Navigating American vs British English
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Explore English Language Differences: US vs UK
In this episode I discuss the differences in the English language as spoken in the United Kingdom compared to other English-speaking regions, particularly the United States. I grew up in Southern California and highlight the variations in vocabulary, grammar, and usage between American English and British English. I share my personal experiences encountering unique British words and phrases.
I reflect on the diversity of the English language around the world, drawing parallels with my experiences in learning Spanish and realizing the existence of New World English. I emphasize the importance of understanding and appreciating linguistic differences, as well as the positive reception one may receive when attempting to learn and speak a new language.
Ultimately, I want to encourage you to embrace language differences as a learning experience and highlight the mutual support often received from native speakers when attempting to master a new language.
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I speak English, or do I?
If you are learning English, you need to know that the way the language is spoken in the United Kingdom is different than the way it is spoken in other parts of the English-speaking world.
The reason that I point this out is to try to help you to avoid confusion. If the reason that you are learning to speak English is to visit the United Kingdom or to live there, it is best to learn from someone from there. That way you will naturally learn to speak and understand British English. If your reason for learning English is that you want to visit or live in another part of the English-speaking world, I would suggest learning from a person who is native to that part of the world.
How is American English different from British English
[00:55]
I was born in the United States, in Southern California, and I lived there most of my life. Until 2009 I thought that I spoke English. That was the year that I met the woman who would later become my wife. As I mentioned earlier, I grew up in Southern California. My wife on the other hand grew up in southern England. And it was meeting my wife, that led me to believe that English has different dialects.
Let's call this dialect that I speak American English. The reason I say that I speak a dialect of English is because there are so many differences between the way Americans speak and the way the British speak. There are also differences in the way Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders speak English. So, I would say that there are other dialects. But I am most familiar with American English and British English.
American vs British English examples
[01:50]
There are so many differences in the way that my wife and I say things, that for years I've told people that we are a couple that are separated by a common language.
I'll give you a couple of simple examples of these differences. In the United States, when I walk down the street, I walk on the side of a road on a pedestrian area called a sidewalk. Taking a walk down a street in England, I don’t walk on a sidewalk, I walk on a pavement.
Sometimes when my wife makes a mistake, or when something goes wrong, she blurts out the word pants. I'm not sure why she says it. Her mistakes are not wardrobe malfunctions. She is fully dressed. But she says pants. At first, I didn’t get it, but that’s okay, I don’t have to immediately understand everything she says because she speaks British English while I speak American English. I just have to remember the situation and add the new words that I encounter to my ever-increasing vocabulary list.
Just so you don’t think that it’s just my wife that says pants, I have heard other people say it in a variety of situations.
At an airport, “Pants, we missed our flight.”
Leaving a market, “Pants, I forgot to buy milk.”
At a train station, “Pants, the last train to London has been cancelled. What do we do now?”
What does mithering someone mean?
[03:20]
My first exposure to British English was when I arrived in Great Britain. I was in a rental car agency at Edinburgh Airport. The man sitting at the desk behind the counter answered a phone call from a co-worker (that’s colleague in British English). Apparently, the person on the other end of the phone call asked the person in front of us if he had finished something. To which the person behind the counter responded, “How do you expect me to finish if you keep mithering me?” I had just learned a new word in a language that I have spoken my entire life. How wonderful? If you are mithering someone, you are bothering them.
What does faffing someone mean?
[04:00]
Another word that I had never heard before coming to Great Britain is faffing. My wife and I were sitting in a coffee shop that is part of a large multi-national chain that I sometimes call “The Evil Empire”.
At the next table over from us, was an employee who apparently had been the shift leader the previous evening. She was filling out a report about how the evening had been. The store manager stopped by to ask her how writing her first shift report was going and she replied, “Fine, I just have one question. How do you spell faffing?”
The manager looked very shocked by her question. It seemed like he had not understood what she had said, so she explained, “You know, like faffing about.”
