How Are British English and American English Different?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 พ.ค. 2024
- This video is all about the differences between UK English and US English. The differences are not that great, to be honest. Native speakers of either British or American English generally have little trouble understanding each other's speech, especially standard formal speech. But there are minor moments of confusion, and learners of English as a second language might have some trouble with one variety if they have mostly studied the other. Don't worry, though, because British English and American English are both English, and the differences aren't major.
There are some differences in accent. There are numerous accents in both the USA and the UK, but we can generalize by focusing on too standard/formal accents: General American English in the USA, and Received Pronunciation in the UK. One difference is that British English is r-less: they pronounce the word "car" with no R sound at the end, and lengthen the vowel instead. Americans say a clear R sound at the end.
There are also differences in vocabulary. For example, in the UK they say "rubbish" while in the US they say "trash" or "garbage". There are also some little differences in spelling and grammar. All in all, British English and American English are two varieties of the same language and the differences are pretty easy to get used to.
Special thanks to Peter Ashton for his British audio samples and feedback!
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Video chapters:
00:00 Introduction
00:58 Differences between UK and US vocabulary
02:54 Differences between British and American accents
06:07 How are British spelling and American spelling different?
07:28 Grammatical differences between British English and American English
09:09 Examining some sentences
10:06 Final comments
11:01 The question of the day
Music: "Majikk" by Jingle Punks.
Outro music: "Rocka" by Text Me Records / Bobby Renz.
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👍👍👍👍👍👍👍❤❤❤
So because of those differences there are so called regular and irregular verbs in English.
pasa algo parecido con el idioma español en diferentes países xD // something similar happens with the spanish language in different countries xD
Could you do a video on the New England "Downeast accent? A person with a Downeast accent will say "Ca" for "Car" and "arnt" for "aunt".
Paul! When will you make a video about Canadian English?
British : Where is the toilet?
American : In the bathroom.
Well where's the restroom?
In the bedroom
I actually don’t like how we say ‘toilet’. I think ‘bathroom’ is nicer
Jajajajaja
just say "where can i take a dump" and they´ll know
"I'm not your friend, mate."
Im not your mate, lad.
@@user-gd5dj2nj6c I'm not your lad, buddy.
I’m not your buddy, pal.
I'm not your pal, chap
:)
Interesting anomaly:
In Australian English, which contains elements of US and UK English, we use both "Licence" and "License" - but whilst either spelling is acceptable, TECHNICALLY you're supposed to use -se for a verb and -ce for a noun.
So the government will license me to drive, but they do so by giving me a licence. . .
I think this is correct in British English too.
Australians have the absolute best swear words!!
If they are pronounced the same, and essentially mean the same except for the part of speech, then why retain the spelling difference?
@@tallicaaa Yeah I think so. "licensing" looks more correct than "licencing"
@@stevebrian2145 "F***"
One time I was editing a document with a British friend. He simply didn't understand me when I kept saying to put the "period" after a certain word. After awhile, I realized he didn't know what a "period" was and he referred to it as a "full stop."
😂 and then there’s an exclamation mark v exclamation point!
Full stop is better.
He realised * 😂
See, somehow I always knew what a period was, on the first time I encountered it. But full stop sounds better, it feels like there’s something wrong with periods.
As a non native English speaker, there seems to be lot of mixing of UK English and US English in the English used by me.
yeah me too.. and also, as non native english speaker, sometimes i think twice before write/ typing some word in english ( Color/Colour, Organise/Organize, Favor/Favour etc)
Sometimes I use US English and UK English in the same sentence. I wondered for a while: why do I get weird looks from Britons or Americans? Then a British lad pointed it out: it is bloody confusing for them.
@@soundingsea3419 I prefer -ize
@@IGLArocknroll i have been in same situation many times.
Probably Canadian English we used a lot of both
The American postal service delivers the mail. The British mail service delivers the post.
Hehe never thought of that before. You post your post at the Post Office, from which Royal Mail deliver it.
'Mail' is an old word meaning the bag items are carried in. 'Post' refers to the staging posts in the system going back to when horses were used.
wohhhh
In Canada, we used postal code as our term of address. In USA, they used zip code.
Clarke: ZIP is an acronym, US-Americans love acronyms for some odd reason.
Really interesting. It reminded me when I was teaching student nurses from the Philippines here in the UK. They grew up learning American English so all their assignments contained really unfamiliar spelling and expressions.
True,l have my friend in Doha she is a Philippine when she speaks English speaks different and I speak different..now I know she speaks American English and I speak Britain English...all the l am not good in English but learn British English
But English speakers correcting and essay wouldn't mark something as wrong whether it was British or American English as long as it's consistent
British English
Australian English
American English
Canadian English
Original English from England
@@AS-wj1du correcting an essay*
Hi professor
Thank you so much for your priceless advice and interesting guidance.
I love your way of teaching and excellent explication.
I really appreciate your job.
I wish you peace and happiness under the sky of prosperity.
As a person from the south, hearing that Americans don’t use the word “reckon” made me spit out my sweet tea and knock over my banjo.
Well.. it's a regional dialect.
Lol!
Yeah, most of us don't.
As someone born and raised in Alabama, it triggers me when people say you all instead of yall
reckon is actually american origin
I’m American and I remember walking into an elevator in Hawaii, and this guy looked at me and said ‘Kwite niat eh?’
I just stared at him then said excuse me?? He repeated it again ‘Kwite Niat eh?’
And I just stared at him again, then said I’m so sorry I don’t understand.
