The Differences Between British & American English

British English vs. American English: Why Did they Split?

Before Americans were even Americans, the British took issue with the ways in which the mother tongue was being changed by those in the Colonies. Many Americans changed the way they spoke, and a few went as far as to begin defining a specifically American approach to English.

For example, Noah Webster isn’t just any old name when it comes to dictionaries, he was an early proponent of asserting American independence by way of embracing a new, wholly American version of English. He once wrote, “Great Britain, whose children we are, and whose language we speak, should no longer be our standard; for the taste of her writers is already corrupted, and her language on the decline.”¹ The first dictionary to bare his now-famous name took thirty years to compile1, and the British vs. American English war has continued simmering since.

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The Difference Between How American & British English Sound

Let’s pause for a look—or listen, as it were—at the differences between how these different approaches to English sound. While both the U.S. and the U.K. are home to lots of different accents and dialects but zeroing in on one sound we make when we talk speaks volumes: rhotic speech, or the rhotic consonant, or, if you really want to break it down, the non-rhotic vs. rhotic consonant /r/.

Once upon a time, the English language generally featured hard /r/ sounds for British and American speakers—called rhotic speech. This was sometimes shifted to dropped /r/ pronunciation over time—called non-rhotic speech. As the British Empire expanded across the globe, British English speakers brought their rhotic speech with them, but back at home, the growing upper class wanted a way to set themselves apart linguistically and so began forcing non-rhotic speech to become the only appropriate way a member of the upper crust could speak.

Put another way: The way American English pronounces /r/ is more accurate, and older, than the way British English often drops its /r/.² While the hoity toity of American society glommed onto this linguistic affectation for a spell, it’s mostly fallen out of use.

Evolving Vocabulary

Boots and lorries and bumbershoots, oh my. Vocabulary differences may be the easiest to recognize difference between British English and American English. But it goes beyond what we call the trunks of our cars, our gas-guzzling trucks, and umbrellas. Here are some common differences between American and British English vocabulary:

• biscuit vs. cookie
• chemist vs. drug store
• dustbin vs. garbage can
• flat vs. apartment
• ground floor vs. first floor
• holiday vs. vacation
• jumper vs. sweater
• lift vs. elevator
• mangetout vs. snow pea
• pavement vs. sidewalk
• queue vs. line
• saloon vs. sedan
• timber vs. lumber
• waistcoat vs. vest
• zebra crossing vs. crosswalk

There are a couple reasons why these differences may exist. One is thanks to early American dictionaries and lexicographers who were more concerned with cataloging the “American way” of saying things, versus British dictionary writers who were focused on compiling all words. Another reason is where loan words have come from. A great example of this: American English’s cilantro (Spanish) vs. British English’s coriander (French).²

Spelling Differences

Here again we meet our friend, American lexicographer Noah Webster. When he set upon the task of compiling his namesake dictionary, he wanted to simplify British English spellings to make them distinctly American.2 You’ll recognize his handiwork:

• -ense instead of -ence, like in license and pretense
• -ize instead of -ise, like in apologize and recognize (but Brits will use both spellings³)
• -er instead of -re, like in center, liter, and theater
• -or instead of -our, like in behavior, color, honor, and rumor

Examples abound, up to and including how words that end in a vowel and the letter L are handled when being added to. British English turns travel into travelled and travelling, but American English doesn’t double the L.

Punctuation & Formatting Differences

In matters of punctuation and formatting, the differences don’t exactly trace their roots to American independence, but they still exist:

• Abbreviation punctuation. British English doesn’t use punctuation after title abbreviations, such as those that appear before a name (Mr, Mrs, Ms, etc.) while American English does.
• Date formatting. British English formats their dates DD/MM/YYYY and American English formats dates MM/DD/YYYY, flipping the order of month and year. Confusion abounds.
• Matters of quotation marks. How to use quotation marks—and punctuation inside and around punctuation marks—varies quite a bit between British and American English:
• British English uses single quotation marks, American English uses double.
• Quotes inside of quotes are double quotation marks in British English, single in American English.
• British English calls for commas and periods outside quotation marks (unless the punctuation is part of the quote), while American English keeps punctuation inside.

None of this means one or the other version of English is more correct. British English and American English are distinct, though similar, and whether you use one or the other depends upon your audience.