Comparison of American and British English

This article outlines the differences between American English, the form of the English language spoken in the United States, and Commonwealth English (often called British English).

For the purposes of this article:

American English is the form of English used by people in the United States. The U.S. government, business, mass media, and education system all operate using American English. American English does not include Canadian English; although Canadian pronunciation and vocabulary is very similar to that of the United States, Canadian spelling often takes the Commonwealth form. Regions and countries that tend to use American English in teaching and publishing include much of Eastern Europe (including Russia), the Far East (especially Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and the Philippines; although largely excluding the former British colonies of Hong Kong and Singapore), the Americas (excluding other former British colonies such as Canada, Jamaica, and the Bahamas) and, in Africa, Liberia, and Namibia. The World Bank, the IEEE, and the Organization of American States, among other organizations, also use American English.
Commonwealth English is the form of English used across the United Kingdom and its former colonies in the British Empire, most notably in much of Africa (including South Africa and Egypt), the Subcontinent (Pakistan and India), Malta, Australia and New Zealand, and portions of Southeast Asia (Myanmar, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand), as well as Hong Kong. This form of English, mostly interchangeable with British English, is sometimes called Commonwealth English because most of its speakers live in nations that are members of the Commonwealth of Nations. Other nations and groups to use British English include the European Union and the United Nations. Many international organizations, like the International Olympic Committee, NATO, the World Trade Organization and ISO also use British English.
The forms of English spoken in Canada exhibit features of both British and American dialects.
The forms of English used in Scotland and Northern Ireland are British English only in relation to the written form of the language, as the spoken varieties of these dialects (despite the name) are in no way sub-dialects of British English, although some features of Commonwealth English are inevitably used.

Although spoken American and British English are generally mutually intelligible, there are enough differences to occasionally cause awkward misunderstandings or even a complete failure to communicate. George Bernard Shaw once said that the United States and United Kingdom are "two countries divided by a common language"; a similar comment is ascribed to Winston Churchill. Henry Sweet predicted in 1877 that within a century, American English, Australian English and British English would be mutually unintelligible, but it may be the case that increased world-wide communication through radio, television, the Internet, and globalization has reduced the tendency to regional variation. This can result either in some variations becoming extinct (as, for instance, truck has been gradually replacing lorry in much of the world) or in the acceptance of wide variations as "perfectly good English" everywhere.

In addition to its use in English-speaking countries, English plays an important role as a technical language around the world, in medicine, computer science, air traffic control, and many other areas of concentrated expertise and formal communication among international professionals.

Spelling

Main article: American and British English spelling differences

Some words shared by all English speakers are spelled one way by Americans but are spelt differently in other English speaking countries.

