Introduction
English has
become a global language that is used in different places all over the world.
Differences in many aspects make it has many different styles that spread in
the world such as British, American, Australian etc. English speaker has their
own style but the most
common style for English users in the world is British and American styles. American
style is the form of English style used in the United States of America while
British are the form of English style used in the United Kingdom. Playwright
George Bernard Shaw once claimed that, "England and America are two
countries divided by a common language." While there are certainly many
more varieties of English, American English and British English nowadays are
the two varieties that are taught in most ESL/EFL programs. Even, the most sources that used by
English users to found references in famous English
dictionary are Webster for USA and Oxford for British. Therefore, until now
British and American style is the most common style for English users.
In olden time, the English
language was
first introduced to the America by British colonization,
more than 400 years ago in the early 17thcentury (beginning in 1607)
in Jamestown,
Virginia. It also spread in many other parts of the world
because of the strength of the British Empire. Since then, American English has
been evolving, influenced by other languages, culture and technology and over
the years, English spoken in the United States and in Britain started diverging
and has deviated from each other in various aspects. This led in dialects then
accent and pronunciations. Therefore, the form of English used in the
Britain/United Kingdom is called British English, and the form of English used
in the United States is called American English. It had influences not present
in England but come from Europe such as Africa, Spain, Netherland, German and French
were beginning to expand their influence and spread their culture all over the
world, especially who migrated to America for trade and business. In fact,
until now British and American style have so many differences in various aspects
such as spelling, pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar.
Discussion
One of the
different aspects in British and American style is grammar. Grammar is the
whole system and structure of a language or of languages in general, usually
considered to consist of syntax, morphology and sometimes also phonology and
semantics. Actually, the original correct grammar comes from old British
English, then it is constantly changing and many new ways of using grammar are
coming from across the pond from American influence through American popular
culture, the media and internet.
English language
must be has different grammar in its different style, such as the different
grammar between British and American style which commonly must be known because
it is the most common style that is used by English users. The different depend
on what aspects in grammar that makes it different. It is also important to
know the differences grammar of British and American style to keep the
structure words consistently in one language style because oftentimes non
native speaker or English users as ESL and EFL compound the both style in their
language style. The aspects in grammar that is different between British and
American styles such as tenses, modals and auxiliaries, punctuation, tag
question, possession, preposition, collective nouns, etc.
The first different
aspect in grammar is tenses. American
English common to use the simple past tense while British English common to use
the present perfect tense that is used to describe or express a
past event and actions that has present consequences. In
British English the both forms would be considered incorrect. However, both
forms are generally accepted in standard American English which usage these
meanings can be expressed with the present perfect to express a fact or the
simple past to imply an expectation or permissible. For example:
British
English: I think I've lost my keys. Have you seen them anywhere?
American
English: I think I lost my keys. Did you see them anywhere?
The past perfect tense is more common in American English,
especially in the situations where the speaker sees one event as happening
before another in the past than in British English that used simple past tense.
For example:
British English: You said
your father died when he was quite
young.
American
English: You
had said your family is from back east.
Below is a table
showing verbs which have different simple past and past participle forms in
American and British English. The following verbs
have two acceptable forms of the past simple or past participle in both
American and British English. However, the irregular form is generally more
common in British English (the first form of the two) and the regular form is
more common to American English. For example, the irregular past forms
burnt and dreamt are possible in American English, but less common than the
forms ending in -ed.
Infinitive
|
Simple Past
(British) |
Simple Past
(American) |
Past Participle
(British) |
Past Participle
(American) |
Burn
|
Burned/burnt
|
Burned/burnt
|
Burned/burnt
|
Burned/burnt
|
Dream
|
Dreamed / dreamt
|
Dreamed / dreamt
|
Dreamed/dreamt
|
Dreamed/dreamt
|
Spoil
|
Spoiled/spoilt
|
Spoiled/spoilt
|
Spoiled/spoilt
|
Spoiled/spoilt
|
Get
|
Got
|
Got
|
Got
|
Gotten
|
Learn
|
Learned/learnt
|
Learned
|
Learned / learnt
|
Learned
|
Smell
|
Smelled/smelt
|
Smelled
|
Smelled / smelt
|
Smelled
|
Wake
|
Woke
|
Woke / waked
|
Woken
|
Woken
|
Dive
|
Dived
|
Dove / dived
|
Dived
|
Dived
|
The examples of sentence verbs that regular in American English,
but irregular in British English are:
British
English
|
American
English
|
·
She learnt
to play the piano
·
I
have learnt that it is better to be safe than sorry.
