Top 10 Differences Between British English and American English

Hi, this is Greg from OnlineLanguageAcademy.com and in this video I'm going to give you some differences between British English and American English. My native country, Britain, to the country where I live, America, so keep watching...

Being an Englishman living in America, I have to slightly adapt my vocabulary from time to time because if a word exists in American English that is different to British English I have to use the American version if I want them to understand me. So, it's the same for you! If you are speaking to a British teacher or client or customer or colleague, you are going to need to know the differences if you are speaking with an American client or colleague, friend, teacher...

So, for that reason I'm making this video and I hope it's useful for you.

Just before I continue, I've made a free e-Book for you so... it's called the Top 5 Online Resources for Speaking English Fluently and they are all FREE! All the resources I mention are FREE. It's a great eBook, I really think you're going to get some great advice from that book so just click the link below to get it. There's a link also at the end of the video and let's just do a little bit every day to improve your English. It's so easy, and that's why I've made the eBook for you: to give you a variety of options to improve your English for FREE!

Right now, let's go with the top 10. I've got them on my phone here so let's go….

1 & 2.So number 1 and number 2 go hand in hand, they go together. In Britain, I go to the cinema to watch a film but in America they go to the movie theater to watch a movie.

3. If you go to McDonald's in England, what are you going to have with your burger? You're going to have the same thing that you have if you have fish ‘n chips: you're going to have chips! But if you go to America you're going to have fries! Fries, not chips! Very important because chips means something different in America. Chips means, like a bag, a packet of crisps that you have with a sandwich. Just a packet of Walkers, Lay’s, Cheeto’s... that type of food.

4. When you’ve finished with a packet of crisps (or chips), when you’ve finished, you put the packet in the bin, I put my packet in the bin. But in America they put their packet of crisps in the trash can! Not bin… trash can!

5. My bin is full of rubbish at the moment. It's full of rubbish. But in America their trash can is full of trash... not rubbish. In fact, somebody asked me, it was a child, but they asked me recently in America they said: “what does rubbish mean?” They had no idea!

6. So, I go out of my house... if I go out of my house I go on to my front garden. It's grass, there are some flowers and a big tree... that's my garden! But in America, they would say yard. That's my front yard, because a “garden” for Americans is where you grow vegetables. There are no vegetables in my garden so in America I have to say “yard”.

7. So, I walk down my garden and I come to the pavement. The pavement: the part on the side of the road, the pavement. But in American English they say sidewalk. It make sense, I suppose, you walk on the side of the road... it's a sidewalk! Just be careful because if you say "pavement" to an American they will understand that you're talking about the road, so... big difference, big difference!

8. One that British people hate Americans saying is “soccer”. We love football in England, you know? That's our national... sport (I was going to say national “pride” but I don't think we're proud of the national team particularly) but we love football and we hate the fact that the Americans changed the name of the sport. They call it soccer. It's very important that you know the difference because if you're speaking to an American person and you say “football” they think you are talking about this sport. This is American football for British people and football is the sport where we kick a ball with our foot... "football"!

9. Alright, two more, we have. And this is when I go to the shops, when I go to the shops to buy presents or clothes, I go to a shop but in America they go to a store.

10. And if I want to do the shopping, if I want to do the shopping and buy food I go to a supermarket. But in America, they don't go to the “supermarket”, they go to the grocery store. They go to buy the groceries and they do that at the grocery store.

Ok, so there you go. That is my top 10 differences between British English and American English. As I said before, I think it's very important to learn both but also know that if you are doing an exam in English it's very important to be consistent so if you only speak to British people, just use the British word. If you only speak to American people and you're taking an American exam, only use the American word! But I think it's important to know both versions.

Similarly, if you are having classes via Skype with OLA, then I always recommend that our students try 2 different teachers, they have an American teacher and a British teacher, and that helps them with their understanding of the two very different accents but it also it helps them with the different vocabulary and I think it's very interesting to know about the two versions of English and the two cultures too. So if you are having classes with us, I recommend both an American and an English teacher.

Right, so thanks for watching this video. Don't forget to download the e-Book, by the way, for the Top 5 Resources to help you speak English fluently and they're FREE. They’re free ways for you to learn English!!

Right I'm going. Speak soon and thanks for watching! Bye for now!