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British vs. American

Do you know words that are different in American and British English? Post your pairs.

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Posted by Miss Smith Jan 03, 2011
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British English - American English

biscuits - cookies

postal code - zip code

holiday - vacation

autumn - fall

Miss Smith

Jan 03, 2011

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i've learnt it ta the college)
i won't post all of them , just few
BrE-AmE
flat-apartment
sweet-candy
chemist - druggist
petrol - gasoline
waterproof-raincoat
lorry-truck
tube-subway
cock-rooster
dustman -garbage collector
and so on
but as i know from my chatting with British teenagers they use american words

Yulie

Jan 03, 2011

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Yes, we certainly use a lot of American words here in Britain nowadays. Americanisation, the ever advancing tide of Americanisms . . .

Miss Smith

Jan 04, 2011

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More pairs:

British English - American English

film - movie

motorway - freeway

railway - railroad

cupboard - closet

Miss Smith

Jan 04, 2011

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I'm curious if the matter is only in different words. I guess they express thoughts in different ways that is they think a bit different. What would you say about that?

webox

Jan 10, 2011

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One more example: full stop (Br E) - period (Am E).

tgayk

Jan 11, 2011

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Yes, the difference in mentality is certainly there and that may well influence the language. But then, there are other things as well. Look at the sheer amount of different nations and nationalities that inhabit the USA. American English borrows a lot from other languages.

If to compare British English and American English, it’s not just the vocabulary that differs, sentence structure is quite often different as well, not to mention pronunciation. So yes, we certainly have two different languages here, similar as they may seem but definitely not the same.

Miss Smith