British English-American English

Question

Today many people are mixing B.E. and A.E. so l decided to post here some differences in vocabulary:

British English: American English:

angry mad

anywhere anyplace

autumn fall

bank note bill

biscuit cookie

ill sick

mad crazy

post mail

sprite lemonade

fizzy drink soda

jumper sweater

film movie

cinema movies

horse riding horse back riding

university college

uni campus

uni classes lectures

mobile cell phone

radio boombox

underground subway

football soccer

rugby football

cozzy bathing suit

public school private school

state school public school

mark grade

of course,there are many words but l posted just some of them....there are also spelling differences so l'll post that another time!

Xtina

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

Thank you Xtina!. Very handy information.

I have two questions about your list:). Could I ask you about them?.

.About rugby and football. You know, there is a game played in England and also out of England called rugby. There is a game played in the U.S ( and invented by Americans) called, as I have heard, American Football. As far as I know (American)football is not played in England( at least in a high level), and Rugby is not played in the U.S.

So If you are referring to one game only, which one are you referring to in this case, the American one or the English or "non-American" one ?.I mean , do English people call American football "rugby" or do American people call rugby "football"?.

He, he.

.About cinema and movies. I suppose you are referring here to the place where a film or movie is seen. I think that I have heard also the American term "theatre cinema", or "theatre movie", or something like that. What do you think of this??. Have you heard a similar term to refer to "movies"??

Thank you Xtina.

for learning

Xtina · Answer

Of course,dear friend l'll explain you

Firstly,when you're speaking with American people,and when you in conversation mention 'football',they will think that you're speaking about rugby.Also,if you're speaking with British people,and you say the same word 'football' they'll completely understand you,but if you say soccer they will not understand.

l wanted to show how American people make words let's say 'simplier'....and British are more difficult to understand,and of course they are proud of their originality.

Almost everyone insist on British English,so l wanted to make some things clear cause they are really confusing

hehe last week l had a conversation with British person, and we made some argument just because l had been using American E.and he understood me completely different! hehe

and as far as 'cinema'-of course it's a place where you can watch a film,but that 'building' hehe A.people call 'movies' hehe confusing,isn't it?

l'll post more so you'll see another interesting differences

see you soon,

Xtina

YoungCalifornian · Answer

XtinaFirstly,when you're speaking with American people,and when you in conversation mention 'football',they will think that you're speaking about rugby.Also,if you're speaking with British people,and you say the same word 'football' they'll completely understand you,but if you say soccer they will not understand.

That's not quite right. First of all, rugby and American football are two different sports. In the United States itself, American football is simply called "football", and so that's the game people will assume you're referencing should you use the term. Rugby isn't played very much in the U.S., but most people have heard of it. "Soccer" (as in "association football") is indeed the term Americans use for what the British generally call "football". However, I think that most British are aware of the term soccer and understand it, even if they don't use it themselves.

YoungCalifornian · Answer

Lists outlining the differences in vocabulary between British English and American English can be tricky. I've noticed within this one a tendency I see in most. There are, in my view, two basic types of vocabulary differences between versions of English that these lists fail to note. The first is synonyms that are understood by the average British and American speaker, but are used more often by one nationality than the other. "Sick" and "ill" would be an example. The second type is words that are almost unheard of by one nationality (either entirely or in a specific context), or have totally different meanings in the two versions. "Eggplant" and "aubergine" would be an example of the former, and "biscuit" would be an example of the latter. This second type is what amounts to true differences in vocabulary, as opposed to the mere preference for one word over another.

Without distingishing between these two types, most of these lists can lead the English learner to conclude that a given word is only known in either Britain or America when that's not the case. Looking at the list above for instance, I would point out that the words "film", "angry", "cinema", "university", "anywhere", and "Autumn" are used a great deal by Americans and mean essentially the same thing to them as they do to the British. Some of the differences listed above are just plain mistakes. For instance, a "boombox" and "radio" do not mean the same thing. Boomboxes are a type of radio, and "radio" is by far the more common word for Americans.

Anonymous · Answer

radio =/= boombox
rugby =/= football (they are different sports)
we (Brits) use grades and marks eg I got 10 marks out of 20, which is grade C
We don't use cozzie, but bathing suit/swimming costume
Sprite is a fizzy drink brand which tastes like lemonade, we still say lemonade
We have lectures at Uni

Anonymous · Answer

As an English teacher with an ESL and TEFL qualification, I put forward a British perspective for those who want to see that we are more than capable of holding our own in this debate. I ALWAYS commence classes by teaching the 13 key vowel sound of a,e,i,o,u. This enables sounds recognition from the outset. I also teach business English and time and again, the lack of "claaridy" with American English causes problems. Time and again, it is my Business clients with British English who are better able to bridge the gap of communication with those students graduated in American English. The message is clear. What the world has known for a long time is this: attempting mass production of an original concept by cutting corners leads to a reduction in quality. Like the choice between Bose and Logitech if you like.

Bottom line is this: British English has been around longer, so for us natives from England, the English spoken Americans in the USA is well understood by us, much the same as we do any other foreign spearker of our language, from Thailand, to Japan, to Poland, to Latin America, to Pakistan; the list is endless. We have had this experience for as long as the USA has even existed!!

The history of the United States itself bears witness to the greater flexibility of the British people which is paradoxical to the myth otherwise spread. Bullying or should I say duping the world into believeing that American English is more simple to understand or speak, doesn't make it better - or, for that matter correct. It only makes it different. We could start with it's flaws just referring to the everyday word "computer", pronounced by Americans as "compooder"; hardly an auspicous start, especially when it is to be taught to the student of English. The fact remains that pronunciation of British English is by far more pure and consistent, and in the long term more productve.

History also shows that the whole of American culture was born out of the 'chip on the shoulder' attitude that 'whatever the British did, we must do the opposite or differently'.

Incidently, I have spent 18 months living in the USA and 30 months in Latin America, so I am well familiarised with the continent.

In the final analysis, language is about communication, which in turn is about finding the most effective ways of doing so. Where my language is concerned - granted, American English has been marketed better. I would like to reiterate the word "marketed". Yes - better marketed. Nothing more nothing less.

Omen1989 · Answer

what can i add.....

b.e - a.e
undertaker - mortician
brolly- umbrella
wellington - rubber boot
car park- parking lot
tailback - gridlock

Anonymous · Answer

Full of errors. Try doing some more research before posting any more.

Omen1989 · Answer

give me an example of these errors

Stephenmatlock · Answer

This is a good start on a comparison list. I like your distinction between word choices (sick/ill) where both words are used nearly the same and nearly as widely, and true word choice differences where the word used is either largely unknown or used so differently as to be seen as nearly foreign. (eggplant/aubergine or wrench/spanner would be examples.)

It would be interesting to see a word list proposed, and then Google used to see the frequency of a particular word in AmE and BE, so you could see that "fall" is more commonly used in America and "autumn" in Britain. I don't have facts at hand, but it would be interesting to see that, say, "fall and autumn are used in both America and Britain, and understood, but eggplant and aubergine are simply two words with very little overlap in understanding and use."

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