American English VS British English
Although the English language originates from England, it is one of the most spoken languages in the world and has spread to all corners of the globe. Countries where English is the first language are predominately those who were colonised by Great Britain at one point. Around 400 million people are native English speakers however in total there are over 1 billion people who can speak the language. Due to this there are lots of different variations of grammar, spelling and pronunciation.
For such a small area of land, the United Kingdom really has a ridiculous amount of regional dialects and expressions. I lived and worked in Edinburgh for a year and everyone I met knew I wasn’t brought up there (Edinburgh is only about 35 miles from my home town!). Likewise, Liverpool and Manchester are only 30 minutes away from each other by car yet their dialects are chalk and cheese.
Regional Variations
In the last few years I have been lucky enough to have lived in Australia, New Zealand and Asia. I have also been to the USA a few times so I have been in contact with many different native English speakers as well as those who speak International English as a second language and seen first hand how much the language has evolved.
Of course, as I said at the start of this post, English has not only evolved verbally around the world, different countries also have different variations of grammar, spelling and pronunciation. Even though there are so many different dialects in the UK, the written form of English is quite consistent throughout the country because of a shared education system and because everyone watches the same TV stations.
However, I strongly believe that that in the next 30 years there will be more convergence towards a standardised form of English across the world. There will still be thousands of different dialects but the written form will be more consistent across the globe. The internet will of course be a huge factor in this as will television and other media.
American English VS British English
You may be wondering why, with so many different countries speaking English, I have singled out American and British English. There are three main reasons for this.
- First of all, British English is the variation of English which was taken to all native English speaking countries therefore it is the form which most variations have spawned from.
- Secondly, American English is spoken by around two thirds of native English speakers therefore it is the form which is influencing other forms of English the most (via the internet, books, tv and other media).
- Lastly, American English is the form which has influenced my written English a lot in the last few years.
The last point is my main inspiration behind this post. You see, during University my written English could best be described as British English with some influence from Scottish English on how I construct sentences. However in the last few years my written English has developed into some kind of bastardised hybrid of American and British English. This has developed due to the time I spend working online.
There are many differences between American and British English however the most notable is the difference in spelling of certain words. For example, American English uses f instead of ph in many words, it uses o instead of ou and it uses a z in many words where British English would use an s.
My strange hybrid form of English
I have been aware of the fact that I use some American English spelling for some time however something happened yesterday that made me take a closer look at how just how bad it was. For the record, I don’t believe that either form of English is right or wrong, however this example will show you why having a mixed up version of it can look really bad.
I was writing an article the other day and used the word color. The British English spelling of this is of course colour (ie. ou instead of o) and it’s this spelling which I used up until a few years ago. For years I have used the spelling color on a regular basis as it’s the spelling which is used in HTML, CSS and other programming languages. It was inevitable that I would use this spelling because I was using it on such a frequent basis. At first I tried to fight it and would go back and add the letter u but over time I got lazier and eventually just used the American spelling (A vast majority of people reading my posts were from North America anyways so I didn’t think it would be a major problem).
However, the other day I noticed that shortly after using the word color I had wrote the word colourful ie. for the noun I used the American spelling and for the adjective I had used the British spelling. When I looked back at the paragraph it looked strange to say the least. The funny thing is, I know it doesn’t look right together however individually my brain thinks that color is the correct spelling to use and that colourful is the correct spelling too (instead of colorful).
I also use center and centre interchangeably, another problem which has been caused by programming a lot. Common programming words aside, another bad habit I have is checking the spelling of words online by typing them into Google. Quite frequently this brings up results using the American spelling. Frequent searches have highlighted the fact that many other British people are being influenced by the American spelling of words and perhaps there are others out there who use British spelling for some words and American spelling for others.
American English creeping into the UK
As someone who has been influenced greatly by the American English form, I’m not too surprised that other native English speakers from the UK are being influenced too. For example, I have seen some UK websites use the date format month-day-year instead of day-month-year (which seems to have annoyed some people greatly). It is also becoming common for the American spelling of words to be used.