I am pretty sure that the reason the manager looked so shocked was probably the honesty of the employee who was filling out the shift report. I am fairly certain that he didn’t want to hear that his crew had been faffing about during the evening shift.
The definition of faffing is to do things in a disorganized way, or to not achieve much. The slang version isn’t really what a manager wants to hear either. It means to mess around and to waste time. Not something any supervisor wants to hear.
American vs British English words
[05:25]
As you can probably tell by now there are lots of words that I have had the opportunity to learn in England. And I think that is how you should look at some of the differences between different ways of speaking and different cultures. It’s a learning experience.
In the United States I had a last name. In Great Britain, I have a surname. In the U.S. I got bills sent to me in the mail. In the U.K. they arrive in the post. In the U.S. I go on vacation. In the U.K. I go on holiday.
If you check the internet for differences between British English and American English, you will find lists of hundreds of vocabulary words that are different between the two countries.
If you expand that search to include how English is spoken in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other parts of the English-speaking world you’ll find differences in vocabulary, grammar, and usage in the same language, all over the world.
English accents and dialects from around the world
[06:25]
You may have noticed that I haven’t said anything about pronunciation differences between British English and American English. The reason that I haven’t mentioned the different ways we pronounce words is because in both countries there are many different accents.
I was on a construction project once in Texas, and I had to translate a conversation between a man from Alabama and a woman from Ohio. Both of these places are states in the United States, but their accents are so different that people from one place have a hard time understanding people from another.
The reason that I was able to translate was not that I’m the most brilliant guy that you will ever meet. It is because I’ve spent several years traveling around the U.S. working on large projects with people from all over the country. I had gotten used to most of the accents that I’d encountered. The folks that I had to translate for did not have as much experience with different accents as I did.
In the end, I must say that I was not surprised to find that English was spoken in different ways in different places. As a child, I stayed up late on weekend nights watching old movies on television. Because Western movies dominated the Hollywood film industry for decades, most of the old black and white movies I watched were about small towns where sheriffs wore white hats, and the gunslingers wore black hats. Wouldn’t it be nice if it was really that easy to tell the good guys from the bad guys?
But my favorite movies from those days were the old Sherlock Holmes series of 14 films starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce as Holmes and Dr. Watson. It was watching these movies, that I first heard English spoken completely differently than I spoke. Which a lot of British people will tell you is the proper way to speak the language.
What is New World English
[08:15]
When I was 14 years old, I found out that at least one other language was spoken differently in different parts of the world. On our first day of class, the teacher who taught Spanish told us that there were differences between the way Spanish was spoken in Spain and the way it was spoken in Mexico. She then told us that since none of us students would ever go to Spain, it would be a waste of our time to learn how the language was spoken there.
I don’t know about the rest of the students in class that day, but I love going to Spain. Because I have studied Spanish with natives, I have found out that what I was taught in school is called New World Spanish. I have also learned that there are New World dialects of French, and Portuguese to name just a few. So I really should stop saying that I speak American English and say that I speak New World English.
Something that I find interesting about speaking different dialects is that I speak New world English, and in the United Kingdom people correct me. I have even been told that I don’t speak English properly.
However, when I visit Spain, no one ever corrects my New World Spanish. I used to ask people in Spain if they understood me. Everybody that I asked said that I spoke Spanish very well. I think they were happy that I have taken the time and effort to learn their language.
The same thing applies to people who are learning English. If locals know that you are learning their language, they often help you. They may correct you, but they are usually nice about doing it.
The reason that I get corrected in Britain is because people can tell that English is my first language, and they guess that I just don’t speak it very well.
They obviously don’t know the difference between New World English and British English.
Which is kind of strange because American television shows and movies have been popular here in Britain for decades.
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External links
American English, sometimes called United States English. It is he set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. Since the late 20th century, American English has become the most influential form of English worldwide.
British English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the island of Great Britain. More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in England.