He looked at me and slowly said
‘Q u i e t. N i g h t. E h?’
He was Australian 😂
At first i thought it was hawaiian
@@vargasmartin7143 me too.
You mean Orstrylyan cobber!
I'm learning English and trying to focus on British accent that to me, at least, is the nicest together with African accent, American is ok, but I must say that Australian accent is quite annoying.
@@Luiz17071990 There are many kinds of British accents, some more pleasant than others. The best one to learn is standard English as heard on the BBC and spoken by Prince Harry. Apart from anything else, it's the most easily understood.
Your point about the "intensive r" was very enlightening, since it held me understand the "intrusive n" in Yiddish pronunciation of Hebrew words. The Hebrew name Yaakov (Jacob) is pronounced Yankov in Yiddish, resulting in the common nickname Yanky. I've often wondered why the "n" was inserted for no reason, and seeing it happen in other languages makes it make a little more sense. I'll have to think if it occurs in other words as well.
In French it happens all the time, it's called 'liason'.E.g. un enfant (a child); les enfants (the children). The latter is pronounced le-z-enfants.
Mr. Paul appreciate your pronounces in english and it's really nice that every one can understand easily.
today i learned that when i'm talking in english i'm basically jumping from british to american all the time
This is normal :) Why should You preference one of them particulary if You are speaking with other not native person.
yeah me too, and It cleared up my mind about some differences on gramatics that often confused me
@@joshuamatthews8326 Yes. If both of them called english language, The native speakers should be educated enough to be able to understand . For not native in most case does not matter. The communiction is much more important. :)
@@nanvas7374 alot of americans say film/films (british word) and my friends from the UK say borth- trash(american word) and rubbish. im like......
fredrik sasaa The British way of saying it is correct as English originates from England(obviously) there’s no debate
British: She's in hospital.
American: She's in the hospital.
is that really the British way?
@@Pantano63 Yes that is the standard use in the UK. And American English uses the same kind of grammar for other situations, like when we say "she's in college" or "she's in prison", but we don't say "she's in hospital". Maybe that sounds too permanent a state and we would rather be optimistic, so we just say "she's in the hospital", like she's in that scary building, but it isn't a state of being, we're sure she'll be released any minute! :)
Subtle different meanings or emphasis? as I would interpret the first statement as 'She is getting treatment in hospital'. The second one is more open as she could also be just visiting or attending for treatment.
British: She's in hospital.
American: She's in the hospital and is working on a GoFundMe campaign to pay her medical bills.
Good one.
Thank you so much. Very informative ❤
When you mentioned how past tense forms have different tendencies, I think burned/burnt is an odd one in America, because here we usually say "burned" as a verb (I *burned* the candle), while "burnt" is exclusively used as the adjective (the candle is *burnt* or burnt out.) Although there are plenty of Americans who may say "burnt" as the verb as well.
American: bathroom, restroom
Canadian: washroom
Englishman: loo, toilet
Scot: privy
Malay is tandas
In China: WC
@@yuxingwan2663 : Same like Indonesian
Australian: Dunny
Hindi: Street
@@yuxingwan2663 I'm glad that you know the difference between English and American!! :D
I once saw a Brit call another Brit a “silly sausage” in an online forum and nearly died laughing. I cannot for the life of me imagine an American calling someone that.
It's usually used for insulting children in a nice way. If they fall over you'd call them a silly sausage for example. In Scotland they have a similar phrase that they use to insult the children, they'd say, "Ye Cannae stand ye fuckin baw bag".
A Briton.
Lmao
@@JohnsysChannel LOL THAT'S TOO FUNNY! I thought living in Wales was hilarious sometimes but damn, that's another level of brilliance with some interesting form of English. Well, I know what to expect if I ever visit Scotland now.
It sounds weird to me in Australia too, but it's very British. A lot of their insults are kinda 'cute' to us.
Thanks Paul. Great show.
Thank you for sharing this information. Now I know the difference between the two countries. New subscribers here from the Philippines.
In the US, “reckon” sounds very rural, and possibly Southern.
Exactly what I thought, i grew up in the south where it's fairly common, but that's why he disclaims and says he talking of general American where we hear it super rarely
But it sounds elegant.
@@jascaesar when you say it British it sounds more ‘elegant’ but not really for southern- I think the accent really gives it a connotation you don’t get through straight text.
Like southern is more ‘reckin’ than ‘reckon’
@@cheep5645 it sounds elegant, perhaps with the Brit accent 😊 reckin sounds more like ‘you came in like a wreckin ball’ hahaha. Thanks for differentiating 😉
@@jascaesar Nice to know as it´s a norse/danish word meaning "compute" P.S. yes I´m danish :-)
"Can you give me a lift?"
"Sure, it's right by the stairs."
"No, I mean in your car."
"My car doesn't have a lift, m8."
"..."
Lol 😂
And my dotsya's name is Sofiya.
LOL. nice joke😂😂
I Liked your comment
Dude... How can you say "Give me a lift" in British English?
@@leo_funny587 We say it the same way. Context generally avoids confusion - when would you give an elevator to someone??
I am russian and only now I realised how dominating American English is. We learn standart BE in schools but because of American movies, videogames, tv, youtube, companies etc. AE is much closer and understandable to us (although I personally think British accent sounds cooler)
As a Russian/Brit, currently in Russia (used to live in London) , yes! My friends in London sometimes don't understand me over text.
Lol...
And thanks! I obviously have a British accent, so ye...
