British English and American English
One of the most common questions we get asked here at Advance is: Do you teach British or American English? As such, we wanted to take a bit of time to look at these two variations of English and discuss some of the differences there are regarding how the language is spoken around the world.
Before moving forwards, it’s worth looking back and remembering that the variations of English spoken today are a mix of many languages, some dead and gone, as well as modern ones still used today. It all started (for the evolution of English anyway) when Old English morphed into Middle English after the Norman (French) conquest. Grammar and vocabulary from French, German and Scandinavian languages were adopted and English started to evolve and began its journey to taking over the world. Later, during the Renaissance, words from Latin and Ancient Greek, just to mention a few, were integrated into the language by scholars and by the 17th century a form of the modern English spoken today was being used. In fact, this trend of adopting words from other languages continues to this day, both in English and in other languages.
As the British Empire spread, so did English, and this is when its diversification began. It was the influence of the native languages spoken within the British Empire that lead to the creation of different forms of English; however, and like Spanish, these are still considered to be the same language. After all, would someone from Costa Rica have any difficulties speaking to someone from Spain? No, and neither would a Brit when speaking to an American.
So, if English is the same language around the world, what are some of the differences you can expect to find between what’s spoken in the USA and the UK and how big, or small, are they?
The first and biggest difference people notice is the vocabulary. I (an Englishman) would say I’m wearing a pair of trousers, while someone from the USA would say they are wearing a pair of pants. I play football and he/she plays soccer, but both of us surf the web, have smartphones and like origami. The differences are small and considered by most people to just be synonyms. In fact, you can often find bigger differences colloquially, or when people use slang, between someone from the north of England and the south, or between people from the east and west coasts of the USA, than between two well-spoken people for those countries. The question then becomes, English from which city, state or county do you want to speak? However, we are now getting a bit ridiculous! So, as you can see, lexical differences between countries exist but in a similar way as they do within a country itself.
In terms of grammar, there is little difference, if any, between native speakers from around the world. Between the UK and the USA, we would only see differences in the frequency of usage of one specific grammatical structure verses another, but neither would be used incorrectly or be misunderstood. For example, a British person may ask: Have you seen John this week? Someone from the USA might ask: Did you see John earlier this week? Both are correct, mean the same thing and would be used on both sides of the Atlantic. As with vocabulary, which grammatical form is used usually comes down to a regional preference, but regardless of location, you must still speak correctly. Good English is good, and bad English is bad, no matter where you are in the world.
Aside from sometimes using different words – in the few cases where native speakers from different countries do this – there are also some variations in how English is spoken and written. We all know that British and American “natives” have different accents and sometimes pronounce words differently. Then again, so do people from New York and California, as well as those from London and Liverpool. I bet you would be hard pressed to not find similar variations in your own country, with your own mother tongue. As for the written differences, these are few and far between, and usually follow set rules, making them easy to understand. So again, differences do exist but not to a degree where learning one variation of English is superior, easier or more useful than another.
So, to sum up we can see that there is very little difference between English from one country and another – especially the UK the and the USA – and that the task of identifying even pure British and American forms is not a simple matter. As mentioned above, speaking well and being able to understand a range of accents, and different pronunciation, is necessary even within a single country if you want to be able to do the most important thing with language ... communicate well. Worry more about taking quality classes and being able to use the language you see, rather than minor issues that are less relevant to helping you achieve your goals.
At Advance it is our aim to produce the best language learners/English speakers we can, allowing them to understand and be understood no matter where they are or who they speak with. Teaching quality, the materials used and how we test our students always come first, then we fill in any gaps to cover pronunciation and vocabulary differences seen around the world. We believe this produces the most well-rounded English speakers, which in this modern world, where people from any country can start communicating with the click of a mouse or tap of a touch screen, and immigration is common, is important as you never know who you’ll be speaking with.
Here are some of the differences between UK and US English. Enjoy and ask us if you have any questions.
