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Comparison of American and British English

The English language was introduced to the Americas by the arrival of the British, beginning in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The language also spread to numerous other parts of the world as a result of British trade and settlement and the spread of the former British Empire, which, by 1921, included 470–570 million people, about a quarter of the world's population. In England, Wales, Ireland and especially parts of Scotland there are differing varieties of the English language, so the term 'British English' is an oversimplification. Likewise, spoken American English varies widely across the country. Written forms of British and American English as found in newspapers and textbooks vary little in their essential features, with only occasional noticeable differences.[1]

Over the past 400 years, the forms of the language used in the Americas—especially in the United States—and that used in the United Kingdom have diverged in a few minor ways, leading to the versions now often referred to as American English and British English. Differences between the two include pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary (lexis), spelling, punctuation, idioms, and formatting of dates and numbers. However, the differences in written and most spoken grammar structure tend to be much fewer than in other aspects of the language in terms of mutual intelligibility. A few words have completely different meanings in the two versions or are even unknown or not used in one of the versions. One particular contribution towards integrating these differences came from Noah Webster, who wrote the first American dictionary (published 1828) with the intention of showing that people in the United States spoke a different dialect from those spoken in the UK, much like a regional accent.[2]

This divergence between American English and British English has provided opportunities for humorous comment: e.g. in fiction George Bernard Shaw says that the United States and United Kingdom are "two countries divided by a common language";[3] and Oscar Wilde says that "We have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, the language" (The Canterville Ghost, 1888). Henry Sweet incorrectly predicted in 1877 that within a century American English, Australian English and British English would be mutually unintelligible (A Handbook of Phonetics). Perhaps increased worldwide communication through radio, television, and the Internet has tended to reduce regional variation. This can lead to some variations becoming extinct (for instance the wireless being progressively superseded by the radio) or the acceptance of wide variations as "perfectly good English" everywhere.

Although spoken American and British English are generally mutually intelligible, there are occasional differences which may cause embarrassment—for example, in American English a rubber is usually interpreted as a condom rather than an eraser.[4]

Word derivation and compounds edit

  • Directional suffix -ward(s): British forwards, towards, rightwards, etc.; American forward, toward, rightward. In both varieties distribution varies somewhat: afterwards, towards, and backwards are not unusual in America; while in the United Kingdom upward and rightward are the more common options, as is forward, which is standard in phrasal verbs such as look forward to.[5][6][7] The forms with -s may be used as adverbs (or preposition towards) but rarely as adjectives: in the UK, as in America, one says "an upward motion". The Oxford English Dictionary in 1897 suggested a semantic distinction for adverbs, with -wards having a more definite directional sense than -ward; subsequent authorities such as Fowler have disputed this contention.
  • American English (AmE) freely adds the suffix -s to day, night, evening, weekend, Monday, etc. to form adverbs denoting repeated or customary action: I used to stay out evenings; the library is closed on Saturdays. This usage has its roots in Old English but many of these constructions are now regarded as American (for example, the OED labels nights "now chiefly N. Amer. colloq." in constructions such as to sleep nights, but to work nights is standard in British English).
  • In British English (BrE), the agentive -er suffix is commonly attached to football to refer to one who plays the sport (also cricket; often netball; occasionally basketball and volleyball). AmE usually uses football player. Where the sport's name is usable as a verb, the suffixation is standard in both varieties: for example, golfer, bowler (in ten-pin bowling and in lawn bowls), and shooter. AmE appears sometimes to use the form baller as slang for a basketball player, as in the video game NBA Ballers. However, this is derived from slang use of to ball as a verb meaning to play basketball.
  • English writers everywhere occasionally make new compound words from common phrases; for example, health care is now being replaced by healthcare on both sides of the Atlantic. However, AmE has made certain words in this fashion that are still treated as phrases in BrE.
  • In compound nouns of the form <verb><noun>, sometimes AmE prefers the bare infinitive where BrE prefers the gerund. Examples include (AmE first): jump rope/skipping rope; racecar/racing car; rowboat/rowing boat; sailboat/sailing boat; file cabinet/filing cabinet; dial tone/dialling tone; drainboard/draining board.
  • Generally AmE has a tendency to drop inflectional suffixes, thus preferring clipped forms: compare cookbook v. cookery book; Smith, age 40 v. Smith, aged 40; skim milk v. skimmed milk; dollhouse v. dolls' house; barber shop v. barber's shop.[8]
  • Singular attributives in one country may be plural in the other, and vice versa. For example, the UK has a drugs problem, while the United States has a drug problem (although the singular usage is also commonly heard in the UK); Americans read the sports section of a newspaper; the British are more likely to read the sport section. However, BrE maths is singular, like physics, just as AmE math is: both are abbreviations of mathematics.
  • Some British English words come from French roots, while American English finds its words from other places, e.g. AmE eggplant and zucchini are aubergine and courgette in BrE.
  • Similarly, American English has occasionally replaced more traditional English words with their Spanish counterparts. This is especially common in regions historically affected by Spanish settlement (such as the American Southwest and Florida) as well as other areas that have since experienced strong Hispanic migration (such as urban areas). Examples of these include grocery markets' preference in the U.S. for Spanish names such as cilantro and manzanilla over coriander and camomile respectively.

Vocabulary edit

The familiarity of speakers with words and phrases from different regions varies, and the difficulty of discerning an unfamiliar definition also depends on the context and the term. As expressions spread with telecommunication, they are often but not always understood as foreign to the speaker's dialect, and words from other dialects may carry connotations with regard to register, social status, origin, and intelligence.

Words and phrases with different meanings edit

Words such as bill and biscuit are used regularly in both AmE and BrE but can mean different things in each form. The word "bill" has several meanings, most of which are shared between AmE and BrE. However, in AmE "bill" often refers to a piece of paper money (as in a "dollar bill") which in BrE is more commonly referred to as a note. In AmE it can also refer to the visor of a cap,[9] though this is by no means common. In AmE a biscuit (from the French "twice baked" as in biscotto) is a soft bready product that is known in BrE as a scone or a specifically hard, sweet biscuit. Meanwhile, a BrE biscuit incorporates both dessert biscuits and AmE cookies (from the Dutch 'little cake').

As chronicled by Winston Churchill, the opposite meanings of the verb to table created a misunderstanding during a meeting of the Allied forces;[10] in BrE to table an item on an agenda means to open it up for discussion whereas in AmE, it means to remove it from discussion, or at times, to suspend or delay discussion; e.g. Let's table that topic for later.

The word "football" in BrE refers to association football, also known in the US as soccer. In AmE, "football" means American football. The standard AmE term "soccer", a contraction of "association (football)", is actually of British origin, derived from the ratification of different codes of football in the 19th century, and was a fairly unremarkable usage (possibly marked for class) in BrE until later; in Britain it became perceived as an Americanism.[11] In non-American and non-Canadian contexts, particularly in sports news from outside the United States and Canada, American (or US branches of foreign) news agencies and media companies also use "football" to mean "soccer", especially in direct quotes.

Similarly, the word "hockey" in BrE refers to field hockey and in AmE, "hockey" means ice hockey.

Words with completely different meanings are relatively few; most of the time there are either (1) words with one or more shared meanings and one or more meanings unique to one variety (for example, bathroom and toilet) or (2) words the meanings of which are actually common to both BrE and AmE but that show differences in frequency, connotation or denotation (for example, smart, clever, mad).

Some differences in usage and meaning can cause confusion or embarrassment. For example, the word fanny is a slang word for vulva in BrE but means buttocks in AmE—the AmE phrase fanny pack is bum bag in BrE. In AmE the word pissed means being annoyed or angry whereas in BrE it is a coarse word for being drunk (in both varieties, pissed off means irritated).

Similarly, in AmE the word pants is the common word for the BrE trousers and knickers refers to a variety of half-length trousers (though most AmE users would use the term "shorts" rather than knickers), while the majority of BrE speakers would understand pants to mean underpants and knickers to mean female underpants.

Sometimes the confusion is more subtle. In AmE the word quite used as a qualifier is generally a reinforcement, though it is somewhat uncommon in actual colloquial American use today and carries an air of formality: for example, "I'm quite hungry" is a very polite way to say "I'm very hungry". In BrE quite (which is much more common in conversation) may have this meaning, as in "quite right" or "quite mad", but it more commonly means "somewhat", so that in BrE "I'm quite hungry" can mean "I'm somewhat hungry". This divergence of use can lead to misunderstanding.

Different terms in different dialects edit

Most speakers of American English are aware of some uniquely British terms. It is generally very easy to guess what some words, such as BrE "driving licence", mean, the AmE equivalent being "driver's license". However, use of many other British words such as naff (slang but commonly used to mean "not very good") are unheard of in American English.[12]

Speakers of BrE usually find it easy to understand most common AmE terms, such as "sidewalk (pavement or footpath)", "gas (gasoline/petrol)", "counterclockwise (anticlockwise)" or "elevator (lift)", thanks in large part to considerable exposure to American popular culture and literature. Terms heard less often, especially when rare or absent in American popular culture, such as "copacetic (very satisfactory)", are unlikely to be understood by most BrE speakers.

Other examples:

  • In the UK the word whilst is commonly used as a conjunction (as an alternative to while, especially prevalent in some dialects). Whilst tends to appear in non-temporal senses, as when used to point out a contrast. In AmE while is used in both contexts,[13] with whilst being much more uncommon. Other words with the -st ending are also found even in AmE as much as in BrE, despite being old-fashioned or an affectation (e.g., unbeknownst, midst). Historically, the word against falls into this category also, and is standard in both varieties.
  • In the UK generally the use of fall to mean "autumn" is obsolete. Although found often from Elizabethan literature to Victorian literature, the seasonal use of fall remains easily understandable to BrE speakers only because it is so commonly used that way in the U.S.[14]
  • In the UK the term period for a full stop is not used; in AmE the term full stop is rarely, if ever, used for the punctuation mark and commonly not understood whatsoever. For example, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said, "Terrorism is wrong, full stop", whereas in AmE, the equivalent sentence is "Terrorism is wrong, period."[15] The use of period as an interjection meaning "and nothing else; end of discussion" is beginning to be used in colloquial British English, though sometimes without conscious reference to punctuation.
  • In the US, the word line is used to refer to a line of people, vehicles, or other objects, while in the UK queue refers to that meaning. In the US, the word queue is most commonly used to refer to the computing sense of a data structure in which objects are added to one end and removed from the other. In the US, the equivalent terms to "queue up" and "wait in queue" are "line up" or "get in line" and "wait in line." The equivalent term to "jumping the queue" is "cutting in line."[16]
British American
maths math
post mail
trapezium trapezoid
aluminium aluminum
football soccer
quid (slang for one, or multiple pounds) buck (slang for a dollar)

Holiday greetings edit

It is increasingly common for Americans to say "Happy holidays", referring to all, or at least multiple, winter (in the Northern hemisphere) or summer (in the Southern hemisphere) holidays (Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, etc.) especially when one's religious observances are not known; the phrase is rarely heard in the UK. In the UK, the phrases "holiday season" and "holiday period" refer to the period in the summer when most people take time off from work, and travel; AmE does not use holiday in this sense, instead using vacation for recreational excursions.

In AmE, the prevailing Christmas greeting is "Merry Christmas", which is the traditional English Christmas greeting, as found in the English Christmas carol "We Wish You a Merry Christmas", and which appears several times in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.[17] In BrE, "Happy Christmas" is a common alternative to "Merry Christmas".

Idiosyncratic differences edit

Omission of "and" and "on" edit

Generally in British English, numbers with a value over one hundred have the word "and" inserted before the last two digits. For example, the number 115, when written in words or spoken aloud, would be "One hundred and fifteen", in British English. In American English, numbers are typically said or written in words in the same way, however if the word "and" is omitted ("One hundred fifteen"), this is also considered acceptable (in BrE this would be considered grammatically incorrect).

Likewise, in the US, the word "on" can be left out when referring to events occurring on any particular day of the week. The US possibility "The Cowboys won the game Saturday" would have the equivalent in the UK of "Sheffield United won the match on Saturday."

Figures of speech edit

Both BrE and AmE use the expression "I couldn't care less", to mean that the speaker does not care at all. Some Americans use "I could care less" to mean the same thing. This variant is frequently derided as sloppy,[18] as the literal meaning of the words is that the speaker does care to some extent.

In both areas, saying, "I don't mind" often means, "I'm not annoyed" (for example, by someone's smoking), while "I don't care" often means, "The matter is trivial or boring". However, in answering a question such as "Tea or coffee?", if either alternative is equally acceptable an American may answer, "I don't care", while a British person may answer, "I don't mind". Either can sound odd, confusing, or rude, to those accustomed to the other variant.

"To be all set" in both BrE and AmE can mean "to be prepared or ready", though it appears to be more common in AmE.[citation needed] It can also have an additional meaning in AmE of "to be finished or done", for example, a customer at a restaurant telling a waiter "I'm all set. I'll take the check."

Equivalent idioms edit

A number of English idioms that have essentially the same meaning show lexical differences between the British and the American version; for instance:

British English American English
not touch something with a bargepole not touch something with a ten-foot pole
sweep under the carpet sweep under the rug*
touch wood knock on wood
(can't) see the wood for the trees (can't) see the forest for the trees
put a spanner in the works throw a (monkey) wrench in(to) (a situation)
to put (or stick) your oar in[19]
but it won't make a ha'porth of difference[20]
to put your two penn'orth (or tuppence worth) in
to put your two cents (or two cents' worth) in[21]
skeleton in the cupboard skeleton in the closet
a home from home a home away from home
to blow one's own trumpet to blow (or toot) one's own horn
a drop in the ocean a drop in the bucket[22]
flogging a dead horse beating a dead horse
haven't (got) a clue don't have a clue or have no clue (the British forms are also acceptable)
couldn't care less could care less or couldn't care less[23]
a new lease of life a new lease on life
lie of the land or lay of the land lay of the land
take it with a pinch of salt take it with a grain of salt
a storm in a teacup a tempest in a teapot (rare)
out of order out of line
slowcoach slowpoke[24]

* In the US, a "carpet" typically refers to a fitted carpet, rather than a rug.

Social and cultural differences edit

Lexical items that reflect separate social and cultural development.

