Why do many of English learners tend to think that the British speak better English than the Americans do?

Answer 1

Because UK English still uses complex grammar forms which the US English have ditched them?
Or because they are taught UK English so when they meet US English they find it too different to their taste. And don't start me on the false friends between the two languages.

Answer 2

Had to chuckle... some interesting assumptions in the question too...

This implies that there is a 'correct' English. That begs the question, what defines correct English? As a Brit myself having been born and brought up abroad, with an English Public School education, I am told I speak English very correctly, though I would call it more a 'colonial' based pronounciation with an emphasis on grammar and spelling.

If that is a yardstick to measure 'correct' English, then I guess I speak better English than the Americans, but this question is full of massive generalisations and sweeping assumptions which I do not think are relavent anymore.

Without trying to be too clever about this, I think what the questioner is driving at, is that from a non-English person perspective (i.e. someone who has a different first language and is learning English) they find that the way that the British speak English is clearer and more consistent in terms of the way they use the language, relative to the way they learn the language.

But there are a dozen or more different ways that 'British' people speak English as well, so I guess we are talking about what is sometimes referred to as the Queen's English, or that home counties type of accent or pronounciation, which articulates the vowels and consonents more precisely and consistently.

But back to the chuckle, as there are many Brits who massacre the English language just as badly as the Americans, if not worse sometimes.

And there are Americans who articulate very well using English, albeit with a particular accent, and there are many British regional accents as well as American regional accents.

So after all that waffle, I am sure that a foreigner learning English will find the way an Englishman from the home counties of England speaks English, is a better representation of what it is they are trying to learn than what they hear from Americans. However, I would also include many British accents or dialects as being more difficult to comprehend as well.

On the other hand, I have heard many Dutch people speak far better English than many British do, so it all rather depends.

It's all changing anyway. Language is culturally bound and relative to time. The English spoken today has little resemblance to the English spoken in England in the 15th Century, and I am sure will have many differences to the English that will be spoken in the 25th Century.

Looking at the youth cultures of today, it is clear to see how the language is changing, something that is inevitable, but I can see how that poses problems for those trying to get to grips with it, A more consistent accepted standard might be argued to be better (i.e. the Queens English), but then who decides what is correct or or better, or not?

Remember that English is not the native language of America (even though it now predominates). It was brought there by settlers, along with many other languages of the world, so it is no wonder that it in turn evolved into a different form than that which is used back in 'blighty'.

Interesting question as it probes right to some fundemental issues of culture...

Answer 3

My partner (a Welshman) says that the Americans speak a cleaner Enlgish like the one spoken in England some centuries ago while the language in Britain has evolved over the time and therefore is more modern.
To all of you who think the English invented the language - I have to say they didn't....
It's a merger and evolution of two Germanic dialects brought there by German/ Danish settlers the Angles and the Saxons - I'm a Saxon myself (bieng born in Saxony). That's why they're sometimes called the Anglo-Saxons. Or why do you think the Welsh and Scottish call the English 'Sais/Sassenach' meaning Saxons? Don't know what the English spoke before probably Latin - while other parts of the modern time UK had had their own languages for ages Welsh, Scottish/ Irish Gaelic which of course have been influenced by the different groups of occupiers (Romans, Normans etc).
I also recently found out that half of English males are in fact of (distant) German descent (hahahaha). But the language/s came there long before America was discovered and eveolved over the time. However if you read Old English literature like the Canterbury Tales by G.Chaucer and know German you can see the common roots of the two languages.