For example, familiarise is the British spelling of the verb to be familar with something whereas the American spelling is familiarize. If you search for familiarise on Google UK you will notice that Google asks if you mean familiarize ie. the American spelling. When you do click on the American spelling you will see that thousands of mainstream UK websites are using the American spelling of this word instead of the British one.
Other native English speaking countries like Australia and New Zealand are obviously being influenced by American English too however there are less differences in spelling so perhaps it’s less of an issue.
Overview
The search results for familiarize surprised me a little and showed that many other British people are using the American spelling of words from time to time too. I do believe that over time there is going to be less differences between the different forms of English. Internet usage in English speaking countries is very high and for most people the internet is where they will do the majority of their writing so it makes I think it would be impossible not to be influenced by the way other people use English.
This is an interesting subject and one which I admit I don’t know all the answers to. Do International readers mind posts which has words spelled in the British English way? Do readers mind posts with some words spelled in American English and some spelled in British English?
I’d love to hear what readers think about this, particularly if you believe that your English grammar or spelling been influenced from using the internet a lot 
Gosu | July 2nd, 2008 at 7:38 am #
nice article,
we are thought british english in Turkey , because the english language belongs to england , the term american english is unreasonable ..
Robert | July 2nd, 2008 at 8:00 am #
I have yet to optimize a website… but have had the chance to optimise many websites. The only problem is my auto spell check which throws out the correct English… and wants to replace it with American.
I consider English and American two different languages. In many cases words have different meanings and phrases can really have a totally different meaning.
salwa | July 2nd, 2008 at 8:11 am #
Hi Kevin,
Very interesting article. Thanks for sharing. I was actually thinking about the same thing last night as it is bit too confusing also for me lol and quite frankly i don’t know which way to go with “British English or American/International English”.
I am from UK (Native UK English speaker) but if u have read most of my articles are in more American spelling and grammar. This is due to my internet use and furthermore when I started ghostwriting many of my readers (International/American readers) would usually contact me to correct my spelling mistakes. One time I was writing an article and used the word colour and this guy came to me to let me know about the typo mistake I had in the word colour so at the end I decided to use American words instead to avoid all this and since it is considered to be an International English by many but even thou i try to stick with only 1 type of English writing I still slipped out at times and mix things altogether.
I’d would also love to hear what others think about this.
David Bradley | July 2nd, 2008 at 8:50 am #
Coming from a stance as a Geordie, I shouldn’t have any rights to discuss the English language. However, where a lot of people thinking Amercun English is creeping into English English is in the spelling of some chemical names. Sulfur is now internationally officially the spelling of sulfur, not sulphur. But, it’s not that English chemists gave into American chemists but rather that the etymology is Greek (in which the letter phi can be either f or ph).
Thankfully, we still have aluminium and caesium as the official spellings.
db
Kevin Muldoon (Post Author) | July 2nd, 2008 at 8:57 am #
Gosu - I think different countries promote different forms of English. I’m sure the American form of English is used in many European and Asian schools.
Robert - I don’t believe there are enough differences to say that they are two different languages. It’s not like say, Spanish and Catalonian.
Salwa - Something similar happened here once. A reader from India told me I had spelled a certain word wrong and I had to point out that I had used the British spelling of the word (which kind of surprised me considering how influential Britain has been with India’s schooling etc. I assumed British English was taught there more).
David - Well my accent is pretty much Glaswegian so I’m sure many people down South would put me in the same boat as you
Regardless of accents, I would say that the way most British people use English when writing is the same.
Tabitha | July 2nd, 2008 at 9:53 am #
Personally, I enjoy reading British English because of the differences and it saddens me to find others changing to suit the American English readers.
Robert | July 2nd, 2008 at 9:57 am #
@ Kevin: I would argue that there aren’t enough differences. Living in South Africa today that there are so many differences between South African English and American English… and then English English that at times you can really confuse the issue totally.
Um… as American English isn’t English English, is American English a an oxymoron?
