British and American English
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This article examines the differences between British and American English in the areas of vocabulary, spelling and phonology.
Vocabulary
Lexical differences are:
| British | American |
|---|---|
| autumn | autumn/fall |
| braces | suspenders |
| car-park | parking lot |
| chips | (French/french) fries [1] |
| condom | condom/rubber (vulgar slang) |
| crisps | potato chips |
| curtains | drapes/draperies/curtains |
| dustbin | trashcan |
| dustman | garbage collector/garbageman |
| film | movie [2] |
| flat | flat/apartment[3] |
| (Association) football | soccer |
| judgement | judgment |
| lift | elevator |
| full stop | period |
| lorry/truck[4] | truck |
| nappy | diaper |
| off-licence | liquor store |
| pants | underwear/underpants |
| pavement | sidewalk |
| petrol | gasoline/gas |
| road | road/pavement |
| rubber[5] | eraser |
| rug | blanket |
| spanner | wrench |
| sweets | candy |
| sweetshop | candy store |
| tin | can |
| torch | flashlight |
| trousers | trousers/pants |
Spelling
The most striking differences between the spelling of AmE and BrE are in these suffixes (the accents show stress and pronunciation, see English phonemes):
| British | - | American | - |
|---|---|---|---|
| -ence | defénce | -ense | defénse |
| aluminium | aluminum | ||
| grey | gray | ||
| lîcence noun[6] | lîcense | ||
| offénce | offénse[7] |
Notes
- ↑ Though strictly, these are two different shapes, chips being broader than fries.
- ↑ ‘Movie’ is nowadays normal in BrE when talking Hollywood.
- ↑ Increasingly heard in British English; in San Francisco, California, at least, a city of small, shared buildings, both "flat" and "apartment" are used, mostly interchangeably. Purists, however, distinguish between the two: an "apartment" is in a building that has a shared main entrance; a "flat" has its own outside entrance door.
- ↑ British trucks are traditionally small, and pulled, typically on rails.
- ↑ A pitfall for British visitors to America, where 'rubber' is a vulgar term for a condom.
- ↑ lîcense is the verb in BrE, cf. licensêe in both. Mostly -ence is used in both, as with fénce; but sénse, dénse and suspénse in both.
- ↑ In American sporting contexts, one may hear óffénse and dêfénse.