“Offense,” “defense” and “license” are all American spellings. In British English, the verb is spelled “practise,” but the noun is spelled “practice.” -se vs. iseĪmerican English uses “ice” at the end of the word “practice,” regardless of whether it’s a noun or a verb. The same words, however, end with “yse” in British English (“analyse” and “paralyse”). Some words, like “analyze” and “paralyze,” always end with “yze” in American English. In American English, you’ll see many words ending with “ize,” such as “organize,” “realize” and “capitalize.” In British English, those words replace the “z” with an “s”: “organise,” “realise” and “capitalise.” -yze vs. In American English, words like “favorite,” “flavor,” “savor” and “endeavor” are always spelled with just an “or.” However, those same words in British English need to include a “u”: “favourite,” “flavour,” “savour” and “endeavour.” -ize vs. American spellingĪside from the pronunciation variations we’ve gone through, British English and American English have different spelling conventions as well. Conversely, British speakers often vary their tone a lot, going from high to low. American English speakers, in general, tend to have a fairly flat, monotonous intonation. You’ll find these sounds in words like “go,” “slow” and “quote.” IntonationĪnother difference you’ll notice between British and American English is the intonation speakers use in a sentence, or the way they make their voice rise and fall. The American is also a diphthong, but it starts at the back of the mouth the lips and tongue are very tense for this sound. The British (the “o” sound) is a diphthong, meaning it’s a combination of two vowel sounds-the mouth actually changes position when pronouncing the British “o.” This sound starts in the center of the mouth. In British English, words like “dog,” “stop” and “pot” are pronounced with the /ɒ/ sound, using a slightly rounded mouth it’s called an “open back rounded vowel.” In American English, the /ɑ/ ( the short “o”) sound is an “open back unrounded long sound”: the mouth is not rounded and is slightly more open. In addition to the consonants, there are some vowel sounds that are quite different between American and British English. This does vary depending on the area of England, however some Brits use a glottal stop, meaning the /t/ isn’t really pronounced at all (“tomah-o,” for instance). On the other hand, in standard British English, the /t/ in those words would sound like a typical “t” sound. In American English, something happens to the /t/ sound when it comes after a stressed vowel and before a weak one: it turns into a combination of a “t” and a “d.” You’ll hear this in words like “butter,” “water” and “tomato” (they sound a little like “budder,” “wadder” and “tomaydo”). In British English, when an “r” comes after a vowel in the same syllable, it’s not pronounced-this would be in words like “far,” “enter,” “market” and “injure.” On the other hand, Americans use the rhotic accent, meaning the “r” is pronounced strongly. When you hear a British person speak and then compare that to an American’s speech, the first thing you’ll probably notice is that they treat “r ” sounds very differently. American pronunciation Consonant soundsīelow, we’ll discuss two of the most obvious consonant differences when it comes to American vs. Let’s take a look at all of this in more detail! British vs. Finally, certain grammatical structures are different as well. They don’t always use the same words for various items, either (think truck vs. On top of pronunciation, American English spelling differs from British English spelling. ɑ/, in words like “pop” and “stop.” American and British accents also differ in intonation. The most obvious one is the accent-specifically with sounds like “r” and certain vowel sounds, such as /ɒ/ vs. How are British and American English different from one another?Īs we mentioned above, there are lots of factors that make British and American English different.
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