I've not left the US for longer than two weeks but I find the British accent to be much more entertaining than the standard USA dialect. That being said, I wouldn't mind learning both Scottish and Irish.
If it wasn't for the U.S accent, I wouldn't have learned English at all. Brits sound like they're speaking with a toothache 😆
@@andrewchapman2024 Scottish people ARE British.
@@samdaniels2 this is why I want to learn.
A VERY WELL DONE VIDEO on the subject - thank you!
British: Cousin
American: Cousin
Australian: Cousin
Alabaman: Wife
Wicked!
Well is south of the Mason-Dixon line so it's legal! 🤣🤣🤣
British- pavement
American- sidewalk
Aussie- footpath
Me- walkway
@SteveEarl may be you are.
Cause there is no likes in your comment.
@SteveEarl Your comments haven't likes, definitely you are
American: You like it.
British: You fancy it.
Steven Wanderscheid haha
sounds fancy
If a Brit says 'You fancy it?' they usually mean a fight.
@@kevinpenlington5020 yeah like when americans say " you want it " usually means a fight
Tf
Having grown-up and lived in both countries as a child and adult, some of these differences can cause embarrassing moments- rubber 🇬🇧 vs eraser 🇺🇸, pants 🇺🇸 vs trousers 🇬🇧, etc.
Thank you for sharing ❤
Australian English: ɥsılƃuǝ uɐılɐɹʇsnɐ ɟo ǝldɯɐxǝ uɐ sı sıɥʇ
Surprised i can read this
😂😂😂
This is an example of Australian English
Oof yes
Not quite that bad, really. Is it?😁
Canada : *exists*
USA : _It's free real estate._
I love me some North Montana
Maine was robbed in 1842 by Webster Ashburton!! We own lots of New Brunswick and the Gaspé!!
th-cam.com/video/yNxPVj0hejg/w-d-xo.html
On a serious note ... I'm not sure Washington D.C. would annex Canada as a whole ... due to Quebec.
The Quebecois are fierce resistance fighters, and have conducted acts of violence similar to domestic terrorists (throughout history).
Washington D.C. would have a headache.
... and it's difficult to maintain a democracy while expanding territory due to bureaucracy which increases almost exponentially.
Before The U.S.A. would annex Canada and/or Mexico, it would have to move from a de-centralized form of government to a more centralized form of government ... which would remove some of the bureaucracy.
Blame Canada.
Then where we gonna shoot our movies?
Thank you so much for your lessons!
Thanks for this lesson, yes they are quite some noticeable differences.
American : "Color!! License!! Organize!!"
British: "Colour!!"Licence!! Organise!!"
Canadian: "yes"
Canadian dialogue: "Sorry" "Sorry"
Do you even realise how fucking annoying and hard it is for us Europeans getting forced to learn both accents in school. In the graduation test we need to correct texts into specific accents. Fucking weird
DeutscherSoldat1871 Same here in China...When I want to say a word I need to think about which is the correct pronunciation, and then turns out they are all right...Or, sometimes: I am going for a vacation in holidays…
@@birdyashiro1226 Yea
@@Marco-bf4uu really bro. That is so panic.
Imagine the confusion of a disabled American tourist visiting Great Britain who rented a hotel room on the first floor.
jps101574 The ground floor you mean?
@@clydelowe3463 that's the joke
The joke missed my joke what a joke!!!!!!!
That’s some fawlty tower shit right there.
that ground floor / first floor stuff has caused confusion for travellers for generations, maybe even a century or two. I remember it in the 1980s when I was a teen.
I'm an American who enjoys watching the show produced in the UK called "Escape to the Country." I was aware of some of the differences between American and British English, but that show has opened a whole new world. Besides the house hunters speaking with a wide variety of accents, I've discovered more differences in vocabulary or figures of speech. For example, Brits use "garden" for what Americans call a generic yard (which could contain flower/vegetable/rock gardens as well as grass lawns, trees, bushes, hedges, etc.) Also, I still laugh when a smiling house hunter calls a room or setting as "homely" instead of "homey." Then a small den/living room/study is often called a "snug." And I had to ask a Brit how the word "mooch" is used since a couple of house hunters said they wanted to go inside a residence for a "mooch." In that context, it means to take a look or wander around, quite a different meaning than the American definition. And don't get me going on how confusing it is to hear that they are going to climb the stairs to the first floor of a residence. Also, the word "property" seems to refer to the physical residence itself, and not the land with the residence and possible other "out buildings." Sometimes in the US, "property" can be used just for a building, but it usually means either a vacant lot or the land and whatever else is on it. A subtle difference, yes, but another difference that could be confusing. Another difference I picked up, many house hunters in the UK don't want open concept living spaces (kitchen/dining/family or living rooms all open to each other) and they don't seem very concerned about the number of bathrooms or their locations. They seem content with one on the "first floor", even in a two story house. (And many times, these homes have been updated, renovated, and expanded and bathrooms weren't added!)
I'm from the UK what channel is Escape to the Country shown on?
@@matthewkent5212 I think its day time telly, same time as cash in the attic and them programs.
I am from the UK and I can confirm that’s what we speak
I'm from Australia and I find folk on that show strange because it matters so much that the bedrooms are upstairs and if they are downstairs or the house is single storied they call it a bungalow and usually don't like it' Here the majority of houses are single storied and open plan. I guess going "up" to bed is very firmly entrenched in the minds of Brits. As an Australian I think being such a diverse immigrant country your language/accent depends on who brought you up. In my case it was my English born grandmother and therefore I use the British/Australian and really don't like the American/Australian which is certainly creeping in. Many chlldren whose immigrant parents (Greek, Italian, Asian) are not native English speakers learn a lot of their language from television which in Australia, unfortunately, is moving from British influence to significantly American dominated.