·
The
kitchen smelt of roast chicken.
|
·
She
learned to play the piano
·
I
have learned that it is better to be safe than sorry.
·
The
kitchen smelled of roast chicken.
|
The examples of sentences verbs that regular in British English, but irregular
in American English are:
British
English: Then she dived into the pool with all her clothes on.
American
English: Then she dove into the pool with all her clothes on.
Meanwhile, the
differences tenses also occur in using words of the indefinite times adverbs,
such as already, ever, just and yet. In British English, those words generally used with the
present perfect tense while in American English, those time adverbs are used
with the simple past tense commonly and used present perfect tense also. For
example:
Time Adverbs
|
British English
|
American English
|
Already
|
·
I have already seen that movie.
|
·
I already saw that movie. / I have already seen that movie
|
Just
|
·
She has just left.
|
·
She just left. / She has just left.
|
Yet
|
·
I haven't read it yet.
·
Have you finished your homework yet?
|
·
I didn't read it yet.
·
Did you finish your homework
yet? / Have your finished your homework yet?
|
Ever
|
·
Have you ever been to Canada?
|
·
Did you ever go to Canada?
|
Another grammar difference between British and American English relates to modals and 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. The common differences modals
and auxiliary verb in this case are shall/should, will, need, do and to be
going to.
The Situation
|
British English
|
American English
|
Express the future.
|
· I shall go home now.
|
· I will go home now.
|
In
question form
|
· Shall we go now?
|
· Should we go now?
|
Express a lack of obligation
|
· You needn’t
come to work today.
|
· You do
not need to come to work today
|
The auxiliary ‘do’ as a substitute
for a verb when replying to a question.
|
· I might do.
· I have done.
· I could do.
· I should do.
|
· I might. (without do)
|
Future forms
(to be going to / will)
|
· We will
go to your house.
|
· We are
going to go to your house.
· You’re gonna
see an apartment building on the left. (informal)
|
Have to /
have got to
|
· We’ve got
to take my mother back to the hospital a week on Friday.
|
· We have to
be back in San Francisco next Sunday to fly home again.
|
Furthermore, the other difference grammar is
preposition. There are some preposition which different between British and
American English, such as at, in, on, for, through, till, to, from, etc. Pay
attention the example in the table below:
The Situation
|
British English
|
American English
|
Time
expressions
|
· At the weekend (What are you doing at the weekend?)
· At Christmas.
· At five 'o' clock.
|
· On the weekend. (She'll be coming
home on weekends.)
|
Places
|
· She studied chemistry at university.
|
· She studied French in high school.
|
Adjective
different
|
· This place is different from/to anything I've seen before.
|
· This place is different from/than anything I've seen before.
|
Using to
(after verb write)
|
· I promised to write to her every
day.
· Write
to me when you can
|
· I promised to write her every day. (‘to’ is omitted after verb write)
· Write
me when you can
|
A
period of time after a negative verb
|
· I haven’t talked to my brother for three years.
|
· I haven’t talked to my brother in three years.
|
Street
names
|
· They were a lovely family. They lived in
Walton Street.
|
· I used to live on Perot Street.
|
Referring
to the end points of periods of time
|
· I was doing twelve hours a day from Monday
to/till Friday and
twelve and a half on a Saturday.
|
· I was doing twelve hours a day from Monday
through Friday and twelve and a half on a Saturday.
|
Moreover, the differences aspect in grammar between British
and American style is possession. There are two forms to express possession in
English, namely ‘have/has’ and ‘have got/have gotten’. ‘Have/has’ common
used in American English instead in British English but it is accepted in both
style. Meanwhile, using of ‘have got’ and ‘have gotten’ based on the tenses
which common used of both style. British English common to used past tenses
(have got) while American English common to used past participle (have gotten).
