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Hello everyone.
Welcome to the Lange Focus Channel and 

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my name is Paul.
Today we'll be answering the question,

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how are British English and American 
English different?

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One of the most commonly asked questions
by learners of English and hopefully 

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native speakers of English.
We'll learn a thing or two from this 

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video as well.
The truth is that both British English 

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and American English have numerous 
varieties,

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in other words,
various accents and dialects.

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So for the main part of this video I'll 
try to focus on the most standard non 

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regional variety of each one.
Disclaimer,

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I'm not American,
I'm actually Canadian,

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but I'm confident that we will someday 
be Americans after the invasion 

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standard.
Canadian English is very,

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very close to general American English,
so I will say the American English 

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samples myself,
unless there's some specific need to 

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distinguish between American and 
Canadian pronunciation.

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There are several ways in which British 
English and American English are 

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different vocabulary,
accent,

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spelling,
and the grammar vocabulary.

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Let me just throw a bunch of examples at
you.

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In the U s people generally say garbage 
or trash.

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While in the UK they generally say 
rubbish.

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Both literally and figuratively.
The game was rubbish.

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Americans go on vacation while Brits go 
on holiday and that's also possible in 

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American English.
In the u s people rent apartments while 

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in the UK they rent flats in the u s if 
your apartment is that street level,

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then you live on the first floor and the
person above you.

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It lives on the second floor.
In the UK,

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you live on the ground floor and the 
person above you lives on the first 

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floor.
If that person above you is unable or 

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just too lazy to take the stairs in the 
u s they'd take the elevator in the UK,

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they'd take the lift.
When you're bored at home in the U s you

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might turn on the TV while in the UK you
would turn on the telly.

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When you step outside of your building 
to go for a walk in the u s you might 

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walk on the sidewalk while in the UK you
walk on the pavement and if you're tired

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of walking in the u s you might take the
subway.

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In the UK,
you take the underground in the U S it's

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perfectly okay to wear pants when you're
riding the subway.

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But in the UK you'd better where some 
trousers too,

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because pants means underpants.
And specifically women's underpants are 

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sometimes referred to as knickers in the
UK.

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So when someone overreacts to something 
in the u s you might say,

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don't get your panties in a bunch.
But in the UK you would say,

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don't get your knickers in a twist.

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Paul,
how dare you be so crude?

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I can't show this video to my six year 
old students.

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Oh,
don't even worry about that.

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They'll just watch it on their phones 
during recess.

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Going back to the word pants for a 
moment,

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it can also be used in British English 
as an adjective,

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meaning something is crappy or it sucks.
For example,

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that's how album his pants in American 
English,

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you might say,
that album sucks.

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Excellent.
So for the U S I'll try to focus on 

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general American English and for the,
I'll try to focus on received 

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pronunciation.
These are the accents you're likely to 

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hear on CNN and the BBC respectively are
sounds American English is roddick,

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meaning that our sounds are always 
clearly pronounced British English is 

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non Roddick meaning that the r sound is 
not pronounced unless it's followed by a

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vowel sound.
Listen to the difference.

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My father's in the car,
my father's in the car.

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Let's focus on two words.
Father,

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father,
car,

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car.

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Notice that the final r sound is not 
pronounced in British English.

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Father ends in a simple Schwab vowel 
like father and in car.

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The vowel sound is linkedin in place of 
the r sound car.

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Now the thing about British non Roddick 
accents that I find pretty wild is 

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something called the intrusive are.
That means that people sometimes add an 

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r sound to a word that doesn't actually 
have one.

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If it's followed by a vowel in the next 
word.

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For example,
in the sentence I saw a film in British 

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English.
It's sometimes sounds like this.

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I saw a film,
so you can hear that there's an r sound 

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connecting saw,
and I once had a British on the job 

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trainer and I remember she said,
hello,

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my name is Paula and I will be your 
trainer today.

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I remember thinking polar,
what?

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You can't say your own name,
but it wasn't just her.

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That was the intrusive are t sounds in 
British English.

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And again,
I must emphasize that I'm talking about 

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the accent referred to as received.
Pronunciation.

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T sounds are pronounced as hard teas,
in other words,

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voiceless to sounds in the u s they 
sometimes sound like an alveolar tap 

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instead of to an Alveolar stop.
This normally occurs in an unstressed 

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syllable between two vowel sounds or 
between a vowel and a roddick sound like

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an Rsl.
So in the u s people say butter in the 

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UK,
they say butter in the u s stop fighting

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in the UK.
Stop fighting.

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You may have also noticed that the ow 
sound in the word stop was a little 

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different,
which brings me to,

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oh,
sounds in the word stop.

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The American oh sound is an unrounded 
vowel.

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Ah,
while the British oh sound is rounded or

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another example,
hot,

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hot.

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There's also the o Diphthong in the 
word?

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No,
in the UK,

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no,
in the UK the sound is a Schwab followed

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by an as input show show a sounds in 
other words,

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sounds represented by the letter a are 
in UK.

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English normally becomes an ass out in 
American English for example,

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in the UK Hoff and in the u s half words
without in British English remain pretty

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similar in American English in the UK 
cat end to the u s cat.

