British vs. American english....?

Question

Can anyone give me a few examples of differences between American and British english? For instance, I know that British say holiday and Americans say vacation.... or autumn - fall.... or spelling differences like colour - color...

Answer 1

There are a couple of differences in grammar as well. BrE is much more likely to use "have got" where AmE uses "have". (I've got a car/I have a car). And then AmE would say "have gotten" if the "getting" was being stressed.

Also, when a word refers to a group of people or things (eg a team or a company), BrE is more likely to consider it plural, AmE more likely to consider it singular (though there's a lot of overlap).

Punctuation: AmE usually has a comma after the second-last item in a list (before the and or or), BrE usually doesn't. AmE always puts periods and commas inside quotation marks, BrE only does if the sense of the sentence requires them there. (I said, "I love you," but I lied vs. I said, "I love you", but I lied.)

Answer 2

Don't you mean English vs American English it isn't called British English it's just called English which originated in England which is in Great Britain also known as the UK and words like dialog and dialogue are both spelled correctly it just depends on where in the world you are.

Answer 3

Sidewalk = Pavement
Tire = Tyre
Donut = Doughnut
there are loads more but as English was invented by the English, the original spellings are correct, missing out letters is just lazy!
P.S It's English, not British, the British Isles have other languages than English such as Gaelic (Irish and Scottish variations) and Welsh.

Answer 4

These are in no particular order:

British people also tend to say 'go to hospital' just like 'go to school'; whereas Americans would usually say 'go to the hospital'.

British generally use the suffix '-ise' where Americans would use 'ize'

brit: aluminium am: aluminum

Answer 5

American, British
sausages, bangers
raincoat, mac
suspenders, breeches
garters, suspenders
friend, mate

Answer 6

American: subway
British: underground

American: gas
British: petrol

American: french fries
British: chips

American: movies
British: cinema

American: apartment
British: flat

American: bar
British: pub

American: cab
British: taxi

American: dessert
British: sweet

American: purse
British: hand bag

American: railroad
British: railway

American: stove
British: cooker

Answer 7

British wear trousers. Americans wear pants. If you say 'pants' to the brits, it refers to underwear (i.e. panties)

A 'rubber' in England refers to a pencil eraser.

The hood of your car is referred to as a bonnet

Answer 8

BrE is more elegant. Unfortunately, we hear AmE all the time that we sometimes start speaking like "What's up dude?"

And you must be careful with verbs like: organise, industrialise, realise... In AmE they are "organize, industrialize, realize.."

And another thing: centre is BrE and center is AmE

Answer 9

Biscuits - US cookies
scones - US biscuits
car park - parking lot
cooker - stove
hoover - vaccum
nappy - diaper
fags - cigarettes
fanny -crotch
bum - fanny
motorway - freeway
post - mail
lift - elevator

Answer 10

Brits use "s" where we use "z" in some cases. (for example, utilise).
Also, there is an "ou" instead of an "o" (i.e., flavour, colour).
Chips means fries, fag means cigarrette.
Those are just some examples.