Differences between AmE and BrE

VERSUS

AMERICAN ENGLISH

BRITISH ENGLISH

index

1. SPELLING

2. HISTORY

3. PRONOUNCIATION

4. VOCABULARY AND SLANG

5. DIFFERENCES IN THE USE OF TENSES AND IN VERB USAGE

6. DIFFERENCES IN THE USE OF PREPOSITIONS

7. TIME TELLING

8. EQUIVALENT IDIOMS

spelling

AMERICAN spelling

british spelling

The main difference is that British English keeps the spelling of words it has absorbed from other languages, mainly French and German. Whilst American English spellings are based mostly on how the word sounds when it is spoken.

Pronounciation

History

vocabulary and slang

+ info

differences in use of tenses

There are some grammar rule differences between British English and American English.

Time Telling

Eventhough they have the same alphabet, Americans and british people tell time differently

Equivalent IDIOMS

The difference in the idioms is not their meaning. But its in the way they express them

Differences in the use of prepositions

Prepositions are short words which serve to indicate relations between words in a sentence including relationships of a part to the whole (e.g. the antenna of the TV-set, a page of a book), location (e.g. in/under/on/above the table), a manner of doing something (e.g. with a hammer, without oil, by bus, on foot), time (e.g. at 5, in the morning, till nigh, from Monday to Friday).