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An exception is a small set of words in 
which the AE is followed by a double are

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in which case the vowel is pronounced as
air in the u s in the UK,

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Mary in the U s Mary.
Because of the difference in the u s 

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Mary and Mary sound the same.
Carrie and Carrie sound the same 

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spelling.
American and British spellings are 

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largely the same,
but there are a few notable differences.

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This is in large part because Noah 
Webster,

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whom the webster dictionary is named 
after,

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made an effort to reform English 
spelling in the 17 hundreds in order to 

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make the word spelled the way they 
sounded.

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This resulted in some spelling changes 
in American English most but not all 

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words that ended Ari in the UK and in Er
in the u s for example,

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center theater,
meter somber.

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Some words that end in nce in the UK are
spelled with an se in the u s license 

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defense offense.
Some words with ou in the UK are spelled

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with oh in the u s color,
favor,

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honor,
labor,

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et cetera.
The ending I s e became izze in the u s 

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organize,
apologize.

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A similar change also occurs in other 
contexts where the s is voiced.

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In other words,
it makes a sound analyze cozy.

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There are verbs ending with El that take
a double l in British English.

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When a suffix is added in American 
English,

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there's no double l traveled,
canceled,

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marvelous.
If you're wondering how the last one 

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fits in with the others.
Remember that marvel is a verb and then 

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an adjectival suffix is added to it.
Grammar.

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There were only very minor grammatical 
differences between British English and 

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American English auxiliary verbs.
British people use Shell for the future 

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much more than Americans as well as to 
ask for advice or an opinion.

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Some difference in preposition use in 
the u s people say on the weekend,

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but in the UK they say after the weekend
and then the u s people say different 

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from or different them,
but in the UK they say different from or

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difference too.
There are some different past tense 

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forms.
For example,

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in American English,
the past tense of the word learn is 

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learned.
While in British English it's more 

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common to say learnt.

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Actually both forms are used in either 
country,

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but there is more of a tendency towards 
one form.

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This is true for other words like 
dreamed versus drempt burned versus 

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burnt leaned versus linked,
et cetera.

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Another example in the u s the past 
tense of dive is usually dove.

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In the UK,
it's dived.

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Maybe the American form developed by 
analogy with drive and drove.

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Anyways,
differences like these are not 

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consistent,
but you'll notice some different paths,

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tense forms here in their past 
participles sometimes past participles 

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half a different form.
The most well known example is for the 

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verb get in the u s there's get got 
gotten but in the UK it's get got got 

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both forms got and gotten have existed 
since the middle English period,

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but Godson has fallen out of use in the 
UK.

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Got It.
Can Be used in American English in the 

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form have got but with the meaning of 
have not have received or have become.

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I haven't gotten the eviction notice 
yet.

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I haven't got the eviction notice yet.
All right,

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let's check a couple more sentences and 
see what we encounter in the u s I think

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we need a lawyer in the UK.
I reckon we needed a solicitor.

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You'll notice that a couple of words 
here are different.

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British people often use the word 
[inaudible],

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which means think or suppose Americans 
know this word,

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but rarely use it,
and while Americans would typically 

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refer to a professional legal consultant
as a lawyer in the UK,

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they often say solicitor,
which is a type of lawyer that does 

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consultation.
The type of lawyer who represents you in

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court in the UK is usually a barrister.
While in the U s they're usually 

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referred to as attorneys.
Another sentence in the U s I'm going 

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for a beer with my friends in the UK.
I'm going for a pint with my mates.

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Notice that British people often say 
pint where Americans would say beer.

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Brits also say beer as a countable.
Now unlike this,

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but pint is frequently used and notice 
that Britt's often say mate,

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where Americans would say,
friend,

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the differences between British English 
and American English might seem 

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surprising or a music,
but remember in this video I'm zooming 

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in on the differences and focusing on 
them.

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For the most part,
they're actually the same.

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There are some minor differences in 
vocabulary and pronunciation and grammar

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and spelling,
but any native speaker with a little bit

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of exposure to the other look quickly 
adapt to these differences and be able 

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to understand the other variety without 
any problem.

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The differences are sometimes greater if
we focus on regional dialects and socio 

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elects of British English and American 
English.

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While most Americans probably have no 
trouble understanding received 

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pronunciation,
they may have some trouble understanding

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cockney English or the Jordy accent of 
northeastern England or other varieties.

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But as far as standard non regional 
speech goes,

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I'd say that the differences are 
minimal.

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However,
learners of English who focus on one of 

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the two varieties will likely have a 
little bit of trouble understanding the 

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other until they gained significant 
exposure to it.

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The question of the day,
what other differences between American 

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and British English are you aware of in 
this video?

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I was only able to give a limited number
of examples,

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so add yours in the comments.
Be sure to follow Lang,

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focus on facebook,
twitter,

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and instagram.
And once again,

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thank you to all of my wonderful patrion
supporters and these ones right here on 

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the screen are my top tier patrion 
supporters.

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So many extra special thanks to them and
to everyone out there.

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Thank you for watching and have a nice 
day.