the differences between American and British English

American English is usually defined as the language that is spoken in the United States.

British English is the language spoken in England and the British empire along with countries owned by that empire.

Although both American and British people can generally understand what each other's saying sometimes it is necessary to explain some things. Some words or phrases could be taken the wrong way.

One of the most noticeable differences is in the spelling of some words. Words such as color in American English become a colour in British English. Another example is the American word theater. In British English it becomes theatre. Other words using the same spelling rules also have the added letter u and the reverse of the r e. Words ending in or usually have the letter u added before the letter r. Words ending in er are usually reversed to re. Other words also have various spelling differences.

Many times although words are spelled the same in both forms of English, they may have a different pronunciation. The accent is put on a different syllable in the word .

Sometimes when using a past tense of a verb, while ed may be used in American English, t is common in British English. An example is dreamed and dreamt .

There are also various grammatical differences.

Vocabulary of course is a major difference at times. Because of the widespread usage of American English many British people are starting to use some American nouns to replace some of their British ones. So a lorry is becoming a truck. There are many other words that are being substituted as well.

Many Americans are are aware of many of the British terms and what they mean. It's likewise many of the Britons know what some of our words mean. This helps to eliminate some confusion.

Many times speakers of British English have a more proper and distinct pronunciation of certain letters such as d and t.

There are also times when the same words have completely different meanings in both forms of English. In British English a biscuit is similar to a cooky however in American English it is more like a dinner roll.

Sometimes Britains pronounce their numbers differently mostly the larger numbers. They tend to add the word and between the numbers. While American English speaking people usually say 107
one hundred seven, most British English speaking people say one hundred and seven.

There are also many other minor differences between the two forms of English.

It is interesting to note that many British English speaking people adore American accents. Likewise many American English speaking people simply love British accents.