Slight lexical differences

Miscellaneous lexical differences between British and American English
Verb past tenses with -t: Commonwealth dreamt, leapt, learnt, spelt; American dreamed, leaped, learned, spelled. As with the "tre" words, the t endings are occasionally found in American texts. The forms with -ed are also common in Commonwealth usage, and preferred by many as they are weak verbs. (The two-syllable form learnèd /'lɜːnɪd/, usually spelled simply as learned, is still used to mean "educated", or to refer to academic institutions, in both British English and American English.)
Other verb past tense forms: Commonwealth fitted, forecasted, knitted, lighted, wedded; American fit, forecast, knit, lit, wed. The distinction is, however, not rigorous as the Commonwealth forms are also found in American, and both lit and forecast are standard in Commonwealth English.
Also, the past participle gotten is rarely used in modern British English (although it is used in some dialects), which generally uses got (as do some Americans), except in old expressions such as ill-gotten gains. Commonwealth usage retains the form forgotten, though. Furthermore, according to the Compact Oxford English Dictionary, "The form gotten is not used in British English but is very common in North American English, though even there it is often regarded as non-standard."
Fitted is used in both conventions as an adjective ("fitted sheets" are the same size as the mattress) and as the past tense of fit ("to suffer epilepsy", for example, "Leavitt fitted" in The Andromeda Strain); however fit and fitting do not denote epileptic seizure in ordinary British use (though that usage is common within medical circles), as the same effect is achieved by to have a fit or to throw a fit.
The past participle proven is frequently used in American English, although careful speakers usually avoid it, and it remains proved in British English (except in adjectival use; and usage is different in Scots law). American English further allows other irregular verbs, such as thrive (throve–thriven) or sneak (snuck), which remain regular in Commonwealth English, and often mixes the preterite and past participle forms (spring–sprang (U.S. sprung)–sprung), sometimes forcing verbs such as shrink (shrank–shrunk) to have a further form, thus shrunk–shrunken. (The Associated Press Stylebook in American English treats some irregular verbs as colloquialisms, insisting on the regular forms for the past tense of dive, plead and sneak.)
See also: the list of irregular verbs.
Directional suffix -ward(s): English forwards, towards, rightwards, etc.; American forward, toward, rightward. The forms with -s are only used as adverbs or prepositions. In American English, the -s forms are fast disappearing, except afterwards. In British English, there is a semantic difference in the usage of the two possible forms. The Oxford English Dictionary states the following about forward and forwards: "/.../ the latter expresses a definite direction viewed in contrast with other directions. In some contexts either form may be used without perceptible difference of meaning; the following are examples in which only one of them can be used: 'The ratchet-wheel can move only forwards'; 'the right side of the paper has the maker's name reading forwards'; 'if you move at all it must be forwards'; 'my companion has gone forward'; 'to bring a matter forward'; 'from this time forward'."
Verbs in British English that are spelt with -ise, such as organise, legalise, are spelt with -ize in American English. The -ise forms became more widespread in British English under 19th-century French influence, partly displacing the older -ize (which continues to be used by Oxford University Press and is listed first in most British Dictionaries.)The same goes for the nouns and adjectives derived from those verbs: organisation -> organization, //etc//. The verb to analyse is spelt to analyze in American English.
In British English the word sat is often colloquially used to cover sat, sitting and seated: "I've been sat here waiting for half an hour." "The bride's family will be sat on the right side of the church." This construction is not often heard outside Britain. In the 1960s, its use would mark a speaker as coming from the north of England but by the turn of the 21st century this form had spread to the south. Its use often conveys lighthearted informality, as many speakers intentionally use an ungrammatical construction they would probably not use in formal written English. This colloquial usage is widely understood by British speakers. Similarly stood can be used instead of standing. To an American these usages may imply that the subject had been involuntarily forced to sit or stand.
A few "institutional" nouns take no definite article when a certain role is implied: for example, at sea [as a sailor], in prison [as a convict]. Among this group, Commonwealth English has in hospital [as a patient] and at university [as a student], where American English requires in the hospital and at the university. (A nurse, visitor, etc. would be in the hospital in both systems.) On the other hand, American English distinguishes in back of [behind] from in the back of; the former is unknown in Britain and liable to misinterpretation as the latter. Both however distinguish in front of from in the front of.
Commonwealth English allows agentive -er and attributive -ing suffixes for football (also cricket; often netball; occasionally basketball). American English always uses football player rather than footballer. Where the sport's name is usable as a verb, the suffixation is standard: for example, golfer.
English speakers everywhere occasionally make new compound words from common phrases; for example, health care is now being replaced by healthcare on both sides of the Atlantic. However, American English has made certain words in this fashion which are still treated as phrases in Commonwealth countries. For example, Americans speak of "trademarks," but some other countries speak of "trade-marks" or even "trade marks."
In compound nouns of the form <verb><noun>, sometimes American English favours the bare infinitive where British English favours the gerund. Examples include: fry pan / frying pan; jump rope / skipping rope; racecar / racing car; rowboat / rowing boat; sailboat / sailing boat; swimsuit / bathing suit. In each of these pairs, the former term is more common in America than Britain and the latter more common in Britain than America (although it is not necessarily the case that the former is more common than the latter within America or the latter more common than the former within Britain).