Education edit

Primary and secondary school edit
The naming of school years in British (except Scotland) and American English
Age range British English American English
Name Alternative/old name Syllabus Name Alternative name
1–4 Preschool (optional)  
Nursery Playgroup Foundation Stage 1 Daycare
3–5 Primary school  
Reception Infants reception Foundation Stage 2 Preschool Pre-K
5–6 Year 1 Infants year 1 Key Stage 1 Kindergarten
Elementary school
6–7 Year 2 Infants year 2 1st grade  
7–8 Year 3 First year Junior Key Stage 2 2nd grade  
8–9 Year 4 Second year junior 3rd grade  
9–10 Year 5 Third year junior 4th grade  
10–11 Year 6 Fourth year junior 5th grade  
11–12 Secondary school / High school Middle school Junior high school
Year 7 First form[25] Key Stage 3 6th grade  
12–13 Year 8 Second form 7th grade  
13–14 Year 9 Third form 8th grade  
14–15 Year 10 Fourth form Key Stage 4, GCSE High school
9th grade Freshman year
15–16 Year 11 Fifth form 10th grade Sophomore year
16–17 Sixth form / FE College[26] 11th grade Junior year
Year 12 Lower sixth (first year) Key Stage 5, A level
17–18 Year 13 Upper sixth (second year) 12th grade Senior year

The US has a more uniform nationwide system of terms than does the UK, where terminology and structure varies among constituent countries, but the division by grades varies somewhat among the states and even among local school districts. For example, elementary school often includes kindergarten and may include sixth grade, with middle school including only two grades or extending to ninth grade.

In the UK, the US equivalent of a high school is often referred to as a "secondary school" regardless of whether it is state funded or private. US Secondary education also includes middle school or junior high school, a two- or three-year transitional school between elementary school and high school. "Middle school" is sometimes used in the UK as a synonym for the younger junior school, covering the second half of the primary curriculum, current years four to six in some areas. However, in Dorset (South England), it is used to describe the second school in the three-tier system, which is normally from year 5 to year 8. In other regions, such as Evesham and the surrounding area in Worcestershire, the second tier goes from year 6 to year 8, and both starting secondary school in year nine. In Kirklees, West Yorkshire, in the villages of the Dearne Valley there is a three tier system: first schools year reception to year five, middle school (Scissett/Kirkburton Middle School) year 6 to year 8, and high school[27] year 9 to year 13.

A public school has opposite meanings in the two countries. In American English this is a government-owned institution open to all students, supported by public funding. The British English use of the term is in the context of "private" education: to be educated privately with a tutor.[28] In England and Wales the term strictly refers to an ill-defined group of prestigious private independent schools funded by students' fees, although it is often more loosely used to refer to any independent school. Independent schools are also known as "private schools", and the latter is the term used in Scotland and Northern Ireland for all such fee-funded schools. Strictly, the term public school is not used in Scotland and Northern Ireland in the same sense as in England, but nevertheless Gordonstoun, the Scottish private school, is sometimes referred to as a public school, as are some other Scottish private schools. Government-funded schools in Scotland and Northern Ireland are properly referred to as "state schools" but are sometimes confusingly referred to as "public schools" (with the same meaning as in the US), and in the US, where most public schools are administered by local governments, a state school typically refers to a college or university run by one of the U.S. states.

Speakers in both the United States and the United Kingdom use several additional terms for specific types of secondary school. A US prep school or preparatory school is an independent school funded by tuition fees; the same term is used in the UK for a private school for pupils under 13, designed to prepare them for fee-paying public schools. In the US, Catholic schools cover costs through tuition and have affiliations with a religious institution, most often a Catholic church or diocese. In England, where the state-funded education system grew from parish schools arranged by the local established church, the Church of England (C of E, or CE), and many schools, especially primary schools (up to age 11) retain a church connection and are known as church schools, CE schools or CE (aided) schools. There are also faith schools associated with the Roman Catholic Church and other major faiths, with a mixture of funding arrangements. In Scotland, Catholic schools are generally operated as government-funded state schools for Catholic communities, particularly in large cities such as Glasgow.

In the US, a magnet school receives government funding and has special admission requirements: in some cases pupils gain admission through superior performance on admission tests, while other magnet schools admit students through a lottery. The UK has city academies, which are independent privately sponsored schools run with public funding and which can select up to 10% of pupils by aptitude. Moreover, in the UK 36 local education authorities retain selection by ability at 11. They maintain grammar schools (state funded secondary schools), which admit pupils according to performance in an examination (known as the 11+) and comprehensive schools that take pupils of all abilities. Grammar schools select the most academically able 10% to 23% of those who sit the exam. Students who fail the exam go to a secondary modern school, sometimes called a "high school", or increasingly an "academy". In areas where there are no grammar schools the comprehensives likewise may term themselves high schools or academies. Nationally only 6% of pupils attend grammar schools, mainly in four distinct counties. Some private schools are called "grammar schools", chiefly those that were grammar schools long before the advent of state education.

University edit

In the UK a university student is said to "study", to "read" or, informally, simply to "do" a subject. In the recent past the expression 'to read a subject' was more common at the older universities such as Oxford and Cambridge. In the US a student studies or majors in a subject (although a student's major, concentration or, less commonly, emphasis is also used in US colleges or universities to refer to the major subject of study). To major in something refers to the student's principal course of study; to study may refer to any class being taken.

BrE:

"She read biology at Cambridge."
"She studied biology at Cambridge."
"She did biology at Cambridge." (informal)

AmE:

"She majored in biology at Harvard."
"She studied biology at Harvard."
"She concentrated in biology at Harvard."

At university level in BrE, each module is taught or facilitated by a lecturer or tutor; professor is the job-title of a senior academic (in AmE, at some universities, the equivalent of the BrE lecturer is instructor, especially when the teacher has a lesser degree or no university degree, though the usage may become confusing according to whether the subject being taught is considered technical or not; it is also different from adjunct instructor/professor). In AmE each class is generally taught by a professor (although some US tertiary educational institutions follow the BrE usage), while the position of lecturer is occasionally given to individuals hired on a temporary basis to teach one or more classes and who may or may not have a doctoral degree.

The word course in American use typically refers to the study of a restricted topic or individual subject (for example, "a course in Early Medieval England", "a course in integral calculus") over a limited period of time (such as a semester or term) and is equivalent to a module or sometimes unit at a British university. In the UK, a course of study or simply course is likely to refer to the entire curriculum, which may extend over several years and be made up of any number of modules, hence it is also practically synonymous to a degree programme. A few university-specific exceptions exist: for example, at Cambridge the word paper is used to refer to a module, while the whole course of study is called tripos.

A dissertation in AmE refers to the final written product of a doctoral student to meet the requirement of that curriculum. In BrE, the same word refers to the final written product of a student in an undergraduate or taught master's programme. A dissertation in the AmE sense would be a thesis in BrE, though dissertation is also used.

Another source of confusion is the different usage of the word college. (See a full international discussion of the various meanings at college.) In the US, it refers to a post-high school institution that grants either associate's or bachelor's degrees, and in the UK, it refers to any post-secondary institution that is not a university (including sixth form college after the name in secondary education for years 12 and 13, the sixth form) where intermediary courses such as A levels or NVQs can be taken and GCSE courses can be retaken. College may sometimes be used in the UK or in Commonwealth countries as part of the name of a secondary or high school (for example, Dubai College). In the case of Oxford, Cambridge, Aberdeen, London, Lancaster, Durham, Kent and York universities, all members are also members of a college which is part of the university, for example, one is a member of King's College, Cambridge and hence of the university.

In both the US and UK college can refer to some division within a university that comprises related academic departments such as the "college of business and economics" though in the UK "faculty" is more often used. Institutions in the US that offer two to four years of post-high school education often have the word college as part of their name, while those offering more advanced degrees are called a university. (There are exceptions: Boston College, Dartmouth College and the College of William & Mary are examples of colleges that offer advanced degrees, while Vincennes University is an unusual example of a "university" that offers only associate degrees in the vast majority of its academic programs.) American students who pursue a bachelor's degree (four years of higher education) or an associate degree (two years of higher education) are college students regardless of whether they attend a college or a university and refer to their educational institutions informally as colleges. A student who pursues a master's degree or a doctorate degree in the arts and sciences is in AmE a graduate student; in BrE a postgraduate student although graduate student is also sometimes used. Students of advanced professional programs are known by their field (business student, law student, medical student). Some universities also have a residential college system, the details of which may vary but generally involve common living and dining spaces as well as college-planned activities. Nonetheless, when it comes to the level of education, AmE generally uses the word college (e.g., going to college) whereas BrE generally uses the word university (e.g., going to university) regardless of the institution's official designation/status in both countries.

In the context of higher education, the word school is used slightly differently in BrE and AmE. In BrE, except for the University of London, the word school is used to refer to an academic department in a university. In AmE, the word school is used to refer to a collection of related academic departments and is headed by a dean. When it refers to a division of a university, school is practically synonymous to a college.

"Professor" has different meanings in BrE and AmE. In BrE it is the highest academic rank, followed by reader, senior lecturer and lecturer. In AmE "professor" refers to academic staff of all ranks, with (full) professor (largely equivalent to the UK meaning) followed by associate professor and assistant professor.

"Tuition" has traditionally had separate meaning in each variation. In BrE it is the educational content transferred from teacher to student at a university. In AmE it is the money (the fees) paid to receive that education (BrE: tuition fees).

General terms edit

In both the US and the UK, a student takes an exam, but in BrE a student can also be said to sit an exam. When preparing for an exam students revise (BrE)/review (AmE) what they have studied; the BrE idiom to revise for has the equivalent to review for in AmE.

Examinations are supervised by invigilators in the UK and proctors (or (exam) supervisors) in the US (a proctor in the UK is an official responsible for student discipline at the University of Oxford or Cambridge). In the UK a teacher first sets and then administers exam, while in the US, a teacher first writes, makes, prepares, etc. and then gives an exam. With the same basic meaning of the latter idea but with a more formal or official connotation, a teacher in the US may also administer or proctor an exam.

BrE:

"I sat my Spanish exam yesterday."
"I plan to set a difficult exam for my students, but it isn't ready yet."

AmE:

"I took my exams at Yale."
"I spent the entire day yesterday writing the exam. I'm almost ready to give it to my students."

In BrE, students are awarded marks as credit for requirements (e.g., tests, projects) while in AmE, students are awarded points or "grades" for the same. Similarly, in BrE, a candidate's work is being marked, while in AmE it is said to be graded to determine what mark or grade is given.

There is additionally a difference between American and British usage in the word school. In British usage "school" by itself refers only to primary (elementary) and secondary (high) schools and to sixth forms attached to secondary schools—if one "goes to school", this type of institution is implied. By contrast an American student at a university may be "in/at school", "coming/going to school", etc. US and British law students and medical students both commonly speak in terms of going to "law school" and "med[ical] school", respectively. However, the word school is used in BrE in the context of higher education to describe a division grouping together several related subjects within a university, for example a "School of European Languages" containing departments for each language and also in the term "art school". It is also the name of some of the constituent colleges of the University of London, for example, School of Oriental and African Studies, London School of Economics.

Among high-school and college students in the United States, the words freshman (or the gender-neutral terms first year or sometimes freshie), sophomore, junior and senior refer to the first, second, third, and fourth years respectively. It is important that the context of either high school or college first be established or else it must be stated directly (that is, She is a high-school freshman. He is a college junior.). Many institutes in both countries also use the term first-year as a gender-neutral replacement for freshman, although in the US this is recent usage, formerly referring only to those in the first year as a graduate student. One exception is the University of Virginia; since its founding in 1819 the terms "first-year", "second-year", "third-year", and "fourth-year" have been used to describe undergraduate university students. At the United States service academies, at least those operated by the federal government directly, a different terminology is used, namely "fourth class", "third class", "second class" and "first class" (the order of numbering being the reverse of the number of years in attendance). In the UK first-year university students are sometimes called freshers early in the academic year; however, there are no specific names for those in other years nor for school pupils. Graduate and professional students in the United States are known by their year of study, such as a "second-year medical student" or a "fifth-year doctoral candidate." Law students are often referred to as "1L", "2L", or "3L" rather than "nth-year law students"; similarly, medical students are frequently referred to as "M1", "M2", "M3", or "M4".

While anyone in the US who finishes studying at any educational institution by passing relevant examinations is said to graduate and to be a graduate, in the UK only degree and above level students can graduate. Student itself has a wider meaning in AmE, meaning any person of any age studying any subject at any level (including those not doing so at an educational institution, such as a "piano student" taking private lessons in a home), whereas in BrE it tends to be used for people studying at a post-secondary educational institution and the term pupil is more widely used for a young person at primary or secondary school, though the use of "student" for secondary school pupils in the UK is increasingly used, particularly for "sixth form" (years 12 and 13).

The names of individual institutions can be confusing. There are several high schools with the word "university" in their names in the United States that are not affiliated with any post-secondary institutions and cannot grant degrees, and there is one public high school, Central High School of Philadelphia, that does grant bachelor's degrees to the top 10% of graduating seniors. British secondary schools occasionally have the word "college" in their names.

When it comes to the admissions process, applicants are usually asked to solicit letters of reference or reference forms from referees in BrE. In AmE, these are called letters of recommendation or recommendation forms. Consequently, the writers of these letters are known as referees and recommenders, respectively by country. In AmE, the word referee is nearly always understood to refer to an umpire of a sporting match.

In the context of education, for AmE, the word staff mainly refers to school personnel who are neither administrators nor have teaching loads or academic responsibilities; personnel who have academic responsibilities are referred to as members of their institution's faculty. In BrE, the word staff refers to both academic and non-academic school personnel. As mentioned previously, the term faculty in BrE refers more to a collection of related academic departments.

Government and politics edit

In the UK, political candidates stand for election, while in the US, they run for office. There is virtually no crossover between BrE and AmE in the use of these terms. Also, the document which contains a party's positions/principles is referred to as a party platform in AmE, whereas it is commonly known as a party manifesto in BrE. (In AmE, using the term manifesto may connote that the party is an extremist or radical association.) The term general election is used slightly differently in British and American English. In BrE, it refers exclusively to a nationwide parliamentary election and is differentiated from local elections (mayoral and council) and by-elections; whereas in AmE, it refers to a final election for any government position in the US, where the term is differentiated from the term primary (an election that determines a party's candidate for the position in question). Additionally, a by-election in BrE is called a special election in AmE.

In AmE, the term swing state, swing county, swing district is used to denote a jurisdiction/constituency where results are expected to be close but crucial to the overall outcome of the general election. In BrE, the term marginal constituency is more often used for the same and swing is more commonly used to refer to how much one party has gained (or lost) an advantage over another compared to the previous election.

In the UK, the term government only refers to what is commonly known in America as the executive branch or the particular administration.

A local government in the UK is generically referred to as the "council," whereas in the United States, a local government will be generically referred to as the "City" (or county, village, etc., depending on what kind of entity the government serves).

Business and finance edit

In financial statements, what is referred to in AmE as revenue or sales is known in BrE as turnover. In AmE, having "high turnover" in a business context would generally carry negative implications, though the precise meaning would differ by industry.

A bankrupt firm goes into administration or liquidation in BrE; in AmE it goes bankrupt, or files for Chapter 7 (liquidation) or Chapter 11 (reorganization), both of which refer to the legal authority under which bankruptcy is commenced. An insolvent individual or partnership goes bankrupt in both BrE and AmE.

If a finance company takes possession of a mortgaged property from a debtor, it is called foreclosure in AmE and repossession in BrE. In some limited scenarios, repossession may be used in AmE, but it is much less commonly compared to foreclosure. One common exception in AmE is for automobiles, which are always said to be repossessed. Indeed, an agent who collects these cars for the bank is colloquially known in AmE as a repo man.

