Differences between British and American English

Vocabulary

The most noticeable difference between American and British English is vocabulary. There are hundreds of everyday words that are different.

Vocabulary

The most noticeable difference between American and British English is vocabulary. There are hundreds of everyday words that are different.

  Americans go on vacation, while Brits go on holidays.

New Yorkers live in apartments; Londoners live in flats.

Fortunately, most Americans and Brits can usually guess the meaning through the context of a sentence or most of them know the difference.

Britich vs American vocabulary

Collective nouns

In American English, collective nouns are singular. For example, staff refers to a group of employees; band refers to a group of musicians; team refers to a group of athletes. Americans would say, “The band is good.” or “My family in big”. But in British English, collective nouns can be singular or plural. You might hear someone from Britain say, “The team is playing well” or “The team are playing well.”

    Past tense verbs

You will also find some small differences with past forms of irregular verbs.

The past tense of learn in American English is learned. British English has the option of learned or learnt. The same rule applies to dreamed and dreamt, burned and burnt, leaned and leant.

In the past participle form, Americans tend to use the irregular verb got and gotten participle whereas a Brit would only use got.

 She’s got very thin

 She’s gotten very thin

   I have never got used to the noise.

   I have never gotten used to the noise.

Present perfect and past simple

In British English, people use the present perfect to speak about a past action that they consider relevant to the present.  The present perfect can be used in the same way in American English, but most people often use the past simple. This is especially common with the adverbs already, just and yet.

British vs American Spelling

Writing the date

Not so different

British and American English have more similarities than differences. We think the difference between American and British English is often overstated. If you can understand the American English, you should be able to understand the British English.