Grammar

In British English, singular nouns that describe multiple people are often used with plural verb and complement, particularly where one is concerned with the people constituting the team, rather than with the team as an entity. The singular form is used in most cases in American. For example, British "the team are worried"; American "the team is worried". But, as in British English, the plural form can be used when the individual membership is clear, for example, "the team take their seats" (not "the team takes its seat(s)"), although it is often rephrased to avoid the singular/plural decision, as in "the team members take their seats". The difference occurs for collective nouns (such as team and company) and for singular proper nouns (for example, where a placename is used to refer to a sports team). Proper nouns which have plural form may take plural verb in America as in Britain. Examples:
- British English: "The Clash are a well-known band." American English: "The Clash is a well-known band." But "The Beatles are a well-known band" is in both.
- British English: "New England are the champions." American English: "New England is the champion." But "The Patriots are the champions" in both.
Differences in which nouns are the same in both their plural and singular forms, such as the word sheep. In American English, shrimp is such a word, but in British English the plural of shrimp is shrimps. (Shrimps is occasionally heard in the southern U.S., but is otherwise rare, apart from its colloquial use as a pejorative term for small people). An unusual example is innings, which is both singular and plural in British English, but for which a separate singular form (inning) exists in American English.
In names of American rivers, the word river usually comes after the name (for example, Colorado River), whereas for British rivers it comes before (as in River Thames). One exception present in British English is the Fleet River, which is rarely called the River Fleet by Londoners outside of official documentation.
Use of prepositions before days denoted by a single word. Where Britons would say "She resigned on Thursday", Americans often say "She resigned Thursday", but both forms are common in American usage. Occasionally, the preposition is also absent when referring to months: "I'll be here December" (although this usage is generally limited to colloquial speech). Intransitive verbs in American English often become transitive; for example, Britons say "I'll write to you" where Americans commonly say "I'll write you"; British English: "The workers protested against the decision." American English: "The workers protested the decision."
The present perfect tense is more common in British dialects than in American, where the preterite is sometimes used instead. For example, I've gone in British English; I went in American. Similarly, the pluperfect is often replaced by the preterite in the USA; this, even more than the dropping of the present perfect, is generally regarded as sloppy usage by those Americans who consider themselves careful users of the language.
On informal occasions, the British would use "have got", whereas Americans would say "have" or just "got". "Have" is the only form used in formal writing.
American English uses do as a substitute for have (the full verb, in the sense of possess), just as for other verbs such as "walk" or "think"; in the past, British English did not allow this, but it is becoming increasingly common. American: "Do you have any food? Yes, I do." British: "Have you (got) any food? Yes, I have." Note that such substitution is not possible in either American or British English for the auxiliary verb have: "Have you eaten? Yes, I have."
Similarly, in informal usage, American English often uses the form "did" + infinitive where British English would use "have/has" + past participle. "Did you brush your teeth yet?" would be usual American English whereas most British speakers would say "Have you cleaned your teeth yet?". The "have" form is regarded as correct in both countries, however, and is required in all formal contexts. "Did you clean your teeth yesterday?" would be correct in both countries.
Where a statement of intention involves two separate activities, it is acceptable for speakers of American English to use the simple continuous form "to go" plus bare infinitive. Speakers of British English would instead use "to go and" plus bare infinitive: thus where a speaker of American English might say "I'll go take a bath", British English speakers would say "I'll go and have a bath". (Both can also use the form "to go to" instead to suggest that the action may fail, as in "He went to take/have a bath, but the bath was full of brightly coloured machine tools.") By extension, "to come" plus bare infinitive is acceptable to speakers of American English, where speakers of British English would instead use "to come and" plus bare infinitive: thus where a speaker of American English might say "Come see what I bought", British English speakers would say, "Come and see what I bought".
The subjunctive mood is more common in American English in expressions such as: "They suggested that he apply for the job". British English would have "They suggested that he should apply for the job" or even "They suggested that he applied for the job". However, these British usages are also heard in the United States.
Singular attributives in one country may be plural in the other, and vice versa. For example, Britain has a drugs problem while the United States has a drug problem (although the singular usage is also commonly heard in Britain).

Prepositions

In the United States, the word through can mean "up to and including" as in Monday through Friday. This causes little confusion in Britain though it is rarely used by British speakers, who might instead say Monday to Friday inclusive, or simply Monday to Friday.
In Southern Britain the word whilst is used almost interchangeably with while. Whilst is more often used in instruction manuals, legal documents, etc. To Americans the word whilst, in any context, seems very archaic and/or pretentious. Similarly with amid(st), and to a lesser extent among(st). ("In one's midst" is a standard idiom in both).
The word while means until in some dialects of Northern England. There is an apocryphal story that, because of this, railway crossings with signs saying "do not cross the track while the lights are flashing" had to be changed after several fatalities occurred.
In Britain, from is used with single dates and times more often than in the United States. Where British speakers and writers would say "the new museum will be open from Tuesday," Americans would more likely say "the new museum will be open starting Tuesday" or "the new museum will open Tuesday." (This difference, which is more a tendency than an absolute rule, does not apply to phrases of the pattern from A to B, which are used in both British and American English.)
American English uses with more often. Where an American will meet with someone and talk with them, a Briton can meet someone and talk to them. To a Briton, the use of with seems to reinforce a notion of mutuality, thus meet with is acceptable, but visit with sounds very strange (you cannot visit someone while they are visiting you). In some areas of the U.S. (St. Louis), the word with is also used as an adverb: "I'll come with" instead of "I'll come along". However, in some British Dialects, 'come with' is used as an abbreviation of 'come with me', as in "I'm going to the office - come with" instead of "I'm going to the office - come with me".
American legislators and lawyers always use the preposition "of" between the name of a legislative act and the year it was passed, while their British equivalents do not. Compare Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 to Disability Discrimination Act 1995.

