American and British English Differences
One common question students ask about is, “What are the differences between American and British English?”
Well, this is a huge topic!
There are vocabulary, grammar, slang, and pronunciation differences that can’t possibly be stuffed into one blog post. Also, memorizing a long list is no fun for anyone!
Students who study English in the USA can usually pick out when they hear British English because it ‘sounds different’.
I think this is the point. Focusing on how the two sound is a great place to start.
So. Can you do it?
Try the quiz below to pick out the American and British accent.
Test Your Accent Recognition Ability!
Listen to the two songs below. Which one is sung in an American accent?
For the above video, scan over to 45 seconds to skip the intro.
Check your answer at the bottom of the page.
Did you get it right?! Congratulations if you did!
If not, I tell you how you can practice on your own below. You can use this technique to notice a lot of differences between American and British English.
Time for a pop question. Are One Direction Americans?
If you don’t know, do a quick search and leave the answer in the comments.
Fun Way to Discover American and British English with Music
Songs are a great way to discover the different pronunciations and usages of American and British English.
Because it’s so easy to find songs with lyrics online, you can listen and check the words if you need help.
Here’s how you can do it.
Step One
Find a song to study. If you have already learned the American accent, you would want to find songs with British accents. If you know British English pretty well, look for American songs.
Keep in mind that the American accent is much more common in pop songs, even if the group is from the UK. You could first search for “Bands that sing with a British accent”.
Step Two
Go to Google or Youtube and search, “[Song Title] with lyrics.”
Step Three
Listen very carefully to how the words are pronounced while you’re looking at them. If something doesn’t sound right to you, make a note of the word and what sounds different.
Also listen for words or phrases that might be completely different. Make a note of these as well.
Step Four
Time to test if the words and phrases from step three are British or American English (depending on what you are focusing on).
The easiest way is to check a couple of dictionaries.
You’ll want to look in both Webster and Oxford Dictionaries, even though both should have British and American usages. You’ll be able to listen to both pronunciations as well.
After you do this, you can see how real people are using the words or phrases by doing an advanced location search on Twitter. Just visit that link and look at the short example to see how location search works.
Enter your search for the US and the UK, and pay attention to the differences. You now have a lot of real-life examples to study!
While this process is not as easy as looking at a list of all the differences, it should be a lot more fun and rewarding in the long term!
Try to enjoy the songs you choose, focus on the pronunciation, and then use search tools and social networks to see how those words or phrases really are being used by native speakers in the US and UK.
Answer to the Quiz: Billy Bragg (the upper video) is singing in the British accent, and One Direction are singing with an American accent.