And how do you do Southern Hemisphere typing ???
British play football with their feet.
Americans play football with their hands.
Good luck explaining that.
American football should be called American Rugby. The word soccer should not be used for football. Wonder who introduced the word soccer
@@abhalimmohamed4313 I just call American football hand egg.
Ab Halim Mohamed the British
Football is played on foot. It contrasts with polo, which is not.
Шогк наяdег Комгдdе I think the coconut suits it more...
"z" pronunciation
American: zee
English: zed
True
@@lol-ih1tl The thing that's funny is that Canadian english says "Zed" but we still read "EZ" as "Eee-Zee"
Jee Hinglish
It's not ,,zee" its ,,see"
Americans need to start using English subtitles, or learn how to pronounce vowels.
I stumbled upon your channel by accident. Brilliant stuff. Subscribed in a jiffy!
Hello fellow British person!!
Very helpful for me thanks a lot brother 🙌🙌👍👍
I've watched a German English speaker have a break down trying to understand an American, British, Australian and Canadian have an argument.
What is the channel/video?
@@shannonmikko9865 I meant in real life,when I was travelling Australia. It was kind of beautiful.
That’d kill me to watch 😂 I had a friend who went to Italy with me and the poor Italian behind the counter had quite a time trying to figure out the different phrases and terms each of us used. (Me being Canadian and him being English)
And New Zealand.
a german or an english speaker, which one?!
I am reminded of a conversation between two friends, one English and the other American:
Am: Where've you bin?
En: It's pronounced "been".
Am: In America we say "bin".
En: Then how do you say "dust bin"?
Am: Trash can.
That's a load of rubbish! 😂🗑
I should have said this is a true story, not a joke.
I've always pronounced it as "ben".
@GABRIEL GREGORY Nah ! He meant garbage
we say bin here as well
This was fascinating!
very enlightening video! thanks a lot
In the Philippines, if you live on street level, you live on the ground floor and the person living above you is on the second floor.
WTF! you mixed both cases :)
Filipinos: We’re going to break the rules of English
Then where the fuckin first floor is?...
So, no first floor??
yes, here in the philippines in our everyday lives we speak using a mix of tagalog and spanish
That feeling when you are a non-native speaker and you've learned british englisch in school, while at the same time practicing american english passively via youtube videos, and as a result you now speak some twisted abomination of both.
i feel you.
I feel you bro :”)
Relatable
I am an Australian & feel the same. I was raised with British-English & Aussie slang, however, we have so many American-English things (movies, tv series & now spelling in newspapers) that I am frequently being corrected for using the wrong spelling ize/ise, re/er. I have noticed that many NSW people still use the harsher slang, that has been raised before. We do not all swear like troopers. Those from NZ do have an accent so fish & chips sound like fush & chups, but their English is British/English.
i think that's most of us non-native speakers
Very helpful video ❤
Most appreciated 🙏🏻☺️
I’m glad you found it valuable 🙂
MOBILE
British : MOH-bye-ul
American: MOH-buhl
Japanese: Mobairu
mobile phone vs. cellphone
British : English
Japan : Ingrisu
Mobil
Turkish:Mobayl
Mobile (Moh-beel) Alabama.
Portuguese: mo-bee-lee
As a British person, that section about the 'intrusive r' was fascinating. It had never even occurred to me before that we put an 'r' sound in some sentences that isn't actually there, and that Americans don't do this. If I remove the 'r' it sounds really robotic and unnatural. In an American accent it sounds perfectly ordinary however.
Yes, this is one of the most interesting differences in our speech.
Listening to those intrusive Rs as a non-Brit can be borderline infuriating. Lindybeige did a video on it years ago (The trouble with America-r-is) and now that i understand why you do it I am bothered less.
I grew up in New England and we have the intrusive r as well. We also drop the r in father, car etc.
My grandpa does this, and my dad to a lesser extent, funny enough my dad seems to do this more as he ages. FYI my grandpa was raised in NY but doesn’t have a NY accent at all
@Yongo Bazuk While some British accents may sound annoying and some may not, the intrusive 'r' has nothing to do with this. Intrusive doesn't even make sense as a word to describe it over here. It's just a natural part of the way we all speak which I suppose we use so that our speech is more fluid. Even posh English accents use it.
Something I've noticed as an English teacher is that the brits use the present perfect much more than we do in the US, where we would use simple past. There's even a good example of this in the English Grammar in Use book, I think unit 7 & 8. Although the rest of the book can be pretty British, I really recommend it.
this is the biggest difference for me. I'm an editor and am a stickler for precision in writing. If a past simple is used instead of a perfect tense with "have", out comes the red pen. I noticed how often this would happen when editing Americans' copy - we use past simple only when a time expression is used - yesterday, last week, on Friday etc. Why are they so imprecise? Is it sloppiness? then I started noticeing it in speech "I ate already",
This makes a big difference to an English ear. And sorry, but as I don;t know exactly when Americans use the perfect, I follow our rule, and the red pen comes out. :)
Paul is finally realizing that a Canadians destiny is as ours 😈, great video Paul (as always) keep up the great work
In the US "burnt" is usually used when talking about food. i.e. "I burnt the chicken" but in other cases you would use "burned". i.e. "My house burned down"
My Phone burnt out
That's because"burnt" tastes better than "burned."