‘Have got’ is used also in American English but only mean 'have'. Pay attention
the example below.
Possession
|
British English
|
American English
|
Have/has
|
·
I have any friends
·
She
has a unique home
|
·
I have a car
·
She
has a lovely daughter.
|
Have/has
got
|
·
You've got two brothers
·
She
has got a nice home.
·
Has
she got a nice home?
·
No, she hasn’t got a nice home.
|
·
You've got two brothers
(meaning = you have two brothers)
·
She has two brothers
·
Does she have two brothers?
·
No,
she doesn’t have two brothers.
|
Have/has
got
Have/has
gotten
|
·
You've
got taller this year
·
He's got much better at
playing tennis.
|
·
You've
gotten taller this year
·
He's gotten much better at
playing tennis.
|
Collective nouns are also including the different grammar in
British and American English. British tend to treat collective nouns as plural
whereas Americans treat them as singular which is technically correct. However,
In
British English certain collective nouns can have both a plural and a singular
verb. In other word, whether 'is' or 'are' can be correct depending on whether
the team is referred to as a group or individually. For
example:
British
English: The government are making a
decision
American
English: The government is making a
decision
In addition, in British English, the
verb ‘have’ is used in contexts where it has very little meaning in itself but
occurs with certain objects noun which describes an action. ‘Have’ is
frequently used in this way with nouns referring to common activities such as
washing or resting. While In American English 'take' is used
instead of have. For
example:
British
English
|
American
English
|
·
I'd
like to have a bath.
·
I need to have a bath.
·
He's
having a little nap/He's
having a rest.
·
I'll
just have a quick shower before we
go out.
|
·
I'd
like to take a bath.
·
Let's take a break.
·
He's taking a shower.
·
Let's
take a short vacation.
·
Why
don't you take a rest now?
|
Question tag is a short question in the end of sentences to
clarify the statement. This one also has the different between those two
styles. Question tags are much more common in British than in American English,
but a wide range of question tags are used in both varieties. For example:
British English: She’s Swedish, isn’t she?
American English: Elvis wasn’t your favorite rock star, was he?
Nonetheless, there are a little bit differences in their rule
in informal situation. In American English, the tag has the same form as the
statement. It means that the affirmative statement is partner with affirmative
tag and negative statement is partner with negative tag. This is not common in
British that if the statement positive, then it will be negative tag and
otherwise. Nevertheless, it can be occur in both varieties. Then, American speakers
often use a tag with rising intonation in responses which show surprise or
emotional involvement because the pronoun be place before auxiliaries, while
British is otherwise. For example:
British
English: Oh, you took the Chinese
course last semester, did you? (With fall-rise or
rising intonation)
American
English: Oh, you took the Chinese
course last semester, you did↗?
Both varieties also use the tag right, but it is more common in American English such as “She’s studying geography, right?”
Punctuation also becomes the differences between British and
American English. Some punctuation that has differences is period, apostrophe,
colon, quotation marks include single quotes and double quotes. Pay attention
the example on the table below.
Punctuation
|
British English
|
American English
|
Period
in titles / abbreviations
|
· Mr
· Mrs (period is omitted)
· Ms
· Dr
|
· Mr.
· Mrs.
· Ms.
· Dr.
|
Apostrophe
in plural form of dates
|
· 2015s
(apostrophe is omitted)
|
· 2015’s
|
Colon/period
in time
|
· 10.30 (period)
|
· 10:30 (colon)
|
Quotation
Marks
|
· The 'new and improved' detergent
didn't clean my clothes.
· My father always said, 'Be careful
what you wish for'.
· She said, ‘This model has been called “the
best”’.
|
· My new teacher "loves"
my handwriting.
· My father always said, "Be
careful what you wish for."
