Teach English in YizhuAng Zhen - Xuzhou Shi

American English and British English originated from the same ancestor, but because of the different national culture, historical background and regional factors for a long time, there are obvious differences between American English and British English in pronunciation, spelling, vocabulary and grammar. Since even within a country, there is still a huge difference in accent between regions, so here will list the detail differences between “General American” in American and “PR accent” in England from several aspects. 1. Pronunciation The intonation of American English is relatively stable, with little change in tonal field, which makes it sound smooth and comfortable. While the intonation of British English is subdued and forceful, with greater change in tonal field and more imposing.  The biggest feature of American pronunciation is the pronunciation of “r” .American pronunciation could be felt every “r” in the word, especially stress the words “r” at the end of the retroflex consonant. This is the most obvious difference. For example, American English: teacher, car, neighbor. British English sounds these vocabulary like: teacha, ca, neighba.  /ae/&/a:/ For example, the word “Can’t “, In American English, it is /kaent/, in British English, it is /ka:nt/. 2. Spelling There are some differences in vocabulary spelling, the spelling is different for the same vocabulary and the meaning is the same. Here I’ll gave some examples, however, these can’t stand for all of the vocabulary which are different in spelling.  -our & -or American English often omits the “U” from British English, they usually use the simple one ”or”, For example, British English: favourite, neighbour , colour ,humour, rumour. American English: favorite, neighbor, color, humor, rumor.  -re & -er British English ends in “re”, American English ends in “er”. For example, British English: centre, theatre, metre. American English: centre, theater, meter.  The letter “s” and “c”, “s” and “z”. British English: licence, practise, analyse, globalisation. American English: license, practice, analyze, globalization  -gue & -g Some British words end in “gue”, but they are end in “g” in American English. E.g. British English: dialogue, catalogue. American English: dialog, catalog. 3. Vocabulary There are different vocabularies to describe the same thing between British English and American English.  Clothing and shoes British English American English Trousers Pants Trainers Sneakers Jumper Sweater Dungarees Overalls Wardrobe Closet  Bookstore Rubber Eraser Cello tape Scotch tape Tipp-ex White-out Biro Ballpoint  Foods Chips Fries Crisps Chips Sweets Candy Fizzy drinks Soda  Traffic Underground Subway Pavement Sidewalk Motorway Highway Petro Gas Lorry Truck  Others Taxi Cab Queue Line Flat Apartment Football Soccer Tap Faucet Torch Flashlight Lift Elevator Film Movie Autumn Fall Rubbish Garbage Aeroplane Airplane Cheque Check Grey Gray Ground floor First floor Holiday Vocation Since there are lots of vocabularies difference between British English and American English, I only list some parts of vocabularies. We still need to collect the difference and notice when and how we can use them. 4. Grammar There’s only a little difference between British English and American English.  Past tense The past tense of the word “learn”, In Britain, it’s more common to say “learnt” ; In American, it is normally “learned”.  Past participles The verb “get”, In American , get/got/gotten; In English, get/got/got. e.g. American: I haven’t gotten the certificate yet. British: I haven’t got the certificate yet. Although there are some differences between British English and American English in pronunciation, vocabulary, spelling and grammar, their similarities far outweigh the differences. Therefore, these differences will not prevent us and British people from communicating and exchange ideas with each other. We studied these differences for those people who are learning English to solve some confuse and problems. If they know these difference they will understand why some people speak in a different way.