The differences between AmE
and BrE
Group 7: 王梦倩 孙琪 蒋雯雯 王
佳
The differences between
AmE and BrE
What are AmE
and BrE
The causes of
the differences
The differences
conclusion
spoken
grammar
grammar
vocabulary
vocabulary
• American English (AmE) is the form of English used in
the United States. It includes all English dialects used
within the United States of America.
• British English (BrE) is the form of English used in the
United Kingdom. It includes all English dialects used
within the United Kingdom.
• Today, there are 375 million people speak English as
their first language. While according to the population of
the different countries, the AmE speakers are more than
the BrE speakers.
causes
• The English language was first introduced to the Americas by
British colonization, beginning in the early 17th century. Over
the past 400 years, the form of the language used in the
Americas—especially in the United States—and that used in the
British Isles have diverged in a few minor ways, leading to the
dialects now occasionally referred to as American English and
British English.
• First, as America is such a big country, there are many different
dialects. These dialects make AmE more complex than BrE
• Second, because of the entering of other languages, such as
French, Spanish and so on, the AmE becomes mixed and
different from BrE.
Spoken
British English and American English is
the same language, but English-speaking
people is in the use of different spoken
English, because of the geographical,
social, occupation, gender, national
factors such as changes in the
characteristics of a different language.
Dialects and accents
• Dialects and accents vary between the countries
of United Kingdom and the United States, and
also within the countries themselves.
• Dialects and accents vary not only between the
countries in the United Kingdom, England,
Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, but also
within these individual countries.
• About spoken American English, scholars have
mapped at least four major regional variations of
spoken American English: Northern, Southern,
Midland, and Western.
• The standard accent of British English is often
referred to as ‘Received Pronunciation’ (RP)，
while in American English, 'General American' is
usually considered standard.
stress
•
As many words derived from French, American English has finalsyllable stress, while British English stresses an earlier syllable,
such as, adult, Francoise, attaché, etc.
• Most 2-syllable verbs ending -ate have first-syllable stress in
American English and second-syllable stress in British English, such
as, dictate, donate etc.
• Most longer -ate verbs are pronounced the same in American
English and British English, but a few have first-syllable stress in
British English and second-syllable stress in American English:
elongate, infiltrate.
Pronunciation
Vowel
•
In everyday English, about 150 words which have letter a between
[f],[m],[n],[w],[t],[s], a pronounces [a:] in British English and [a ] in American
English, for example, ask /ask/(AmE) / a:sk/(BrE), but if when a is between
[p] [b],[t],[d],[k],[g] , [tf], both AmE and BrE pronounce [a ], e.g. bag /bag
(AmE)(BrE)
•
–ile pronounces [il], [el],[i:l] in American English and [ail] in British English,
e.g. fragile /`fra dʒel/(AmE) /`fra dʒail/ (BrE), missile /`misel (AmE) /`misail
(BrE)
• In –ary,-ery,-ory , letter a, e, o usually pronounce [e ] in American
English while [e ] is omitted in British English, e.g. secretary
/`sekreteri/ (AmE) /`sekretri / (BrE)
consonant
• The pronunciation of letter t: If there is no stress in the word and
letter t is between two vowel phoneme, t will be pronounced like [d]
in American English, e.g. matter /`mader/ (AmE) /`mate/ (BrE); If it
is behind the voiceless consonant of unstressed syllable ,in stressed
syllable or at the last of a syllable, the letter t should pronounce [t] in
both British English and American English, e.g. obtain /eb`tein/
(AmE) / ɔ b`tein/ (BrE)
• The pronunciation of letter r: If r in ar, er, ur ,ir, or, ear, eer, air, oor, ore,
our, ere, are and so on, it pronounces [r] in American English, while it does
not pronounce, e.g. hear /hier/ (AmE) /hie/ (BrE) ; If [r] is before vowel, it will
pronounce in either American English or British English
Grammar
•
•
•
•
Nouns
Verbs
Use of Tenses
Possession & Use of the Verb “Get”
• Use of the Subjunctive
• Prepositions(介词)
• Uses of Other Words
Nouns
Formal & Notional Agreement(形
式和意义一致)
• In BrE, collective nouns can take either singular
(formal agreement) or plural (notional agreement)
verb forms , For example, a committee was
appointed/ the committee were unable to agree.
• In AmE, collective nouns are usually singular in
construction. For example, the team take their
seats, rather than the team takes its seats.
Verbs
Verb Morphology (词态学)
• The past tense and past participle of the
verbs learn, spoil, spell, burn, dream, smell,
spill, leap, and others, can be either irregular
(learnt, spoilt, etc.) or regular (learned,
spoiled, etc.).
• In BrE, both irregular and regular forms are
current, but for some words (such as smelt
and leapt) there is a strong tendency towards
the irregular forms, especially by users of
Received Pronunciation.
• In AmE, the irregular forms are never or
rarely used (except for burnt and leapt).
Use of Tenses
• The British use the present perfect to talk
about a past action which has an effect on
the present moment. In American English
both simple past and present perfect are
possible in such situations. For example:
I have lost my pen. Can you borrow me
yours? (BrE)
I lost my pen. OR I have lost my pen. (AmE)
Possession & Use of the Verb
Get
• The British normally use “have got” to
show possession. In American English
have (in the structure do you have) and
have got are both possible.
