American English vs British English

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Grammar

American English is the form of English used in the United States. It includes all English dialects used within the United States of America. British English is the form of English used in the United Kingdom. It includes all English dialects used within the United Kingdom. Differences between American and British English include pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary (lexis), spelling, punctuation, idioms, and formatting of dates and numbers.

Comparison chart

	American English	British English
What is it?:	American English is the form of English used in the United States. It includes all English dialects used within the United States of America.	British English is the form of English used in the United Kingdom. It includes all English dialects used within the United Kingdom.
Pronunciation differences:	Some words pronounced differently in the languages are Methane, Interpol	Some words pronounced differently in the languages are Methane, Interpol
Spelling differences:	flavor, honor, analyze etc.	flavour, honour, analyse etc.
Title differences:	Mr. , Mrs.	Mr, Mrs
Different meanings:	ace, amber etc.	ace, amber etc.

Contents 1 History of British vs American English 1.1 American vs British accent 2 Differences in use of tenses 3 Differences in Vocabulary 4 Differences in Spelling 5 Differences in the use of Prepositions 6 Differences in Verb usage 7 Differences in Pronunciation 8 Time telling in British vs American English 9 Differences in Punctuation 10 Video explaining the differences 11 Shop For 12 See Also 13 References

edit History of British vs American English

The English language was introduced to the Americans through British colonization in the early 17th century and it spread to many parts of the world because of the stength of the British empire. Over the years, English spoken in the United States and in Britain started diverging from each other in various aspects. This led to two dialects in the form of the American English and the British English.

edit American vs British accent

Prior to the Revolutionary War and American independence from the British in 1776, American and British accents were similar. Both were rhotic i.e. speakers pronounced the letter R in hard. Since 1776, the accents diverged but English accent in America has changed less drastically than accents in Britain.
Towards the end of the 18th century, non-rhotic speech took off in southern England, especially among the upper class; this "prestige" non-rhotic speech was standardized, and has been spreading in Britain ever since.
Most American accents, however, remained rhotic.
There are a few fascinating exceptions: New York and New England accents became non-rhotic, perhaps because of the region's British connections. Irish and Scottish accents, however, remained rhotic.
To be fair, both American and British English have several types of accents and there is no one true American or British accent.

edit Differences in use of tenses

In British English the present perfect is used to express an action that has occurred in the recent past that has an effect on the present moment. For example: I've misplaced my pen. Can you help me find it? In American English, the use of the past tense is also permissible:I misplaced my pen. Can you help me find it? In British English, however, using the past tense in this example would be considered incorrect.
Other differences involving the use of the present perfect in British English and simple past in American English include the words already, just and yet.
British English: I've just had food. Have you finished your homework yet?American English: I just had food. OR I've just had food.
I've already seen that film. OR I already saw that film.

edit Differences in Vocabulary

While some words may mean something in British English, the same word might be something else in American english and vice versa. For example, Athlete in British English is one who participates in track and field events whereas Athlete in American English is one who participates in sport in general
Rubber in British English: tool to erase pencil markings.
Rubber in American English: condom.
There are also some words like AC, Airplane, bro, catsup, cell phone etc. which are common in American English and not used very often in British English. Some words widely used in British English and seldom in American English are advert, anti clockwise, barrister, cat's eye.

edit Differences in Spelling

There are many words that are spelt differently in both forms of English. Some examples are:

American English spelling	British English spelling
color	colour
fulfill	fulfil
center	centre
analyze	analyse
aging	ageing
dialog	dialogue
anesthesia,	anaesthesia

A majority of the spelling differences between American and British English fall into the following categories:

• Latin-derived spellings
  • -our (British) and -or (American). e.g. colour vs color
  • -re (British) and -er (American). e.g. centre vs center
  • -ce (British) and -se (American). e.g. defence vs defense
• Greek-derived spellings
  • -ise (British) and -ize (American). e.g. centralise vs centralize
  • -yse (British) and -yze (American). e.g. analyse vs analyze
  • -ogue (British) and -og (American). e.g. dialogue vs dialog
  • Simplification of ae and oe in American English. e.g. gynaecology vs gynecology

edit Differences in the use of Prepositions

There are also a few differences between British and American English in the use of prepositions. For example: While the British would play in a team, Americans would play on a team. Another example: While the British would go out at the weekend, Americans would go out on the weekend.

edit Differences in Verb usage

American and British English may also use a base verb in different manners. For example: For the verb " to dream", Americans would use the past tense dreamed while the British would use dreamt in past tense. The same applies to "learned" and "learnt". Another example of differing past tense spellings for verbs in American and British English is "forecast". Americans use forecast while the British would say forecasted in simple past tense.

edit Differences in Pronunciation

Some words that are pronounced differently in American vs British English are controversy, leisure, schedule etc. There are also some words like Ax (Axe in British) and Defense (Defence in British) which have the same pronunciation but different spellings in both languages.

edit Time telling in British vs American English

Both languages have a slightly different structure of telling the time. While the British would say quarter past ten to denote 10:15, it is not uncommon in America to say quarter after or even a quarter after ten.
Thirty minutes after the hour is commonly called half past in both languages. Americans always write digital times with a colon, thus 6:00, whereas Britons often use a point, 6.00.

edit Differences in Punctuation

While the British would write Mr, Mrs, Dr, the Americans would write Mr., Mrs., Dr.