Employment and recruitment edit

In BrE, the term curriculum vitae (commonly abbreviated to CV) is used to describe the document prepared by applicants containing their credentials required for a job. In AmE, the term résumé is more commonly used, with CV primarily used in academic or research contexts, and is usually more comprehensive than a résumé.

Insurance edit

AmE distinguishes between coverage as a noun and cover as a verb; an American seeks to buy enough insurance coverage in order to adequately cover a particular risk. BrE uses the word "cover" for both the noun and verb forms.

Transport edit

AmE speakers refer to transportation and BrE speakers to transport.[29] (Transportation in the UK has traditionally meant the punishment of criminals by deporting them to an overseas penal colony.) In AmE, the word transport is usually used only as a verb, seldom as a noun or adjective except in reference to certain special objects, such as a tape transport or a military transport (e.g., a troop transport, a kind of vehicle, not an act of transporting).

Road transport edit

Differences in terminology are especially obvious in the context of roads. The British term dual carriageway, in American parlance, would be divided highway or perhaps, simply highway. The central reservation on a motorway or dual carriageway in the UK would be the median or center divide on a freeway, expressway, highway or parkway in the US. The one-way lanes that make it possible to enter and leave such roads at an intermediate point without disrupting the flow of traffic are known as slip roads in the UK but in the US, they are typically known as ramps and both further distinguish between on-ramps or on-slips (for entering onto a highway/carriageway) and off-ramps or exit-slips (for leaving a highway/carriageway). When American engineers speak of slip roads, they are referring to a street that runs alongside the main road (separated by a berm) to allow off-the-highway access to the premises that are there; however, the term frontage road is more commonly used, as this term is the equivalent of service road in the UK. However, it is not uncommon for an American to use service road as well instead of frontage road.

In the UK, the term outside lane refers to the higher-speed overtaking lane (passing lane in the US) closest to the middle of the road, while inside lane refers to the lane closer to the edge of the road. In the US, outside lane is used only in the context of a turn, in which case it depends in which direction the road is turning (i.e., if the road bends right, the left lane is the "outside lane", but if the road bends left, it is the right lane). Both also refer to slow and fast lanes (even though all actual traffic speeds may be at or around the legal speed limit).

In the UK drink driving refers to driving after having consumed alcoholic beverages, while in the US, the term is drunk driving. The legal term in the US is driving while intoxicated (DWI) or driving under the influence (of alcohol) (DUI). The equivalent legal phrase in the UK is drunk in charge of a motor vehicle (DIC) or more commonly driving with excess alcohol.[30]

In the UK, a hire car is the US equivalent of a rental car. The term "hired car" can be especially misleading for those in the US, where the term "hire" is generally only applied to the employment of people and the term "rent" is applied to the temporary custody of goods. To an American, "hired car" would imply that the car has been brought into the employment of a company as if it were a person, which would sound nonsensical.

In the UK, a saloon is a vehicle that is equivalent to the American sedan. This is particularly confusing to Americans, because in the US the term saloon is used in only one context: describing an old bar (UK pub) in the American West (a Western saloon). Coupé is used by both to refer to a two-door car, but is usually pronounced with two syllables in the UK (coo-pay) and one syllable in the US (coop).

In the UK, van may refer to a lorry (UK) of any size, whereas in the US, van is only understood to be a very small, boxy truck (US) (such as a moving van) or a long passenger automobile with several rows of seats (such as a minivan). A large, long vehicle used for cargo transport would nearly always be called a truck in the US, though alternate terms such as eighteen-wheeler may be occasionally heard (regardless of the actual number of tires (UK tyres) on the truck).

In the UK, a silencer is the equivalent to the US muffler. In the US, the word silencer has only one meaning: an attachment on the barrel of a gun designed to stop the distinctive crack of a gunshot.

Specific auto parts and transport terms have different names in the two dialects, for example:

UK US
accelerator gas pedal, accelerator
accumulator battery
bendy bus articulated bus
bonnet hood[31]
boot (of a car) trunk (of a car)[31][32]
breakdown lorry tow truck
car journey road trip
car park parking lot[33]
caravan camper[33]
(railway) coach, carriage (railroad) passenger car
crash barrier guardrail
driving licence driver's license[34]
dual carriageway divided highway[31]
estate car station wagon[33]
exhaust pipe tail pipe, exhaust
fire engine fire truck, fire engine
flyover overpass,[33] flyover
gearbox transmission[31]
gear lever gear shift, shifter
give way yield
goods train freight train
goods wagon/truck freight car
hard shoulder shoulder
hired car, hire car rental car, rental
hood, soft/hard top convertible top, soft/hard top
indicator turn signal; blinker
juggernaut, lorry semi, semi-truck, 18-wheeler, big rig, tractor-trailer[35]
jump lead jumper cable
junction fork (in the road)
lorry truck[32]
articulated lorry semi-trailer truck, semi[33]
manual stick shift, manual
marshalling yard classification yard
metalled road cobblestone road, paved road
motorway freeway,[35] highway, expressway
mudguard, wheel arch, wing fender[36]
number plate license plate
overtake (a vehicle) pass (a vehicle)
pavement, footpath sidewalk, pavement[37][38]
pedestrian crossing crosswalk
petrol gasoline, gas[31]
police car patrol car, cop car, police car
public transport public transportation, public transit, mass transit
racing car racecar
railway railroad
roadworks construction zone, roadwork
saloon sedan[39]
silencer muffler[31]
single carriageway undivided highway
spanner wrench[31][32]
taxi cab, taxi, taxicab
ticking over idling[35]
traffic light (red, amber, green) stoplight (red, yellow, green)
tram streetcar, trolley
transport café truck stop
tyre tire
underground (tube) subway, metro (see variations below)
windscreen windshield[31]
car valeting auto detailing
Rail transport edit

There are also differences in terminology in the context of rail transport. The best known is railway in the UK and railroad in North America,[a] but there are several others. A railway station in the UK is a railroad station in the US, while train station is used in both; trains have drivers (often called engine drivers) in the UK, while in America trains are driven by engineers; trains have guards in the UK and conductors in the US, though the latter is also common in the UK; a place where two tracks meet is called a set of points in the UK and a switch in the US; and a place where a road crosses a railway line at ground level is called a level crossing in the UK and a grade crossing or railroad crossing in America. In the UK, the term sleeper is used for the devices that bear the weight of the rails and are known as ties or crossties in the United States. In a rail context, sleeper (more often, sleeper car) would be understood in the US as a rail car with sleeping quarters for its passengers. The British term platform in the sense "The train is at Platform 1" would be known in the US by the term track, and used in the phrase "The train is on Track 1". The British term brake van or guard's van is a caboose in the US. The American English phrase "All aboard" when boarding a train is rarely used in the UK,[citation needed] and when the train reaches its final stop, in the UK the phrase used by rail personnel is "All change" while in the US it is "All out", though such announcements are uncommon in both regions.

For sub-surface rail networks, while underground is commonly used in the UK, only the London Underground actually carries this name: the UK's only other such system, the smaller Glasgow Subway, was in fact the first to be called "subway".[40] Nevertheless, both subway and metro are now more common in the US, varying by city: in Washington D.C., for example, metro is used, while in New York City subway is preferred. Another variation is the T in Boston.

Television edit

Traditionally, a show on British television would have referred to a light-entertainment programme (AmE program) with one or more performers and a participative audience, whereas in American television, the term is used for any type of program. British English traditionally referred to other types of programme by their type, such as drama, serial etc., but the term show has now taken on the general American meaning. In American television the episodes of a program first broadcast in a particular year constitute a season, while the entire run of the program—which may span several seasons—is called a series. In British television, on the other hand, the word series may apply to the episodes of a programme in one particular year, for example, "The 1998 series of Grange Hill", as well as to the entire run. However, the entire run may occasionally be referred to as a "show". The term telecast, meaning television broadcast and uncommon even in the US, is not used in British English. A television program(me) would be broadcast, aired or shown in both the UK and US.

Telecommunications edit

A long-distance call is a "trunk call" in British English, but is a "toll call" in American English, though neither term is well known among younger Americans. The distinction is a result of historical differences in the way local service was billed; the Bell System traditionally flat-rated local calls in all but a few markets, endowing local service by charging higher rates, or tolls, for intercity calls, allowing local calls to appear to be free. British Telecom (and the British Post Office before it) charged for all calls, local and long distance, so labelling one class of call as "toll" would have been meaningless.

Similarly, a toll-free number in America is a freephone number in the UK. The term "freefone" is a BT trademark.

Rivers edit

In British English, the name of a river is usually placed after the word (River Thames) however there are a small number of exceptions such as Wick River. This matches the naming of lakes (e.g. Lake Superior, Loch Ness) and mountains (e.g. Mont Blanc, Mount St. Helens). In American English, the name is placed before the word (Hudson River).

Grammar edit

Subject-verb agreement edit

In American English (AmE), collective nouns are almost always singular in construction: the committee was unable to agree. However, when a speaker wishes to emphasize that the individuals are acting separately, a plural pronoun may be employed with a singular or plural verb: the team takes their seats, rather than the team takes its seats. Such a sentence would most likely be recast as the team members take their seats.[41] Despite exceptions such as usage in The New York Times, the names of sports teams are usually treated as plurals even if the form of the name is singular.[42]

In British English (BrE), collective nouns can take either singular (formal agreement) or plural (notional agreement) verb forms, according to whether the emphasis is on the body as a whole or on the individual members respectively; compare a committee was appointed with the committee were unable to agree.[43]: 23 [44] The term the Government always takes a plural verb in British civil service convention, perhaps to emphasise the principle of cabinet collective responsibility.[45] Compare also the following lines of Elvis Costello's song "Oliver's Army": Oliver's Army is here to stay / Oliver's Army are on their way . Some of these nouns, for example staff,[43]: 24  actually combine with plural verbs most of the time.

The difference occurs for all nouns of multitude, both general terms such as team and company and proper nouns (for example where a place name is used to refer to a sports team). For instance,

BrE: SuperHeavy is a band that shouldn't work or First Aid Kit are a band full of contradictions;[46][47] AmE: The Clash is a well-known band.
BrE: FC Red Bull Salzburg is an Austrian association football club; AmE: The New York Red Bulls are an American soccer team.

Proper nouns that are plural in form take a plural verb in both AmE and BrE; for example, The Beatles are a well-known band; The Diamondbacks are the champions, with one major exception: in American English, the United States is almost universally used with a singular verb. Although the construction the United States are was more common early in the history of the country, as the singular federal government exercised more authority and a singular national identity developed (especially following the American Civil War), it became standard to treat the United States as a singular noun.[48]

Style edit

Use of that and which in restrictive and non-restrictive relative clauses edit

Generally, a non-restrictive relative clause (also called non-defining or supplementary) is one containing information that is supplementary, i.e. does not change the meaning of the rest of the sentence, while a restrictive relative clause (also called defining or integrated) contains information essential to the meaning of the sentence, effectively limiting the modified noun phrase to a subset that is defined by the relative clause.[49]

An example of a restrictive clause is "The dog that bit the man was brown."

An example of a non-restrictive clause is "The dog, which bit the man, was brown."

In the former, "that bit the man" identifies which dog the statement is about.

In the latter, "which bit the man" provides supplementary information about a known dog.

A non-restrictive relative clause is typically set off by commas, whereas a restrictive relative clause is not, but this is not a rule that is universally observed.[49] In speech, this is also reflected in the intonation.[50]

Writers commonly use which to introduce a non-restrictive clause, and that to introduce a restrictive clause. That is rarely used to introduce a non-restrictive relative clause in prose. Which and that are both commonly used to introduce a restrictive clause; a study in 1977 reported that about 75% of occurrences of which were in restrictive clauses.[51]

H. W. Fowler, in A Dictionary of Modern English Usage of 1926, followed others in suggesting that it would be preferable to use which as the non-restrictive (what he calls "non-defining") pronoun and that as the restrictive (what he calls defining) pronoun, but he also stated that this rule was observed neither by most writers nor by the best writers.[52] He implied that his suggested usage was more common in American English.[53] Fowler notes that his recommended usage presents problems, in particular that that must be the first word of the clause, which means, for instance, that which cannot be replaced by that when it immediately follows a preposition (e.g. "the basic unit from which matter is constructed")[54] – though this would not prevent a stranded preposition (e.g. "the basic unit that matter is constructed from").[55]

Style guides by American prescriptivists, such as Bryan Garner, typically insist, for stylistic reasons, that that be used for restrictive relative clauses and which be used for non-restrictive clauses, referring to the use of which in restrictive clauses as a "mistake".[49] According to the 2015 edition of Fowler's Dictionary of Modern English Usage, "In AmE which is 'not generally used in restrictive clauses, and that fact is then interpreted as the absolute rule that only that may introduce a restrictive clause', whereas in BrE 'either that or which may be used in restrictive clauses', but many British people 'believe that that is obligatory'".[56]

Subjunctive edit

The subjunctive mood is more common in colloquial American English than in colloquial British English.[57]

Writing edit

Spelling edit

 
International English spelling comparison.

Before the early 18th century there was no standard for English spelling. Different standards became noticeable after the publishing of influential dictionaries. For the most part current BrE spellings follow those of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755), while AmE spellings follow those of Noah Webster's An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828). In the United Kingdom, the influences of those who preferred the French spellings of certain words proved decisive. In many cases AmE spelling deviated from mainstream British spelling; on the other hand it has also often retained older forms. Many of the now characteristic AmE spellings were made popular, although often not created, by Noah Webster. Webster chose already-existing alternative spellings "on such grounds as simplicity, analogy or etymology".[58] Webster did attempt to introduce some reformed spellings, as did the Simplified Spelling Board in the early 20th century, but most were not adopted. Later spelling changes in the UK had little effect on present-day US spelling, and vice versa.

Punctuation edit

Full stops and periods in abbreviations edit

There have been some trends of transatlantic difference in use of periods in some abbreviations. These are discussed at Abbreviation § Periods (full stops) and spaces. Unit symbols such as kg and Hz are never punctuated.[59]

Parentheses/brackets edit

In British English, "( )" marks are often referred to as brackets, whereas "[ ]" are called square brackets and "{ }" are called curly brackets. In formal British English and in American English "( )" marks are parentheses (singular: parenthesis), "[ ]" are called brackets or square brackets, and "{ }" can be called either curly brackets or braces.[60] Despite the different names, these marks are used in the same way in both varieties.

Quoting edit

British and American English differ in the preferred quotation mark style, including the placement of commas and periods. In American English, " and ' are called quotation marks, whereas in British English, " and ' are referred to as either inverted commas or speech marks. Additionally, in American English direct speech typically uses the double quote mark ( " ), whereas in British English it is common to use the inverted comma ( ' ).[61][62]

Commas in headlines edit

American newspapers commonly use a comma as a shorthand for "and" in headlines. For example, The Washington Post had the headline "A TRUE CONSERVATIVE: For McCain, Bush Has Both Praise, Advice."[63]

Numerical expressions edit

There are many differences in the writing and speaking of English numerals, most of which are matters of style, with the notable exception of different definitions for billion.