Im not from the US but "My house burnt down" just doesnt feel right to me
I (American) disagree; I don't think Americans would commonly use "burnt" as a past tense of "to burn"; I think they would only ever use it as an adjective ("burnt toast," "burnt ends," "burnt orange").
@@demeebutyoutube9179 As a Canadian, that's probably how I would say it. I'd probably only use "burned" to emphasise the verb.
As a Brit now living in the US, there was only one point I disagree with. Toward the end you say that British 'mate' corresponds to American 'friend.' Actually 'friend' is widely used in the UK too, but 'mate' is more colloquial, corresponding to the American 'buddy.'
Another couple of examples of differences in vocabulary that have a potential for misunderstanding! (1) 'Rubber' in the US means condom, in the UK it corresponds to the American 'eraser.' (2) In Britain to 'knock someone up' is just another way of saying 'go to visit'; in the US it means to make someone pregnant.
“Well you’re not matin’ with me, sunshine!” To this American, “mate” always has the sexual connotation that Donna ascribed to it in that scene, after the Doctor expressed that he just wanted “a mate.”
Duster & eraser as well. I got very confused on American English as my american friends confused on me too . 😂😂😂 exa : dustbin. I got the glare …..
Is it true that English Language comes from UK? And thanks to the English, the whole world writes in English Am I right or not? Correct me if I'm wrong
In liverpool, to knock someone up definitely means to get them pregnant haha
@@user-mj7nx8rn7j English comes from England. The reason they speak it in America is because most of the settlers during the 17th century were English and so naturally they spoke English there too. English is older than the unite states dating back at least 600 years. It’s a mix of Anglo Saxon (german), French and old Norse (Viking language)
Nice video. Thanks 🙏 for your patience, hard work. You somewhat look like Late Actor Patric Swaze
It helped a lot. Thank you.
As an American, I usually thing of "burned" as a past tense of "burn", and as "burnt" as an adjective. "I burned the toast, now I have burnt toast."
“Burned” is the past participle, while “burnt” is the past perfect.
One is past participle and the other is past perfect. The question is which form would you use in present perfect tense. Would you say "I have just burnt the toast" or "I have just burned the toast?"
Yet “drempt” is the more common past tense of dream in the US.
In the south, we use it as a verb. >:( As a past tense of you burning something, while "burned" is used in the present. Though we also do use it as an adjective as well. Though the bible belt is much closer to middle English than UK's or the rest of the states. Though the way people near the great lakes SOUND HILARIOUSLY FLAT if you're a southerner.
@@j.s.c.4355 ... He he he , no. Though I guess some of us in the bible belt speak differently where that word is " dreamed ", but it is always followed by " of ". Never dream'pt.
UK: The train will arrive in precisely fifteen minutes' time.
US: The train will arrive in approximately fifteen minutes.
Japan: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Slow trains!
Because the US and UK were putting 4-5% of their GDP into military, whereas Japan wasn't allowed one so spent the money elsewhere
i just say LOL
In the US, we don't like each other enough to ride a train. :-)
china: i mean you have slower trains than us so
@@red2theelectricboogaloo961 i already get that joke. ME SMART na?
Thank you for this video. I used to grown up on video games which ones folowing the US patter. I am living now in the UK and sometimes hard to differentiate the writing. Great video.
Whether standard or not as an American I am likely to mix "~ed" and ~est" suffixes depending on context or grammatical form--for example, "I burned my toast" but "My toast is burnt." The same might apply to some other such examples. However, one "~st" suffix that to my knowledge only occurs in British English (and a sure giveaway that the author is non-American) is the word "whilst" for what we would say "while."
Does anyone else associate the word "reckon" with a rural southern accent?
See the comment on this video by R Lee.
Yes, sounds like a pirate or cowboy to me
Definitely taught as wrong usage when I was at school in the US.
Reckon sounds more American English than British English.
Its used regularly in the UK and "I reckon" is usually considered sub standard in the US.
My favorite British word that you never, ever hear here in the US is "whilst". Whenever I hear it, I feel that I've just crossed over into Sherwood Forest.
I know right!!!
You only get it in Britain from someone who is trying to be pompous
Also "till" (instead of "until") and "fortnight".
I worked with a lot of international English speakers who used this word -particularly in their writing. I have personally never applied the word. It just felt awkward.
@@Trex100 If you mean English speakers from non-English-speaking countries, then it's explainable. For English as a foreign language in schools they often use some old-fashioned British standard.
Love this one. Malaysian mixed both with a little twist of "Manglish".
Cupboard vs Locker
About inserting an "r" sound, New Englanders go a step further than insertion. They change the "a" to "e" or "u", and add an "r" at the end of some words. My college roommate came over from Maine and he would always compare "Canader" and "Americur".
"R sounds are always clearly pronounced "
Me a *bostonian*
And me a non-rhotic southerner.
I'm from Kentucky, and we not only pronounce our "R" sounds, we stress the heck out them, like pirates!
Na an r is replaced
My littlest cousin is growing up in Boston, and he called his finger.... fingggggaaaaaa, his mom scolded him and forbade all her children from dropping the R. We laughed so hard.
@@miakid4159 yeah the accent has died down a little, but there are still many people both young and old who have it to some degree
Present tense: "I high five my friends."
Past tense: "I high fove my friends."
Foved
it is strange that you don't really get "new" irregular verbs, isn't it? i like the sound of fove better than fived but obviously when "high five" was becoming a verb people decided that it would be fived and that's it. I say step up the fove campaign.