Punctuation

Full stops/Periods in abbreviations: Americans tend to write "Mr.", "Mrs.", "St.", "Dr." etc., while British will usually, but not always, write "Mr", "Mrs", "St", "Dr" (or even "D'r"), etc., following the rule that a period is used only when the last letter of the abbreviation is not the last letter of the complete word. However, many British writers would tend to write other abbreviations without a full stop, such as "Prof", "etc", "eg", and so on (so recommended by some Oxford dictionaries). The rationale behind this usage is that it is typographically more elegant, and that the omitted periods are essentially superfluous, as the reader recognizes the abbreviation without them. It also removes ambiguity by reserving the period for ending sentences. However, the "American" usage of periods after most abbreviations is also widely used in Britain. Note that in either case it is incorrect to put a period after units such as kg for kilogram or Hz for hertz, as these are considered unit symbols, not abbreviations.
It is sometimes believed that British English does not hyphenate multiple-word adjectives, such as "a first class ticket". This usage is rare, and often considered incorrect. The most common form is as in American English, such as "a first-class ticket".
Quoting: Americans start with double quotation marks (") and use single quotation marks (') for quotations within quotations. In general this is also true of British English but can be the opposite when used in book publishing, for example. In journals and newspapers, quotation mark double/single use depends on the individual publication's house style.
Contents of quotations: Americans are taught to put commas and periods inside quotation marks, whereas Britons will put the punctuation inside if it belongs to the quote and outside otherwise. This means that direct speech retains punctuation inside inverted commas in British English also, with a full stop changing into a comma if followed by explanatory text.
- Carefree means "free from care or anxiety." (American style)
- Carefree means "free from care or anxiety". (British style)
- "Hello world," I said. (both styles)

The American style was established for typographical reasons, having to do with the aesthetics of commas and quotation marks in typeset text. It also usefully eliminates the need to decide whether a period or comma belongs to the quotation. However, many people find the usage counterintuitive. Hart's Rules and the Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors call the British style "new" or "logical" quoting; it is similar to the use of quotation marks in many other languages (including Spanish, French, Italian, Catalan, Dutch, and German). This "logical" style is increasingly popular in America, although formal writing generally calls for the "American" style. In fact, the British style is often the de facto standard among Americans for whom formal or professional writing is not a part of their daily life; many are in fact unaware that the normative American usage is to place commas and periods within the quotation marks. (This rule of placing all punctuation inside quotation if and only if it belongs to the quotation is expressly prescribed by some American professional organisations such as the American Chemical Society; see ACS Style Guide.) According to the Jargon File, American hackers have switched to using "logical" British quotation system, because including extraneous punctuation in a quotation can sometimes change the fundamental meaning of the quotation. More generally, it is difficult for computer manuals, online instructions, and other textual media to accurately quote exactly what a computer user should see or type on their computer.

Letter-writing: American students in some areas have been taught to write a colon after the greeting in business letters ("Dear Sir:") while Britons usually write a comma ("Dear Sir,") or make use of the so-called open punctuation ("Dear Sir"). However, this practice is not consistent throughout the United States, and it would be regarded as a highly formal usage by most Americans.

Titles and headlines

Use of capitalisation varies.

Sometimes, the words in titles of publications, newspaper headlines, as well as chapter and section headings are capitalised in the same manner as in normal sentences (sentence case). That is, only the first word is capitalised, along with proper nouns, acronyms, etc.

However, publishers sometimes require additional words in titles and headlines to be capitalised, for added emphasis, as it is often perceived as appearing more professional. In American English, this is common in titles, but less so in newspaper headlines. The exact rules differ between publishers and are often ambiguous; a typical approach is to capitalise all words other than short articles, prepositions, and conjunctions. This should probably be regarded as a common stylistic difference, rather than a linguistic difference, as neither form would be considered incorrect or unusual in either Britain or the U.S. Many British newspapers use fully capitalised headlines for impact, as opposed to readability (examples include The Sun, The Daily Sport, News of the World).