Hendry Lee | July 2nd, 2008 at 11:54 am #
@Robert: I disagree. Differences in several words are not enough to make a unique language. At least not as much as English and French. Suffice to say it is American English or British English.
I try to use American English as the majority of my traffic is from North America.
Dubai Travel Guide | July 2nd, 2008 at 12:42 pm #
I must agree with Hendry
Mackenzie | July 2nd, 2008 at 12:57 pm #
I’m American, and I mix around British and American spellings. Instead of trying to remember which words American English puts z’s into, I just stick to s’s and know it’s right somewhere. I also prefer to spell the word as “favourite” instead of “favorite.” I consider British English to be correct since it’s called English, it’s their language, they’ve got the authority on what’s correct, but there are many words where I’m not aware that the British spell it differently, so I use the spelling I know.
Sarah | July 2nd, 2008 at 4:42 pm #
The whole -ise vs -ize I remember seeing at school so I wouldn’t be surprised by the amount of brit sites using -ize in their spellings. I’m sure teachers at school would often use -ize. Despite being used to have to use ‘center’ and ‘color’ in programming for 15 years I’ve tried to ensure that I still continue to write in proper English (give or take the occasion typing error or unintentional spelling mistake!). I wouldn’t change to American English, merely ensure that what I write is understandable by all.
Sometimes I stop myself from writing a term or phrase that would be considered more slang and only understandable to the british or a few non-brits. Also, for example, one of my first posts here I made the effort to check on a forum with the US residents to find out what they called brackets (ie. the round brackets) as I already knew that BloggingTips.com had a large US following and didn’t want to confuse anyone! I learnt about all the bracket types and also discovered the true names in english (which are actually the same I think, except we don’t use them in everyday language!).
What confuses me is certain words that are completely different in American English! I can also understand why some British would get frustrated over the American Date, especially when it’s within the first 12 days of the month!
Amanda Fazani | July 3rd, 2008 at 4:08 am #
Thank you for bringing this up, Kevin.
Having studies for an English degree here in the UK, I have English spellings and grammar virtually drilled into me, but when writing for the web, I use American spellings instead (well, I try to as much as I can!).
For me, this is a conscious choice: since I write about blog design (which invariably includes a lot of code), I found it would be confusing for readers to use “color” in code examples, and “colour” when explaining the code.
One way or the other, I try to be consistent with my spellings and grammar. It’s not easy for me to write in American English, but I do this for my readers and to ensure my posts are easily understood.
If I were to write on a non-technical subject though, I would invariably go back to using English spellings instead. I don’t think the majority of readers would really take notice of the difference, but those who did would assume English spellings = English author
I’m proud of my nationality, but English English is not appropriate for my own posts. Neither version is right or wrong for writing on the web, though I admit I prefer to see consistency in blog posts, rather than a mix of the two!
Kevin Muldoon (Post Author) | July 3rd, 2008 at 6:51 am #
Tabitha - Personally, I wasn’t trying to suit American readers, I simply got into the habit of using some American spellings because that form is so common on the net. I did get into the habit of using the month-day-year format because of American readers though. At my old poker forums we used to post dates of games and the majority of members were from North America so it made sense to write the date in the format they are used to
Sarah - Very good point about the first 12 days of the month. I’ve signed up to some affiliate networks and entered my d.o.b. and it can be confusing to see the month and day mixed around (thankfully my birthday is at the end of the month).
Amanda - You are completely right, neither way is right or wrong. It’s the mixing up I’m doing which looks strange!!
Mackenzie | July 3rd, 2008 at 12:05 pm #
I just generally make sure I spell out the first three letters of the month so whichever direction I write it (usually day-month-year because that’s ascending order… medium-small-large makes no sense at all), it’s understood.
Simon | July 3rd, 2008 at 3:30 pm #
I posted in the Authority Blogger forum about this a while back to see what the consensus was.
