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کتاب 504 واژه مطلقاً ضروری: کلمه شماره 126

504 Absolutely Essential Words: Word number 126

Solitary

کتاب 504 واژه مطلقاً ضروری: کلمه شماره 122

504 Absolutely Essential Words: Word number 122

Recline

کتاب 504 واژه مطلقاً ضروری: کلمه شماره 20

504 Absolutely Essential Words: Word number 20

Inhabit

کتاب 504 واژه مطلقاً ضروری: کلمه شماره 17

504 Absolutely Essential Words: Word number 17

Differences between American and British English

تفاوت‌های بین انگلیسی امریکایی و بریتانیایی

Differences between American and British English

بخش اول: املای واژه‌ها	Part one: Spelling
بخش دوم: تلفظ	Part two: Pronunciation
بخش سوم: دستور زبان	Part three: Grammar and Usage

Grammar and Usage

Grammar and Usage

In grammar and syntax, American and British English are remarkably similar. Examples of the main differences are listed below. The influence of American English on British English, however, is constantly growing - through films, television, pop music, the internet, and so on - so that even such contrasts as these are likely, if not to disappear, at least to diminish in importance. It should be noted that, in many of the following cases, two different forms are possible in one variety of English, while only one of the forms is normal in the other variety. To see the content, click here. 

Pronunciation

Pronunciation

The first point to settle in any discussion of pronunciation differences is: which pronunciations are we talking about? Although a dialect is defined in terms of grammar and vocabulary while accent is a matter of pronunciation, different regional accents generally coincide with dialect regions. It is therefore worth bearing in mind that phonologists have identified 16 modern dialect regions in England alone (with others in Ireland, Scotland and Wales) and 26 in the United States. This being so, it is obvious that the distinctions described below are by no means absolute. They apply mainly to those abstract notions, Standard American English or GA (General American) and Standard British English or RP (Received Pronunciation). To see the content, click here.

Spelling

Spelling

A complete list of spelling differences between American and British English, assuming such a list could be compiled, would be a daunting and not particularly useful thing. For example, among many other factors, it would have to take account of differences of hyphenation and spacing in compound words (US antiaircraft/GB anti-aircraft, US bookkeeper/GB book-keeper, US ultramodern/GB ultra-modern, and so on). Since American English tends to drop the hyphen much faster than British English, this factor alone would make the list potentially endless. The difficulties arising from hyphenation also illustrate the complexity of the subject in general, for not only do variant spellings exist for many words on both sides of the Atlantic, often the authorities in each country—i.e. the dictionary-makers —are in disagreement as to which spelling of a word is to be preferred over other possibilities. Rather than attempt a complete inventory of spelling differences, then, we have chosen to identify a number of broad categories. The following lists are illustrative rather than exhaustive. One important point should be noted: if two versions of a word are given as accepted US or GB spelling, the first is the preferred spelling and the second a variant. (Our authorities are Merriam- Webster's Collegiate Dictionary for American words and the Concise Oxford Dictionary for British.) To see the content, click here.

10. Other usages

10. Other usages

Most of the differences we have mentioned are small and easily understandable in context, even if they sound amusing or quaint, as shan't and ought do in the US, or as gotten and in back of do in GB. Many usages, it is true, occur in only one variety of the language and are not generally understood in the other. To visit with, for example, is used in the US meaning to visit, but it has the additional meaning of being with another person virtually, so that it is possible to visit with someone by phone. This usage is unknown in Britain. (Many similar examples are discussed in the dictionary section of this book.) But the usages that give American and British English their peculiar characters belong to the first category. Only an American would say 'I sure could use a drink' or 'I need to use the bathroom'. A Briton would find some equivalent but subtly different linguistic formula, such as 'I'm dying of thirst' or 'I have to go to the loo'. If, as Shaw said, Britain and America are divided by a common language, perhaps the main element of division lies precisely in such subtle distinctions as these.

9. Use of 'one'

9. Use of 'one'

The pronoun one, used to talk about people in general, including the speaker and the listener, is much less used in the US than in GB. When it is used in American English, however, he, him and his are generally used later in a sentence to refer back to it, where British English would continue to use one or the possessive one's. Click here to see the full text. 

8. Prepositions

8. Prepositions

The use of prepositions occasionally varies, especially in adverbial expressions. When a preposition is used in one variety of English but not in the other, this is signified by (-). Here are some well-known examples. Click here to see the examples. 

5. Position of adverbs

5. Position of adverbs

Certain adverbs, known as mid-position adverbs (e.g sometimes, always, never, often, definitely, certainly], are usually placed after auxiliary verbs and before other verb s: He has certainly done it. However, when we wish to emphasize the auxiliary verb, we put most mid-position adverbs before it instead of after: He certainly has done it. In British English this second construction is always emphatic. In American English, however, the adverb is frequently placed before the auxiliary, even when there is no intent to emphasize. Click here to see the full text. 

6. Use of 'real' as an intensifier

6. Use of 'real' as an intensifier

In informal American English, real is often used before adjectives and adverbs where British English insists on really. Click here to see the full text. 