Answer 4

I don't know how to exactly answer your question because i'm English, so, technically, i don't know any different but i think i could help settle the argument that has broken out. (i'm not anti-american.. or indeed anti-english here btw...)

it's easy for English (or Scottich or Welsh or Northern Irish) people to hurl abuse at the Americans (or Canadians) about how they have changed our language that we spent so long creating (i suppose)... i think we're just very protective of it because we're proud to call ourselves English and it annoys us a bit that other people claim to speak English but, in fact, speak American.

the thing that i think may be the problem is that Americans seem to be more ignorant towards the way the (Great) British speak and the UK as a whole (*no... i don't have tea with the queen!* etc.). what i mean is..... if an american said 'diaper' to us; we would know what they meant. but if i said 'nappy' to an american i would probably hear 'huh?'. which i think is quite ignorant. and the english criticising the way americans speak is our way of feeling better than them because they always come across to us as obnoxious etc.



PS: Not to American Readers - PLEASE don't call us British... we hate it... and most of us hate the other 'British' coutries. cal us English, Scottish etc... it's like us calling a Canadian 'American'. you get the idea.

Answer 5

i'm amrican and i have to say that i am offended by some of the comments on here. while it may be true that the way english is spoken here, is very much different from the way it is in the UK i feel offended that people are saying that it is stupid and massacred. many of the accents used here are based on culture. someone mentioned something about wesley snipes movies. well if you're refering to the way african americans speak, well then i am sorry to say that that is also based on culture. many words today were taking from dialects and they were mixed over time. i can speak perfect "american english" but i usually have to talk slower to do so because evn though i have spoken english from a very early age, my first language was spanish and i do talk differently and use different slang than other americans because of it. now about the way we spell things? give it up. you don't live here so it shouldn't bother you. i know how to spell words the way the british do but i don't rteally think about it since it does not concern me. it's cultural differences, get over it there is no right or wrong way everybody has different cultures and language is one of the things that makes them unique. I have to listen to all of this crap in amrica with people asking what region or what racial group speaks the best english. i am capable of putting on a good educated accent (i'm refering to an amrican one of course and speaking with what we call over here a "white" accent)but i don't because i feel more confortable using the slang and pronounciation of the neighborhood and society i grew up in. it was annoying to have the teacher correct the way we spoke and i don't people should complain about it because when i am required to use proper grammer i do(which as you can probably tell, i didn;t right now. so you should just do the same for americans. and fyi- they're not the only other country who speaks english differently, although we are the only one who spells differently.

Answer 6

Brits. however they have a thicker accessory, they use perfect grammar greater normally, and don't use as many fake words, like "ain't" and "yo." i'm American, if it somewhat is proper. i'm a white supremacist if it somewhat is not. EDIT: inspite of the readability, a million/2 the time whilst somebody here in united statesa. is conversing English, i don't be responsive to what the **** they are asserting. Even a heavy British accessory is far less complicated to understand than a sentence that may not a sentence composed of words that at the instant are not words.

Answer 7

Well as a Brit myself I can honestly say that in the main both my compatriots and the Americans speak rotten English. In my experience people like the Dutch and Scandinavians who speak English (and many of them do) speak it better as they are taught it from a young age in the main rather than just learning it as a first tongue.

If you were to look at the standard of writing on both the Yankee and British Yahoo Answers then you would see that none of us have much to shout about. Especially from those mor*ons who insist on using that horrible text language.

Answer 8

In many cases is like that, the English people pronounce slowly and they do not drag the words, so british english is easier to understand.
In many american tv series, all actors speak so quickly and they tend to cut words.
For example one of the best english I have ever heard is the one they used to speak in "friends" comedy.
And in my opinion the worst english is the one they speak in many wesley snipes movies and big momma's movies, it's so difficult to understand.
And I'm not british. I'm american, but not north- american. Because America is not only the Usa.

Answer 9

I'm guessing that these learners live in a place where British English is used in a culturally and economically powerful way. People gravitate to dialects that have social pull for them. There is no difference in value between the dialects as far as communicative ability.

Answer 10

What does it really matter who speaks English better?

Britain & America are not to be compared, really pointless. Each country has evolved it's own words due to immigrants coming, for a long time. Accents also evolve.

I live in the Southern Hemisphere and I notice our English is changing as well.