the difference between american english and british english.docx

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thedifferencebetweenamericanenglishandbritishenglish

DifferencesbetweenBritishEnglishandAmericanEnglish

_________

Abstract

Englishisoneofthemostimportantlanguagesintheworld.Itisimportantbecauseofitsworldwideuse.Englishisunmistakablyonelanguagebutcanbegroupedintotwomajorvarieties,BritishandAmericanEnglishwhichhavetheirowncharacter.Withthedevelopmentofthetwocountries__AmericaandtheUK,thedifferencesinsomefieldsareclearandarealsoreflectedintheirlanguage.

Keywords:

AmericanEnglish,BritishEnglish,differences,pronunciation,spelling,meaning,use.

Englishisthemoststudiedandusedlanguageintheworld.TherearemanydifferentaspectsbetweenAmericanEnglishandBritishEnglish,andhere,ijustwanttointroducethedifferencesinthefollowingaspects:

spelling,pronunciation,vocabularygrammaretc.

Ⅰdifferencesinspelling

BritishEnglishandAmericanEnglisharebelongtothesamesystem,butthetwocountriesinthespellingsystemarestillalittledifferent.

⑴AmericanspellingalwaysmoreadjustedtothespellingregularityandpronunciationthanBritishEnglish.ThemosttypicalexampleinAmericanEnglishinuse–oror–erinsteadof–ouror-re.

e.g.:

colorcolourcentercentre

humorhunourkilometerkilometre

⑵Americanspellingalwaysavoidtherepetitionoftheletterofconsonant.Generally,lisnotdoubledinAmericanEnglish.

e.g.:

canceledcancelingcancelledcancelling

marveledmarvelingmarvelledmarveling

⑶Americanspellingalwayssimplifiedsomelettercompoundlike–e-ae–oe-o-ou

e.g.:

estheticaestheticmoldmould

⑷Americanspellingalwaysomittheun-pronouncedletters.

e.g.:

catalogcatalogueaxaxe

dialogdialoguegood-bygood-bye

Ⅱ.DifferencesinPronunciation：

⒈differencesinindividualsounds

⑴Americansretaintherattheendofthewordscar,etc.,orbeforeconsonantsasinhard,etc.;inBritishEnglishtherisnotpronounced,asinteacher[＇ti:

tʃə].

BrEstar[sta:

]car[ka:

]

AmEstar[stʌr]car[stʌr]

⑵Intermsoftheconsonant,themostobvioussystematicdifferenceisthepronunciationof/r/behindvowelsinAmericanEnglish.ButthispronunciationdonotexistinBritishEnglish.

Herearesomeexamples:

AmEBrE

door/dɔ:

r//dɔ:

/

father/`fa:

ðər//`fa:

ðə/

pleasure/`pleʒər//`pleʒə/

⑶Theotherimportantsystematicisthepronunciationof/t/betweentwovowels.Itpronouncedas/t/inBritishEnglishbutpronouncedas/d/inAmericanEnglish.

e.g.:

butterbettermatterfatter

⑷Americansprefertouseflatasimilarto/æ/,inwordspath,grass,answer,etc.againstthebroadacurrentlyusedbyEnglishmen.

⑸Thethirdobvioussystematicdifferenceisrelatedto/l/.Thereisdifferencebetweenclear/l/anddark/l/inBritishEnglishbutnotinAmericanEnglish.Americanspronounceditasdark/l/anytime.

e.g.:

calm/ka:

lm//ka:

m/

⑹Theletterainconsonantcombinationsat,ask,ass,ath,alfandanceispronouncedas/a:

/inBritishEnglish,whereasaispronouncedas/æ/inAmericanEnglish.

e.g.:

after/a:

ftə//æftə/

half/ha:

f//hæf/

⑺/ʌ/inBritishEnglishispronouncedas/ə/inAmericanEnglish.

e.g.:

cup/kʌp//kəp/

⑻DiphthongsinBritishEnglisharereplacedbylongvowelsinAmericanEnglish.

/ei/by/e//əu/by/ɔ/

/εə/by/e//iə/by/i/

⑼/ju:

/inBritishEnglishpronouncedas/u:

/afteradentalinAmericanEnglish.

duke/du:

k//dju:

k/

news/nu:

z//nju:

z/

2differencesinstress

ThereisobviouschangeonstressinBritishEnglishandAmericanEnglish.BritishEnglishtendstostressstronglyonesyllable,usuallythefirstandhurryovertherestoftheword.AmericanEnglishtendstoputthestressonthefirstsyllablebutalsotoputasecondarystressonthelattersyllableandpronouncestheremainingsyllablesmoredistinctly.

（1）WordsendedupwithateinAmericanEnglishalwaysputthestressonthefirstsyllable,butitwasputonthelastsyllableinBritishEnglish.

Examples:

likedonatemigratevacate

（2）Mostwordsendedupwith–ary,-ery,-oryputthestressonthefirstsyllable,inAmericanEnglish,asecondarystresswillbeputonthepenultimatesyllable.ButinBritishEnglishthepenultimatevowelusuallybelightenedoromitted.

Ⅲdifferencesinvocabularyandidioms

一EnglishbasicvocabularysystemisBritishEnglishandAmericanEnglishcommonvocabularycore.Leavethiscore,whetherAmericanEnglishorBritishEnglishwillnotexist.

