You probably already know that there are many different British and many different American accents. The ones we often hear are Southern Standard British English and the General American accent, but this can vary, depending on who we work with or what kind of series, films, podcasts or radio we listen to or watch. Accents are a complicated subject about which many books have been written! So I won’t go into differences in accent today. However, there are other important differences between British and American English - spelling and vocabulary. Let’s start with spelling.
S and Z
Generally speaking, if a British English word has ‘-ise‘, ‘-ising’ or ‘-isation‘ at the end, the American equivalent is ‘-ize‘, ‘-izing’ or ‘-ization‘. By looking at these types of word ending, we can often see that ‘s’ is British English and ‘z’ is American English.
Let’s look at some examples:
British English (BrE) American English (AmE)
Organise Organize
Organising Organizing
Organisation Organization
Realise Realize
Realising Realizing
Realisation Realization
However, do note that if a particular spelling is used for an official name, it should not be changed. For example, if you’re writing a report in BrE and referring to the World Health Organization, you must leave the spelling as it is.
Having said all of that...while many people follow the above rules, including EU institutions and NGOs in Brussels, it's not necessarily so clear cut! When I posted this blog on LinkedIn, one person (David Harley) mentioned in the comments that, '...the Oxford University Press continues to advocate the use of -ize [in British English] - except for a relatively small number of words that don't derive from Greek. So a sizeable number of British authors (including me) would write 'organize'...not 'organise', but would use -ise in words including advertise, revise, exercise, and surprise.'
I would agree with David on those last four words, and also 'citizen’ and ‘size’ – all spelt with a ‘-ze’ in British English. But broadly speaking, I still use ‘-ise’ for most verbs that are spelt with ‘-ize’ in US English.
-re and -er
BrE uses ‘-re’ in words such as ‘centre’ and ‘metre’, whereas AmE uses ‘er’, i.e. ‘center’ and ‘meter’.
-our and -or
BrE: colour, labour, favour, favourite
AmE: color, labor, favor. favorite
This also applies to words such as colourful/colorful, labouring/laboring etc.
The letter L
In BrE, when a word ends in a single “L” and you add a suffix that starts with a vowel, the “L” is often doubled.
However, in AmE, the 'L' is usually not doubled. For example:
BrE: Travel - Traveller, travelling... and so on: labelled, labelling, cancelled, cancelling, marvellous, jewellery
AmE: Travel - Traveler, traveling...and so on: labeled, labeling, canceled, canceling, marvelous, jewelery
There are also some surprises you’ll come across, such as:
BrE: Fulfil
AmE: Fulfill
‘-ce’ and ‘-se’
BrE: Defence, offence, pretence
AmE: Defense, offense, pretense.
However, there are exceptions. For example:
BrE: practice (noun), practise (verb)
AmE: practice (both noun and verb)
Advise (verb) is the same in both BrE and AmE
Advice (noun) is the same in both BrE and AmE
Vocabulary
Let’s be clear - BrE and AmE are the same language! It is only accent, some spelling and some vocabulary that differs. It must be said, though, that there are a surprising number of vocabulary differences.
So let’s look at some of those commonly-used words:
British English American English
Boot (of a car) Trunk (of a car)
Bonnet (of a car) Hood (of a car)
Wing (of a car) Fender (of a car)
Multi-storey carpark Parking deck (in some areas of the US)
Holiday Vacation
Biscuit Cookie
Crisps Chips
Chips Fries (French fries) - generally thinner than 'British' chips.
Jumper Sweater
Trousers Pants
Pants Underwear
Postbox Mailbox
Rubbish Trash / Garbage
Rubbish bin Trash can / Garbage can
Tip/Dump Garbage dump
Car park Parking lot
Petrol station Gas station
Petrol Gasoline (Gas)
Sweets Candy (a candy bar can also be chocolate)
Shop Store
Shopping centre Mall / shopping center
Toilet / Loo Bathroom / Restroom
Tap Faucet
Chemist/ Drugstore/
Pharmacy Pharmacy
Dummy (baby) Pacifier
Idiot (and others) Dummy (and others)
Nappy Diaper
Roundabout Traffic circle / Rotary
Motorway Freeway
Pavement Sidewalk
Zebra crossing Crosswalk
Trolley Shopping cart
Tram Trolley
Return ticket Round-trip ticket
Single ticket One-way ticket
Plaster Band-Aid (sometimes also bandage)
University College (in context)
Headteacher Principal
Secondary school High school (broadly speaking)
Public school Private school
(or private school!)