Past tense (UK) dived: Past Tense (US) dove.
(Nick Tolmie) You certainly do in informal UK speech. "Shat" is the past tense of shit and "wunk" is the past tense for a solitary activity. These are really what the dictionary pompously classes as "jocular". I'd put "fove" in with them. Rather nice.
C. S. Johns, and the updated version SHOWS....
This is a story about the daily life of Nate, who lives in New York City, United States and Laura, who lives in London, England. As you can see, they have very similar lives, but the vocabulary words, that they use, are very different!
British English vocabulary words:
flat, trousers, nappy, underground/tube, pavement, ground floor, lift, post, biscuits, chips, crisps, chemist's shop, car park, boot, petrol, lorry, rubbish, torch, mad, holiday
American English vocabulary words:
apartment, pants, diaper, subway/metro, sidewalk, first floor, elevator/lift, mail, cookies, french fries, potato chips, drugstore/pharmacy, parking lot, trunk, gas, truck, garbage/trash, flashlight, crazy, vacation
One thing i really notice as a UK English speaker is that in common usage, certainly on youtube and the tv, the indefinite article ‘an’ is very often replaced small with ‘a’ by Americans and also it’s normal for Americans to refer to collectives as ‘a bunch’ (eg . ‘A bunch’ of pigeons as opposed to ‘a flock’. I’ve not worked out if these are accepted norms or just grammatical errors in speech though. On the pronunciations, a lot of regional English accents have much closer vowel sounds to those American ones you listed. For example ‘bath’ is only really pronounced in the RP way in the SE of England. Nice comparison though. The intrusive ‘r’ is something I don’t even hear when you explain it so it’s pretty subtle. Very interesting you picked up on this, but that is how we work out who the outsiders are who may cause us trouble😏
"An" goes before every word with a vowel. "A" goes before a consonant. Americans don't get this right. There are a very small number of exceptions but generally that is the rule. We pronounce Herb with a hard "H" so it would always be "a" herb and not "an" herb.
We the non natives:
ENGLISH IS ENGLISH
And as a Australian trying to learn Italian on Duolingo to help my grandson, I find it very difficult with things being male or female & the spelling of a colour changing depending on this.
DjTruchas There are many different dialects of English; British English, American English, Canadian English, Australian English, etc. So English isn’t just English at all 🤔
As a English speaker as my first languages when I saw this I thought the same thing English is English doesn't matter it's just wording and accents is different
@@narrelleweir6383 what do you mean with the spelling of a colour?
@@mose20 In Italian black is nero, however, it also can be neri, depending if the thing you are writing about is male or female.
Difference between British and American english:
British: crisps
American:chips
American:elevator
British: lift
British:playground
American: Middle East
American: prison
British:Australia
And as a child of two criminals who found each other in Australia I say thank you Britain . If some nice person hadn't said what normally law abiding people they were they would have stayed in a British prison. One took a shawl because she was freezing & the other a piece of metal. They met, did their time, raised 9 children, ran a small farm, started a school (first in the area) & lived long upstanding lives.
@@narrelleweir6383 wow what a story, God bless them.
British:school
American:shooting ground
British - crisps
American - chips
Australia - chippies
America - prison
British - Australia
Australia - Gaol - literally
Lunatic Lunala 🤣🤣🤣
I speak a dialect of American English called Appalachian English. A lot of the grammar is similar to Irish, since a lot of Irish workers were hired to here for the Transcontinental Railroad, while the word choice is a lot like AAVE with a bit of British. Alot of the different accents we have now in America and Britain are gonna meld together over time thanks to the internet I reckon, my only proof of that being that I don't have as strong an accent as my older kinfolk.
Thanks sir!!
This was a good effort but one thing to remember is that there are so many accents and dialects in the UK that RP users only number about 2 or 3 million, although they will be fully understood just about everywhere.
LOL he uses the "invaded" american flag throughout the video
Omg he does 😂
Lol I just noticed
hay
Damn I just realised
Hay
Can you make a part 2? I found this interesting
I just love your profile pic!
marty mitch Really? Thanks
Despacito
Phina Ibe ?
I agree I think this topic needs additional video, particularly if we go into regional differences. But great video nonetheless as usual!
🇬🇧 English (Traditional)
🇺🇸 English (Simplified)
Globalization has made these differences even more marginal. I'm an American and several of the things you described as British are things that I use in my everyday speech. I reckon it's due to consistent exposure to British English via television programs, TH-cam videos, etc.
Yes, that’s happening more and more these days.
my best one is still rubber/eraser. when i asked my us teacher for a rubber she looked a little "surprised".
Now that made me laugh out loud!
Um yeah.
Really both terms for an eraser make sense. Cause it’s made of rubber and it erases. One name describes what it’s made of one describes what it does
@@jbach2002 That's because, until it was vulcanised, the only thing the Victorians could do with rubber was to use it to erase pencil marks. 'Rubber' literally comes from the action of rubbing.
@@jbach2002 in the US, “a rubber” usually refers to a prophylactic.
I wonder what British lawyers think when they visit America and see all the "No Solicitors" signs hanging on front windows.
I thought it was funny when he made the lawyer / solicitor comparison that he didn’t mention that solicitor has a completely different meaning in the US. Perhaps it doesn’t have that meaning in Canada.
You actually see those signs here in the UK (mostly London) but they say "No Soliciting" - since a solicitor doesn't solicit, they practice law. Soliciting is still what prostitutes do. It's not very logical.