Elementary

Elementary: the strange case of the second modern-day Sherlock Holmes

In television, similar ideas crop up all the time. But does CBS's Elementary owe as much to Steven Moffat's Sherlock as to Arthur Conan Doyle's original stories?

 

Elementary … Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock Holmes and Lucy Liu as Watson. Photograph: CBS

The traditional formula for pitching a new TV show, through references to earlier hits – "It's sort of The Liver Birds crossed with The X Factor with costumes from Cranford" – acknowledges both the desire of executives to replicate previous successes and the fact that, by this stage in television history, most shows will be, to some extent, derivative.
Even so, the terms in which Elementary might have been sold to the American network CBS will arouse strong curiosity in admirers of BBC1's Sherlock, and possibly rather harder emotions in the creators and producers of the British show. ("We are very proud of our show and like any proud parent, will protect the interest and wellbeing of our offspring," said the producer of Sherlock, Sue Vertue, earlier this year.)
In common with Sherlock, the American series – which premiered in the UK last night on Sky Living – is a modern take on Arthur Conan Doyle's legendary private detective, though set in New York rather than London. Lucy Liu plays what we might loosely call the Martin Freeman role (Sherlock's sidekick becomes Dr Joan Watson) to Jonny Lee Miller, who in a sense goes opposite Benedict Cumberbatch for a second time – the actors co-starred in the National Theatre's Frankenstein.
For a British viewer of Elementary, there is a definite sense of watching a very slick and skilful translation of Sherlock, rather as there was with the the BBC and NBC versions of The Office and (less slickly and skilfully) the BBC and ABC series of Life on Mars. In last night's opening episode, Liu and Lee Miller had a dialogue, identical in intent though not specifics, to Cumberbatch and Freeman's first meeting, in which the sleuth made astonishing instant deductions about his newly recruited assistant.
Accordingly, it may seem unfair that, while the US versions of The Office and Life on Mars were officially licensed remakes, CBS considers Elementary an original series.
The complication, however, is that overlapping elements between the shows – an addicted private eye with uncanny abilities to read clues in people and crimes – derive not from Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss's British hit but from the stories of Conan Doyle, who created the characters. The shared aspect that wasn't in the originals – relocation of the action to a 21st century city – may encourage a larger sense of grievance, although even here CBS would be able to point to several earlier updatings of Holmes including two made (in 1987 and 1994) by CBS, the first of which featured a female second banana called Jane Watson.
To me it seems that the concept of Holmes and present-day spins is sufficiently in the public domain – House, for example, was a medical Holmes, as the title punningly hints – for the shows to claim separate inspiration, although the American broadcaster might squirm to explain why it had the idea of doing something like this again, so soon after it had been done triumphantly in the UK. But, even on that narrow point, all lucrative ideas are soon had by others, as the publishers of EL James may wryly note, watching the infinite varieties of Fifty Shades of Grey imitations that commercial rivals are rushing out.
The broader question is what constitutes a "new idea" in TV. For example, the ITV show General Hospital (ATV, 1972-79) was an officially licensed remake of the American show which marks its 50th anniversary next year. But medical dramas have now become such an accepted format that what we might described as generalised hospital shows – Casualty, ER, St Elsewhere and so on – are regularly created without any plagiarism concerns.
A stranger case involves GF Newman's and Tony Garnett's BBC drama Law & Order (1978) and Dick Wolfe's identically named Law & Order, which ran on NBC from 1990 to 2010. Although, because of different national models, the UK show ran for four episodes and the US version for 456, both set out to follow single cases through the legal justice system. GF Newman, when I have interviewed him, has expressed irritation about the similarity of the American franchise but the broadness of the subject-matter – police and legal procedurals have always been two a pound or dollar in TV – made formal objection difficult. Although Newman's grumpiness understandably increased when the US version licensed an English remake, which has run on ITV1 since 2009.
So you don't need to be Sherlock Holmes to spot the striking similarities between Sherlock/Elementary and Law & Order/Law & Order – but, if the idea is general enough, someone can have it a second time.

nikita season 3

Nikita is spying a familiar time slot.
TVLine has confirmed that beginning Friday, Nov. 30, the CW thriller — which now airs at 9/8c — will move back to the 8 pm lead-off spot it used to hold. The hour’s current occupant, America’s Next Top Model, concludes its run on Nov. 16.

Repeats of the network’s freshman smash Arrow are slated to follow Nikita at 9 pm until Jan. 18. Previously announced holiday specials, meanwhile, will fill both hours on Dec. 14 and 21. (The Futon Critic first reported the schedule swap.)

'Nikita' Season 3

"Nikita" returns to The CW on October 19 (9 p.m. ET), but as these newly released photos from the season premiere reveal, Nikita and Michael are wasting no time getting up close and personal again.
Lyndsy Fonseca's Alex and Dillon Casey's Sean are nowhere to be seen in the stills, so we're guessing they're otherwise engaged with something equally juicy in the episode, but fans of Nikita, Michael, Ryan (Noah Bean) and Birkhoff (Aaron Stanford) will be pleased to see the gang working together.

Check out the photos and hit the comments with your speculation for what we might see in the season premiere.