The two countries have different conventions for floor numbering. The UK uses a mixture of the metric system and Imperial units, where in the US, United States customary units are dominant in everyday life with a few fields using the metric system.

Monetary amounts edit

Monetary amounts in the range of one to two major currency units are often spoken differently. In AmE one may say a dollar fifty or a pound eighty, whereas in BrE these amounts would be expressed one dollar fifty and one pound eighty. For amounts over a dollar an American will generally either drop denominations or give both dollars and cents, as in two-twenty or two dollars and twenty cents for $2.20. An American would not say two dollars twenty. On the other hand, in BrE, two-twenty or two pounds twenty would be most common.

It is more common to hear a British-English speaker say one thousand two hundred dollars than a thousand and two hundred dollars, although the latter construct is common in AmE. In British English, the "and" comes after the hundreds (one thousand, two hundred and thirty dollars). The term twelve hundred dollars, popular in AmE, is frequently used in BrE but only for exact multiples of 100 up to 1,900. Speakers of BrE very rarely hear amounts over 1,900 expressed in hundreds, for example, twenty-three hundred. In AmE it would not be unusual to refer to a high, uneven figure such as 2,307 as twenty-three hundred and seven.

In BrE, particularly in television or radio advertisements, integers can be pronounced individually in the expression of amounts. For example, on sale for £399 might be expressed on sale for three nine nine, though the full three hundred and ninety-nine pounds is at least as common. An American advertiser would almost always say on sale for three ninety-nine, with context distinguishing $399 from $3.99.[64] In British English the latter pronunciation implies a value in pounds and pence, so three ninety-nine would be understood as £3.99.

In spoken BrE the word pound is sometimes colloquially used for the plural as well. For example, three pound forty and twenty pound a week are both heard in British English. Some other currencies do not change in the plural; yen and rand being examples. This is in addition to normal adjectival use, as in a twenty-pound-a-week pay-rise (US raise). The euro most often takes a regular plural -s in practice despite the EU dictum that it should remain invariable in formal contexts; the invariable usage is more common in Ireland, where it is the official currency.

In BrE the use of p instead of pence is common in spoken usage. Each of the following has equal legitimacy: 3 pounds 12 p; 3 pounds and 12 p; 3 pounds 12 pence; 3 pounds and 12 pence; as well as just 8 p or 8 pence. In everyday usage the amount is simply read as figures (£3.50 = three pounds fifty) as in AmE.

AmE uses words such as nickel, dime, and quarter for small coins. In BrE the usual usage is a 10-pence piece or a 10p piece or simply a 10p, for any coin below £1, pound coin and two-pound coin. BrE did have specific words for a number of coins before decimalisation. Formal coin names such as half crown (2/6) and florin (2/-), as well as slang or familiar names such as bob (1/-) and tanner (6d) for pre-decimalisation coins are still familiar to older BrE speakers but they are not used for modern coins. In older terms like two-bob bit (2/-) and thrupenny bit (3d), the word bit had common usage before decimalisation similar to that of piece today.

In order to make explicit the amount in words on a check (BrE cheque), Americans write three and 24100 (using this solidus construction or with a horizontal division line): they do not need to write the word dollars as it is usually already printed on the check. On a cheque UK residents would write three pounds and 24 pence, three pounds ‒ 24, or three pounds ‒ 24p since the currency unit is not preprinted. To make unauthorised amendment difficult, it is useful to have an expression terminator even when a whole number of dollars/pounds is in use: thus, Americans would write three and 00100 or three and no100 on a three-dollar check (so that it cannot easily be changed to, for example, three million), and UK residents would write three pounds only.[65]

Dates edit

Dates are usually written differently in the short (numerical) form. Christmas Day 2000, for example, is 25/12/00 or 25.12.00 in the UK and 12/25/00 in the US, although the formats 25/12/2000, 25.12.2000, and 12/25/2000 are now more common then they were before Y2K. Occasionally other formats are encountered, such as the ISO 8601 2000-12-25, popular among programmers, scientists and others seeking to avoid ambiguity, and to make alphanumerical order coincide with chronological order. The difference in short-form date order can lead to misunderstanding, especially when using software or equipment that uses the foreign format. For example, 06/04/05 could mean either June 4, 2005 (if read as US format), 6 April 2005 (if seen as in UK format) or even 2006 April 5 if taken to be an older ISO 8601-style format where 2-digit years were allowed.

When using the name of the month rather than the number to write a date in the UK, the recent standard style is for the day to precede the month, e. g., 21 April. Month preceding date is almost invariably the style in the US, and was common in the UK until the late twentieth century. British usage normally changes the day from an integer to an ordinal, i.e., 21st instead of 21. In speech, "of" and "the" are used in the UK, as in "the 21st of April". In written language, the words "the" and "of" may be and are usually dropped, i.e., 21st April. The US would say this as "April 21st", and this form is still common in the UK. One of the few exceptions in American English is saying "the Fourth of July" as a shorthand for the United States Independence Day. In the US military the British forms are used, but the day is read cardinally, while among some speakers of New England and Southern American English varieties and who come from those regions but live elsewhere, those forms are common, even in formal contexts.

Phrases such as the following are common in the UK but are generally unknown in the US: "A week today", "a week tomorrow", "a week (on) Tuesday" and "Tuesday week"; these all refer to a day which is more than a week into the future. ("A fortnight Friday" and "Friday fortnight" refer to a day two weeks after the coming Friday). "A week on Tuesday" and "a fortnight on Friday" could refer either to a day in the past ("it's a week on Tuesday, you need to get another one") or in the future ("see you a week on Tuesday"), depending on context. In the US the standard construction is "a week from today", "a week from tomorrow", etc. BrE speakers may also say "Thursday last" or "Thursday gone" where AmE would prefer "last Thursday". "I'll see you (on) Thursday coming" or "let's meet this coming Thursday" in BrE refer to a meeting later this week, while "not until Thursday next" would refer to next week. In BrE there is also common use of the term 'Thursday after next' or 'week after next' meaning 2 weeks in the future and 'Thursday before last' and 'week before last' meaning 2 weeks in the past, but not when referring to times more than 2 weeks been or gone or when using the terms tomorrow today or yesterday then in BrE you would say '5 weeks on Tuesday' or '2 weeks yesterday'.

Time edit

The 24-hour clock (18:00, 18.00 or 1800) is considered normal in the UK and Europe in many applications including air, rail and bus timetables; it is largely unused in the US outside military, police, aviation and medical applications. As a result, many Americans refer to the 24-hour clock as military time. Some British English style guides recommend the full stop (.) when telling time,[b] compared to American English which uses colons (:) (i.e., 11:15 PM/pm/p.m. or 23:15 for AmE and 11.15 pm or 23.15 for BrE).[70] Usually in the military (and sometimes in the police, aviation and medical) applications on both sides of the Atlantic 0800 and 1800 are read as (oh/zero) eight hundred and eighteen hundred hours respectively. Even in the UK, hundred follows twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two and twenty-three when reading 2000, 2100, 2200 and 2300 according to those applications.

Fifteen minutes after the hour is called quarter past in British usage and a quarter after or, less commonly, a quarter past in American usage. Fifteen minutes before the hour is usually called quarter to in British usage and a quarter of, a quarter to or a quarter 'til in American usage; the form a quarter to is associated with parts of the Northern United States, while a quarter 'til or till is found chiefly in the Appalachian region.[71] Thirty minutes after the hour is commonly called half past in both BrE and AmE; half after used to be more common in the US. In informal British speech, the preposition is sometimes omitted, so that 5:30 may be referred to as half five; this construction is entirely foreign to US speakers, who would possibly interpret half five as 4:30 (halfway to 5:00) rather than 5:30. The AmE formations top of the hour and bottom of the hour are not used in BrE. Forms such as eleven forty are common in both varieties. To be simple and direct in telling time, no terms relating to fifteen or thirty minutes before/after the hour are used; rather the time is told exactly as for example nine fifteen, ten forty-five.

Sports percentages edit

In sports statistics, certain percentages such as those for winning or win–loss records and saves in field or ice hockey and association football are almost always expressed as a decimal proportion to three places in AmE and are usually read aloud as if they are whole numbers, e.g. (0).500 or five hundred,[72] hence the phrase "games/matches over five hundred", whereas in BrE they are also expressed but as true percentages instead, after multiplying the decimal by 100%, that is, 50% or "fifty per cent" and "games/matches over 50% or 50 per cent". However, "games/matches over 50% or 50 percent" is also found in AmE, albeit sporadically, e.g., hitting percentages in volleyball.[73]

The American practice of expressing so-called percentages in sports statistics as decimals originated with baseball's batting averages, developed by English-born statistician and historian Henry Chadwick.

See also edit

Explanatory notes edit

  1. ^ "Railway" is used occasionally in North America, as for example in the name of the BNSF Railway.
  2. ^ Recommended for instance by some style guides, including the academic manual published by Oxford University Press under various titles,[66] as well as the internal house style book for the University of Oxford,[67] and that of The Guardian[68] and The Times newspapers.[69]

Citations edit

  1. ^ Even in vocabulary. "A British reader of Time or Newsweek would note distinctly American expressions only a few times on any page, matching the few distinctly British expressions an American reader of The Economist would note." Edward Finegan in Language in the USA: Themes for the Twenty-first Century. Eds Charles Albert Ferguson, Edward Finegan, Shirley Brice Heath, John R. Rickford (Cambridge University Press, 2004). p. 29.
    See also: David Crystal, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language (Cambridge University Press, 2003), p. 304.
  2. ^ Sokolowski, Peter. "Soop vs. Soup" (Video). Merriam-Webster. from the original on 4 January 2015. Retrieved 4 January 2015. Noah Webster: the man who changed the way we spell... up to a point.
  3. ^ See, for example, Krueger CL, Stade G, Karbiener K, Encyclopedia of British Writers: 19th and 20th Centuries Book Builders LLC Infobase Publishing ISBN 0816046700, p. 309
  4. ^ "rubber, definition 3". Macmillan Dictionary. from the original on 17 October 2014. Retrieved 30 September 2013.
  5. ^ . Oxford Dictionaries – English. Archived from the original on May 22, 2018. Retrieved 29 September 2018.
  6. ^ . Oxford Dictionaries – English. Archived from the original on May 22, 2018. Retrieved 29 September 2018.
  7. ^ . Oxford Dictionaries – English. Archived from the original on September 25, 2016. Retrieved 29 September 2018.
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General and cited sources edit

  • Algeo, John (2006). British or American English?. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-37993-8.
  • Hargraves, Orin (2003). Mighty Fine Words and Smashing Expressions. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-515704-4.
  • McArthur, Tom (2002). The Oxford Guide to World English. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-866248-3.
  • Murphy, Lynne (2018). The Prodigal Tongue: The Love-Hate Relationship Between British and American English. London. Oneworld Publications. ISBN 1-786-07269-6.
  • Peters, Pam (2004). The Cambridge Guide to English Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-62181-X.
  • Trudgill, Peter and Jean Hannah (2002). International English: A Guide to the Varieties of Standard English, 4th ed. London: Arnold. ISBN 0-340-80834-9.

Further reading edit

  • Erin Moore (2015). That's Not English: Britishisms, Americanisms, and What Our English Says About Us. Avery. ISBN 978-1592408856.

External links edit

  • Word substitution list, by the Ubuntu English (United Kingdom) Translators team
  • Linguistics Issues List of American, Canadian and British spelling differences
  • The Septic's Companion: A British Slang Dictionary
  • at the Wayback Machine (archived 1 July 2016)
  • British English vs. American English Slang Compared
  • British English-American English Vocabulary Quiz