@@ijmad does that mean the UK has door to door prostitutes?!?
@@danieldaniels7571 It has the same meaning as the US
@@deutschekanadische In the video he said the term “solicitor” in the UK was used to mean lawyer. I’ve never heard it used to mean that in the US. A “solicitor” in the US usually means salesman, generally one who makes unexpected sales calls in person, whereas the only other word used to mean lawyer is “attorney.”
I speak English as a second language, but the way I do so seems to be a combination of both the American and British variations, with perhaps bits of other bits of other variatons sprinkled in as well (for example, my tendency to add “eh?” at the end of sentences). This is because, while growing up during the internet age and learning the language simultaneously, I exposed myself to various English-language audiovisual productions; namely a multitude of American, Canadian, British, and (more recently) Australian content creators, as well as a slight addiction to Top Gear.
I wish you’d touched upon zee/zed, if only for a little bit, when you mentioned the -ise/-ize suffixes.
I am surprised that as a Canadian like I am, you used the "Zee" word rather than "Zed". A Canadian and also a British person would think for a moment you are an American, until they hear your accent. I really love your channel though which makes me prouder to be a Fellow Canadian. You are clear and concise.
Apparently for Canadians it depends on the region they're from. Some say "zed" and some "zee".
English man: Good morning!
American man: Wassup!
Australian man: I'm Australian
You can 'lift' something down, but you cannot 'elevate ' it down!
DJ ECVALIZER *I'm Strayan mate
But g'day to you too.
DJ ECVALIZER I have never, ever said "Wassup!" in my life
I NEVER say wassup, I say good morning like 99% people in the US. I’d feel like a total douche if I said wassup.
Australian man: help I lost my snake
I always find these comparison videos between the two fascinating, mostly because, as a Canadian, we use a weird sort of mix of the two.
English-speaking Canadians mostly got their accents from the Americans loyal to Britain who got "cleansed" from the U.S. during their war of Independence. Yet the accents of Canadians living in Windsor, Ontario, is very different from the "Great Lakes" American accent found across the river in Detroit! Another factoid,
chris, Hello. It is because (as a different Y.T. video channel points out:) Most Canadians live within a hundred miles of the U.S. Canada Border. TV signals and especially radio signals do not know about "Borders" drawn on a map. We watch several TV shows filmed in Canada, and lots of folks north of the Border listen to U.S.A. based radio stations.
Canada is vast, but very few humans live in the far north areas.
When I drove the Alcan highway back in 2012, I was tired of sleeping in my pick-up truck (Started my journey at Valdez, Alaska) so I got a motel room in Dawson Creek, B.C., Can. (where the Alcan Hwy started in WW2). Except for "liters" being on the gasoline pumps, I did not notice any real differences between the Canadian-speak at the Border check-in stop place near the Alaska border, to the U.S.A. Border Agent at the Montana border check-in.
{[ Oops, just remembered one difference: Stopped at a grocery store in one of the oil towns along the Alcan Hwy. to get "road food" ( always cheaper than eating at a restaurant / Diner/ Fast foods place ). Soda pop with caps, bottled water, crackers, cheese-in-a can with nozzle, cupcakes and maybe some jerky and potato chips. { One hand on the steering wheel at all times 😉}. ,,,, there be four-legged critters in the area! }
I walked over to the Bakery section, then the cookies and crackers section but NO "Nabisco" brand "Saltines" crackers. So, I asked to teenagers who were stocking the shelves that day where the "Saltines" where at. They did not know what I was talking about. { They did have Coca-cola on the shelves so I knew I was still on earth.} So, I walked around the store again, and Viola!, on the canned soup aisle they had soda crackers. They were not labeled "Nabisco" and "Saltines": but the box was the same color and size with a picture of the crackers. Most groceries in the States ( that I have shopped at) usually put the cracker, cookies and "snacks" on the same aisle, not on the Soup aisle. ]}
Turned on the TV expecting to catch some Canadian News broadcasted from Ottawa or Toronto. Nope. The TV news shown in Dawson Creek, British Columbia, Can. was from a TV station in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.. 🤔 Very odd. Would have thought a station from Edmonton, Alberta, or Calgary would be on the air in Dawson.
yup, we use "colour" and "favour" but also "realize" and "apologize"
Eh Canadian English is basically just American English in phonology, I don't notice any differences and I constantly have to see Canadians saying they're Canadian and not American as everyone assumes they are lmao. The only time it's noticeable is the minority of rural Canadians that have the "thick" accent.
@@AspireGMD It is easy to pick a Canadian. Get them to say "boat" or "out" or "about" or anything with the same vowel pair. The "oot" gives it away.
This is helpful and entertaining
Interesting as a Scotsman how many similarities there are between Scottish standard English and General American English.
Agreed. I always hear the similarities.
That's not something to be proud of, mate...
I what to visit Scotland I'm 29 % Scottish I did a ancestry but then I have 16 more regions
As a Scot I'm always reading English people talking about "Americanisms" online that have "never" been used in the UK, that have always been used in Scotland...
@@jockkardashian.9407like what?
Couldn't help noticing that you used your "invaded American flag" all through the video 😂😂😂😂😂
That cracked me up a little too.
I didn’t even notice that
That was my favorite part, lololol. I thought there'd be more stars though, just on a technical basis, since Canada is made up of multiple provinces. Was a great touch still.
@@devintheguru Canada? Whats that? Are you talking about North Montana?