I run a number of blogs and I tend to switch between American and “Normal” (well, normal for me because I’m British) English. It’s also worth pointing out that many of the Americanisms that British people perceive, particularly using Z instead of S, are actually originally British anyway. The issue was that Brits had taken to using S, while the proper spelling was with Z, so when new English users were taught the proper way i.e. using Z, they were see by Brits as misusing the language. It’s funny how much of it is about perception.
I think one of the really interesting questions would be whether search engines like Google judge a site’s location based on the spelling they use. If I have a .com and keep writing colour as opposed to color, will Google recognise it as British?
American Vs British English Differences | July 4th, 2008 at 10:00 pm #
Here is a list of words and their difference in meaning between the two languages, have a look at it by clicking on the link.
ian madine | July 6th, 2008 at 5:20 am #
i’m with you on this one. I stopped getting so hung up on ‘correct’ english spellings over american ones the more I used the internet. many of the english spellings are a hangover from the french language anyway (e.g. programme, colour, centre). I find american spellings more phonetic and efficient and tend to flip between the two like you do. you may also notice a tendency to use less Capitalization (thanks to word processors and email). Historically the standardization of written english is not that old - a couple of hundred years at most. During shakespeare’s time there was a greater fluidity of spelling. The point of written language is to communicate and it would seem that english users are ‘bi-lingual’ when it comes to spelling. we all know the what is meant by ‘centre’ or ‘center’ or ‘traveller’ or ‘traveler’.
dannyboy | July 6th, 2008 at 9:14 am #
I’m from Australia, and we have all these problems too, except for us neither is really the correct spelling, since we’re neither America nor England.
The standard for schooling and professional purposes is British English, which I adhere to, since it’s just how I was brought up, and it’s part of my university education as well. However, since almost every mass medium we get is either from America or affected by American English, the uses of American English are also quite commonplace, and are slowly taking over, I believe, since not even schoolteachers these days know how to use English/spell correctly.
I, too, believe that English is evolving, and that eventually there will be a much more standardised written format, and that we may even change our spelling much more radically, perhaps to a much simpler phonetic representation of the language, which would push aside the spelling problem altogether, since one would just write English the way it sounds.
Also, to Sarah, in Australia (these are parentheses,) [these are brackets,] and {these are braces,} and . They could be technical terms, but most people just use the word ‘brackets’ preceded by an adjective (’round’, ’square’, ‘curly’, and ‘pointed’ respectively).
I coul rant about this stuff all day! ^_^
dannyboy | July 6th, 2008 at 9:17 am #
Err… I accidentally HTML’d part of my post… It was meant to say:
Also, to Sarah, in Australia (these are parentheses,) [these are brackets,] {these are braces,} and ‘these are chevrons’ (in html tags).
Milander | July 6th, 2008 at 10:02 am #
I’m an EFL/TESOL teacher, that is I teach English to foreign students and I’ve lived abroad for the last 12 years in a variety of countries. I have to say that the majority of course books such as - Headway, snapshot, business basics, euro city, project, NIBE, and the self help books such as - essential grammar in use, test your vocabulary, focus, reward, etc all use British english rather than American english both in spelling and structure.
To my mind, and from experience, the influence of American english is based in the fact that most students of english are only exposed to the American form whether it be through media (CNN, NBC, ABC, etc) or through American cinema, which dominates most countries, or litrature.
The UK is the publishing centre of the World yet the majority of popular authors (the ones you read on the beach) are American.
So to draw a conclusion, British english is what students learn, American english is what they acquire by default of exposure.
I’m not a purist by any standard, spelling changes as does meaning just look at anything by the great writers of the 18th, 17th century - “I feel so gay today.” meaning I feel very happy and full of energy - as written by J. Austen. However I have to say that there is a certain dumbing down of english, the preponderance of “like” in American speech is grating, the Australian habit of lifting intonation at the end of a sentence so that it sounds like a question is grating for me, the British habit of saying ‘What?’ instead of ‘pardon?’ is just plain rude.
All that aside, as the language is spoken in so many countries changes are bound to happen and faster than we might like them to.
