British and American English: Vocabulary, Spelling and Usage Differences

Do you take the lift or the elevator? Do you live in a flat or an apartment? Do you eat a biscuit or a cookie? English is spoken by hundreds of millions of people on every continent, and its two biggest varieties, British and American English, differ in vocabulary, spelling, grammar and punctuation. Knowing the differences helps you to read, write and speak clearly, and it protects you from mixing the two styles in an examination.

This guide explains how the two varieties came apart, which one to use, and the main differences. Its main part gives 197 vocabulary pairs in nine themed tables, a table of 18 words that mean different things in the two varieties, 104 spelling pairs organised by rule, and 26 grammar, date, time and punctuation differences. It also covers common mistakes, key points, ten practice questions and a teacher activity.

It connects with Formal vs. Informal English, Commonly Misspelled Words, Commonly Mispronounced Words and Common Errors in English. This guide uses British English throughout, except where American forms are shown for comparison.

1.How Did the Two Varieties Develop?

English was brought to North America by settlers in the seventeenth century. Over the next centuries, the language in the two places developed separately, and each variety kept some older forms and created new ones. American English borrowed words from Native American, Spanish, Dutch, French and other languages, and invented new words for new things, such as the railroad and the highway.

Spelling was also changed deliberately. The American writer Noah Webster published a dictionary in 1806 and a much larger one, An American Dictionary of the English Language, in 1828. He argued for simpler spellings that were closer to pronunciation, which is why many American words drop the u in colour and end in -er instead of -re. Meanwhile, British spelling followed the conventions fixed by printers and by dictionaries such as Samuel Johnson's of 1755.

Both varieties are fully correct, and they are almost completely mutually understood. Other English-speaking countries use a mixture: Canada, for instance, uses some British and some American forms, and many Commonwealth countries follow British spelling.

2.Which Variety Should You Use?

• Follow your syllabus. Many examination boards in the United Kingdom, South Asia, Africa and the Caribbean expect British spelling.
• Be consistent. Do not write colour and color, or lift and elevator, in the same piece of writing.
• Set your spell-checker. Choose English (UK) or English (US) in your word processor.
• Know your audience. Use the style that your reader expects.
• Quote exactly. If you are quoting an American writer, keep the American spelling inside the quotation marks.

3.Vocabulary: Food and Drink

4.Vocabulary: Clothes and Personal Items

5.Vocabulary: Home and Household

6.Vocabulary: Transport and Roads

7.Vocabulary: School and Education

8.Vocabulary: Places, Shops and Services

9.Vocabulary: Work, Time and Daily Life

10.Vocabulary: People, Talk and Informal Words

11.Vocabulary: Sports, Games and Leisure

12.Same Word, Different Meaning

These words exist in both varieties but mean different things. They are the most likely to cause misunderstanding.

13.Spelling Differences by Rule

Note that -ise is used in British English by most publishers, but the -ize spelling is also accepted in British English by some dictionaries and publishers, as it is in much of Canada. A few words must end in -ise in both varieties: advertise, advise, comprise, compromise, despise, devise, exercise, improvise, revise, supervise, surprise.

-our and -or

-re and -er

-ise and -ize

-yse and -yze

Other spelling differences

14.Grammar, Date, Time and Punctuation Differences

15.Pronunciation Differences

Pronunciation differs as well as vocabulary. Common examples include tomato (tuh-MAH-toh in British, tuh-MAY-toh in American), schedule (SHED-yool and SKED-jool), herb (HURB and URB) and vitamin (VIT-uh-min and VY-tuh-min). See Commonly Mispronounced Words for many more, with audio.

16.Common Mistakes