Numbers

When saying or writing out numbers, the British will insert an "and" before the tens and units, as in "one hundred and sixty-two" and "two thousand and three", whereas Americans will typically drop the "and" as in "two thousand three"; however, "two thousand and three" is also common. Americans are more likely than the British to read numbers like 1,234 as "twelve thirty-four", instead of "one thousand, two hundred and thirty-four" unless discussing the year 1234, when "twelve thirty-four" would be the norm. Similarly, for the house number (or bus number, etc) "272" Britons would tend to say "two seven two" while Americans would tend to say "two seventy-two". Between 1100 and 1900 the British commonly read numbers ending in round hundreds as, for instance, "sixteen hundred" instead of "one thousand six hundred", but from 2000 upwards usage like "thirty-two hundred" would be replaced by "three thousand two hundred".

There was also a historical difference between billions, trillions, and so forth. Americans use "billion" to mean one thousand million (1,000,000,000), whereas in Britain, until the latter part of the 20th century, it was almost exclusively used to mean one million million (1,000,000,000,000), with one thousand million sometimes described as a "milliard", the definition adopted by most other European languages. However, the "American English" version has since been adopted for all published writing, and the word "milliard" is obsolete in English, as are billiard (but not billiards), trilliard and so on.

Nevertheless, the majority of people have no direct experience with manipulating numbers this large, so a significant proportion of international readers will interpret "billion" as 10¹², even if they are young enough to have been taught otherwise at school. For this reason, defining the word may be advisable when writing for the general public. However, all major British publications and broadcasters, including the BBC, which long used "thousand million" to avoid ambiguity, now use "billion" to mean thousand million.

See long and short scales for a more detailed discussion of the evolution of these terms in English and other languages.

Finally, when referring to the numeral 0, Britons would use "zero", "nought", or "oh" normally, or "nil" in instances such as sports scores and voting results. Americans use the term "zero" most frequently; "oh" is also often used, and occasionally slang terms such as "zilch" or "zip". Phrases such as "the team won two-zip" or "the team leads the series, two-nothing" are heard when reporting sports scores. The digit 0, for example, when reading a phone or account number aloud, is nearly always pronounced "oh" in both languages for the sake of convenience.

When reading numbers in a sequence, such as a telephone or serial number, Britons will use the terms double or triple/treble. Hence 007 is "double oh seven". Exceptions are the emergency telephone number 999, which is always "nine nine nine" and the apocalyptic "number of the beast" which is always "six six six". Some Americans will say "six six six" for the number of the beast. In the US, 911 (the US emergency telephone number) is almost always read "nine-one-one", while 9-11 (September 11, 2001) is usually read "nine-eleven".

Vocabulary

Most of the differences are in connection with concepts originating from the nineteenth century to the mid twentieth century, where new words were coined independently; almost the entire vocabularies of the car/automobile and railway/railroad industries (see Rail terminology) are different between Britain and America, for example. Other sources of difference are slang or vulgar terms, where frequent new coinage occurs, and idiomatic phrases, including phrasal verbs. The differences most likely to create confusion are those where the same word or phrase is used for two different concepts. Regional variations even within the U.S. or the UK can create the same problems.

It should also be noted that most American words can be freely interchanged with their British versions within the United Kingdom and English-speaking Commonwealth nations without leading to confusion, though they may cause irritation. It tends to be only when the situation is reversed that real problems of understanding occur. However, there are some exceptions, such as gas (as in gasoline), and stroller (in the sense of pushchair) which would be misunderstood by speakers of English, as well as common trademark names unknown in the other country, such as Dumpster (U.S.) or Sellotape (UK). There are, however, many pitfalls that Americans can fall into without realising it; for example, referring to a woman's fanny in Britain, since the word indicates the buttocks in the U.S. but the vagina in the UK. Speakers of Commonwealth English should be cautious when asking for a fag (cigarette) in America, as it is a derogatory term referring to a homosexual in the U.S., although nowadays these alternate meanings are understood in the UK as their U.S. version, dependent on context. Residents of North and South Carolina beaches should be wary of inviting their British guests to "go out shagging," (a type of dance), for the term in British English refers to sexual intercourse. This meaning has become commonly known in the U.S., however, due to its repeated usage in the popular Austin Powers films, so many or most Americans are not likely to approach with such an offer unless that is what is in mind. Similarly, avoid telling Australians what team you root for, as the Australian meaning is sexual.

