Last week, in Part 1 of this two-part series, we talked about how British and American English sometime use different words to mean the same thing. There are other differences between British and American English, although they are not major: grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
Grammar
Collective nouns refer to a group even though they can be singular: audience, band, team, class, family, etc.
As I researched this post, I read that in American English, collective nouns are singular. For example, band refers to a group of musicians, team refers to a group of athletes. Americans would say, “The band is good,” thus using a singular verb.
But in British English, collective nouns can be singular or plural. You might hear someone from Britain say, “The band are playing tonight” or “The band is playing tonight.”
I have always been taught the British way, although most people do not make the distinction. In my mind (and in my books) collective nouns can be either singular or plural depending on what you mean. If you are talking about the group as a unit, you use a singular verb. If you are talking about the individuals in the group, you use a plural verb: The band is having a party after the concert. The band are tuning their instruments.
Auxiliary verbs, also known as helping verbs, are verbs that generally change the tense of a verb. Brits often use shall to express the future. Americans rarely use it in conversation because it seems too formal. Americans usually say “I will go home now.” However, shall does have a distinct meaning in American legal language. Also, I always learned that shall is used for first person, and will for second and third person. But if you want to emphasize the verb, you use will for first person, and shall for second and third, switching them up: I will go! You shall go!
Past tense verb forms also sometimes differ between British and American English. British English, for some verbs, uses a -t rather than –ed. The past tense of of learn in American English is learned. British English uses either learned or learnt. The same is true of dreamed and dreamt, burned and burnt, leaned and learnt.
Americans generally use the present perfect tense (have/has) less frequently than the British.
- I am tired; I didn’t get enough sleep (American)
- I am tired. I haven’t gotten enough sleep. (British)
Prepositions, or lack thereof, can also differ between American and British English. The British prefer at the weekend; Americans say on the weekend. Americans say in the hospital, but the British say in hospital.
Punctuation
There is one major difference between British and American punctuation. In British English, the period and comma are placed outside quotation marks unless the period or comma is part of the quote itself. In American English, periods and commas are always placed inside quotation marks.
British: She said,”I am going to the mall”.
American: She said, “I am going to the mall.”
Spelling
Americans end words in -or that British end in -our: colour/color, humour/ humor, flavour/flavor, neighbour/neighbor
Verbs in British English that end with either -ize or -ise end with ize in American English: recognise/recognize, organise/organize
Verbs that end in –yse in British English end in –yze in American English: analyse/analyze, paralyse/paralyze
Verbs that end in a vowel followed by l double the l in British English, but not in American English: travelled/traveled, cancelling/canceling
British English words spelled with the double vowels ae or oe are spelled with just an e in American English: manoeuver/maneuver, paediatric/pediatric
Some nouns that end with ence in British English are spelled ense in American English: licence/license, defence/defense
Some nouns that end with ogue in British English sometimes are ended with just og in American English: catalogue/catalog, dialogue/dialog
Some nouns that end with ence in British English are spelled ense in American English: licence/license, defence/defense
In British English we reserve the ‘s’ for verbs. So ‘a licence’ but ‘to license’, ‘a practice’ but ‘to practise.’
Thank you so much for that information!
I have to disagree about the punctuation. We put all punctuation INSIDE the punctuation. So British: She said, ”I am going to the mall.”
Really? Everything I have read and heard says the opposite…I believe you, though.
Hi Arlene,
I have a number of points:
1. Your American poster is correct and the Briton (Please NOT Brit!!!) was wrong … and I am British! “She is taller than I.”
2. You are right about the plural verbs with singular nouns. It’s really quite a modern form (I still use the ‘correct’ form but I’m old.) It started with, for instance, sports teams that take the name of their district. We have a county cricket team called Sussex, so we would say, “Sussex ARE visiting Yorkshire” to indicate that it is a team that’s moving and not moving several hundred square miles of the country!
3. ‘Shall’ is the imperative form. I ‘shall’ because I know it’s going to happen but you ‘will’ because there is some uncertainty unless it’s a legal command (and we see it in contracts all the time.)
4. A Briton would never, ever say ‘gotten’, this is a purely U.S. construct. We say ‘got’ but in this instance we are unlikely to say, “I am tired. I haven’t got enough sleep” either. We would say something like, “I am tired. I haven’t had enough sleep.”
5. Another big difference between the two languages is that Americans concatenate verbs and Britons never do. An American would, “Go get dressed”, “run post a letter” or “sit eat dinner.” To the British ear this sounds really weird. It would be, “Go AND get dressed”, “run AND post a letter” or “sit AND eat dinner.”
Great comments and additions to the post. Thank you so much!
One Brit saying that always sounds strange to my ear is: “He is called Bob” vs. “His name is Bob.” Of course, we might say “His name is Robert, but he is called Bob.” Although I think we would be more likely to say “His name is Robert, but he goes by Bob.”
That is an interesting one; I don’t think I have listened to enough British talk to hear that one. He is called Bob, because that is his name! Thanks for the comment 🙂
Thank you , Arlene.
This was very interesting. I really enjoyed it. And it brings up a question, too.
I was on a cruise ship with some Brits last month. I heard one of them say, “She is faster than me,” or “She is brighter than me,” or some such comparative statement. I said it should be “I” not “me” since it is subjective case, with the word “am” implicit in the sentence. For example, “She is taller than I AM”. This British woman who is a retired teacher of the German language tried to tell me that “me” was correct since it is a “comparative.”
Have you ever heard this? Sounds like nonsense to me. The fact that it is comparative Wu another subject does not change the case from subjective to objective and it seemed to be a rationalization (rationalisation, haha) for a grammatical error.
Can you help me out here? I look forward to your response. Thank you!
All the best! Bruce from your grammar class in Marin.
Hi, Bruce – Thanks for the comment! I am with you all the way. I don’t believe that is technically correct in any kind of English except colloquial. Although most people say “me” in that instance, it is incorrect and should be, as you say, subjective case. I certainly did not see that difference in my research.
Hope you are OK after that cruise!