Football Soccer
Maths Math
Rubber Eraser
Condom Rubber
Mum Mom (Note: people also say and write 'Mom' in Birmingham and the West Midlands UK)
Ground Floor First Floor
Casualty ER (Emergency Room)
Operating Room Theater
Film Movie
Cinema Movie Theater
Handbag Purse/pocketbook
Purse Change purse
Lorry Truck
Lift Elevator
Mobile phone Cell phone
Fizzy drink/pop Soda
Coriander Cilantro
Aubergine Egg Plant
Chickpeas Garbanzo beans
Pushchair/buggy Stroller
Torch Flashlight
Flat Apartment
Trainers Sneakers
Wardrobe Closet
Garden Yard
Cheque Check
Mince meat Ground meat
Aluminium Aluminum
Annexe Annex
Horse riding Horseback riding
Fortnight Two weeks
Underground/Tube Subway
Got Gotten
Biro Ball pen
Bum Fanny
To boil To grill
Spanner Wrench
Amber Yellow (relating to traffic lights)
Straight ahead Shoot the rotary
at the roundabout
Engaged Busy (when referring to not being able to get through to someone on your phone)
Metre Meter (both referring to distance only. As Peter Jamieson pointed out, The British also use 'meter' to mean a measuring device, such as a gas meter)
There are also several more words that mean different things in both countries. Here are just a few examples:
- Generally 'mad' in UK English is a derogatory term for having severe mental health issues, but in the US, it means angry.
- 'To mooch' in the UK means to wander around in a leisurely way, whereas in the US it means to steal.
- 'Pudding' can be any dessert in the UK, whereas in the US it's a dessert made with milk or cream.
- In the UK, a 'cot' is a bed for a baby, but in the US it's a camping bed.
- As well as meaning 'trousers' in the US and 'underwear' in the UK, 'pants' is also slang for 'rubbish' in the UK - in the sense of, "That film was pants!"
The word 'quite'
Malcolm Dixon brought my attention to this word, and it reminded me of the confusion it created when I first met my husband Tony, who is half American. In British English, 'quite' is often used as a modifier meaning 'fairly'. So 'quite good' is yeah, fairly good, nothing special. It can also be used as an intensifier, such as, 'It was quite amazing!', but then the word 'quite' is emphatically stressed. However, in American English the word 'quite' is only used as an intensifier. So if my husband told me my hair looked 'quite good', I felt a bit insulted, whereas in reality he was saying it looked great! Believe it or not, it took us both a few months to work that one out!
Well, this has been quite a long blog! The good news is that a lot of British and Americans know each other’s vocabulary, even if not all of it! So if you say ‘sidewalk’ instead of ‘pavement’ or ‘trash’ instead of ‘rubbish’ in the UK, you’re likely to still be well understood!
Finally...I haven't even touched on the many idioms and phrases that you’ll hear in one country but not the other. But that’s for another day and another bookshelf! However, now that you know a lot more about British and American English, I am going to end this blog with just one British idiom: “Bob’s your uncle!”
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Are you a Brit living in the US, or an American living in the UK? Is there anything that I, or the LinkedIn community, have forgotten so far? Let me know so that I can add them to the list (and of course I will credit you with your name, unless you prefer that I don't).
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With thanks to the following people on LinkedIn who added, or indeed amended, much of the vocabulary in this blog:
Alarich Hofmann Catherine Moore James Kirchner Eileen Flannigan Alison Penfold AITI Jane Haven
Anna Aresi, PhD Corey Miller Gareth Clough Charlie E. Trista Morales MEdL, MS ID Rachael O'Flaherty
Lucie FERNANDEZ Ishat Reza David Harley Ronald "Ron" Singh Cherie F. Peter Jamieson Matthew Haas
Mark Harrison Dr. Fraj Alshmri Sandra Grauschopf Alexander Baratta Roberto Giménez Llamas
Saman Asif James Carlini, MBA, IC Hélène Weydert Nizam Yusuf Dr Ann Maree Nobelius Maxim Korolev Meghna Chatterjee Matthias Hellwig Zubair Ansari Paul Mitchell Gianfranco Corti Kisha Delain
Jean Pratz Nicholas Powell Andrew H. John Provis
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