American English vs. British English
According to Coughlan(2004), nowadays, there are more
than 7,000 kinds of languages in the world. Among them,
English is regarded as a second language by many people.
However, as one of the global languages, English has
developed several unique usages and accents in different
countries all over the world. It includes not only American
English and British English, but also Australian English,
Indian English, Singlish, and even Chinglish. The English education in Taiwan is mainlybased on learning American English. Yet, in the past ten years, the population that begins to learn British English has been increasing day by day due to the influence of the social media. The following paragraphs will focus on three significant differences between American English and British English.
First, the idiomatic grammar of two languages is one of the main differences especially the use of collective nouns and past tense. Generally speaking, both American English and British English follow the same grammatical rules. However, in terms of use, there are still a few differences between these two kinds of English. For example, the use of collective nouns in British English is extremely different from American English. If the word in American English is singular, it can be singular or plural in British English, such as “family”, “team”, and “band”. While American people often say, “The team is good”, British people will say “The team is good.” or “The team are good.” Both statements are acceptable in British English. Another difference is the timing of using past tense and present perfect tense. When describing something that has happened, Americans tend to use the past tense, but British prefer to use the present perfect tense. For instance, Americans often say, “I ate too much!” while British say, “I have eaten too much”. These distinctions are caused by the different usage habits of the United Kingdom and the United States.
Second, American accents and British accents are different. The difference in pronunciation between the two types of English is mainly reflected in the distinct pronunciation of the vowels “a”, “o” and the consonant “r”. In some words, such as
“ask”, “dance”, and “fast”, British pronounce the letter “a” as /a:/ while the Americans pronounce it as /æ/. Moreover, if “r” appears after a vowel, British people generally do not pronounce it, Americans will pronounce this vowel very clearly. For example, the British often pronounce “park the car” as “paak the caa”. Also, Americans are used to pronouncing /t/ as /d/, so the word “writer”, often sounds like “rider”. Another similar example includes “latter” and “ladder”. Because of these significant distinctions, as long as you hear people speaking English, you can usually recognize whether it is British English or American English in the first sentence.
Third, there are a number of obvious differences in spelling between British English and American English. In American English, words that end in “or” usually end in “our” in British English, such as “honor” and “labor”, which are different from “honour” and “labour” in British English. Besides, in American English, if the word ends in “er”, then it will end in “re” in British English. For example, “center” and “theater” are used in American English, while “centre” and “theatre” are used in British English. What's more, there are many differences in the detailed spelling of some vocabularies like Americans spell “program” whereas British spell “programme” Although there are several spelling differences between British English and American English, it won’t be a blockage for people to communicate and read.
In conclusion, after comparing the differences between British English and American English, we can find that there are three obvious distinctions between them in some fields: the idiomatic grammar, pronunciation, and spelling. We cannot say which kind of English is absolutely correct and which is absolutely wrong. It's only depending on different people’s habits when they speak and write in English. Yet, one thing we have to pay attention is that when we use English, we should use American English or British English uniformly without mixing them. All in all, it’s interesting that no matter what kind of English you speak, you can communicate smoothly with other people.
Sources:
世界語言 - 維基百科，自由的百科全書 (wikipedia.org)
BBC NEWS | UK | Education | English 'world language' forecast
美式ＶＳ英式！英語大不同！！！ - ETALKING BLOG (etalkingonline.com)
英式英語美式英語差別，看這一篇文章就夠了！ - 每日頭條 (kknews.cc)
英式英語與美式英語的差異 - 每日頭條 (kknews.cc)
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