Wish I could discuss this over a pint with you all, interesting topic for debate.
lily | July 6th, 2008 at 10:05 am #
“However, the other day I noticed that shortly after using the word color I had wrote the word” … or i had written?!
Kaustubh | July 20th, 2008 at 9:04 am #
Nice Topic Man,
I live in India, since the Britishers ruled India till 1947, British English is used in India, However due to popularity of American culture,movies and music it is little bit popular in youth here. I strongly oppose American English since it is modified version of the British one. We should keep to the original thing.
I don’t understand what was the need of creating American English?, A universal language should be kept the same through out the world. It is just because of technology American English got popular.
Paul Wheater | July 31st, 2008 at 7:15 am #
Dear Kaustubh
Keep up the good work, people in India have higher British standards than people in this country. This is true not only with the correct spelling of words but also with things like the use of filthy swear words in conversation.
Can someone help as to when Americans started spelling words incorrectly? A good guide would be from old bibles or hymn books when at some point the word Saviour would change to Savior.
God Bless
Paul Wheater
Paul Wheater | July 31st, 2008 at 7:28 am #
Dear All
As an extra point about the use of words - how about pronunciation?
I am sick of hearing the incorrect pronunciation of “W” which is changed to “R” by news presenters and weather presenters. This is an affectation that started way back with David Frost but is gathering momentum at a great rate.
With this one there is no question, it is definitely incorrect to say drawring in cold winds, lore and order is breaking down, we sore a new side to Gordon Brown today etc.
God Bless
Paul
paulie | August 6th, 2008 at 8:57 am #
Interesting and informative article, but you have written “I noticed I had wrote the word.” Not good in article about English standards
Illuminatiscott | August 7th, 2008 at 11:40 pm #
I, personally, would greatly prefer a universal form of written English. Then again, I would also prefer a standardized spelling, pronunciation, grammar and usage guide for all forms of English. Is a worldwide conference, with representation based upon dialectical population, out of the question?
Although I really don’t have much of a preference in terms of which form I prefer, I find that American English tends to have simpler spelling, trimming off silent endings etc. (e.g. dialog/dialogue, maneuver/manoeuvre), while British English tends to be closer to the actual French origins of many words, but thus further from the ultimate Latin origins (e.g. center, vs. centre, from centerum).
In a united English speaking world, I personally think that the simpler American version had more advantages, as far as the ability to learn the language is concerned.
Todd | August 10th, 2008 at 9:24 am #
I find the idea that English English should remain the same since it has always been like that misses a wider evolution of the language. Let’s remember that English English is a derivation of many other languages - mainly from our Teutonic brothers in Northern Germany and then about a 1,000 years later our Norman fraternity across the channel that kicked some Teutonic English ass (oops…should I say ‘arse’?) in 1066. And hell the Normans weren’t even really French to begin with - they were old Norseman who adopted the Frenchy ways and language after settling in Normandy. So a lot of our English words that differ from American English and English English are words brought over by those non-Teutonic loving Norsey Frenchmen (mais ouis - a Parisian would know what is meant by centre et colour, mon amis). Scott above has listed a few more.
So when America was still pissed off (ooops I mean ‘angry’) from the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, Noah Webster decided to wrench English free from the constraints of a spelling style imposed by the nobility (Norman-Frenchy word) and make it more suitable to the masses.
So all those people out there who hate America because it does not give power to the people in a Che Guevara kinda way, take a look at out native son, Noah Webster. Why can’t we put Noah Webster on a t-shirt with a beret, a cigar and a AK47 and sell him at the Gap for $24.99?
Dylan Harris | August 10th, 2008 at 2:09 pm #
-ize is a bad example; it’s not just perfectly correct British English, it’s the form preferred by the OED (the nearest thing British English has to the Academy Francaise). -ise is simply the more common form.
What I find fascinating is the influance of non-mother tongue speakers on the language. For example, do other people notice previously silent letters being pronounced again? I don’t mean things like the ‘G’ in gnu, that’s the Flanders and Swann song from the 1950s, I mean things like the ‘i’ in parliament.