comparison, american, british, english, comparison, typical, american, versus, british, pronunciation, differences, comparison, general, american, received, pronunciation, wikipedia, editing, policy, regional, variants, wikipedia, wikipedia, manual, style, nat. For a comparison of typical American versus British pronunciation differences see Comparison of General American and Received Pronunciation For the Wikipedia editing policy on use of regional variants in Wikipedia see Wikipedia Manual of Style National varieties of English This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Comparison of American and British English news newspapers books scholar JSTOR July 2021 Learn how and when to remove this template message The English language was introduced to the Americas by the arrival of the British beginning in the late 16th and early 17th centuries The language also spread to numerous other parts of the world as a result of British trade and settlement and the spread of the former British Empire which by 1921 included 470 570 million people about a quarter of the world s population In England Wales Ireland and especially parts of Scotland there are differing varieties of the English language so the term British English is an oversimplification Likewise spoken American English varies widely across the country Written forms of British and American English as found in newspapers and textbooks vary little in their essential features with only occasional noticeable differences 1 Over the past 400 years the forms of the language used in the Americas especially in the United States and that used in the United Kingdom have diverged in a few minor ways leading to the versions now often referred to as American English and British English Differences between the two include pronunciation grammar vocabulary lexis spelling punctuation idioms and formatting of dates and numbers However the differences in written and most spoken grammar structure tend to be much fewer than in other aspects of the language in terms of mutual intelligibility A few words have completely different meanings in the two versions or are even unknown or not used in one of the versions One particular contribution towards integrating these differences came from Noah Webster who wrote the first American dictionary published 1828 with the intention of showing that people in the United States spoke a different dialect from those spoken in the UK much like a regional accent 2 This divergence between American English and British English has provided opportunities for humorous comment e g in fiction George Bernard Shaw says that the United States and United Kingdom are two countries divided by a common language 3 and Oscar Wilde says that We have really everything in common with America nowadays except of course the language The Canterville Ghost 1888 Henry Sweet incorrectly predicted in 1877 that within a century American English Australian English and British English would be mutually unintelligible A Handbook of Phonetics Perhaps increased worldwide communication through radio television and the Internet has tended to reduce regional variation This can lead to some variations becoming extinct for instance the wireless being progressively superseded by the radio or the acceptance of wide variations as perfectly good English everywhere Although spoken American and British English are generally mutually intelligible there are occasional differences which may cause embarrassment for example in American English a rubber is usually interpreted as a condom rather than an eraser 4 Contents 1 Word derivation and compounds 2 Vocabulary 2 1 Words and phrases with different meanings 2 2 Different terms in different dialects 2 3 Holiday greetings 2 4 Idiosyncratic differences 2 4 1 Omission of and and on 2 4 2 Figures of speech 2 4 3 Equivalent idioms 2 5 Social and cultural differences 2 5 1 Education 2 5 1 1 Primary and secondary school 2 5 1 2 University 2 5 1 3 General terms 2 5 2 Government and politics 2 5 3 Business and finance 2 5 4 Employment and recruitment 2 5 5 Insurance 2 5 6 Transport 2 5 6 1 Road transport 2 5 6 2 Rail transport 2 5 7 Television 2 5 8 Telecommunications 2 5 9 Rivers 3 Grammar 3 1 Subject verb agreement 4 Style 4 1 Use of that and which in restrictive and non restrictive relative clauses 4 2 Subjunctive 5 Writing 5 1 Spelling 5 2 Punctuation 5 2 1 Full stops and periods in abbreviations 5 2 2 Parentheses brackets 5 2 3 Quoting 5 2 4 Commas in headlines 6 Numerical expressions 6 1 Monetary amounts 6 2 Dates 6 3 Time 6 4 Sports percentages 7 See also 8 Explanatory notes 9 Citations 10 General and cited sources 11 Further reading 12 External linksWord derivation and compounds editDirectional suffix ward s British forwards towards rightwards etc American forward toward rightward In both varieties distribution varies somewhat afterwards towards and backwards are not unusual in America while in the United Kingdom upward and rightward are the more common options as is forward which is standard in phrasal verbs such as look forward to 5 6 7 The forms with s may be used as adverbs or preposition towards but rarely as adjectives in the UK as in America one says an upward motion The Oxford English Dictionary in 1897 suggested a semantic distinction for adverbs with wards having a more definite directional sense than ward subsequent authorities such as Fowler have disputed this contention American English AmE freely adds the suffix s to day night evening weekend Monday etc to form adverbs denoting repeated or customary action I used to stay out evenings the library is closed on Saturdays This usage has its roots in Old English but many of these constructions are now regarded as American for example the OED labels nights now chiefly N Amer colloq in constructions such as to sleep nights but to work nights is standard in British English In British English BrE the agentive er suffix is commonly attached to football to refer to one who plays the sport also cricket often netball occasionally basketball and volleyball AmE usually uses football player Where the sport s name is usable as a verb the suffixation is standard in both varieties for example golfer bowler in ten pin bowling and in lawn bowls and shooter AmE appears sometimes to use the form baller as slang for a basketball player as in the video game NBA Ballers However this is derived from slang use of to ball as a verb meaning to play basketball English writers everywhere occasionally make new compound words from common phrases for example health care is now being replaced by healthcare on both sides of the Atlantic However AmE has made certain words in this fashion that are still treated as phrases in BrE In compound nouns of the form lt verb gt lt noun gt sometimes AmE prefers the bare infinitive where BrE prefers the gerund Examples include AmE first jump rope skipping rope racecar racing car rowboat rowing boat sailboat sailing boat file cabinet filing cabinet dial tone dialling tone drainboard draining board Generally AmE has a tendency to drop inflectional suffixes thus preferring clipped forms compare cookbook v cookery book Smith age 40 v Smith aged 40 skim milk v skimmed milk dollhouse v dolls house barber shop v barber s shop 8 Singular attributives in one country may be plural in the other and vice versa For example the UK has a drugs problem while the United States has a drug problem although the singular usage is also commonly heard in the UK Americans read the sports section of a newspaper the British are more likely to read the sport section However BrE maths is singular like physics just as AmE math is both are abbreviations of mathematics Some British English words come from French roots while American English finds its words from other places e g AmE eggplant and zucchini are aubergine and courgette in BrE Similarly American English has occasionally replaced more traditional English words with their Spanish counterparts This is especially common in regions historically affected by Spanish settlement such as the American Southwest and Florida as well as other areas that have since experienced strong Hispanic migration such as urban areas Examples of these include grocery markets preference in the U S for Spanish names such as cilantro and manzanilla over coriander and camomile respectively Vocabulary editSee also Lists of words having different meanings in American and British English Glossary of American terms not widely used in the United Kingdom and Glossary of British terms not widely used in the United States The familiarity of speakers with words and phrases from different regions varies and the difficulty of discerning an unfamiliar definition also depends on the context and the term As expressions spread with telecommunication they are often but not always understood as foreign to the speaker s dialect and words from other dialects may carry connotations with regard to register social status origin and intelligence Words and phrases with different meanings edit Main article Lists of words having different meanings in American and British English Words such as bill and biscuit are used regularly in both AmE and BrE but can mean different things in each form The word bill has several meanings most of which are shared between AmE and BrE However in AmE bill often refers to a piece of paper money as in a dollar bill which in BrE is more commonly referred to as a note In AmE it can also refer to the visor of a cap 9 though this is by no means common In AmE a biscuit from the French twice baked as in biscotto is a soft bready product that is known in BrE as a scone or a specifically hard sweet biscuit Meanwhile a BrE biscuit incorporates both dessert biscuits and AmE cookies from the Dutch little cake As chronicled by Winston Churchill the opposite meanings of the verb to table created a misunderstanding during a meeting of the Allied forces 10 in BrE to table an item on an agenda means to open it up for discussion whereas in AmE it means to remove it from discussion or at times to suspend or delay discussion e g Let s table that topic for later The word football in BrE refers to association football also known in the US as soccer In AmE football means American football The standard AmE term soccer a contraction of association football is actually of British origin derived from the ratification of different codes of football in the 19th century and was a fairly unremarkable usage possibly marked for class in BrE until later in Britain it became perceived as an Americanism 11 In non American and non Canadian contexts particularly in sports news from outside the United States and Canada American or US branches of foreign news agencies and media companies also use football to mean soccer especially in direct quotes Similarly the word hockey in BrE refers to field hockey and in AmE hockey means ice hockey Words with completely different meanings are relatively few most of the time there are either 1 words with one or more shared meanings and one or more meanings unique to one variety for example bathroom and toilet or 2 words the meanings of which are actually common to both BrE and AmE but that show differences in frequency connotation or denotation for example smart clever mad Some differences in usage and meaning can cause confusion or embarrassment For example the word fanny is a slang word for vulva in BrE but means buttocks in AmE the AmE phrase fanny pack is bum bag in BrE In AmE the word pissed means being annoyed or angry whereas in BrE it is a coarse word for being drunk in both varieties pissed off means irritated Similarly in AmE the word pants is the common word for the BrE trousers and knickers refers to a variety of half length trousers though most AmE users would use the term shorts rather than knickers while the majority of BrE speakers would understand pants to mean underpants and knickers to mean female underpants Sometimes the confusion is more subtle In AmE the word quite used as a qualifier is generally a reinforcement though it is somewhat uncommon in actual colloquial American use today and carries an air of formality for example I m quite hungry is a very polite way to say I m very hungry In BrE quite which is much more common in conversation may have this meaning as in quite right or quite mad but it more commonly means somewhat so that in BrE I m quite hungry can mean I m somewhat hungry This divergence of use can lead to misunderstanding Different terms in different dialects edit Main articles Glossary of American terms not widely used in the United Kingdom and Glossary of British terms not widely used in the United States Most speakers of American English are aware of some uniquely British terms It is generally very easy to guess what some words such as BrE driving licence mean the AmE equivalent being driver s license However use of many other British words such as naff slang but commonly used to mean not very good are unheard of in American English 12 Speakers of BrE usually find it easy to understand most common AmE terms such as sidewalk pavement or footpath gas gasoline petrol counterclockwise anticlockwise or elevator lift thanks in large part to considerable exposure to American popular culture and literature Terms heard less often especially when rare or absent in American popular culture such as copacetic very satisfactory are unlikely to be understood by most BrE speakers Other examples In the UK the word whilst is commonly used as a conjunction as an alternative to while especially prevalent in some dialects Whilst tends to appear in non temporal senses as when used to point out a contrast In AmE while is used in both contexts 13 with whilst being much more uncommon Other words with the st ending are also found even in AmE as much as in BrE despite being old fashioned or an affectation e g unbeknownst midst Historically the word against falls into this category also and is standard in both varieties In the UK generally the use of fall to mean autumn is obsolete Although found often from Elizabethan literature to Victorian literature the seasonal use of fall remains easily understandable to BrE speakers only because it is so commonly used that way in the U S 14 In the UK the term period for a full stop is not used in AmE the term full stop is rarely if ever used for the punctuation mark and commonly not understood whatsoever For example British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Terrorism is wrong full stop whereas in AmE the equivalent sentence is Terrorism is wrong period 15 The use of period as an interjection meaning and nothing else end of discussion is beginning to be used in colloquial British English though sometimes without conscious reference to punctuation In the US the word line is used to refer to a line of people vehicles or other objects while in the UK queue refers to that meaning In the US the word queue is most commonly used to refer to the computing sense of a data structure in which objects are added to one end and removed from the other In the US the equivalent terms to queue up and wait in queue are line up or get in line and wait in line The equivalent term to jumping the queue is cutting in line 16 British Americanmaths mathpost mailtrapezium trapezoidaluminium aluminumfootball soccerquid slang for one or multiple pounds buck slang for a dollar Holiday greetings edit Main article Holiday greetings It is increasingly common for Americans to say Happy holidays referring to all or at least multiple winter in the Northern hemisphere or summer in the Southern hemisphere holidays Christmas Hanukkah Kwanzaa etc especially when one s religious observances are not known the phrase is rarely heard in the UK In the UK the phrases holiday season and holiday period refer to the period in the summer when most people take time off from work and travel AmE does not use holiday in this sense instead using vacation for recreational excursions In AmE the prevailing Christmas greeting is Merry Christmas which is the traditional English Christmas greeting as found in the English Christmas carol We Wish You a Merry Christmas and which appears several times in Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol 17 In BrE Happy Christmas is a common alternative to Merry Christmas Idiosyncratic differences edit Omission of and and on edit Generally in British English numbers with a value over one hundred have the word and inserted before the last two digits For example the number 115 when written in words or spoken aloud would be One hundred and fifteen in British English In American English numbers are typically said or written in words in the same way however if the word and is omitted One hundred fifteen this is also considered acceptable in BrE this would be considered grammatically incorrect Likewise in the US the word on can be left out when referring to events occurring on any particular day of the week The US possibility The Cowboys won the game Saturday would have the equivalent in the UK of Sheffield United won the match on Saturday Figures of speech edit Both BrE and AmE use the expression I couldn t care less to mean that the speaker does not care at all Some Americans use I could care less to mean the same thing This variant is frequently derided as sloppy 18 as the literal meaning of the words is that the speaker does care to some extent In both areas saying I don t mind often means I m not annoyed for example by someone s smoking while I don t care often means The matter is trivial or boring However in answering a question such as Tea or coffee if either alternative is equally acceptable an American may answer I don t care while a British person may answer I don t mind Either can sound odd confusing or rude to those accustomed to the other variant To be all set in both BrE and AmE can mean to be prepared or ready though it appears to be more common in AmE citation needed It can also have an additional meaning in AmE of to be finished or done for example a customer at a restaurant telling a waiter I m all set I ll take the check Equivalent idioms edit A number of English idioms that have essentially the same meaning show lexical differences between the British and the American version for instance British English American Englishnot touch something with a bargepole not touch something with a ten foot polesweep under the carpet sweep under the rug touch wood knock on wood can t see the wood for the trees can t see the forest for the treesput a spanner in the works throw a monkey wrench in to a situation to put or stick your oar in 19 but it won t make a ha porth of difference 20 to put your two penn orth or tuppence worth in to put your two cents or two cents worth in 21 skeleton in the cupboard skeleton in the closeta home from home a home away from hometo blow one s own trumpet to blow or toot one s own horna drop in the ocean a drop in the bucket 22 flogging a dead horse beating a dead horsehaven t got a clue don t have a clue or have no clue the British forms are also acceptable couldn t care less could care less or couldn t care less 23 a new lease of life a new lease on lifelie of the land or lay of the land lay of the landtake it with a pinch of salt take it with a grain of salta storm in a teacup a tempest in a teapot rare out of order out of lineslowcoach slowpoke 24 In the US a carpet typically refers to a fitted carpet rather than a rug Social and cultural differences edit Lexical items that reflect separate social and cultural development Education edit Primary and secondary school edit Main articles Primary education Secondary education in the United Kingdom and Secondary education in the United States The naming of school years in British except Scotland and American English Age range British English American EnglishName Alternative old name Syllabus Name Alternative name1 4 Preschool optional Nursery Playgroup Foundation Stage 1 Daycare3 5 Primary school Reception Infants reception Foundation Stage 2 Preschool Pre K5 6 Year 1 Infants year 1 Key Stage 1 KindergartenElementary school6 7 Year 2 Infants year 2 1st grade 7 8 Year 3 First year Junior Key Stage 2 2nd grade 8 9 Year 4 Second year junior 3rd grade 9 10 Year 5 Third year junior 4th grade 10 11 Year 6 Fourth year junior 5th grade 11 12 Secondary school High school Middle school Junior high schoolYear 7 First form 25 Key Stage 3 6th grade 12 13 Year 8 Second form 7th grade 13 14 Year 9 Third form 8th grade 14 15 Year 10 Fourth form Key Stage 4 GCSE High school9th grade Freshman year15 16 Year 11 Fifth form 10th grade Sophomore year16 17 Sixth form