• In British English the past participle of get
is got. In American English the past
participle of get is gotten, except when
have got means have.
Use of the Subjunctive
• In American English it is particularly common to use
subjunctive after words like essential, vital, important, suggest,
insist, demand
• In British English the subjunctive is formal and unusual. British
people normally use should + Infinitive or ordinary present and
past tenses.
• For example: It is essential that every child get an opportunity
to learn. (AmE)
It is essential that every child gets an opportunity to learn.
(BrE)
Prepositions(介词)
• There are also a few differences in
preposition use including the following:
on the weekend (AmE)
at the weekend (BrE)
on a team (AmE)
in a team (BrE)
call someone at his or her telephone
number(AmE)
call someone on his or her telephone
number(BrE)
Uses of Other Words
•
•
•
As if/ like
In American English it is common to use like instead of as if/ as
though. This is not correct in British English.
He talks as if he knew everything. (BrE)
He talks like/as if he knew everything. (AmE)
The indefinite pronoun One
Americans normally use he/she, him/her, his/her to refer back to
one. In British English one is used throughout the sentence.
One must love one's country. (BrE)
One must love his/her country. (AmE)
Will/Shall
In British English it is fairly common to use shall with the first
person to talk about the future. Americans rarely use shall.
I shall/will never forget this favour. (BrE)
I will never forget this favour. (AmE)
Vocabulary
Differences
Lexical
differences
Social and
cultural differences
Idiosyncratic
differences
Lexical differences
In BrE and AmE, some words and phrases
may appear with the same appearance,
however,
they actually have different meanings.
“flat” in BrE
“rubber”
“apartment” in AmE,
“eraser”.
“civilisation” in BrE
“favourite”
“civilization” in AmE;
“favorite”
In BrE and AmE,
two totally different words
may have the same meaning.
some words with similar appearance
but refer to the same thing.
• For example, the word “football” in BrE refers to
association football, which is also known as
soccer. In AmE, “football” means “American
football”.
• Another example is “to table” :During a meeting
of the Allied forces, Winston Churchill had
created misunderstanding meaning of this
phrase. In BrE, “to table an item on an agenda”
means “to open it up for discussion”, but in AmE,
it means “to remove it from discussion”, which is
totally opposite to that in BrE.
Social and cultural differences
• Take vocabulary of education between
American and British English for instance.
These differences in the area of education
are mainly reflected on the fields of school,
university and some general terms. Here
we have got a table which is a comparison
of the naming of school years in British
(except Scotland) and American English.
8-9
Year 4
Junior year 4
3rd grade
Key Stage 2
9 - 10
Year 5
Junior year 5
4th grade
10 - 11
Year 6
Junior year 6
5th grade
Secondary school
Year 7
First form]
12 - 13
Year 8
Second form
13 - 14
Year 9
Third form
Middle school
Junior high school
6th grade
11 - 12
Key Stage 3
7th grade
8th grade
High school
Key Stage 4, GCSE
14 - 15
Year 10
Fourth form
15 - 16
Year 11
Fifth form
9th grade
Freshman year
10th grade
Sophomore year
11th grade
Junior year
12th grade
Senior year
Sixth form (optional)
Year 12
Lower sixth
16 - 17
Key Stage 5, A level
17 - 18
Year 13
Upper sixth
• From the table, we may discover that the secondary
school in the United States also includes middle school
or junior high school, which is a two or three year
transitional school between elementary school and high
school.
• Apart from differences in ways of naming school years,
the definitions of a public school are also different in the
two countries. In the US, it is government-owned, and
supported by taxpayers while in the UK, it refers to illdefined private independent schools which are funded by
students’ fees. What is more, those schools supported
by government are called state school in the UK.
Idiosyncratic differences
Some equivalent
idioms have the same
meaning but show
differences in appearance
between BrE and AmE.
British English
sweep under the carpet 隐瞒某事
touch wood
但愿走好运
American English
sweep under the rug
knock on wood
see the wood for the trees 见树见林
see the forest for the trees
throw a spanner (in the works) 从中捣乱
throw a (monkey) wrench (in the works)
tuppence worth 小意见
also two pennies' worth, two pence worth, two pennyworth,
two penny'th, or (using a different coin) ha'penny'th)
two cents' worth
skeleton in the cupboard 家丑
skeleton in the closet
a home from home 像家里一样舒适；旅客之家
a home away from home
blow one's trumpet 自吹自擂
blow (or toot) one's horn
a drop in the ocean 沧海一粟
a drop in the bucket
storm in a teacup 小题大做；大惊小怪
tempest in a teapot
flogging a dead horse 徒劳无益
beating a dead horse
a new lease of life 精神焕发
a new lease on life
if the cap fits (wear it) 帽子若合适，就戴上吧，要是言之中肯，就接受吧
if the shoe fits (wear it)
lie of the land 事态
lay of the land
▲
Conclusion
• From our study we have learnt the exact
differences between AmE and BrE, and as
a second language speaker of English,
more people prefer AmE than BrE.
• What’s more, as a English major student,
learning the differences between AmE and
BrE is very important to us. After learning
this, we can speak a more native English
language gradually.
Thank you