1,TheSameWordswithDifferentMeaning:

thesamewordintheUnitedStatestobothinEnglish,alsoappearedinBritishEnglish,butsaidtheconceptofcompletelydifferentrespectively.Forexample:

BEAE

biscuit苏打饼干软饼

billion万亿十亿

overall紧身裤工装裤

2,DifferentWordswiththeSameMeaning:

BritishEnglishandAmericanEnglishindifferentwordstorespectivelysaidthesameconcept.Forexample:

BEAE词义

liftelevator电梯

tincan罐头

tapfaucet水龙头

sweetscandy糖果

film　　movie　电影

petrol　gas,gasoline汽油

longjumpbroadjump跳远

banknote　bill钞票

railway　rairoad铁路

train　　trolley　电车

booking-clerk　ticketagent　售票员

bookingoffice　ticketwindow　售票处

track　　platform　站台

carriage　car　车厢

ringsbup　callsbup　打电话

二AnumberofEnglishidiomsthathaveessentiallythesamemeaningshowlexicaldifferencesbetweentheBritishandtheAmericanversion;forinstance:

BritishEnglish

AmericanEnglish

nottouchsomethingwithabargepole

nottouchsomethingwithaten-footpole

sweepunderthecarpet

sweepundertherug

touchwood

knockonwood

seethewoodforthetrees

seetheforestforthetrees

throwaspanner（intheworks）

throwa（monkey）wrench（intoasituation）

put（orstick）youroarin[75]

butitwon'tmakeaha'porthofdifference[76]

toputyourtwopenneth（ortuppenceworth）in

toputyourtwocents（ortwocents'worth）in[77]

skeletoninthecupboard

skeletoninthecloset

ahomefromhome

ahomeawayfromhome

blowone'strumpet

blow（ortoot）one'shorn

adropintheocean

adropinthebucket[78]

floggingadeadhorse

beatingadeadhorse

haven't（got）aclue

don'thaveaclueorhavenoclue

anewleaseoflife

anewleaseonlife

lieoftheland

layoftheland

totakesomethingwithapinchofsalt

totakesomethingwithagrainofsalt

atempest（orstorm）inateacup

atempestinateapot

Insomecases,theAmericanvariant异体isalsousedinBrE,orviceversa（反之亦然）.

ⅣDifferencesingrammar

Generallyspeaking,BritishEnglishandAmericanEnglishisusingthesamegrammaticalsystem,littledifferenceareverysmall,basicallyhavethefollowingdifferent:

1,insomecases,BritishEnglishusenowcompletesometimesamericanswithgeneralinthepast,especiallyintheexpressionofthesources.

Forexample:

Americanenglishbritainenglishtranslation

1.HejustwenthomeHehasjustwenthome.他刚回家了

2.Ijusthavelunch.Ihavejusthadlunch.我刚吃完午餐

3.Oh!

MyGod!

Icrashedthecar.Oh!

MyGod!

Ihavecrashedthecar.哦！

天呐！

我把车撞坏了

2,thedifferentuseofprepositionsforexample

Americanenglishbritishenglish

1.ontheweekendattheweekend在周末

2.differentthandifferentfrom或differentto不同于

3.homeathome在家

4.Thedoctorfeltofmypulse.Thedoctorfeltmypulse.医生检查了我脉搏

3thedifferentuseof"have"inBritishEnglishandAmericanEnglish

3.1BritishEnglish:

InBritishEnglishhaveusuallyusedtotalkaboutwith,mutualrelations,oftenusethepresentperfecttensehavesaid,forexample

Ihavegotanewcar.我有一辆车。

Mymother’sgottwosisters.我母亲有两个姐妹。

It’saniceflat,butithasn’tgotaproperbathroom.这个套间不错，但没有一个像样的浴室。

3.2AmericanEnglish

InAmericanEnglish,havenotonlyrepresenthavetotalkingaboutalltheaction,havecanbeusedasaverb（indoubttypeanddenythetypeand（do）totalkingaboutallkindsofstate,alsoissuch.

（so,AmericanusagethanBritishusagewantsimplemore）

Ihaveaproblem.我有个问题。

Doyouhavealight?

你有打火机吗？

4,inBritishEnglish"need,dare,usedto"asthemodalverbused,andintheU.S.theyareinEnglishasasolidrighteousnessverb.

Forexample:

Shedarednotstayinthedark.（English）

Shedidn'tdaretostayinthedark.（UnitedStates）

Tomneedn'tgowiththem.（English）

Tomdoesn'tneedtogowiththem.（beauty）[4]（P69）

5,AmericanEnglishwith"he"and"his"aspronounsinsteadofindefinitepronoun"one"or"one's",butinaformalwritteninBritishEnglishcommon"one"or"one's",suchas:

Oneshoulddohisbestforhismotherland.（UnitedStates）

OneshoulddoOne'sbestforOne'smotherland.（English）

6,inthedefinite"the"usage,AmericanEnglishandBritishEnglishalsohasdifference,forexample:

美国人说gotothehospital（去医院），gototheuniversity（上大学）;英国人说gotohospital,gotouniversity；但是英国人大多说gotocollege（上大学），gotoschool（去学校），gotothetheatre（theater）（去剧院）等等。

Conclusion

Throughdiscussionoftheirgrammar,lexical,spelling,pronunciation,weknowageneralknowledgeaboutthedifferencesbetweenamericanenglishandbritishenglish.ItisveryimportanttoustoknowthedifferencesbetweenBritishEnglishandAmericanEnglish.Ifwecanclearlydistinguishthem,itmustbeveryusefultous.

References

3"untoward".CambridgeAdvancedLearner'sDictionary.CambridgUniversityPress.http:

//dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?

key=87147&dict=CA

LD.

▪4Wells,JohnC.（2000）.LongmanPronunciationDictionary.2nded.Longman.ISBN0-582-36468-X.

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