What's an invaded American flag?
lorry - truck
holiday - vacation
jumper - sweater
crisps - chips
chips - French fries
trainers - sneakers
fizzy drink - soda
postbox - mailbox
biscuit - cookie
chemist - drugstore
shop - store
football - soccer
jelly - jello
jam - jelly
car park - parking lot
boot - trunk
railway - railroad
petrol - gas
motorway - freeway
nursery - kindergarden
primary school - elementary school
secondary school - high school
city centre - downtown
shopping centre - mall
mobile - cellphone
washing machine - washer
The high school that I go to is called a secondary. I say pop instead of soda. In the south they’ll say coke.
@@flavoursofsound only one mistake. Jam and jelly are not synonymous in the US.
@@PG13hockeyman Only in some parts of the South. In some parts they say "soda" and in some they say "cocola" and in some they say "cold drink" and in some they say "sasparilly", and in some they say "sody-pop". You can't generalize.
Karen Bartlett I just picked the most common name.
Bring from Newfoundland, our lexicon is a bit of a buffet. Bonnet is used more often than boot when referring to cars. A generator can be referred to as a lighting plant. Jumper cables are known as booster cables. Ants are still known as emmets, an old West Country appellation.
People in the south eastern regions of the United States use the word “reckon” more than “think” or “suppose”. Also, we use the word “yonder” for “there”. For example, in the South we say, “The house is over yonder by the tree line.” I tried to remove these words from my own vernacular because the usage is often perceived as ignorance by others. However, recently I started using them again. Very interesting video! I’ve always enjoyed learning more about our neighbors across the pond.
"Reckon...Americans rarely use it." Clint Eastwood: "I reckon not."
I reckon Clint Eastwood is also over 90 years old. But reckon is also used in some of the southern dialects.
Yup, reckon is antiquated and considered rustic in the US, save in the South, where it is still common.
Reckon is still said in the American south. Hello from Arkansas.
"Americans" are all people who live in the American continent, not just in the United States!!
*Sneakers (US English) , Trainers (UK English) , RUBBER SHOES (Filipino English) 😁😊*
good one
😄😄
Pisonet warriors hahahaha
The English say plimsolls for shoes too.
I speak Filifino English
This is soo good bro
Thank you so much, I am Canadian too
And my favourite: as a British English speaker, seeing a sign outside an American's house, "No Solicitors"
HUH HA!
I Have a red, huge No solicitors sign on my gate, but unfortunately illiteracy is so widespread in France in 2019, that my sign is useless, I have therefore printed the address of free reading lessons courses that exist close to my house (requires a family member that can read tho), at least I'm doing something beyond being harassed !
So to get my revenge I will have a sign made for the gate of my house, "No Lawyers"
@@oddviews You can still be served !
@@christoohunders5316 Obviously a "No solicitor" sign in France means nothing. You should write that in french. :D
I had the most embarrassing encounter when I asked my classmate in university for a "rubber" which means an eraser in UK but not in the US
*yikes*
Rubber mean condom my brother
Its impossible to put on eraser on a penis
They’re kind of the same, one prevents mistakes while the other cleans them up.
Hahaha. Thats cute.
And pretty understandable, i mean it rubbs, the writing tool.
A section that would’ve been useful here is for words used in both varieties but with different meanings.
Examples:
“Quite”
In British, I’m sure the typical use of this word is as a modest modifier, like “somewhat”, whereas in North America it is an intensifier to indicate greater extent or seriousness.
“to table [a proposal or topic]”
In the US, it means to remove or postpone it from consideration, whereas in England it usually means to introduce it for discussion or consideration.
Yes, I always found it deflating when I told an American colleague something and he said: “That’s quite interesting.” And I used to find it very confusing when something was “slated” ie “tabled” and not “criticized.”
Good video! I'm American and I've always used the word vacation when taking a fun, getaway trip, never holiday. To me, a holiday is a particular day of the year that one or many people celebrate a tradition, whether culturally or religiously, like Easter, Cinco De Mayo, Memorial Day, Independence Day/Fourth of July, Christmas, etc.... I've never referred to a fun getaway trip as a Holiday in my life. I call it a vacation. But whatever. UK vocab is interesting, indeed!
in Europe,. we say Holiday, there's a holiday song
Grammar regarding group nouns. In American English you say ‘the army has’. I have heard brits say ‘the army have’ because it is a single group
James Stoddard
I've also noticed Brits using was/were in a different way.
E.g. "You wasn't at school today, was you?"
@@SM_zzz That sounds like slang or at least from one of the many dialects they have.
And yes, my Brit friend will use the plural form on most any group. Even if it's a band of a few people.
slycordinator
Maybe it's slang, I'm not sure which is technically correct. To my Irish ears it sounds weird. We would say "were you...".
Steve Daniel both the UK and America have dialects that say "you was". Nothing spectacular there.
British : " Dont dirty the car seats with that rubbish! Chuck it in the boot! "
American : "What...?"
You need crampons on your trainers whilst strimming slops
In New England, rubbish and garbage were pretty interchangeable when I was growing up and most of the vocab differences are fairly widely known. Plus, the eastern Mass and RI accent is also famously non-rhotic - originally from East Anglia (also with added Rs sometimes where they don't belong - my fartha or my aurnt).
i think british english has a bigger range of commonly used vocabulary.
I don’t understand...
@@tyrannosauruscock How?
6:54 this explains my issues with accidentally spelling words ending with -ise and ize.
Both can be correct, but in the US, people will notice, and likewise in Britain as well