Another source of confusion is the different usage of the word college. In the U.S., this refers to a post-high school institution such as a university, whilst in the UK and most Commonwealth countries it refers primarily to a tertiary institution between high school and university (normally referred to as a "Sixth Form College" after the old name in secondary education for Years 12 and 13, the "6th form") where intermediary courses such as A Levels or NVQs can be taken and GCSE courses can be retaken, with the interchangeability of college with high school being rare but not unknown. Americans may be surprised to hear of a 14 year old attending college in the UK, mistakenly assuming it is at the university level. In both the U.S. and UK, college can refer to some division within a university such as a "college of mathematics and science". Institutions in the U.S. that offer two to four years of post-high school education often have the word college as part of their name, while those offering more advanced degrees (for example, masters, doctorate) are called a university. However, Americans attending either a college or university are often collectively called "college students", and the institutions themselves "colleges", regardless of their status. The words freshman (or the gender neutral term frosh), sophomore, junior and senior refer to the first, second, third, and fourth year respectively of both high school and college (university) students in the U.S. It is important that the context of either high school or college first be established, or else it must be stated directly (that is, "She is a high school freshman." "He is a college junior.")

In the UK, first year university students are often called freshers; however, there are no specific names for those in other years, nor for school pupils.

In the UK, the US equivalent of a high school is often referred to as a secondary school regardless of whether it is public or private.

Words used only in British English

Speakers of American English are likely to be aware of some British English terms, such as lorry, biscuit, chap, and shag although they would not generally use them, or may be confused as to whether one means the American or British meaning of some (such as biscuit). They will be able to guess approximately what is meant by some others, such as candy floss or driving licence. However, use of many other British words, such as naff (not good) or busk (to play a musical instrument in public with the hope of getting donations from passers-by), risks rendering a sentence incomprehensible to most Americans.

See List of British English words not used in American English.

Words used only in American English

Speakers of British English are likely to be aware of some American English terms, such as sidewalk, gas, cookie, elevator although they would not generally use them. They will be able to guess approximately what is meant by some others, such as cotton candy. However, use of some other American words risks rendering a sentence incomprehensible to most Britons.

Note that, largely through the influence of Hollywood, the chance of a given Americanism being understood by a British person is significantly greater than in the reverse case. However, Americans who watch britcoms and other imported BBC programs and British news re-broadcasts on American Public Television (PBS) are more likely to be familiar with British usages than those who do not.

See List of American English words not used in British English.

Words with differing meanings

See List of words having different meanings in British and American English.

Pronunciation

See American and British English pronunciation differences.

Miscellaneous

General trends

While the use of American expressions in English is often noted in Britain, movement in the opposite direction is less common. But recent examples exist, including the idiom "to go missing," which had been a distinctively British expression but is used increasingly in American English, at least in journalism, and the noun "queue" and verb "queue up," which seem to be making inroads in the U.S. as well. (The usual American equivalent of "to go missing" is "to disappear" and that of "queue (up)" is "line (up).")

Figures of speech

Both English and American English use the expression "I couldn't care less" to mean the speaker does not care at all. In American English, the phrase "I could care less" (without the "n't") is synonymous with this in casual usage. Intonation no longer reflects the originally sarcastic nature of this variant, which is not idiomatic in British English and might be interpreted as anything from nonsense to an indication that the speaker does care.

In both areas, saying "I don't mind" often means "I'm not annoyed" (for example, by someone's smoking), while "I don't care" often means "the matter is trivial or boring". However, in answering a question like "Tea or coffee?", if either alternative is equally acceptable, an American may answer "I don't care", while a Briton may answer "I don't mind". Either sounds odd to the other.

Business

In his history of the Second World War, Winston Churchill records that differences in the interpretation of the verb "to table" caused an argument between British and American planners. The British wanted a matter tabled immediately because it was important, and the Americans insisted it should not be tabled at all because it was important. In British English, the term means "to discuss now" (the issue is brought to the table), whereas in American English it means "to defer" (the issue is left on the table).

