Comparison of American and British English. The English language was first introduced to the Americas by British colonization, beginning in the late 1. Similarly, the language spread to numerous other parts of the world as a result of British trade and colonization elsewhere and the spread of the former British Empire, which, by 1. Over the past 4. 00 years, the form of the language used in the Americasespecially in the United Statesand that used in the United Kingdom have diverged in a few minor ways, leading to the versions now occasionally referred to as American English and British English. Differences between the two include pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary lexis, spelling, punctuation, idioms, and formatting of dates and numbers. Although, the differences in written and most spoken grammar structure tend to be much less than those of other aspects of the language in terms of mutual intelligibility. A small number of words have completely different meanings in the two versions or are even unknown or not used in one of the versions. One particular contribution towards formalizing these differences came from Noah Webster, who wrote the first American dictionary published 1. United States spoke a different dialect from Britain, much like a regional accent. 1This divergence between American English and British English has provided opportunities for humorous comment, e. George Bernard Shaw has a character say that the United States and United Kingdom are two countries divided by a common language 2 and Oscar Wilde that We have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, the language The Canterville Ghost, 1. Henry Sweet incorrectly predicted in 1. Get translations of 18,000 English words and see how they are used in practice. The new Cambridge EnglishArabic Dictionary app is completely free to download and is. The English language was first introduced to the Americas by British colonization, beginning in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Similarly, the language spread. Download meaning, definition, what is download to copy or move programs or information into a computers memory, especially from the. Learn more. American English, Australian English and British English would be mutually unintelligible A Handbook of Phonetics. It may be the case that increased worldwide communication through radio, television, the Internet and globalization has reduced the tendency towards regional variation. This can result either in some variations becoming extinct for instance, the wireless, being progressively superseded by the radio or in the acceptance of wide variations as perfectly good English everywhere. Although spoken American and British English are generally mutually intelligible, there are occasional differences which might cause embarrassmentfor example, in American English a rubber is usually interpreted as a condom rather than an eraser 3 and a British fanny refers to the female pubic area, while the American fanny refers to an ass US or an arse UK. Word derivation and compoundseditDirectional suffix wards British forwards, towards, rightwards, etc. American forward, toward, rightward. In both dialects distribution varies somewhat afterwards, towards, and backwards are not unusual in America while in Britain forward is common, and standard in phrasal verbs such as look forward to. The forms with s may be used as adverbs or preposition towards but rarely as adjectives in Britain as in America, one says an upward motion. The Oxford English Dictionary in 1. Fowler have disputed this contention. Am. E freely adds the suffix s to day, night, evening, weekend, Monday, etc. I used to stay out evenings the library is closed Saturdays. This usage has its roots in Old English but many of these constructions are now regarded as American for example, the OED labels nights now chiefly N. Amer. colloq. in constructions such as to sleep nights, but to work nights is standard in Br. E. In Br. E, the agentive er suffix is commonly attached to football also cricket often netball occasionally basketball and volleyball. Am. E usually uses football player. Where the sports name is usable as a verb, the suffixation is standard in both dialects for example, golfer, bowler in Ten pin bowling and in Lawn Bowls, and shooter. Am. E appears sometimes to use the Br. E form in baller as slang for a basketball player, as in the video game NBA Ballers. However, this is derived from slang use of to ball as a verb meaning to play basketball. English writers everywhere occasionally and from time immemorial make new compound words from common phrases for example, health care is now being replaced by healthcare on both sides of the Atlantic. However, Am. E has made certain words in this fashion that are still treated as phrases in Br. E. In compound nouns of the form lt verb lt noun, sometimes Am. E prefers the bare infinitive where Br. E favours the gerund. Examples include Am. E first jump ropeskipping rope racecarracing car rowboatrowing boat sailboatsailing boat file cabinetfiling cabinet dial tonedialling tone drainboarddraining board. Generally Am. E has a tendency to drop inflectional suffixes, thus preferring clipped forms compare cookbook v. Smith, age 4. 0 v. Smith, aged 4. 0 skim milk v. This has recently been extended to appear on professionally printed commercial signage and some boxes themselves not mere greengrocers chalkboards can vegetables and mash potatoes appear in the US. Singular attributives in one country may be plural in the other, and vice versa. For example the UK has a drugs problem, while the United States has a drug problem although the singular usage is also commonly heard in the UK Americans read the sports section of a newspaper the British are more likely to read the sport section. However, Br. E maths is singular, just as Am. E math is both are abbreviations of mathematics. Some British English words come from French roots, while American English finds its words from other places, e. Am. E eggplant and zucchini are aubergine and courgette in Br. E. Similarly, American English has occasionally replaced more traditional English words with their Spanish counterparts. This is especially common in regions historically affected by Spanish colonialism such as the American Southwest and Florida as well as other areas that have since experienced strong Hispanic migration such as urban centers. Examples of these include grocery markets preference in the U. S. for Spanish names such as cilantro and manzanilla over coriander and chamomile respectively. VocabularyeditOverview of lexical differenceseditNote A lexicon is not made up of different words but different units of meaning lexical units or lexical items e. This makes it easier to compare the dialects. Though the influence of cross culture media has done much to familiarize Br. E and Am. E speakers with each others regional words and terms, many words are still recognized as part of a single form of English. Though the use of a British word would be acceptable in Am. E and vice versa, most listeners would recognize the word as coming from the other form of English and treat it much the same as a word borrowed from any other language. Words and phrases that have their origins in Br. EeditMost speakers of Am. E are aware of some Br. E terms, although they may not generally use them or may be confused as to whether someone intends the American or British meaning such as for biscuit. It is generally very easy to guess what some words, such as driving licence, mean. However, use of many other British words such as naff slang but commonly used to mean not very good are unheard of in American English. Words and phrases that have their origins in Am. EeditSpeakers of Br. E are likely to understand most common Am. E terms, examples such as sidewalk pavement, gas gasolinepetrol, counterclockwise anticlockwise or elevator lift, without any problem, thanks in part to considerable exposure to American popular culture and literature. Certain terms that are heard less frequently, especially those likely to be absent or rare in American popular culture, e. Br. E speakers. DivergenceeditWords and phrases with different meaningseditWords such as bill and biscuit are used regularly in both Am. E and Br. E but mean different things in each form. In Am. E a bill is usually paper money as in dollar bill though it can mean the same as in Br. E, an invoice as in the repair bill was 2. In Am. E a biscuit from the French twice baked as in biscotto is what in Br. E is called a scone and a biscuit in Br. E is in Am. E a cookie from the Dutch little cake. As chronicled by Winston Churchill, the opposite meanings of the verb to table created a misunderstanding during a meeting of the Allied forces 5 in Br. Translate from English to Arabic. Get translations of 1. English words and see how they are used in practice. The new Cambridge English Arabic Dictionary app is completely free to download and is available for both Apple and Android devices. 1. Get translations of 1. English words and see how they are used in practice. 1.