4 main differences between American English and British English.

There is no doubt that English is and will continue to be one of the most popular and spoken languages ​​on the planet. This language is the official language in 57 countries around the world, despite this, it is estimated that English is spoken in 3/4 of the globe, taking into account that according to the UN (United Nations), there is 193 countries around the world; this would be equivalent to English being spoken in approximately 145 countries. It is without a doubt the language of science, technology, music and business, however there are two types of dialects which have become standardized and predominate among people who want to learn this language, these dialects are American and British . Pretending to think that one is better than another, is from my point of view absurd, since that type of comparison is very subjective and is not the subject of analysis in this article, then we will analyze the main differences between them.

1. Pronunciation

Despite the fact that the phonetics of the English language is only one, there are differences in its pronunciation that have been geographically well defined, it would seem that British English is a mean quantum when opening the mouth in order to articulate some phonemes that constitute the words, this makes these sounds concise or almost null when trying to understand a word. A clear example of this statement is the phoneme "r", which in British English and for a poorly trained ear is almost null, as for example in the word "water" where it is difficult to distinguish the sound of the "r" On the contrary, "water" in American English in the sound "r" you can distinguish a slight curl of the tongue, which is very characteristic of this phoneme. We could also mention the phoneme "t" which in British English tends to be quite clear and marked, for example in the word "twenty" where its sound can clearly be appreciated, being the opposite in American English where many occasions the phoneme "t" is null as in "twenty" or even replaced by a kind of subtle "r", as in the case of "little".

2. Phonetic stress

Let us remember that English in none of its dialects uses what we know in Spanish as a tilde and that it basically serves to demonstrate which is the syllable in a word that denotes the greatest voice force. Except for certain words that are eventually taken from other languages ​​such as "fiancée" which means "fiancée" and comes from French. It is important to understand then that English words do not have an accent except for certain exceptions already mentioned. However, English words have an accent or greater voice force. It is here precisely where lies another of the important differences between American and British English, let's listen carefully to the next word pronounced in British English "adult" note that the greatest voice force lies in the first syllable, while the same word pronounced in English American “adult” has the greatest voice force in the last syllable, we could dedicate an entire article to establish the phonetic differentiation between the two dialects, but nevertheless it is necessary to continue with the following difference

3. Spelling

Another of the main differences lies in the way of writing the words. Subtle spelling details clearly show when it comes to American English or British English. Words like "color" (American English) and "color" (British English), "center" (American English) and "center" (British English), "analyze" (American English) and "analyze" (British English), or "license" (American English) and "license" (British English). All of them and others mark a clear difference between these two dialects.

4. Words with the same meaning but different writing

They are not only pronunciation, spelling, phonetic performance, but also the infinity of different words to refer to the same concept, the following list is only referential, since there are countless words which it would be impossible to include in this article.

Cookie (American English) Biscuit (British English) COOKIE

Chips (American English) French fries (British English) FRENCH FRIES

Subway (American English) Underground (British English) METRO

Eggplant (American English) Aubergine (British English) EGGPLANT

We hope this article helps you understand that there is no better English, there are dialects and people who speak them and that it is up to you which dialect you want to learn or with which of them you identify more. Learn more.