British English vs American English
American English Vs British English
The phrase 'American English' refers to a dialect of English spoken and written mainly in the United States. Americans commonly refer to their own language as simply 'English'. That's not actually correct; the official name of the language is 'American English', though many people just call it 'American'.
Americans tend to use words differently than Brits. For example, the word 'the' can sound different depending on what part of England/Scotland/Wales you're from. To make things even more confusing, some words can have more than one meaning.
In Britain, we don't use the word 'bloody'; instead, we might say something like 'for Christ's sake'. In America, however, saying 'Christ's sake' sounds really weird!
In British English, there is no difference between 'I' and 'me' as both pronouns refer to the speaker. However, in American English, 'I' refers to a singular person whereas 'you' refers to plural people. In addition, Americans use 'your' instead of 'yours'. Americans also say 'he', 'she', and 'it' instead of 'him/her/its'. If I want to say something about myself it would be 'Me' while if I wanted to say something about my friend's name it would be 'My name is John'. I hope that helped!
The differences between British and American English have changed over the years due to the many wars fought between the two nations. Many words and phrases were brought about by the colonizations of the United States. Here are some examples of these differences.
English is divided into two parts - nouns (things) and verbs (actions). In American English, the verb comes before the noun, while in British English the noun comes first.
Examples:
American: I am going.
British: Am I going?
American: I want.
British: Do I want?
Americans use only singular they while Brits do not.
Example: We need to go/They need to go.
Americans say I'm sorry and my friend is welcome.
Brits say I'm sorry and his friend is welcome.
Americans love fast food.
Brits love curry.
Americans make their beds.
Let's Discuss some difference between vocabulary
American is the term for people who speak English, while Brits use British.
In America, we say biscuit, while the Brits say cookie.
In America, dessert means something sweet at the end of a meal, while in Britain it's just what we call sweets or desserts.
The definition of dinner in the US is "the evening meal", while in England they eat a meal earlier in the day.
Ice cream in America is soft serve ice cream without any other toppings; whereas Brits add nuts, sprinkles, chocolate sauce, and waffles.
In America, jam is a type of jelly, while in Britain it refers to marmalade.
Mince pies are eaten around Christmas time in the UK, but not the US. In America, we have Thanksgiving.
In British English, "Hello" is said as 'Hullo'. In American English it's said as 'Hallo' or 'Hi' or simply just 'hello'. I think in America, if you're not familiar with someone, people would prefer to say hi rather than hello.
In Britain we don't use questions starting with what? Instead we use what about?, What do you mean? or What does that mean? Other examples of questions starting with what include; What time is it now?, Who did it?, Why did he leave?, When did they get here?, etc.
British don't use the word 'this' unless we know exactly what we want. We'd say something like "I need a pen", or "Give me a pen." We wouldn't say "Give me this pen". But Americans use.
In Britain, we don't use thank you very often. Saying thank you seems somewhat rude. If someone thanks us, we might say something along the line of "No problem" or "It was nothing" (informally). However, In US we always say thank YOU! if someone helps us, even if it was just for a small task.
If we're sorry about something, we'll say sorry. You'd never say sorry to someone in Britain.
Other English Varieties Vs British
British English - Canadian English
Canadian English uses much more of the word 'eh?' than British English does. For example, if you were to ask someone in Canada how they are doing, they might answer 'Eh? I'm grand.' However, in Britain, you'd probably hear something more along the lines of 'I'm fine thank you.'
British English - Australian English
Australians often pronounce words differently than Britons and Americans. Australians generally use the word'mate' instead of 'friend'. Also, Australians put 'of course' at the start of whatever sentence they're talking about. People in Britain would never think of starting a statement with 'of course!' - they'd wait until the end of the sentence.
British English - New Zealand English
New Zealanders use longer sentences than anyone else! If you're from New Zealand, you'll notice that almost everything you read starts with the word 'like'. For example, 'Like, I was wondering if you could help me out with my homework?' (Brits would use 'you know'.)
British English - Indian English
Indian English speakers sometimes use 'yeah' where Brits would use 'yes'. Indians are also known for using lots of contractions. For example, 'to be' becomes 'toh be'. Another thing is that they use 'yeh kya hai' ('what did you get') instead of 'kya hai' ('isn't it').
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