Sarah | August 11th, 2008 at 1:51 pm #
I think the amazing thing about the English language is that it allows for change; it constantly evolves without the need for an official standardization, making it one of the the most diverse languages in the world.
That being said–who cares how we spell the words? I’m an American, and we see both spellings in school and in print. I know people who consistently use the British spelling, despite being born and reared in the US. As long as we can all still communicate, little differences shouldn’t matter.
Alan James | August 11th, 2008 at 5:23 pm #
For those of you that think that there are big differences between “English” English and “american” English, you should read Bill Bryson’s book “Made in America”. Being no spring chicken and a native English speaker, albeit from Wales, I was convinced of the superiority of “English” English. Bryson’s book brought me back to Earth with the gentlest of bumps. For example, in Britain, a carbonated soft drink is called “pop”, whereas, I thought, in America it is call “soda”. Imagine my surprise when I found that there are many areas in the States where the drink is also called “pop”. Until WW2, “Aerial” was used for a radio antenna in the US, as it still is in the UK.
The thing I received from the book was a sense of common heritage with Americans, not a litany of differences. We can be thankful that Habeus Corpus is about to return to the US, and not the emasculation that it is due to receive in the UK.
BTW, the “filthy swear words” and almost all of the less genteel words, such as belly, cock and cunt all come from the germanic root of the language. In my opinion, these words should be celebrated because English is a low German, not a low French
Alan James | August 11th, 2008 at 5:37 pm #
P.S. a pet peeve: I hate the redundant “do”, as in “do come on friday”, instead of “come on Friday” or “we do wish that you….” instead of “we wish that you…”. This is merely a poncy attempt to speak a more “refined” English, and should be rejected by those who wish to speak robust - and gramatically correct English. Do take note!
Rafael | August 21st, 2008 at 10:02 am #
What would happen if the Americans make their own languageinstitute and then they simplify all their spellings to make it mutually unintelligible to the Brits?
There they can simplify all their tho, thru and then allow all the double negatives, change the meaning of “bitch” from “wh*re” to “lover”, and change the meaning of “to rehabilitate” from “to improve, correct” to “to execute, put to death.” (Spelling should be bitch and rihabiliteit, respectively.)
What would happen if the English use more of their Anglosaxon words in creating their higherwordregister and if there is a compoundword, they simply clump most of those together? Let there be a neologistic tradition, like the Deutsch and the Netherlanders.
What if there is a pronunciationsystem for the English people to retain all the letters (save the final r’s) that have become silent?
For example, the English must retain those “gh” to be pronounced as a guttural “ch”, the words that start with a vowel get a glottal stop, their pronounced r’s are either flapped or trilled, the final t’s are aspirated and pronounced (not as glottal stops), and those silent e’s get a schwa pronunciation.
Sarah | August 21st, 2008 at 10:07 am #
Like fag (cigarette) and other words I won’t mention?
Rafael | August 22nd, 2008 at 1:36 am #
Rafael | August 22nd, 2008 at 1:54 am #
Let the Americans turn “frozen” to “frozn” to simplify their spelling.
Let the english drop their schwas near their n, m, and l.
For example, brethren (the English must use this) will be pronounced as /breθ`rn/ (the r’s are rolled, trilled), problem will be pronounced as /prɔb`lm/ and pedestal will be pronounced as /phɛ`dɛ`stɫ/.
Rafael | August 22nd, 2008 at 1:56 am #
Let the Americans turn “frozen” to “frozn” to simplify their spelling.
Let the English drop their schwas near their n, m, and l, but keep it spelt. Let them retain their “centre” and “centralise” spelling.
For example, brethren (the English must use this) will be pronounced as /breθ`rn/ (the r’s are rolled, trilled), problem will be pronounced as /prɔb`lm/ and pedestal will be pronounced as /phɛ`dɛ`stɫ/.
Rafael | August 22nd, 2008 at 2:05 am #
Sarah, do they speak Englisch and Deutsch? (In American and today’s English, do you speak English and German?)