In a similar vein, the verb "to slate" means "to schedule" in the U.S. but (informally) "to disparage" in the UK. Thus a headline such as "Third Harry Potter Film Slated" has two very different interpretations.

One usage of the word "bomb" causes similar confusion: in the U.S. "the show bombed" means it was a total failure; in the UK "the show went down a bomb" means it was a great success. The American slang phrase "the bomb," however (perhaps inspired by African American Vernacular English), almost always indicates positivity. For example, the phrase, "That show was the bomb," would mean that the show was outstanding. In this usage, the article "the" will sometimes be pronounced "da", and sometimes would be written "That show was da bomb", indicating the ethnic pronunciation of the word "the".

Education

In the UK, a student is said to "read" or to "study" a subject, while in the U.S., a student either "studies" the subject or "majors" in it. The latter refers only to the student's principal course of study, while the former may be refer to any class being taken.

"She read history at Oxford".

"She majored in history at Yale."

In the UK, a student "revises" or "does revision" for an examination, while in American English, the student "studies" for it. When "taking" or "writing" the examination, a student in the UK would have that examination supervised by a "invigilator" whereas in American English it would be a "proctor".

In the UK, a student is said to "sit" or "take" an exam, while in the U.S., a student "takes" an exam. In the UK, a teacher "sets" an exam, while in the U.S., a teacher "writes" or "gives" an exam. The expression "he sits for" an exam also arises in British English, but only rarely in American English; American lawyers-to-be "sit for" their bar exams, and American master's and doctoral students may "sit for" their comprehensive exams, but in nearly all other instances, Americans "take" their exams.

"I took my exams at Yale."

"I spent the entire day yesterday writing the exam. At last, it's ready for my students."

"I plan to set a difficult exam for my students, but I haven't got it ready yet."

Luck out

In American English, "luck out" means to gain success, whereas in Commonwealth English "luck out" is a recent colloquialism unlikely to be familiar to speakers above the age of 25 and means to have no success. Thus, the phrase "I lucked out getting free tickets" means either getting, or not getting, the free tickets respectively.

Levels of buildings

There are also variations in floor numbering between the U.S. and U.K. — in most countries, including Britain, the "first floor" is one above the entrance level while the entrance level is the "ground floor"; whereas normal American usage labels the entrance level as the "first floor" and does not use "ground floor." Some American buildings have a "ground floor" or another name for the entrance level, usually as part of a plan to cater to cosmopolitan persons. Nonetheless, the rest of the floors are numbered in the usual American manner.

Dates

Date formats are usually written differently in the short (numerical) form. Christmas Day 2000, for example, is 25/12/00 in Britain and 12/25/00 in the U.S., although occasionally other formats are encountered, such as the ISO 8601 2000-12-25, popular among programmers.

When writing long-form dates, the format "December 25, 2000" is generally encountered in the U.S., and widely encountered in the UK; however, the British are more likely than Americans to use the format "25 December 2000" although it is acceptable in both countries, and the American grammarians Strunk and White, among others, recommend it. Similarly, in American speech, "December twenty-fifth" is the most likely form, and "the twenty-fifth of December" is also not uncommon. In Britain the latter is more likely, and even when the month is presented first the definite article is still inserted in speech, thus "December the twenty-fifth".

Transport

Americans refer to transportation, while Britons refer to transport.

Differences in terminology are especially obvious in the context of roads. The British term dual carriageway, in American parlance, would be a divided highway. Central reservation on a motorway in the UK would be a median on a freeway or expressway in the U.S. The one-way lanes that make it possible to enter and leave such roads at an intermediate point without disrupting the flow of traffic are generally known as slip roads in the UK, but U.S. civil engineers call them ramps, and further distinguish between on-ramps (for entering) or off-ramps (for leaving). When American engineers speak of slip roads, or slip ramps, they are referring to on-ramps and off-ramps that have been rearranged (through use of a grade separation) to minimize weaving on a freeway segment between two interchanges that are too close together.

In the UK, the term outside lane refers to the higher-speed passing lane closest to the centre of the road, while inside lane refers to the lane closer to the edge of the road; these terms have the opposite meanings in American English, with the outside lane being the one near the edge and the inside lane being the one closer to the median — it is worth noting that Americans also drive on the opposite side to Britons, so that the British inside lane is, like the American one, the leftmost one (going in any given direction).

Keyboards

See the article British and American keyboards.

References

Peters, Pam (2004). Template:Googleprint. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 052162181X.