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 vocabularygrammar 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 Britis

h 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 Fr

ench, Spanish and so on, the AmE becomes mixed and differen

t 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 final-syllable 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.

PronunciationVowel

• 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

NounsFormal & Notional Agreement(形

式和意义一致 )• In BrE, collective nouns can take either singular (f

ormal 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.

VerbsVerb 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.

In BrE and AmE, two totally different words

may have the same meaning.

some words with similar appearance but refer to the same thing.

“flat” in BrE “apartment” in AmE, “rubber” “eraser”.

“civilisation” in BrE “civilization” in AmE; “favourite” “favorite”

• 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.

The naming of school years in British (except Scotland) and American English

Age range

British English American English

Name Alternative name Syllabus Name Alternative name

1 - 4

Preschool (optional)  

Nursery Playgroup Foundation Stage    

4 - 5

Primary school Preschool

Reception Infants reception Foundation Stage 2 Pre-kindergarten  

5 - 6 Year 1 Infants year 1

Key Stage

Kindergarten

Elementary school

6 - 7 Year 2 Infants year 2 1st grade  

7 - 8 Year 3 Junior year 3

Key Stage 2

2nd grade  

8 - 9 Year 4 Junior year 4 3rd grade  

9 - 10 Year 5 Junior year 5 4th grade  

10 - 11 Year 6 Junior year 6 5th grade  

11 - 12

Secondary school Middle school Junior high school

Year 7 First form]

Key Stage 3

6th grade  

12 - 13 Year 8 Second form 7th grade  

13 - 14 Year 9 Third form 8th grade  

14 - 15 Year 10 Fourth formKey Stage 4, GCSE

High school

9th grade Freshman year

15 - 16 Year 11 Fifth form 10th grade Sophomore year

16 - 17

Sixth form (optional)

11th grade Junior yearYear 12 Lower sixth

Key Stage 5, A level

17 - 18 Year 13 Upper sixth 12th grade Senior year

• 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 ill-defined 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 ha

ve the same

meaning but show

differences in appearance

between BrE and AmE.

British English American English

sweep under the carpet 隐瞒某事 sweep under the rug

touch wood 但愿走好运 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

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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