, Americans say [iʃju]; the English say "[isju:].
- nephew, Americans say [nefju:]; the English say [nevju:].
- schedule, Americans say [skedjul]; the English say [ʃedju:l].
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