American English vs British English

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British English vs American English

This British English vs American English template will help you learn the differences in vocabulary, spelling, dates, pronunciation, grammar, and numbers between American English and British English.

American English is spoken in the United States, and British English is spoken in the United Kingdom.

American English vs. Standard British English

Pronunciation

What particularity in pronunciation have you spotted?

Think of the sounds /o/ and /ae/, pronunciation of letter 'T', unaccented syllables, etc.

Example: sound /o/ is pronounced with rounded lips only in BrE.

Grammar

Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous grammatical differences

Type in any other miscellaneous particularities of the two language versions.

Example: when naming rivers in AmE, the word 'river' comes after the name: 'Upper Delaware River'. In BrE, 'river' always comes in front of the name: 'River Thames'.

Prepositions

Preposition differences

Type in the particularities regarding the use of prepositions in Standard British English (BrE).

Example: British sportsmen play in a team.

Preposition differences

Type in the particularities regarding the use of prepositions in American English (AmE).

Example: American athletes play on a team.

Verbs

Verb differences

What are the particularities regarding the use of verbs in Standard British English (BrE)? Type them in. Take into account the use of tenses, verb morphology, auxiliaries, transitivity, etc.

Example: BrE uses present perfect along with the words 'already', 'just' and 'yet' to talk about an event in the recent past: We have just arrived home.

Verb differences

What are the particularities regarding the use of verbs in American English (AmE)? Type them in. Take into account the use of tenses, verb morphology, auxiliaries, transitivity, etc.

Example: AmE occasionally uses simple past instead of past perfect to talk about an event in the recent past: I just arrived from work.

Nouns

British English

Noun differences

Type in the particularities regarding the use of nouns in Standard British English (BrE).

Here, collective nouns can take plural verb forms if the emphasis is on the individual members: The team were unable to agree on the defense strategy.

American English

Noun differences

Type in the particularities regarding the use of nouns in American English (AmE).

For instance, collective nouns almost always take singular verb forms: The team was awarded first prize in the competition.

Numbers

Writing numbers

How is writing numbers different in American English from Standard British English? Type in some situations.

Example: AmE speakers will drop the 'and' before the tens and units, while the BrE speakers will always write numbers of such with 'and': 'two thousand fourteen' (AmE) or 'two thousand and fourteen' (BrE).

Saying numbers

Type in some of these situations.

Example: for the house numbers or bus numbers (or any short numbers of such), for example, 583, American speakers will say ' five eighty-three', while British people will say ' five eight three'.

Dates

Say the date

How do you say the date?

AmE and BrE speakers say the date differently.

Type in the two ways of saying the date in English, taking into account the order in which they say the day (DD), the month (MM) and the year (YYYY).

Date format

What is the difference in date format?

The date is formatted differently in American English and Standard British English.

Type in the two formats, taking into account that it has to include the day (DD), the month (MM) and the year (YYYY).

Spelling

Words ending in "OR"

Use of letter 'U' in words ending in 'OR'

In American English, words ending in 'OR' do not include the letter 'U'.

Type in as many words as you can. Example: 'color' (AmE) and 'colour' (BrE).

Double consonants

Use of double consonants

Type in the words that are written with double consonants only in one version of the language.

Example: 'traveler' (AmE) and 'traveller' (BrE).

Words with different endings

Words with different endings

Type in the words which have one ending in American English and another one in Standard British English.

Example: AmE has changed words ending in 're' in 'er': 'theater' and 'theatre'.

Vocabulary

Same word, different meanings

The same word with different meanings

Type in examples of words that have different meanings in American and Standard British English.

Example: 'bill' can both refer to paper money (AmE) and an invoice (BrE).

Different words, same meaning

Particularity

Different words with the same meaning

There are many objects that are described by different words in American and British English.

Example: 'Cookie' (AmE) and 'biscuit' (BrE) both refer to the same sweet baked food.

Type in some of these words.