British Versus American English, Part 2

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

Last week, in Part 1 of this two-part series, we talked about how British and American English sometime use different words to mean the same thing. There are other differences between British and American English, although they are not major: grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

Grammar

Collective nouns refer to a group even though they can be singular: audience, band, team, class, family, etc.

As I researched this post, I read that in American English, collective nouns are singular. For example, band refers to a group of musicians, team refers to a group of athletes. Americans would say, “The band is good,” thus using a singular verb.

But in British English, collective nouns can be singular or plural. You might hear someone from Britain say, “The band are playing tonight” or “The band is playing tonight.”

I have always been taught the British way, although most people do not make the distinction. In my mind (and in my books) collective nouns can be either singular or plural depending on what you mean. If you are talking about the group as a unit, you use a singular verb. If you are talking about the individuals in the group, you use a plural verb: The band is having a party after the concert. The band are tuning their instruments.

Auxiliary verbs, also known as helping verbs, are verbs that generally change the tense of a verb. Brits often use shall to express the future. Americans rarely use it in conversation because it seems too formal. Americans usually say “I will go home now.” However, shall does have a distinct meaning in American legal language. Also, I always learned that shall is used for first person, and will for second and third person. But if you want to emphasize the verb, you use will for first person, and shall for second and third, switching them up: I will go! You shall go!

Past tense verb forms also sometimes differ between British and American English. British English, for some verbs, uses a -t rather than –ed.  The past tense of of learn in American English is learned. British English uses either learned or learnt. The same is true of dreamed and dreamt, burned and burnt, leaned and learnt.

Americans generally use the present perfect tense (have/has) less frequently than the British. 

I am tired; I didn’t get enough sleep (American)
I am tired. I haven’t gotten enough sleep. (British)

Prepositions, or lack thereof, can also differ between American and British English. The British prefer at the weekend; Americans say on the weekend. Americans say in the hospital, but the British say in hospital.

Punctuation

There is one major difference between British and American punctuation. In British English, the period and comma are placed outside quotation marks unless the period or comma is part of the quote itself.  In American English, periods and commas are always placed inside quotation marks.

British: She said,”I am going to the mall”.

American: She said, “I am going to the mall.”

Spelling

Americans end words in -or that British end in -our:  colour/color, humour/ humor, flavour/flavor, neighbour/neighbor

Verbs in British English that end with either -ize or -ise  end with ize in American English: recognise/recognize, organise/organize

Verbs that end in –yse in  British English end in  –yze in American English: analyse/analyze, paralyse/paralyze

Verbs that end in a vowel followed by l double the l in British English, but not in American English: travelled/traveled, cancelling/canceling

British English words spelled with the double vowels ae or oe are spelled with just an e in American English: manoeuver/maneuver, paediatric/pediatric

Some nouns that end with ence in British English are spelled ense in American English: licence/license, defence/defense

Some nouns that end with ogue in British English sometimes are ended with just og in American English: catalogue/catalog, dialogue/dialog