7. Collective nouns

7. Collective nouns

In British English, collective nouns like government, staff, committee, company, firm, audience, family, team, etc., can take either a singular or a plural verb. In American English such nouns usually take a singular verb. The same is true of certain proper nouns, for example the names of countries or companies. Click here to see the full text. 

4. Expressions with 'have' and 'take'

4. Expressions with 'have' and 'take'

In a small number of expressions, British English prefers have to US take. Click here to see the full text. 

3. Auxiliary and modal verbs (5)

3. Auxiliary and modal verbs (5)

In British English, but not American, do can be used alone as a substitute verb after an auxiliary verb. In such cases, the auxiliary verb is stressed. Click here to see the full text. 

3. Auxiliary and modal verbs (4)

3. Auxiliary and modal verbs (4)

In subjunctive constructions, for example after verbs like suggest, recommend, demand, insist, etc., should is often used in British English. In American English this is unusual. Click here to see the full text. 

3. Auxiliary and modal verbs (3)

3. Auxiliary and modal verbs (3)

In British English needn't is often substituted for don't need to, but in America needn't is unusual. Click here to see the full text. 

3. Auxiliary and modal verbs (2)

3. Auxiliary and modal verbs (2)

In both varieties of English, it is possible to use can and could with verbs of perception, i.e. see, hear, feel, smell, and taste, but this practice is much more common in British English. Click here to see the full text. 

3. Auxiliary and modal verbs (1)

3. Auxiliary and modal verbs (1)

In British English, shall and its contracted negative shan't can be substituted for will, indicating the future, when used with the pronouns / and we. In American English shall is unusual. Where shall is used in GB to ask for advice, should is employed in the US. Click here to see the full text. 

2. Use of Past Simple and Present Perfect tenses

2. Use of Past Simple and Present Perfect tenses

In American English these two tenses are often interchangeable in conditions where only the present perfect can be used in British English. For instance, when an action in the past has a result now (as in the first example below), the present perfect is normally employed. Other typical cases are with words like just, already, and yet, and with ever and never when referring to a period of time that continues until now. Click here to see the full text. 

1. Irregular verbs (3)

1. Irregular verbs (3)

In American English, the past participle of get is either gotten or got, except in the structure have got, used as an alternative to have, which is the same as in British English. Click here to see the full text. 

1. Irregular verbs (2)

1. Irregular verbs (2)

The verbs fit, quit and wet are regular in British English, but irregular in American. In the case of quit and wet, however, American usage is now well on its way to replacing British in GB. Click here to see the full text. 

1. Irregular verbs (1)

1. Irregular verbs (1)

A number of verbs can be either regular or irregular in the Past Simple. However, in the US and in GB the forms most commonly used are not the same. Where two forms are given in the following list, the first is the more commonly employed. It will be seen that in American English, the regular form is usually preferred, and in British English the irregular. Click here to see the full text. 

6. Pronunciation of particular words

6. Pronunciation of particular words

Other differences in pronunciation are less important, since they concern only individual words or small groups of words. For example, in Britain been has the same sound as bean, but in America it is like bin. In Britain, the last syllable of words like fertile, sterile and missile rhymes with aisle. In the US, the vowel is much shorter, or a mere vocalic I - fert-il, ster-il, miss-il or miss'l. Americans do not suppress the final t of trait, as Britons do, or pronounce an f in lieutenant. The following table shows examples of such minor differences, but it should be borne in mind that relatively few words are pronounced so differently as to cause any but the most fugitive confusion. Nor are these examples restrictive: in the US leisure is pronounced both with a long vowel (leezhure) and to rhyme with pleasure (lezhure), but the former is more common. Click here to see the full text. 

5. Pronunciation of 't'

5. Pronunciation of 't'

In British English t is usually pronounced quite clearly but in many instances of American speech, when it is not the initial consonant in a word, it may either be pronounced like a d or it may disappear entirely. When the t occurs between two vowel sounds, it is often pronounced as d: bitter, latter, shutter, water, waiting, writing, etc. In Britain, on the other hand, the pronunciation of such pairs as bitter/bidder, latter/ladder, shutter/shudder, waiter/wader, writing/ riding I eaves no room for ambiguity, even when the context is unknown. The t in American speech tends to disappear after nasal sounds like m, n, and ng. Thus, words like dentist, twenty, understand, intercontinental become dennist, twenny, unnerstann, innerconninennal. The only comparable phenomenon in Britain, in well-defined areas like Cockney London, Glasgow in Scotland, or Ballymena in Northern Ireland, is the use of the glottal stop to replace the t in words like butter, matter, water, and so on.

