British vs American English - the basics

This is a topic that many people like to talk about, especially if they are native speakers. Sometimes they spend hours talking about how this and that is different and stupid in the "other" English.
However, there is not only British and American English, there are tens of different English dialects in the whole world.
Today let's just briefly look at the main grammar points in UK vs US English.

(adapted from britishcouncil.org)

British people and American people can always understand each other – but
there are a few notable differences between British English and American English.

Grammar

Americans use the present perfect tense less than speakers of British English and a British teacher might mark wrong some things that an American teacher would say are correct.

• US Did you do your homework yet?
• UK Have you done your homework yet?

• US I already ate.
• UK I’ve already eaten.

In British English, ‘have got’ is often used for the possessive sense of ‘have’ and ‘have got to’ is informally used for ‘have to’. This is much less common in American English.

• UK I’ve got two sisters.
• US I have two sisters.

• UK I’ve got to go now.
• US I have to go now.

There are a number of other minor grammatical differences.

Vocabulary

There are a lot of examples of different words being used in British and American English. Here are a few of the commonest. The left column is British English, the right one is American English.

• angry = mad
  
• autumn = fall
  
• boot (of a car) = trunk
  
• chemist’s = drug store
  
• cupboard = closet
  
• flat = apartment
  
• lift = elevator
  
• nappy = diaper
  
• pavement = sidewalk
  
• petrol = gas/gasoline
  
• rubbish = trash
  
• tap = faucet
• pram = baby carriage
  

There are British words which many Americans will not understand and vice versa. There are also words which exist in both British and American English but have very different meanings.


What comes to your mind when you hear "pants"?
And what is the British word for the piece of clothing on the right?

Spelling

There is also a number of different spelling rules between British English and American English.

1 Some words that end in ‘-tre’ in British English end in ‘-ter’ in American English.

• US theater, center
• UK theatre, centre

2 Some words that end in ‘-our’ in British English end in ‘-or’ in American English.

• US color, labor
• UK colour, labour

3 Some words are shorter in American English than in British English.

• US catalog, program
• UK catalogue, programme

There are other minor spelling differences between British and American English.