by Tanya Sidorova,ИГЛУ, ТПЛ1-07-01

American English differs1 from British English in several important ways:

in matters of vocabulary; spelling and inflection; idiom; grammar; punctuation.

--------------------------------------1 due to: uses that disappeared in British English but survived in American English; or to developments in American English after it went its own way.

American English is a source of new vocabulary in British English (belittle, OK);

Recently imported Americanisms tend to cause the most disapproval (e.g. verbal forms of nouns such as hospitalize), and whole areas of vocabulary development such as the political correctness movement (challenged -handicapped);

Central heating, miniskirt etc. are British in origin and are now widely used in North America.

British American

autumn fall

holiday vacation

cinema movie theater

flat apartment

pavement sidewalk

queue line

sweets handy

crisps potato chips

handbag purse

trousers pants

underground subway

Simplification of the digraph vowels -ae- and -oe- to -e- (as in ameba and estrogen);

Reduction of final -ogue to -og (as in dialog);Use of: -ense instead of -ence as a noun ending (as in

defense); -er instead of -re as a noun ending in many words

(as in center); -or instead of -our as a noun ending (as in color); -z- occasionally instead of -s- (as in cozy); –l- instead of -ll- in verbal inflection (as in traveler)

and converse use of -ll- instead of -l- (as in skillful).

British English man on the street / American English man in the street;

British English a new lease of life / American English a new lease on life;

British English leave well alone / American English leave well enough alone.

American English favours the type Did you go? rather than Have you been?, I don't have rather than I haven't got;

There are differences in the way prepositions are used (out the window / out of the window);

American English has retained gotten, an older form of the past participle of get which has fallen out of use in British English.

The recommended style for British English is 5 June 2007, with no comma between the month and year. However, many newspapers, as well as American practice generally, prefer the style June 5, 2007.

In numerical notation, there is an important difference of practice on the two sides of the Atlantic: 5/6/07 means 5 June 2007 in Britain and 6 May 2007 in North America.

Sources of information http://www.answers.com/topic/american-en

glish

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_differences

http://esl.about.com/od/toeflieltscambridge/a/dif_ambrit.htm

http://www.michigan-proficiency-exams.com/difference-between-british-english-and-american-english.html