FE College 26 11th grade Junior yearYear 12 Lower sixth first year Key Stage 5 A level17 18 Year 13 Upper sixth second year 12th grade Senior yearThe US has a more uniform nationwide system of terms than does the UK where terminology and structure varies among constituent countries but the division by grades varies somewhat among the states and even among local school districts For example elementary school often includes kindergarten and may include sixth grade with middle school including only two grades or extending to ninth grade In the UK the US equivalent of a high school is often referred to as a secondary school regardless of whether it is state funded or private US Secondary education also includes middle school or junior high school a two or three year transitional school between elementary school and high school Middle school is sometimes used in the UK as a synonym for the younger junior school covering the second half of the primary curriculum current years four to six in some areas However in Dorset South England it is used to describe the second school in the three tier system which is normally from year 5 to year 8 In other regions such as Evesham and the surrounding area in Worcestershire the second tier goes from year 6 to year 8 and both starting secondary school in year nine In Kirklees West Yorkshire in the villages of the Dearne Valley there is a three tier system first schools year reception to year five middle school Scissett Kirkburton Middle School year 6 to year 8 and high school 27 year 9 to year 13 A public school has opposite meanings in the two countries In American English this is a government owned institution open to all students supported by public funding The British English use of the term is in the context of private education to be educated privately with a tutor 28 In England and Wales the term strictly refers to an ill defined group of prestigious private independent schools funded by students fees although it is often more loosely used to refer to any independent school Independent schools are also known as private schools and the latter is the term used in Scotland and Northern Ireland for all such fee funded schools Strictly the term public school is not used in Scotland and Northern Ireland in the same sense as in England but nevertheless Gordonstoun the Scottish private school is sometimes referred to as a public school as are some other Scottish private schools Government funded schools in Scotland and Northern Ireland are properly referred to as state schools but are sometimes confusingly referred to as public schools with the same meaning as in the US and in the US where most public schools are administered by local governments a state school typically refers to a college or university run by one of the U S states Speakers in both the United States and the United Kingdom use several additional terms for specific types of secondary school A US prep school or preparatory school is an independent school funded by tuition fees the same term is used in the UK for a private school for pupils under 13 designed to prepare them for fee paying public schools In the US Catholic schools cover costs through tuition and have affiliations with a religious institution most often a Catholic church or diocese In England where the state funded education system grew from parish schools arranged by the local established church the Church of England C of E or CE and many schools especially primary schools up to age 11 retain a church connection and are known as church schools CE schools or CE aided schools There are also faith schools associated with the Roman Catholic Church and other major faiths with a mixture of funding arrangements In Scotland Catholic schools are generally operated as government funded state schools for Catholic communities particularly in large cities such as Glasgow In the US a magnet school receives government funding and has special admission requirements in some cases pupils gain admission through superior performance on admission tests while other magnet schools admit students through a lottery The UK has city academies which are independent privately sponsored schools run with public funding and which can select up to 10 of pupils by aptitude Moreover in the UK 36 local education authorities retain selection by ability at 11 They maintain grammar schools state funded secondary schools which admit pupils according to performance in an examination known as the 11 and comprehensive schools that take pupils of all abilities Grammar schools select the most academically able 10 to 23 of those who sit the exam Students who fail the exam go to a secondary modern school sometimes called a high school or increasingly an academy In areas where there are no grammar schools the comprehensives likewise may term themselves high schools or academies Nationally only 6 of pupils attend grammar schools mainly in four distinct counties Some private schools are called grammar schools chiefly those that were grammar schools long before the advent of state education University edit In the UK a university student is said to study to read or informally simply to do a subject In the recent past the expression to read a subject was more common at the older universities such as Oxford and Cambridge In the US a student studies or majors in a subject although a student s major concentration or less commonly emphasis is also used in US colleges or universities to refer to the major subject of study To major in something refers to the student s principal course of study to study may refer to any class being taken BrE She read biology at Cambridge She studied biology at Cambridge She did biology at Cambridge informal AmE She majored in biology at Harvard She studied biology at Harvard She concentrated in biology at Harvard At university level in BrE each module is taught or facilitated by a lecturer or tutor professor is the job title of a senior academic in AmE at some universities the equivalent of the BrE lecturer is instructor especially when the teacher has a lesser degree or no university degree though the usage may become confusing according to whether the subject being taught is considered technical or not it is also different from adjunct instructor professor In AmE each class is generally taught by a professor although some US tertiary educational institutions follow the BrE usage while the position of lecturer is occasionally given to individuals hired on a temporary basis to teach one or more classes and who may or may not have a doctoral degree The word course in American use typically refers to the study of a restricted topic or individual subject for example a course in Early Medieval England a course in integral calculus over a limited period of time such as a semester or term and is equivalent to a module or sometimes unit at a British university In the UK a course of study or simply course is likely to refer to the entire curriculum which may extend over several years and be made up of any number of modules hence it is also practically synonymous to a degree programme A few university specific exceptions exist for example at Cambridge the word paper is used to refer to a module while the whole course of study is called tripos A dissertation in AmE refers to the final written product of a doctoral student to meet the requirement of that curriculum In BrE the same word refers to the final written product of a student in an undergraduate or taught master s programme A dissertation in the AmE sense would be a thesis in BrE though dissertation is also used Another source of confusion is the different usage of the word college See a full international discussion of the various meanings at college In the US it refers to a post high school institution that grants either associate s or bachelor s degrees and in the UK it refers to any post secondary institution that is not a university including sixth form college after the name in secondary education for years 12 and 13 the sixth form where intermediary courses such as A levels or NVQs can be taken and GCSE courses can be retaken College may sometimes be used in the UK or in Commonwealth countries as part of the name of a secondary or high school for example Dubai College In the case of Oxford Cambridge Aberdeen London Lancaster Durham Kent and York universities all members are also members of a college which is part of the university for example one is a member of King s College Cambridge and hence of the university In both the US and UK college can refer to some division within a university that comprises related academic departments such as the college of business and economics though in the UK faculty is more often used Institutions in the US that offer two to four years of post high school education often have the word college as part of their name while those offering more advanced degrees are called a university There are exceptions Boston College Dartmouth College and the College of William amp Mary are examples of colleges that offer advanced degrees while Vincennes University is an unusual example of a university that offers only associate degrees in the vast majority of its academic programs American students who pursue a bachelor s degree four years of higher education or an associate degree two years of higher education are college students regardless of whether they attend a college or a university and refer to their educational institutions informally as colleges A student who pursues a master s degree or a doctorate degree in the arts and sciences is in AmE a graduate student in BrE a postgraduate student although graduate student is also sometimes used Students of advanced professional programs are known by their field business student law student medical student Some universities also have a residential college system the details of which may vary but generally involve common living and dining spaces as well as college planned activities Nonetheless when it comes to the level of education AmE generally uses the word college e g going to college whereas BrE generally uses the word university e g going to university regardless of the institution s official designation status in both countries In the context of higher education the word school is used slightly differently in BrE and AmE In BrE except for the University of London the word school is used to refer to an academic department in a university In AmE the word school is used to refer to a collection of related academic departments and is headed by a dean When it refers to a division of a university school is practically synonymous to a college Professor has different meanings in BrE and AmE In BrE it is the highest academic rank followed by reader senior lecturer and lecturer In AmE professor refers to academic staff of all ranks with full professor largely equivalent to the UK meaning followed by associate professor and assistant professor Tuition has traditionally had separate meaning in each variation In BrE it is the educational content transferred from teacher to student at a university In AmE it is the money the fees paid to receive that education BrE tuition fees General terms edit In both the US and the UK a student takes an exam but in BrE a student can also be said to sit an exam When preparing for an exam students revise BrE review AmE what they have studied the BrE idiom to revise for has the equivalent to review for in AmE Examinations are supervised by invigilators in the UK and proctors or exam supervisors in the US a proctor in the UK is an official responsible for student discipline at the University of Oxford or Cambridge In the UK a teacher first sets and then administers exam while in the US a teacher first writes makes prepares etc and then gives an exam With the same basic meaning of the latter idea but with a more formal or official connotation a teacher in the US may also administer or proctor an exam BrE I sat my Spanish exam yesterday I plan to set a difficult exam for my students but it isn t ready yet AmE I took my exams at Yale I spent the entire day yesterday writing the exam I m almost ready to give it to my students In BrE students are awarded marks as credit for requirements e g tests projects while in AmE students are awarded points or grades for the same Similarly in BrE a candidate s work is being marked while in AmE it is said to be graded to determine what mark or grade is given There is additionally a difference between American and British usage in the word school In British usage school by itself refers only to primary elementary and secondary high schools and to sixth forms attached to secondary schools if one goes to school this type of institution is implied By contrast an American student at a university may be in at school coming going to school etc US and British law students and medical students both commonly speak in terms of going to law school and med ical school respectively However the word school is used in BrE in the context of higher education to describe a division grouping together several related subjects within a university for example a School of European Languages containing departments for each language and also in the term art school It is also the name of some of the constituent colleges of the University of London for example School of Oriental and African Studies London School of Economics Among high school and college students in the United States the words freshman or the gender neutral terms first year or sometimes freshie sophomore junior and senior refer to the first second third and fourth years respectively It is important that the context of either high school or college first be established or else it must be stated directly that is She is a high school freshman He is a college junior Many institutes in both countries also use the term first year as a gender neutral replacement for freshman although in the US this is recent usage formerly referring only to those in the first year as a graduate student One exception is the University of Virginia since its founding in 1819 the terms first year second year third year and fourth year have been used to describe undergraduate university students At the United States service academies at least those operated by the federal government directly a different terminology is used namely fourth class third class second class and first class the order of numbering being the reverse of the number of years in attendance In the UK first year university students are sometimes called freshers early in the academic year however there are no specific names for those in other years nor for school pupils Graduate and professional students in the United States are known by their year of study such as a second year medical student or a fifth year doctoral candidate Law students are often referred to as 1L 2L or 3L rather than nth year law students similarly medical students are frequently referred to as M1 M2 M3 or M4 While anyone in the US who finishes studying at any educational institution by passing relevant examinations is said to graduate and to be a graduate in the UK only degree and above level students can graduate Student itself has a wider meaning in AmE meaning any person of any age studying any subject at any level including those not doing so at an educational institution such as a piano student taking private lessons in a home whereas in BrE it tends to be used for people studying at a post secondary educational institution and the term pupil is more widely used for a young person at primary or secondary school though the use of student for secondary school pupils in the UK is increasingly used particularly for sixth form years 12 and 13 The names of individual institutions can be confusing There are several high schools with the word university in their names in the United States that are not affiliated with any post secondary institutions and cannot grant degrees and there is one public high school Central High School of Philadelphia that does grant bachelor s degrees to the top 10 of graduating seniors British secondary schools occasionally have the word college in their names When it comes to the admissions process applicants are usually asked to solicit letters of reference or reference forms from referees in BrE In AmE these are called letters of recommendation or recommendation forms Consequently the writers of these letters are known as referees and recommenders respectively by country In AmE the word referee is nearly always understood to refer to an umpire of a sporting match In the context of education for AmE the word staff mainly refers to school personnel who are neither administrators nor have teaching loads or academic responsibilities personnel who have academic responsibilities are referred to as members of their institution s faculty In BrE the word staff refers to both academic and non academic school personnel As mentioned previously the term faculty in BrE refers more to a collection of related academic departments Government and politics edit In the UK political candidates stand for election while in the US they run for office There is virtually no crossover between BrE and AmE in the use of these terms Also the document which contains a party s positions principles is referred to as a party platform in AmE whereas it is commonly known as a party manifesto in BrE In AmE using the term manifesto may connote that the party is an extremist or radical association The term general election is used slightly differently in British and American English In BrE it refers exclusively to a nationwide parliamentary election and is differentiated from local elections mayoral and council and by elections whereas in AmE it refers to a final election for any government position in the US where the term is differentiated from the term primary an election that determines a party s candidate for the position in question Additionally a by election in BrE is called a special election in AmE In AmE the term swing state swing county swing district is used to denote a jurisdiction constituency where results are expected to be close but crucial to the overall outcome of the general election In BrE the term marginal constituency is more often used for the same and swing is more commonly used to refer to how much one party has gained or lost an advantage over another compared to the previous election In the UK the term government only refers to what is commonly known in America as the executive branch or the particular administration A local government in the UK is generically referred to as the council whereas in the United States a local government will be generically referred to as the City or county village etc depending on what kind of entity the government serves Business and finance edit In financial statements what is referred to in AmE as revenue or sales is known in BrE as turnover In AmE having high turnover in a business context would generally carry negative implications though the precise meaning would differ by industry A bankrupt firm goes into administration or liquidation in BrE in AmE it goes bankrupt or files for Chapter 7 liquidation or Chapter 11 reorganization both of which refer to the legal authority under which bankruptcy is commenced An insolvent individual or partnership goes bankrupt in both BrE and AmE If a finance company takes possession of a mortgaged property from a debtor it is called foreclosure in AmE and repossession in BrE In some limited scenarios repossession may be used in AmE but it is much less commonly compared to foreclosure One common exception in AmE is for automobiles which are always said to be repossessed Indeed an agent who collects these cars for the bank is colloquially known in AmE as a repo man Employment and recruitment edit In BrE the term curriculum vitae commonly abbreviated to CV is used to describe the document prepared by applicants containing their credentials required for a job In AmE the term resume is more commonly used with CV primarily used in academic or research contexts and is usually more comprehensive than a resume Insurance edit AmE distinguishes between coverage as a noun and cover as a verb an American seeks to buy enough insurance coverage in order to adequately cover a particular risk BrE uses the word cover for both the noun and verb forms Transport edit AmE speakers refer to transportation and BrE speakers to transport 29 Transportation in the UK has traditionally meant the punishment of criminals by deporting them to an overseas penal colony In AmE the word transport is usually