Three Major Differences Between American English And British English
It was said by the Irish writer George Bernard Shaw that: “England and America are two countries separated by a common language”. In fact, among certain difficulties that English learners have to confront, the difference between American English and British English are one of the most confusing. It is generally assumed, however, that none of these varieties is more “correct” than the rest one, there are only preferences in use of them according to speakers’ circumstances. In the context of this essay, I would like to focus on three major differences between these two versions of English: grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary.
Generally, there are two forms of English: the written form usually used in newspapers and textbooks (also known as “standard English”) and the spoken form. Comparing the language used in media as well as in the real life in America and Britain, it is realized that the written English remains little noticeable differences while the following form varies remarkably.
First and foremost, in terms of grammatical varieties, American English and British English are mainly distinguished in the usage of the present perfect tense, the possession and the verb “get”.
- In Britain, the present perfect is the most common tense used
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Commonly, it is agreed that there are three major types of standard English accents: the standard pronunciation of British English namely the Received Pronunciation (also known as Oxford English or BBC English); the standard accent of North America called the General American which is used in almost all the kinds of American media and the General Australian English that is spoken in Australia. Despite these distinguished standard accents, English diversifies necessarily between America and Britain in 4 most obvious aspect: the rhotic accent, the vowel pronunciation, the consonant pronunciation and the
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