· She
said, “This model has been called ‘the best.’”
|
Comma/colon
in salutation
|
· Dear John, (Informal letter)
· Dear John: (business letter)
|
· Dear John, (a comma follows the
salutation in all letters)
|
Based
on the table above which contain the example of British and American’s
difference punctuation, British style used single quotes (‘) for initial
quotations, then double quotes (“) for quotations within the initial quotation
while American used double quotes (“) for initial quotations, then single
quotes (‘) for quotation within the initial quotation. Besides that, American
style generally places commas and periods inside the closing quotation marks,
even if they are not in the original material while British style (more
sensibly) places unquoted periods and commas outside the closing quotation
marks. Meanwhile, in both styles, question marks and exclamation points are
placed inside the quotation marks if they belong to the quotation and outside
otherwise. For all other punctuation, the British and American styles are in
agreement: unless the punctuation is part of the quoted material, it goes
outside the quotation marks.
David
Marsh (2011) and Karen S. Garvin (2015) explained the same thing in their article
that American and British styles differ in whether commas and other punctuation
are placed inside or outside of quotation marks. Americans place the comma and
period inside the quotation marks whether they're single or double, but the
colon and semicolon follow the closing quotation marks. Question marks and
exclamation marks may be inside or out, depending on whether they're part of
the quotation. The British place punctuation that is part of the quote within
the quotation marks, including the exclamation mark and question mark.
Thought not necessarily a matter of punctuation, there is one
important distinction between American and British usage when it comes to
dates. American usage puts the month first, followed by the day, and then the
year while British practice (followed in most of the world) is to put the day
first, followed by the month. For example:
British
English: 12/5/2015 means 12 May 2015
American English:
12/5/2015 means December 5, 2015
However, the
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has established the
YYYY-MM-DD format, in which December 5, 2015, would be written 2015-12-05. In
the meantime, writing out the month will avoid confusion.
Conclusion
British and American English indeed
the two varieties of English most widely found around the world.
Based on fact that there are two common styles, means that the both have many
differences in many aspects such as spelling, vocabulary, pronunciation and
grammar. Then, the differences aspects in grammar such as tenses, modals and
auxiliaries, punctuation, tag question, possession, preposition, collective
nouns, etc.
Even though many
differences between them, it is important for English
users to be consistent in English style which they used and not to use
a mix of English styles. If they decide to use
American English style then be consistent in it, this is of course not always
easy or possible. That is why the English users important to know the principal
differences between these two varieties of English. Pay attention below.
American
/ British English: The defense minister
first travelled to China in 2013.
All American English: The defense
minister first traveled to China in 2013.
All British English: The defence
minister first travelled to China in 2013.
Finally,
nevertheless they are different, no language or regional variety of language is inherently
better or worse than another. They are just different. English users will often
have very firm beliefs on which English they think is better or easier to use.
They can choose which variety of English they would like. It’s best to pick the style that feels most natural for
them.
REFERENCESS
Beare,
Kenneth (2015). Differences between American and British English.
B.,
Krista (2013). British and American English. From http://www.ecenglish.com/learnenglish/lessons/british-and-american-english
Godwin,
Alex (2010). Grammar differences between American and British English. http://www.really-learn-english.com/grammar-differences-between-american-and-british-english.html
Harbeck,
James (2015). Britain and the US Share a Common Language – but English is
Spoken and Spelled very differently on each side of the Atlantic. James Harbeck
Finds out Why. From http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20150715-why-isnt-american-a-language
Heacock,
Paul (2015). British and American English. From http://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/british-and-american-english
Marsh,
David (2011). The British Style? The American Way? They are not so Different.
From http://www.theguardian.com/media/mind-your-language/2011/may/19/mind-your-language-punctuation-quotations
Maxwell,
Kerry and Lindsay Clandfield (2015). Differences in American and British
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S.
Garvin, Karen. (2015). Correct Quotation Mark Usage. From http://www.scribophile.com/academy/correct-quotation-mark-usage
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Bas (2015). The differences between American English and British English when Writing
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