used only as a verb seldom as a noun or adjective except in reference to certain special objects such as a tape transport or a military transport e g a troop transport a kind of vehicle not an act of transporting Road transport edit Differences in terminology are especially obvious in the context of roads The British term dual carriageway in American parlance would be divided highway or perhaps simply highway The central reservation on a motorway or dual carriageway in the UK would be the median or center divide on a freeway expressway highway or parkway in the US The one way lanes that make it possible to enter and leave such roads at an intermediate point without disrupting the flow of traffic are known as slip roads in the UK but in the US they are typically known as ramps and both further distinguish between on ramps or on slips for entering onto a highway carriageway and off ramps or exit slips for leaving a highway carriageway When American engineers speak of slip roads they are referring to a street that runs alongside the main road separated by a berm to allow off the highway access to the premises that are there however the term frontage road is more commonly used as this term is the equivalent of service road in the UK However it is not uncommon for an American to use service road as well instead of frontage road In the UK the term outside lane refers to the higher speed overtaking lane passing lane in the US closest to the middle of the road while inside lane refers to the lane closer to the edge of the road In the US outside lane is used only in the context of a turn in which case it depends in which direction the road is turning i e if the road bends right the left lane is the outside lane but if the road bends left it is the right lane Both also refer to slow and fast lanes even though all actual traffic speeds may be at or around the legal speed limit In the UK drink driving refers to driving after having consumed alcoholic beverages while in the US the term is drunk driving The legal term in the US is driving while intoxicated DWI or driving under the influence of alcohol DUI The equivalent legal phrase in the UK is drunk in charge of a motor vehicle DIC or more commonly driving with excess alcohol 30 In the UK a hire car is the US equivalent of a rental car The term hired car can be especially misleading for those in the US where the term hire is generally only applied to the employment of people and the term rent is applied to the temporary custody of goods To an American hired car would imply that the car has been brought into the employment of a company as if it were a person which would sound nonsensical In the UK a saloon is a vehicle that is equivalent to the American sedan This is particularly confusing to Americans because in the US the term saloon is used in only one context describing an old bar UK pub in the American West a Western saloon Coupe is used by both to refer to a two door car but is usually pronounced with two syllables in the UK coo pay and one syllable in the US coop In the UK van may refer to a lorry UK of any size whereas in the US van is only understood to be a very small boxy truck US such as a moving van or a long passenger automobile with several rows of seats such as a minivan A large long vehicle used for cargo transport would nearly always be called a truck in the US though alternate terms such as eighteen wheeler may be occasionally heard regardless of the actual number of tires UK tyres on the truck In the UK a silencer is the equivalent to the US muffler In the US the word silencer has only one meaning an attachment on the barrel of a gun designed to stop the distinctive crack of a gunshot Specific auto parts and transport terms have different names in the two dialects for example UK USaccelerator gas pedal acceleratoraccumulator batterybendy bus articulated busbonnet hood 31 boot of a car trunk of a car 31 32 breakdown lorry tow truckcar journey road tripcar park parking lot 33 caravan camper 33 railway coach carriage railroad passenger carcrash barrier guardraildriving licence driver s license 34 dual carriageway divided highway 31 estate car station wagon 33 exhaust pipe tail pipe exhaustfire engine fire truck fire engineflyover overpass 33 flyovergearbox transmission 31 gear lever gear shift shiftergive way yieldgoods train freight traingoods wagon truck freight carhard shoulder shoulderhired car hire car rental car rentalhood soft hard top convertible top soft hard topindicator turn signal blinkerjuggernaut lorry semi semi truck 18 wheeler big rig tractor trailer 35 jump lead jumper cablejunction fork in the road lorry truck 32 articulated lorry semi trailer truck semi 33 manual stick shift manualmarshalling yard classification yardmetalled road cobblestone road paved roadmotorway freeway 35 highway expresswaymudguard wheel arch wing fender 36 number plate license plateovertake a vehicle pass a vehicle pavement footpath sidewalk pavement 37 38 pedestrian crossing crosswalkpetrol gasoline gas 31 police car patrol car cop car police carpublic transport public transportation public transit mass transitracing car racecarrailway railroadroadworks construction zone roadworksaloon sedan 39 silencer muffler 31 single carriageway undivided highwayspanner wrench 31 32 taxi cab taxi taxicabticking over idling 35 traffic light red amber green stoplight red yellow green tram streetcar trolleytransport cafe truck stoptyre tireunderground tube subway metro see variations below windscreen windshield 31 car valeting auto detailingRail transport edit See also Glossary of rail transport terms There are also differences in terminology in the context of rail transport The best known is railway in the UK and railroad in North America a but there are several others A railway station in the UK is a railroad station in the US while train station is used in both trains have drivers often called engine drivers in the UK while in America trains are driven by engineers trains have guards in the UK and conductors in the US though the latter is also common in the UK a place where two tracks meet is called a set of points in the UK and a switch in the US and a place where a road crosses a railway line at ground level is called a level crossing in the UK and a grade crossing or railroad crossing in America In the UK the term sleeper is used for the devices that bear the weight of the rails and are known as ties or crossties in the United States In a rail context sleeper more often sleeper car would be understood in the US as a rail car with sleeping quarters for its passengers The British term platform in the sense The train is at Platform 1 would be known in the US by the term track and used in the phrase The train is on Track 1 The British term brake van or guard s van is a caboose in the US The American English phrase All aboard when boarding a train is rarely used in the UK citation needed and when the train reaches its final stop in the UK the phrase used by rail personnel is All change while in the US it is All out though such announcements are uncommon in both regions For sub surface rail networks while underground is commonly used in the UK only the London Underground actually carries this name the UK s only other such system the smaller Glasgow Subway was in fact the first to be called subway 40 Nevertheless both subway and metro are now more common in the US varying by city in Washington D C for example metro is used while in New York City subway is preferred Another variation is the T in Boston Television edit This section does not cite any sources Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed June 2009 Learn how and when to remove this template message Traditionally a show on British television would have referred to a light entertainment programme AmE program with one or more performers and a participative audience whereas in American television the term is used for any type of program British English traditionally referred to other types of programme by their type such as drama serial etc but the term show has now taken on the general American meaning In American television the episodes of a program first broadcast in a particular year constitute a season while the entire run of the program which may span several seasons is called a series In British television on the other hand the word series may apply to the episodes of a programme in one particular year for example The 1998 series of Grange Hill as well as to the entire run However the entire run may occasionally be referred to as a show The term telecast meaning television broadcast and uncommon even in the US is not used in British English A television program me would be broadcast aired or shown in both the UK and US Telecommunications edit Main article Trunk versus toll telephony A long distance call is a trunk call in British English but is a toll call in American English though neither term is well known among younger Americans The distinction is a result of historical differences in the way local service was billed the Bell System traditionally flat rated local calls in all but a few markets endowing local service by charging higher rates or tolls for intercity calls allowing local calls to appear to be free British Telecom and the British Post Office before it charged for all calls local and long distance so labelling one class of call as toll would have been meaningless Similarly a toll free number in America is a freephone number in the UK The term freefone is a BT trademark Rivers edit In British English the name of a river is usually placed after the word River Thames however there are a small number of exceptions such as Wick River This matches the naming of lakes e g Lake Superior Loch Ness and mountains e g Mont Blanc Mount St Helens In American English the name is placed before the word Hudson River Grammar editFurther information American and British English grammatical differences Subject verb agreement edit In American English AmE collective nouns are almost always singular in construction the committee was unable to agree However when a speaker wishes to emphasize that the individuals are acting separately a plural pronoun may be employed with a singular or plural verb the team takes their seats rather than the team takes its seats Such a sentence would most likely be recast as the team members take their seats 41 Despite exceptions such as usage in The New York Times the names of sports teams are usually treated as plurals even if the form of the name is singular 42 In British English BrE collective nouns can take either singular formal agreement or plural notional agreement verb forms according to whether the emphasis is on the body as a whole or on the individual members respectively compare a committee was appointed with the committee were unable to agree 43 23 44 The term the Government always takes a plural verb in British civil service convention perhaps to emphasise the principle of cabinet collective responsibility 45 Compare also the following lines of Elvis Costello s song Oliver s Army Oliver s Army is here to stay Oliver s Army are on their way Some of these nouns for example staff 43 24 actually combine with plural verbs most of the time The difference occurs for all nouns of multitude both general terms such as team and company and proper nouns for example where a place name is used to refer to a sports team For instance BrE SuperHeavy is a band that shouldn t work or First Aid Kit are a band full of contradictions 46 47 AmE The Clash is a well known band BrE FC Red Bull Salzburg is an Austrian association football club AmE The New York Red Bulls are an American soccer team Proper nouns that are plural in form take a plural verb in both AmE and BrE for example The Beatles are a well known band The Diamondbacks are the champions with one major exception in American English the United States is almost universally used with a singular verb Although the construction the United States are was more common early in the history of the country as the singular federal government exercised more authority and a singular national identity developed especially following the American Civil War it became standard to treat the United States as a singular noun 48 Style editUse of that and which in restrictive and non restrictive relative clauses edit Further information English relative clauses Restrictive or non restrictive relative clauses Generally a non restrictive relative clause also called non defining or supplementary is one containing information that is supplementary i e does not change the meaning of the rest of the sentence while a restrictive relative clause also called defining or integrated contains information essential to the meaning of the sentence effectively limiting the modified noun phrase to a subset that is defined by the relative clause 49 An example of a restrictive clause is The dog that bit the man was brown An example of a non restrictive clause is The dog which bit the man was brown In the former that bit the man identifies which dog the statement is about In the latter which bit the man provides supplementary information about a known dog A non restrictive relative clause is typically set off by commas whereas a restrictive relative clause is not but this is not a rule that is universally observed 49 In speech this is also reflected in the intonation 50 Writers commonly use which to introduce a non restrictive clause and that to introduce a restrictive clause That is rarely used to introduce a non restrictive relative clause in prose Which and that are both commonly used to introduce a restrictive clause a study in 1977 reported that about 75 of occurrences of which were in restrictive clauses 51 H W Fowler in A Dictionary of Modern English Usage of 1926 followed others in suggesting that it would be preferable to use which as the non restrictive what he calls non defining pronoun and that as the restrictive what he calls defining pronoun but he also stated that this rule was observed neither by most writers nor by the best writers 52 He implied that his suggested usage was more common in American English 53 Fowler notes that his recommended usage presents problems in particular that that must be the first word of the clause which means for instance that which cannot be replaced by that when it immediately follows a preposition e g the basic unit from which matter is constructed 54 though this would not prevent a stranded preposition e g the basic unit that matter is constructed from 55 Style guides by American prescriptivists such as Bryan Garner typically insist for stylistic reasons that that be used for restrictive relative clauses and which be used for non restrictive clauses referring to the use of which in restrictive clauses as a mistake 49 According to the 2015 edition of Fowler s Dictionary of Modern English Usage In AmE which is not generally used in restrictive clauses and that fact is then interpreted as the absolute rule that only that may introduce a restrictive clause whereas in BrE either that or which may be used in restrictive clauses but many British people believe that that is obligatory 56 Subjunctive edit The subjunctive mood is more common in colloquial American English than in colloquial British English 57 Writing editSpelling edit Main article American and British English spelling differences nbsp International English spelling comparison Before the early 18th century there was no standard for English spelling Different standards became noticeable after the publishing of influential dictionaries For the most part current BrE spellings follow those of Samuel Johnson s Dictionary of the English Language 1755 while AmE spellings follow those of Noah Webster s An American Dictionary of the English Language 1828 In the United Kingdom the influences of those who preferred the French spellings of certain words proved decisive In many cases AmE spelling deviated from mainstream British spelling on the other hand it has also often retained older forms Many of the now characteristic AmE spellings were made popular although often not created by Noah Webster Webster chose already existing alternative spellings on such grounds as simplicity analogy or etymology 58 Webster did attempt to introduce some reformed spellings as did the Simplified Spelling Board in the early 20th century but most were not adopted Later spelling changes in the UK had little effect on present day US spelling and vice versa Punctuation edit Full stops and periods in abbreviations edit There have been some trends of transatlantic difference in use of periods in some abbreviations These are discussed at Abbreviation Periods full stops and spaces Unit symbols such as kg and Hz are never punctuated 59 Parentheses brackets edit In British English marks are often referred to as brackets whereas are called square brackets and are called curly brackets In formal British English and in American English marks are parentheses singular parenthesis are called brackets or square brackets and can be called either curly brackets or braces 60 Despite the different names these marks are used in the same way in both varieties Quoting edit British and American English differ in the preferred quotation mark style including the placement of commas and periods In American English and are called quotation marks whereas in British English and are referred to as either inverted commas or speech marks Additionally in American English direct speech typically uses the double quote mark whereas in British English it is common to use the inverted comma 61 62 Commas in headlines edit American newspapers commonly use a comma as a shorthand for and in headlines For example The Washington Post had the headline A TRUE CONSERVATIVE For McCain Bush Has Both Praise Advice 63 Numerical expressions editThere are many differences in the writing and speaking of English numerals most of which are matters of style with the notable exception of different definitions for billion The two countries have different conventions for floor numbering The UK uses a mixture of the metric system and Imperial units where in the US United States customary units are dominant in everyday life with a few fields using the metric system Monetary amounts edit Monetary amounts in the range of one to two major currency units are often spoken differently In AmE one may say a dollar fifty or a pound eighty whereas in BrE these amounts would be expressed one dollar fifty and one pound eighty For amounts over a dollar an American will generally either drop denominations or give both dollars and cents as in two twenty or two dollars and twenty cents for 2 20 An American would not say two dollars twenty On the other hand in BrE two twenty or two pounds twenty would be most common It is more common to hear a British English speaker say one thousand two hundred dollars than a thousand and two hundred dollars although the latter construct is common in AmE In British English the and comes after the hundreds one thousand two hundred and thirty dollars The term twelve hundred dollars popular in AmE is frequently used in BrE but only for exact multiples of 100 up to 1 900 Speakers of BrE very rarely hear amounts over 1 900 expressed in hundreds for example twenty three hundred In AmE it would not be unusual to refer to a high uneven figure such as 2 307 as twenty three hundred and seven In BrE particularly in television or radio advertisements integers can be pronounced individually in the expression of amounts For example on sale for 399 might be expressed on sale for three nine nine though the full three hundred and ninety nine pounds is at least as common An American advertiser would almost always say on sale for three ninety nine with context distinguishing 399 from 3 99 64 In British English the latter pronunciation implies a value in pounds and pence so three ninety nine would be understood as 3 99 In spoken BrE the word pound is sometimes colloquially used for the plural as well For example three pound forty and twenty pound a week are both heard in British English Some other currencies do not change in the plural yen and rand being examples This is in addition to normal adjectival use as in a twenty pound a week pay rise US raise The euro most often takes a regular plural s in practice despite the EU dictum that it should remain invariable in formal contexts the invariable usage is more common in Ireland where it is the official currency In BrE the use of p instead of pence is common in spoken usage Each of the following has equal legitimacy 3 pounds 12 p 3 pounds