British and American English: Difference between revisions
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|rubber<ref>A | |rubber<ref>A pitfall for British visitors to America, where 'rubber' is a vulgar term for a condom.</ref> | ||
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Revision as of 19:17, 19 March 2008
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 |
car-park | parking lot |
chips | (French or french) fries [1] |
crisps | potato chips |
curtains | drapes/draperies/curtains |
film | movie [2] |
flat | flat/apartment[3] |
full stop | period |
(Association) football | soccer |
lift | elevator |
lorry/truck[4] | truck |
nappy | diaper |
off-licence | liquor store |
pavement | sidewalk |
road | road/pavement |
petrol | gasoline/gas |
rubber[5] | eraser |
condom | condom/rubber (vulgar slang) |
sweets | candy |
sweetshop | candy store |
pants | underwear/underpants |
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):
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.