British vs American English: EIGHT important differences (UK vs. USA)
Differences between British and American English
Ad: Join Lingoda Team Challenge and use key name LINGUAMARINA to get a 10€ discount for each team member you bring in your team.
(1) VOCABULARY
The most noticeable difference between American and British English is vocabulary. There are hundreds of everyday words that are different. For example: apartment (US) and flat (UK), college (US) and university (UK), vacation (US) and holiday (UK), etc.
(2) PRESENTS PERFECT AND PAST SIMPLE
In British English, people use the Present Perfect to speak about a past action that they consider relevant to the present. The Present Perfect can be used in the same way in American English, but people often use the Past Simple when they consider the action finished. This is especially common with the adverbs already, just and yet.
(3) TAG QUESTIONS
A tag question is a grammatical form that turns a statement into a question. For example, “The whole situation is unfortunate, isn’t it?” or, “You don’t like him, do you?” The tag includes a pronoun and its matching form of the verb be, have or do. Tag questions encourage people to respond and agree with the speaker. Americans use tag questions, too, but less often than Brits.
(4) GOT AND GOTTEN
In British English, the past participle of the verb get is got. In American English, people say gotten. Note that have got is commonly used in both British and American English to speak about possession or necessity. have gotten is not correct here.
(5) COLLECTIVE NOUNS
We use collective nouns to refer to a group of individuals.
In American English, collective nouns are singular. In British English, collective nouns can be singular or plural.
(6) HAVE AND TAKE
In British English, the verbs “have“ and “take“ are commonly used with nouns like “bath“, “shower“, “wash“ to speak about washing and with nouns like “break“, “holiday“, “rest“ to speak about resting. In American English, only the verb “take“ (and not the verb “have“) is used this way.
(7) AUXILIARY VERB
Another grammar difference between American and British English relates to auxiliary verbs. Auxiliary verbs, also known as helping verbs, are verbs that help form a grammatical function. They “help” the main verb by adding information about time, modality and voice.
In question form, a Brit might say, “Shall we go now?” while an American would probably say, “Should we go now?”
(8) SPELLING
Since spelling is connected to writing, you’ll only notice these differences if you’re reading or writing English. These words are generally pronounced exactly the same.
For example, words like “colour,” “flavour,” “favour,” “favourite” and “neighbour” have an “-our” at the end in British English. In American English, there’s no “u.”
This video is sponsored by Lingoda
Time codes:
0:00 Which version of English you should learn
1:45 Americans live in apartments and Brits live in flats. Why?
3:32 About Lingoda Team Challenge
6:16 Present Perfect in the US and in the UK
6:55 My favorite difference
7:36 Got vs. gotten
8:28 One of the most confusing differences
9:23 Do you have or take a break?
10:00 Shall vs. should
11:19 Color or colour? Which one is correct?
⭐ INSTAGRAM - linguamarina
⭐ LEARN LANGUAGES ABROAD -
⭐ ENROLL IN MY YOUTUBE COURSE -
⭐ DOWNLOAD MY ENGLISH WORKBOOK -
📝 Get your English text corrected instantly -
📷 FILMING EQUIPMENT
- Gear for making my ’talking head’ videos -
- Gear for vlogging -
🎈PROMOS
$20 TO SPEND ON UBER -
I use affiliate links whenever possible (if you purchase items listed above using my affiliate links, I will get a bonus)
#EnglishLanguage #Brirtish #American
1 view
711
326
1 month ago 00:00:22 1
Do it! Other ways to say Daily English speaking practice English conversation
1 month ago 00:00:17 1
Jack Sparrow VS Joseph Joestar (Pirates of the Caribbean VS Jojo Bizzare Adventure) | FAN MADE
2 months ago 00:02:10 1
Brendan Adams Highlights 27 Pts, 5 Ast vs BC Parma
2 months ago 00:02:11 1
Garrett Nevels Highlights 18 Pts, 9 Ast vs BC Samara
2 months ago 00:01:25 1
Royce Hamm Highlights 26 Pts vs BC Samara
2 months ago 00:01:31 1
Johnny O’Bryant Highlights 25 Pts, 2 Blk vs BC Avtodor
2 months ago 00:01:17 1
Jamal Jones Highlights 19 Pts, 2 Ast vs BC Uralmash
2 months ago 00:01:40 1
Stanley Whittaker Highlights 18 Pts, 6 Ast vs BC Avtodor
2 months ago 00:03:03 1
Numbers Vocabulary | How to Say Numbers in English | English Pronunciation
2 months ago 00:13:25 1
1673 Fall of British Colonial New York | Anglo-Dutch Naval Wars (1652-74) England vs. Netherlands
2 months ago 00:25:48 1
What do tech pioneers think about the AI revolution? - BBC World Service
2 months ago 00:00:55 1
Kerem Kanter Highlights 17 Pts vs BC Uralmash
2 months ago 00:02:55 17
Leon Frohm - Better Days (LIVE Deltävling 1 Hello Mello 2024)
2 months ago 00:02:55 1
Halloween Vocabulary Words in English | List of Halloween Words
2 months ago 00:01:22 1
Galin Smith Highlights 19 Pts vs BC Zenit
2 months ago 00:03:05 1
Markell Johnson Highlights 29 Pts, 13 Ast vs BC Zenit
2 months ago 00:01:57 1
Xavier Moon Highlights 16 Pts, 5 Ast vs BC Astana
2 months ago 00:01:11 1
Trent Frazier Highlights 16 Pts, 3 Ast vs BC Astana
2 months ago 00:10:59 1
Снайперская тройка. Arma 3
2 months ago 00:08:51 1
Benn vs Ennis / Lubin VS Murtazaliev / Naoya Inoue vs Sam Goodman
2 months ago 01:10:46 1
Israel, Iran and the Middle East Proxy Wars Explained - Colonel Richard Kemp
2 months ago 00:01:11 1
Marcos Knight Highlights 17 Pts, 3 Ast vs BC Parma
2 months ago 00:00:38 1
تصريح رئيس أمريكي سابق عن واقع الشعب الفلسطيني!🇵🇸 #غزة #فلسطين #اسرائيل #أمريكا #ايران #الشرق_الأوسط