Podcast 14 Some differences between American English and British English

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Hi, this is Missy, from Blabbinit. Thank you for listening in today. We would like to explain a few differences today between the English from the U.S. and the English from England. I have created a list of 10 words so that you can see that there are major differences between the 2 types of English. The examples are:

apartment - flat

cookie - biscuit

elevator - lift

eraser - rubber

fries - chips

bathroom - loo or WC

flashlight - torch

Stand in a line - queue

sidewalk - pavement

truck - lorry

There are also grammatical differences between British English and American English. For example:

In the US we would say:
He's gotten better at reading.
In England they might say:
He's got better at reading.

Another example is the word got.

In American English we would say something like:
Do you have the book from the library?
In England they might say:
Have you got the book from the library?

As you can tell, there are slight grammatical differences between these countries.

There are also many words that have different spelling. For example:

The word color in American English is spelled c-o-l-o-r and in British English it is spelled c-o-l-o-u-r . The word practice in American English is spelled p-r-a-c-t-i-c-e and in British English it is p-r-a-c-t-i-s-e.

There are many differences in the language between these two countries, as you see. And many many more. I have only listed a few of them here. Again, this is Missy from Blabbinit. www.blabbinit.com . Take time to answer the poll on our website to tell which English accent you feel is the worst. Thanks again and have a good one. Bye

B.E. pronuntiation

The most difficult thing I’ve found for B.E. is the lack of “R” sound ending words.
Maybe it’s due to I learned mostly A.E., or maybe it’s because I expect the word sounds as alike to it’s written as it’s possible. I don’t know why, but B.E. result confusing to me.

Luis from Argentina

Submitted by luisleo on Thu, 02/19/2009 - 13:10.
missy...

this topic is very interesting for me... there are many differences I've got to learn... thnaks!!!!

Submitted by sleincp on Thu, 04/10/2008 - 08:52.
hi!! missy ...

I'm slein from Peru... I'd like you to tell me where I can find more phrasal verbs becouse that is the most difficult point of learning english for me... and about conectors like although, at least, etc. I don't know when and where I've got to use them....please help me ... I want to learn to speak as good as you do it... thanks...

your sincerity slein!!

Submitted by sleincp on Thu, 04/10/2008 - 08:49.
Jix's picture
Ta!

Hello Missy from Blabbinit
At least I've already heard about the first pair of words (apartment and flat), I hope that will give me more points Sticking out tongue About practice and practise someone told me the first one should be used as a noun and the second one as a verb... and finally thank you very much for the "colour/color" words, I wasn't sure which one was correct.

Greetings from México
Jixcito =)

Submitted by Jix on Thu, 03/27/2008 - 22:08.
Missy's picture
Thank you for filling me in

Thank you for filling me in on that Jixcito. I wasn't aware that one was used as a noun and one as a verb. Here we only use "practice". Thanks for the info and for your comment! They are always appreciated!

~Missy

Submitted by Missy on Fri, 03/28/2008 - 09:58.

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