4. Pronunciation of 'u'

4. Pronunciation of 'u'

The u in words like mule, mute, mutual, cube, butane, Houston is pronounced identically on both sides of the Atlantic, i.e. with an imaginary y inserted before it: myool, myoot, myoo-tyoo-al, etc. In the US, however, such words are exceptions; the usual pronunciation is without the y sound. Thus, new, nude, tune, student, duke, Tuesday' are pronounced noo, nood, toon, stoodent, dook, toosday. In England, these words are all pronounced with the y sound, and this is generally the case. Exceptions exist, of course, such as assume, suit, lute, which are usually pronounced assoom, soot, loot. It may be noted, however, that English stage actors are still trained to say assyoom, syoot, lyoot.

3. Pronunciation of 'o'

3. Pronunciation of 'o'

The pronunciation of the o in such words as not, lot, hot, top, dog, hod,pot is also noticeably different. In England, this is still an open o pronounced with the lips rounded and the tongue at the back of the mouth. In America, however, except in parts of New England, it has commonly lost its rounding and in most words has become a sound very similar in quality to the a in father, only shorter. This illustrates a general tendency in American speech towards the neutralisation of vowel sounds. Non-essentials are dropped so that words like don and dawn are pronounced identically. In England vowels tend to retain their sharpness.

2. Pronunciation of 'a'

2. Pronunciation of 'a'

Another major difference is in the pronunciation of the vowel sound in such words as laugh, fast,path,grass, dance, branch, demand, can't, half. Short in US speech, in British speech it is long and firm: Returning from the daaanse claaase, she ran a baaath. Near the end of the 18th century, southern England began to change from what is called a flat a to a broad a in these words, i.e. from a sound like the a in man to one like the a in father. The change affected words in which the vowel occurred before f, sk, sp, st, ss, th, and n followed by certain consonants. In parts of New England the same change took place, but in most other parts of the country the old sound was preserved, and fast,path, etc., are pronounced with the vowel of man. This, the flat a, must now be regarded as the typical American pronunciation. Although highly distinctive, however, the difference between the broad a and the flat a probably affects fewer than 250 words in common use.

1. Pronunciation of 'r'

1. Pronunciation of 'r'

One of the most noticeable differences between English and American pronunciation is the treatment of the r. In RP, this sound has disappeared except before vowels. It is not heard when it occurs before another consonant or at the end of a word unless the next word begins with a vowel, as in Clear away those papers. In the US, eastern New England, New York City and most of the South follow the English practice (Americans joke about New Englanders who pahk the cah in the yahd or New Yorkers who feed de holds in de pahk), but elsewhere in the States the r is pronounced in all positions. In RP, lord has the same sound as laud, while in words like car or there the r is not sounded at all but replaced by indeterminate vowels at the end. The American r, on the other hand, is pronounced before vowels and consonants and also at the end of words: air, are, arm, hear, beer, more, care, deer, fear, hair, or, peer, pure, wear, work, etc. In phonetics, this phenomenon -the pronunciation of postvocalic rs- is known as rhoticity. Apart from the south-west and some northern areas, England is non-rhotic, while Scotland and Ireland are rhotic. The first pilgrims to arrive in America in 1620 were mainly from the Midlands and East Anglia. Presumably, the non-rhotic speech in the New England area today ultimately derives from them. If this is so, later colonists from the West Country, Scotland and Ireland are responsible for the rhotic speech heard in most of the US today.

7. Miscellaneous

7. Miscellaneous

Important spelling differences not already noted are listed below. Click here to see the full text. 

6. One letter differences

6. One letter differences

An interesting group is comprised of words which are spelt with a single different or additional letter. The difference affects pronunciation. Click here to see the full text. 

5. The fulfill / fulfil group (2)

5. The fulfill / fulfil group (2)

In American spelling, when you add a suffix like -ing, -ed, or -er to a word, you double the final consonant only if the stress falls on the second syllable of the root word. Thus, as in British English, the verb 'pat-rol' gives 'patrolling' and 'patrolled'. On the other hand, the verb 'trav-el' becomes 'traveling', 'traveled', 'traveler' (GB 'travelling', 'travelled', 'traveller'). Some further examples: Click here to see the full text. 

5. The fulfill / fulfil group (1)

5. The fulfill / fulfil group (1)

A certain number of disyllabic verbs stressed on the second syllable are written in British English with a single but in American English with -II. This affects the spelling of derivatives. Click here to see the full text. 

4. The edema / oedema group

4. The edema / oedema group

In words of Greek origin, GB English has oe- where US English has e- or less commonly oe-. Similarly, words with an ae combination in GB English (orthopaedics, anaesthesia) are spelt without the a in US English. To see the full text, click here.

3. The realize / realise group

3. The realize / realise group

In this group, differences between GB and US spelling are far from systematic. Some verbs, regardless of the country, can only have -ize (capsize, seize) while in others only -ise is possible (advertise, advise, surprise). Dictionaries in both countries prefer the suffix -ize in words such as apologize, legalize and realize. Many Britons, however, (not to mention the spelling checkers of popular word-processing programs) do not agree with the dictionary-makers and in GB these words are still usually written with -ise. To see the full text, click here.  

2. The center / centre group

2. The center / centre group

Most GB words ending in -tre, usually deriving from French, end in -ter in the US. This difference is also apparent in derivatives. To see the full text, click here.