Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[neva]

Hi everybody!
Could you tell me the differences between American English and British English?

[oliver]

Hi !
I've known some.There're some differences in spelling and spoken.
Like "colour"is spelled as "color"...

[cgage]

I 'm going to do some research on this and post it later.
Standard American English when properly spoken is not a lot different from British English. However, American English isn't spoken properly very often. There are a number of dialects also. Of course, Britain has its dialects too.
Here are a couple of examples of differences:
American: while
British: whilst
American: to the university, at the university
Brit: to university, at university
American: TV
Brit: tele

[LucentShade]

Some other spelling differences include:
American: center, meter, theater
British: centre, metre, theatre
American: organize, realize
British: organise, realise
Sometimes, there are intonation differences and different stress points:
American: ROtating, adverTAIZment
British:roTAting,adVERti*sement (i=short i, not ai like American pronunciation)
British speakers sometimes aspirate initial h's as in the word herb--
Am: [erb] // Brit [herb]
From what I've seen, (standard) British English tends to be a little more formal and indirect, using questions with more modal verbs like "Might I ask who you are?" or "negative questions" like "Don't you have any salt?"

Of course, there are many vocabulary differences; you may want to do a web search on "British American English Differences" to find a list of them.

[wolfstone]

I think that I already mix American words with British words and spelling when I speak English

[emirates soul]

hi and i also know something
in amrican english pronounciation we pronounce the r/r/
but in british we donot
also we write behaviour in american english
but behaior in british

[monofactor]

in american english many times you can use past simple for present perfect. For example: "have you finished your homework yet" and "did you finish your homework yet" are same.

and in american english "shall" is unusual. they use "should" more often.
and "do not need to" is more usual than "needn't"..

american english is more simple
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mono file style

[bike]

actually our teachers tell us there is no need to disdingwish the two,and when i am writing or reading or speaking , i don' t pay attaintion the diference and in fact i can not.
so i am puzzled, is it really so important to know thew diferences??

[bud]

Not in my opinion, Bike. It would be a little odd to mix the piculiarities of the two, but it would not make your English harder to understand. And that's what's important, isn't it - understanding and being understood?

(It could be important, though, if you are in a formal English class and have to take tests. It would depend on the teacher and the tests.)

[bigdave]

Here is an article that reviews some of the differences...
http://esl.about.com/library/weekly/aa110698.htm
_________________
Sincerely,
David

P.S. Advice to students who are frustrated and unhappy with their progress in language learning. http://www.esl-education-network-online.com/SpeedEnglish