American and British English-The Same But Very Differrent

American and British English-The Same But Very Differrent

American

Despite the fact that Americans and the British originally spoke the same language there are a lot of things that differ between these two varieties of English. Even though people can fully communicate and understand one another quite well, there are some aspects of language where comprehension breaks down. Among them are vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar and spelling.

The basic difference lies vocabulary level. Whereas the British have petrol , the Americans call it gasoline; while the British drive lorries, the Americans drive trucks; the Americans pay checks, whereas the British pay bills; the British eat chips, but the Americans eat French fries and so on. Furthermore both groups of people will often use the same words , however these words denote totally different things. This problem creates much cause of misunderstandings, especially to people who learn English as a second language.

Another important factor which separates British and American English is the pronunciation. Not only is the American pronunciation more nasal, but also they are said to speak more carelessly, which in my opinion is not true. Unlike the British , the Americans pronounce -r in last syllables, the example of which can be words like weather, sweater, soldier etc. What`s more, -t- between vowels is voiced in the American variety, for instance writer, water or a lot of. Besides, the Americans use /a/ instead of British /o/: (hot, got, odd) and in the same way they replace British /a:/ with /ae/-"ash" in words like castle, can, dance etc.

A conversation about pronunciation wouldn't be complete if we forget to mention the word stress, since there are many variations in this area. The word princess has a different stress in American English as to British English. The British stress the second syllable, whereas in American English the first syllable of this word is stressed. Other examples are advertisement, laboratory, ballet (though this word can be stressed in two ways in the American variety of English.

Let us now compare both languages by taking a closer look at how grammar is approached. The rules and the use of grammar are not the same and to make things worse the way each interprets grammar is different. The most outstanding dissimilarity in the use of grammar is how Americans apply the simple past tense to situations where the British tend to use the present perfect tense. In addition the Americans are thought even to ignore the present perfect tense all together.

In contrast to British English, American spelling is rather simplified. This is not to say that American spelling is easier, but there are fewer rules to remember. Whereas the British have colour, harbour or honour, the Americans shorten it to color, harbor and honor, omitting u in ou clusters. Another difference is not doubling of -l- in words whereas the British do so, for example traveler/traveller, leveling/levelling. Some words in American English end in -og, but the British spell them -ogue, e.g. dialogue/dialog, catalogue/catalog and so on. They are only the most evident examples, but there are also other differences, like Am.-ize/Br. -ise. (realize/realise), Am. -ter/Br. -tre (center/centre) and many other individual cases: pajamas/pyjamas, program/programme, check/cheque, so the list could go on and on.

Some people believe that these two languages are the same and there`s no use finding discrepancies and comparing them as I have just done. Others may claim that, on the other hand, these two varieties of the English language are different, and in addition, people should be aware of these aspects in which American English and British English differ. I`m advocating neither point of view, so my aim is not to convince somebody of my rights or personal opinions, but only to present what the problem looks like.

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