and 12 p 3 pounds 12 pence 3 pounds and 12 pence as well as just 8 p or 8 pence In everyday usage the amount is simply read as figures 3 50 three pounds fifty as in AmE AmE uses words such as nickel dime and quarter for small coins In BrE the usual usage is a 10 pence piece or a 10p piece or simply a 10p for any coin below 1 pound coin and two pound coin BrE did have specific words for a number of coins before decimalisation Formal coin names such as half crown 2 6 and florin 2 as well as slang or familiar names such as bob 1 and tanner 6d for pre decimalisation coins are still familiar to older BrE speakers but they are not used for modern coins In older terms like two bob bit 2 and thrupenny bit 3d the word bit had common usage before decimalisation similar to that of piece today In order to make explicit the amount in words on a check BrE cheque Americans write three and 24 100 using this solidus construction or with a horizontal division line they do not need to write the word dollars as it is usually already printed on the check On a cheque UK residents would write three pounds and 24 pence three pounds 24 or three pounds 24p since the currency unit is not preprinted To make unauthorised amendment difficult it is useful to have an expression terminator even when a whole number of dollars pounds is in use thus Americans would write three and 00 100 or three and no 100 on a three dollar check so that it cannot easily be changed to for example three million and UK residents would write three pounds only 65 Dates edit Main article Date format by country Dates are usually written differently in the short numerical form Christmas Day 2000 for example is 25 12 00 or 25 12 00 in the UK and 12 25 00 in the US although the formats 25 12 2000 25 12 2000 and 12 25 2000 are now more common then they were before Y2K Occasionally other formats are encountered such as the ISO 8601 2000 12 25 popular among programmers scientists and others seeking to avoid ambiguity and to make alphanumerical order coincide with chronological order The difference in short form date order can lead to misunderstanding especially when using software or equipment that uses the foreign format For example 06 04 05 could mean either June 4 2005 if read as US format 6 April 2005 if seen as in UK format or even 2006 April 5 if taken to be an older ISO 8601 style format where 2 digit years were allowed When using the name of the month rather than the number to write a date in the UK the recent standard style is for the day to precede the month e g 21 April Month preceding date is almost invariably the style in the US and was common in the UK until the late twentieth century British usage normally changes the day from an integer to an ordinal i e 21st instead of 21 In speech of and the are used in the UK as in the 21st of April In written language the words the and of may be and are usually dropped i e 21st April The US would say this as April 21st and this form is still common in the UK One of the few exceptions in American English is saying the Fourth of July as a shorthand for the United States Independence Day In the US military the British forms are used but the day is read cardinally while among some speakers of New England and Southern American English varieties and who come from those regions but live elsewhere those forms are common even in formal contexts Phrases such as the following are common in the UK but are generally unknown in the US A week today a week tomorrow a week on Tuesday and Tuesday week these all refer to a day which is more than a week into the future A fortnight Friday and Friday fortnight refer to a day two weeks after the coming Friday A week on Tuesday and a fortnight on Friday could refer either to a day in the past it s a week on Tuesday you need to get another one or in the future see you a week on Tuesday depending on context In the US the standard construction is a week from today a week from tomorrow etc BrE speakers may also say Thursday last or Thursday gone where AmE would prefer last Thursday I ll see you on Thursday coming or let s meet this coming Thursday in BrE refer to a meeting later this week while not until Thursday next would refer to next week In BrE there is also common use of the term Thursday after next or week after next meaning 2 weeks in the future and Thursday before last and week before last meaning 2 weeks in the past but not when referring to times more than 2 weeks been or gone or when using the terms tomorrow today or yesterday then in BrE you would say 5 weeks on Tuesday or 2 weeks yesterday Time edit The 24 hour clock 18 00 18 00 or 1800 is considered normal in the UK and Europe in many applications including air rail and bus timetables it is largely unused in the US outside military police aviation and medical applications As a result many Americans refer to the 24 hour clock as military time Some British English style guides recommend the full stop when telling time b compared to American English which uses colons i e 11 15 PM pm p m or 23 15 for AmE and 11 15 pm or 23 15 for BrE 70 Usually in the military and sometimes in the police aviation and medical applications on both sides of the Atlantic 0800 and 1800 are read as oh zero eight hundred and eighteen hundred hours respectively Even in the UK hundred follows twenty twenty one twenty two and twenty three when reading 2000 2100 2200 and 2300 according to those applications Fifteen minutes after the hour is called quarter past in British usage and a quarter after or less commonly a quarter past in American usage Fifteen minutes before the hour is usually called quarter to in British usage and a quarter of a quarter to or a quarter til in American usage the form a quarter to is associated with parts of the Northern United States while a quarter til or till is found chiefly in the Appalachian region 71 Thirty minutes after the hour is commonly called half past in both BrE and AmE half after used to be more common in the US In informal British speech the preposition is sometimes omitted so that 5 30 may be referred to as half five this construction is entirely foreign to US speakers who would possibly interpret half five as 4 30 halfway to 5 00 rather than 5 30 The AmE formations top of the hour and bottom of the hour are not used in BrE Forms such as eleven forty are common in both varieties To be simple and direct in telling time no terms relating to fifteen or thirty minutes before after the hour are used rather the time is told exactly as for example nine fifteen ten forty five Sports percentages edit In sports statistics certain percentages such as those for winning or win loss records and saves in field or ice hockey and association football are almost always expressed as a decimal proportion to three places in AmE and are usually read aloud as if they are whole numbers e g 0 500 or five hundred 72 hence the phrase games matches over five hundred whereas in BrE they are also expressed but as true percentages instead after multiplying the decimal by 100 that is 50 or fifty per cent and games matches over 50 or 50 per cent However games matches over 50 or 50 percent is also found in AmE albeit sporadically e g hitting percentages in volleyball 73 The American practice of expressing so called percentages in sports statistics as decimals originated with baseball s batting averages developed by English born statistician and historian Henry Chadwick See also edit nbsp Language portal nbsp United Kingdom portal nbsp United States portalAmerican and British English grammatical differences American and British English pronunciation differences American and British English spelling differences British and American keyboards List of dialects of the English language Lists of words having different meanings in American and British EnglishExplanatory notes edit Railway is used occasionally in North America as for example in the name of the BNSF Railway Recommended for instance by some style guides including the academic manual published by Oxford University Press under various titles 66 as well as the internal house style book for the University of Oxford 67 and that of The Guardian 68 and The Times newspapers 69 Citations edit Even in vocabulary A British reader of Time or Newsweek would note distinctly American expressions only a few times on any page matching the few distinctly British expressions an American reader of The Economist would note Edward Finegan in Language in the USA Themes for the Twenty first Century Eds Charles Albert Ferguson Edward Finegan Shirley Brice Heath John R Rickford Cambridge University Press 2004 p 29 See also David Crystal The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language Cambridge University Press 2003 p 304 Sokolowski Peter Soop vs Soup Video Merriam Webster Archived from the original on 4 January 2015 Retrieved 4 January 2015 Noah Webster the man who changed the way we spell up to a point See for example Krueger CL Stade G Karbiener K Encyclopedia of British Writers 19th and 20th Centuries Book Builders LLC Infobase Publishing ISBN 0816046700 p 309 rubber definition 3 Macmillan Dictionary Archived from the original on 17 October 2014 Retrieved 30 September 2013 rightward Definition of rightward in English by Oxford Dictionaries Oxford Dictionaries English Archived from the original on May 22 2018 Retrieved 29 September 2018 upward Definition of upward in English by Oxford Dictionaries Oxford Dictionaries English Archived from the original on May 22 2018 Retrieved 29 September 2018 forward Definition of forward in English by Oxford Dictionaries Oxford Dictionaries English Archived from the original on September 25 2016 Retrieved 29 September 2018 Cookbook is now often used in BrE Oup com Archived from the original on 16 May 2008 Retrieved 7 November 2010 bill Oxford Living Dictionaries English Archived from the original on September 25 2016 Retrieved 30 December 2018 Churchill Winston 1948 1954 The Second World War Volume 3 The Grand Alliance London Cassell ISBN 978 0141441740 Cunningham John Why Do Some People Call Football Soccer Britannica Archived from the original on 31 January 2022 Retrieved 4 August 2020 One of the best known that soccer is an Americanism Naturally the internet is chockablock with clickbait pages for this e g 50 British phrases Americans just don t understand Archived 2020 07 28 at the Wayback Machine matadornetwork com While and whilst English Grammar Today Cambridge Dictionary dictionary cambridge org Cambridge University Press 2019 Retrieved 4 May 2019 fall n 1 OED Online Oxford University Press December 2016 PM s Press Conference 10 Downing Street 26 July 2005 Archived from the original on 16 April 2007 Retrieved 27 April 2007 queue Cambridge English Dictionary Cambridge University Press Archived from the original on 25 May 2022 Retrieved 23 October 2022 Minzesheimer Bob 22 December 2008 Dickens classic Christmas Carol still sings to us USA Today Archived from the original on 6 November 2009 Retrieved 4 May 2010 Americanisms 50 of your most noted examples BBC News 20 July 2011 Archived from the original on 26 July 2020 Retrieved 13 August 2020 put stick your oar in Cambridge Advanced Learner s Dictionary Cambridge University Press Archived from the original on 9 July 2011 Retrieved 6 December 2010 not a ha porth of difference Cambridge Advanced Learner s Dictionary Cambridge University Press Archived from the original on 4 August 2010 Retrieved 6 December 2010 two cents two cents worth Cambridge Dictionary of American English Cambridge University Press Archived from the original on 7 August 2011 Retrieved 6 December 2010 Drop Mirriam Webster s Learner s Dictionary Archived from the original on 14 September 2010 Retrieved 6 December 2010 Fogarty Mignon January 16 2020 Could Care Less Versus Couldn t Care Less Quick and Dirty Tips Archived from the original on 16 July 2013 Retrieved 29 September 2018 The poke in slowpoke Grammarphobia 6 May 2013 Archived from the original on 21 October 2018 Retrieved 21 October 2018 David Else 2007 British language amp culture Lonely Planet ISBN 9781864502862 Education and Skills Act 2008 legislation gov uk Archived from the original on 1 August 2017 Retrieved 20 July 2011 Shelley College full citation needed public education Oxford English Dictionary Oxford England Oxford University Press 1971 PUBLIC 4b Gabay J Jonathan 2007 Gabay s copywriters compendium the definitive professional writer s guide Elsevier Oxford England page 144 ISBN 978 0 7506 8320 3 Highway Code Directgov Travel and transport Directgov Archived from the original on 6 January 2011 Retrieved 24 August 2010 a b c d e f g h Baugh Albert Croll and Cable Thomas 1993 A History of the English Language 4th edition Prentice Hall New York page 389 ISBN 0 415 09379 1 a b c Blunt Jerry 1994 Special English Words with American Equivalents Stage Dialects Dramatic Publishing Company Woodstock Illinois page 59 ISBN 0 87129 331 5 originally published in 1967 a b c d e Hargis Toni Summers 2006 Rules Britannia An Insider s Guide to Life in the United Kingdom St Martin s Press New York page 63 ISBN 978 0 312 33665 3 driver s licence merriam webster com Retrieved 8 May 2019 a b c Hargis Toni Summers 2006 Rules Britannia An Insider s Guide to Life in the United Kingdom St Martin s Press New York page 64 ISBN 978 0 312 33665 3 White E B 1997 One Man s Meat Tilbury House p 151 ISBN 0 88448 192 1 Cassidy Frederic Gomes and Joan Houston Hall eds 2002 Dictionary of American Regional English Cambridge MA Harvard University Press Allan A Metcalf 2000 How We Talk American Regional English Today Houghton Mifflin Harcourt p 90 ISBN 0 618 04362 4 sedanc Oxford English Dictionary Oxford England Oxford University Press 1989 SALOON 4c Chiefly N Amer Not used in the UK Celebrating Glasgow Subway at 125 Chapman James A Grammar and Composition IV 3d ed Pensacola A Beka Book 2002 The names of sports teams on the other hand are treated as plurals regardless of the form of that name 1 Archived 2014 10 16 at the Wayback Machine a b Peters Pam 2004 The Cambridge guide to English usage Cambridge Cambridge University Press ISBN 9780511487040 Houghton Mifflin Company 2006 The American Heritage Guide to Contemporary Usage and Style Houghton Mifflin Harcourt pp 94 ISBN 0 618 60499 5 Retrieved 29 June 2014 Instructions to Secretaries of Committees Cabinet Office nd Savage Mark 14 September 2011 Mick Jagger on SuperHeavy Everyone subsumed their egos BBC News Retrieved 28 May 2014 Sweeney Sabrina 22 November 2012 First Aid Kit A band of contradictions BBC News Retrieved 28 May 2014 Winik Jay 2001 April 1865 The month that saved America New York Harper pp 379 ISBN 978 0 06 018723 1 a b c Garner Bryan A 2016 Garner s Modern English Usage Oxford University Press pp 900 902 ISBN 978 0 19 049148 2 Huddleston Rodney Geoffrey K Pullum 2002 The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language Cambridge New York Cambridge University Press p 1058 ISBN 0 521 43146 8 Merriam Webster s Concise Dictionary of English Usage Penguin 2002 p 728 ISBN 9780877796336 Fowler H W 2010 Crystal David ed A Dictionary of Modern English Usage Oxford University Press pp 684 685 ISBN 978 0 19 966135 0 if writers would agree to regard that as the defining relative pronoun amp which as the non defining there would be much gain in lucidity amp in ease but it would be idle to pretend that it is the practice either of most or of the best writers Fowler H W 2010 Crystal David ed A Dictionary of Modern English Usage Oxford University Press p 685 ISBN 978 0 19 966135 0 What grammarians say should be has perhaps less influence on what shall be than even the more modest of them realize usage evolves itself little disturbed by their likes amp dislikes And yet the temptation to show how better use might have been made of the material to hand is sometimes irresistible The English relatives more particularly as used by English rather than American writers offer such a temptation Fowler H W 2010 Crystal David ed A Dictionary of Modern English Usage Oxford University Press p 685 ISBN 978 0 19 966135 0 if writers would agree to regard that as the defining relative pronoun amp which as the non defining there would be much gain in lucidity amp in ease bit it would be idle to pretend that it is the practice either of most or of the best writers Fowler H W 2010 Crystal David ed A Dictionary of Modern English Usage Oxford University Press p 685 ISBN 978 0 19 966135 0 Fowler H W 2015 Butterfield Jeremy ed Fowler s Dictionary of Modern English Usage Oxford University Press pp 808 809 ISBN 978 0 19 966135 0 Huddleston Rodney D Pullum Geoffrey K 2002 The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language Cambridge UK Cambridge University Press ISBN 0 521 43146 8 OCLC 46641801 Algeo John The Effects of the Revolution on Language in A Companion to the American Revolution John Wiley amp Sons 2008 p 599 International Bureau of Weights and Measures 2006 The International System of Units SI PDF 8th ed p 130 ISBN 92 822 2213 6 archived PDF from the original on 2021 06 04 retrieved 2021 12 16 Crystal David 2003 The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language second ed Cambridge University Press p 278 ISBN 0 521 82348 X It also gives clues about the prosody through such features as question marks exclamation marks and parentheses What are inverted commas Lexico Dictionaries English Archived from the original on 2020 03 28 Retrieved 2021 03 07 How to use inverted commas BBC Bitesize Retrieved 2021 03 06 Greenslade Roy 13 February 2008 Headline Commas Who Needs Them The Guardian London Retrieved 9 June 2011 Forsyth Edith 2023 05 07 Monetary Value Overview amp Examples study com Retrieved 2023 05 07 2 Archived 2012 03 26 at the Wayback Machine see end of numbered item 9 Anne Waddingham ed 2014 11 3 Times of day New Hart s rules the Oxford style guide 2 ed Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 957002 7 University of Oxford style guide University of Oxford Public Affairs Directorate 2016 times Guardian and Observer style guide Guardian Media Group 2017 Archived from the original on 2017 07 09 Retrieved 2020 06 10 Brunskill Ian 2017 The Times Style Guide A guide to English usage 2 ed Glasgow HarperCollins UK ISBN 9780008146184 OCLC 991389792 Formerly available online The Times Online Style Guide News UK 2011 Archived from the original on 4 August 2011 Trask Larry 1997 The Colon Guide to Punctuation University of Sussex Archived from the original on 5 August 2013 Retrieved 21 August 2013 Murray Thomas E Simon Beth Lee 2008 Appalachian English morphology and syntax In Bernd Kortmann Edgar W Schneider eds The Americas and the Caribbean Vol 2 Berlin New York De Gruyter Mouton pp 401 427 Why is 50 written 500 and said five hundred in sports Dear Sports Fan 25 June 2015 This week in Badger Volleyball Oct 3 10 Wisconsin Badgers University of Wisconsin 5 October 2016 has hit better than 36 percent in all four Big Ten matches this season including two matches over 50 percent General and cited sources editAlgeo John 2006 British or American English Cambridge Cambridge University Press ISBN 0 521 37993 8 Hargraves Orin 2003 Mighty Fine Words and Smashing Expressions Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 0 19 515704 4 McArthur Tom 2002 The Oxford Guide to World English Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 0 19 866248 3 Murphy Lynne 2018 The Prodigal Tongue The Love Hate Relationship Between British and American English London Oneworld Publications ISBN 1 786 07269 6 Peters Pam 2004 The Cambridge Guide to English Usage Cambridge Cambridge University Press ISBN 0 521 62181 X Trudgill Peter and Jean Hannah 2002 International English A Guide to the Varieties of Standard English 4th ed London Arnold ISBN 0 340 80834 9 Further reading editErin Moore 2015 That s Not English Britishisms Americanisms and What Our English Says About Us Avery ISBN 978 1592408856 External links editWord substitution list by the Ubuntu English United Kingdom Translators team Linguistics Issues List of American Canadian and British spelling differences Map of US English dialects The Septic s Companion A British Slang Dictionary Selected Vocabulary Differences Between British and American English at the Wayback Machine archived 1 July 2016 British English vs American English Slang Compared British English American English Vocabulary Quiz Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Comparison of American and British English amp oldid 1195123841, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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