BRITISH ENGLISH VERSUS AMERICAN ENGLISH
A R E Y O U F A M I L I A R W I T H T H E D I F F E R E N C E S? B y G a r e t h S i u
It is well known that there are many differences between British and American English, but what are they and do they matter? I have become much more aware of these differences since I left Britain and started to work overseas, where I have encountered more American English. It seems that many students can find this a difficult terrain to traverse and may even use both American and British words in the same sentence! Some have a preference in terms of which one they would like to develop and practice, others do not. It seems that this is particularly an issue in Hong Kong due to the mixture of colonial history and the modern cultural dominance of the United States.
In the author’ s opinion, although blending these two into a speech or text can seem strange to native speakers, if the grammar and pronunciation are correct, then that is the main thing. Though of course, the more formal the situation is the more important it is to be consistent. So it is important to consider the situation and the audience. Otherwise there could be embarrassing results. Remember, in Britain we wear our pants on the inside while the Americans wear their pants on the outside! In terms of the historical reasons for these differences, there are many cases where American English has tried to match the spelling to the American pronunciation of the words, while British English maintains a closer
Americans say eggplant.
relationship to French. For example, the British and French use the word aubergine while
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