American vs British notes

Good evening every one, this my note for our third topics (The differences between American and British English in both spoken and written moods).

- According to Webster, British English definitely build the foundation stone for American English. In Webster’s work Dissertations on the English language (1789), he confessed that American English is "an inheritance which the Americans have received from their British parents.”

- The awareness of the peculiarities and differences between British and American language is very important not only for the native speakers of these two different varieties of English, but also for the teachers and also the learners of English.

-lexical differences: As a percentage of the total English vocabulary the number of words which are used only in one or the other country is very small, but the problem for learners of English is that these words are among the most common in the language. There are many words that are used almost exclusively by Americans which are understood by most Britons, and vice versa. But there are others which can cause difficulty.

 - For example, most Britons know that Americans call biscuits cookies and flats apartments, but not so many know what an alumnus or a fender is. Similarly, Americans know that what they call their yard is called a garden in Britain and that trucks are lorries, but common British English words like plimsolls or oflicence may mean nothing to them.

-accent: Prior to the Revolutionary War and American independence from the British in 1776, American and British accents were similar. Both were rhotic i.e. speakers pronounced the letter R in hard. Since 1776, the accents diverged but English accent in America has changed less drastically than accents in Britain. To be fair, both American and British English have several types of accents and there is no one true American or British accent.

-Grammar: In British English the present perfect is used to express an action that has occurred in the recent past that has an effect on the present moment. For example: I've misplaced my pen. Can you help me find it? In American English, the use of the past tense is also permissible:I misplaced my pen. Can you help me find it? In British English, however, using the past tense in this example would be considered incorrect.

reference:

http://www.diffen.com/difference/American_English_vs_British_English

http://www.academia.edu/6585455/British_English_vs_American_English