difference between British English & American English

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As a Chinese student ,I'd like to know the diference between these two kind of English ?As for me,I prefer British one.

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Type: Question • Score: 28 • Views: 6,808 • Replies: 128

[+5] - McTag - 05/05/2015 The difference is, Americans don't speak it good.
[+5] - Tes yeux noirs - 05/06/2015I have to protest that nobody has mentioned Canadian English. We get the flak from both sides, so we must be doing something right, as my old dad used to say.
[+4] - FBM - 05/05/2015There is a very long list of vocabulary and pronunciation differences between them, as well as very different idioms and metaphors. Here's a good introduction:...
[+4] - George - 05/06/2015How can you prefer British English to American English when you don't know the difference? Just wondering.
[+4] - farmerman - 05/09/2015Youre just jealous because Izzy regularly greases your lame bon mots with actual wit. Its taken me 3/4 of a lifetime to overcome the humorless maudlin outlook associated with the Russian gene...
[+4] - McTag - 05/09/2015 [quote]Quite true. We speak it well. [/quote] I've heard that Americans don't do irony. I previously thought it probably an exaggeration.
[+3] - FBM - 05/05/2015Yew wot, m8?
[+3] - izzythepush - 05/09/2015Thanks very much. Being called a phoney by someone who pretends to be John Lee Hooker and an 'American' who wants to surrender to Putin has been very harrowing. If it wasn't for your post I might...
[+3] - izzythepush - 05/09/2015If you'd broken a rule you'd be suspended. Some people just like to vote other people down. I get voted down all the time. Don't pay any attention to it, they want a reaction, don't give them...
[+3] - farmerman - 05/10/2015The people up and around the ALgonquin Park speak a unique brand of Canajun?

@Zac Albert 2015,

There is a very long list of vocabulary and pronunciation differences between them, as well as very different idioms and metaphors. Here's a good introduction: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_American_and_British_English

2 Replies

@Zac Albert 2015,

The difference is, Americans don't speak it good.

4 Replies

@McTag,

Oh yeah, i say we speak it much betterer than you jokers do.

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@McTag,

Yew wot, m8?

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@Zac Albert 2015,

Where do you anticipate using English?

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@Zac Albert 2015,

Quote:

I'd like to know the diference between these two kind of English

They aint the same language, to begin with.

One is candyass "queen's English."

The other is down-home, no pretense, American.

1 Reply

@McTag,

The difference is, in America, problems with intrusive h's ... 'ardly h'ever 'appen. Mr. Green

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@layman,

layman wrote:

One is candyass "queen's English."

The other is down-home, no pretense, American.

My British father likes to say that Brits are unpretentiously pretentious,
while Americans are pretentiously unpretentious.
I wholeheartedly agree with him, of course.

There's a recent trend in American commercials to have some guy in an effeminate English accent advertise an "inferior" product,
only for some "good 'ole boy" American baritone to interrupt and explain why the real McCoy is so much better.
I can't stand it. It makes me want to throw things at the TV.

1 Reply

@Kolyo,

Quote:

There's a recent trend in American commercials to have some guy in an effeminate English accent advertise an "inferior" product,
only for some "good 'ole boy" American baritone to interrupt and explain why the real McCoy is so much better.
I can't stand it. It makes me want to throw things at the TV.

Heh, I haven't noticed that, but like it or not (I kinda like it, myself) it's probably good advertising strategy.

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How can you prefer British English to American English when you don't know
the difference? Just wondering.

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I have to protest that nobody has mentioned Canadian English. We get the flak from both sides, so we must be doing something right, as my old dad used to say.

1 Reply

@Zac Albert 2015,

Here is a poem I wrote many years ago that may impact on your question in a minor way:

He’s An Englishman Doing An American Accent

He’s an Englishman
Doing an American accent.
Which means he’s gonna use “gonna” a lot.

And he’s gonna use “wanna” every bit as much.
“Gotta” will be working overtime, too,
As will the double negatives.

If you are an Englishman
Who wants to do an American accent,
A great sentence to practice would be:

“I don’t wanna be no party pooper,
But I gotta be home by 10,
So I’m gonna leave now.”

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I like some british english and use it (doubling ll's in travelling, for example - I don't care what spellcheck thinks) and don't mind the u in words like honour, though I don't use them, being, y'know, from California. Some british english words throw me for a loop, usually colloquialisms. Will report when I remember those; well, at least one or two. They seem to show up every day in conversations on a2k.
Heck, in the U.S. they show up from state to state. I'd no more call pizza a pie than I would call a vertical building a pie.

1 Reply

@Tes yeux noirs,

Tes yeux noirs wrote:

I have to protest that nobody has mentioned Canadian English. We get the flak from both sides, so we must be doing something right, as my old dad used to say.

Good point. I hadn't thought aboot that.

2 Replies

@FBM,

And then there's Aussie English...

1 Reply

@cherrie,

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb192/DinahFyre/11130163_430325393795193_264302358371201056_n.png

1 Reply

@Zac Albert 2015,

Both have their advantages. British English is more formal and elegant, while American English is more casual.

1 Reply

@purplebubble,

You ever get the feeling when you're talking to a Limey that you're talking to a complete phony?

2 Replies

difference between British English & American English

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