1. Spelling differences between American English and British English

There are two main differences between American English and English in word spelling: one is the change of words, which makes individual letters different, and the other is the simplification of American words. The first letters of the former are different, such as inquire (English) and inquire (America). But before the commodity transaction, one party inquires about the price, quantity, delivery time and payment terms of the commodity; The English word "tire" is Tyre in Britain and Tyre in America. Pajamas in British English are pajamas, pajamas; In American English. License is used in British English and in American English. These words differ only by one letter, some have the same pronunciation and some are similar.

American words are generally simpler than English words. In recent years, American English has become more and more simplified, which fully embodies the modern characteristics of American life and work. Most of these simplified words come from English, and a large number of words remain unchanged in English. After entering American English, these words gradually become simpler and more convenient to use. For example, the more common word colour is spelled color in American English, and a "U" letter is missing; Refrigerator is a refrigerator in American English, which is much simpler than the original word. The simplification of American words is the main manifestation of spelling differences between American English and English.

2. Differences between American English and English in the expression of dates and numbers.

In terms of dates, Britain and the United States have different expressions. Take the sun first, then the moon, which is British; On the other hand, the American style records the month first and then the date. As1March 2, 996 wrote:

March 2, 1996 (UK)

March 2, 1996 (USA)

In American writing, 1ST, 2nd and 3rd are not used. Because the written expression of the date is different, the pronunciation is different. For example, April 20 1987, written in Britain as 20 April 20, 1987, pronounced as April 20, 1987; The American expression is1April 20th, 987, and the pronunciation is1April 20th, 987. Similarly, when all dates are expressed in numbers, there are differences between Britain and the United States. 1May 6, 998 should be written as 6/5/98 for English and 5/6/98 for American; 0 1.08. 1998 is British 1998 August 1, but according to American expression, it is 1998 June 5438+0, American1998 August/kloc-.

There are also differences in digital oral expression between the two countries. $ 175 (US$ 175) is pronounced as a (1) married seven or five dollars in English and as a (1) married seven or five dollars in the United States, often omitting and; When using the same number to represent numbers continuously, English is used to using double or triple, but Americans generally don't. For example, the telephone number 320 1 12 is pronounced as three two zero, double one two, and American is pronounced as three one two two. 999 234 is pronounced as triple nine two three four in English and nine nine nine two three four in America, but Americans also pronounce three consecutive identical numbers as three plus this number, for example, 999 is pronounced as three nines.

3. Differences in letters between American English and English.

Business or business English letters refer to communications used in transactions. In America, business writing is often used, including letters, telegrams, telephones, telex, reports, postcards and so on. There are some differences in letter styles between Britain and the United States, such as letterhead and address, letter format, wording and closing etiquette. Generally speaking, English letters are conservative. Many British people like to use old-fashioned letters with formal and rigid words, while American letters are very lively, energetic and simple in format. Therefore, when we write to Britain or its old colonial countries, we should use standard English. If this letter is addressed to the United States or its areas of influence, we should use American English. Of course, the English language and culture have also changed in recent years, but on the whole, the differences between them are obvious. Business English letters are generally required to be printed neatly by typewriter or computer, and the lines on the left are vertical at the beginning, which is called vertical or square, which is commonly used in the United States. The indentation of the first word in each paragraph is called indentation or indentation. This format is very common in Britain. The vertical position and signature are in the left column. This form has been widely adopted by American companies that attach great importance to work efficiency. In a formal business English letter, the name and address of the receiving company or the full name, position and address of the recipient should be written above the address, which is called the internal address. There are also vertical and indented ways to write addresses in letters. Vertical and American lines are juxtaposed, while indentation or British style takes them back in turn. However, the author has noticed that the addresses in British business letters have not been indented in turn recently, which seems to be the same as those in the United States. In addition, it is also popular in the United States to write the address of ordinary recipients, that is, in the inner address of letters, the house number and street name are omitted.

Use honorifics in English letters. The most common honorifics are Mr, Mrs and Miss (for unmarried women). English people often use esq. (short for esquire) after men's names, but in business, for more than two women, they are gradually changing into Mr. MMEs (plural form of madam). Messrs (plural form of Mr) is used for more than two people, or for companies or groups composed of more than two people. In British English letters, Mr., Mrs. and Mr. don't need to abbreviate periods. On the contrary, American English, which tends to be progressive and free, uses abbreviations such as Mr, Mrs and Messrs

4. In terms of address, there are two common forms of address in business: Gentleman (American) and Dear Sirs (British), which are equivalent to "sincere respect" or "sincere respect" in China. If this letter is addressed to every department of the company, rather than a specific person, it should be "gentleman" in American English and "dear gentlemen" in English. If there is only one person in the other company, you must use Sir/ Dear Sir. Punctuation marks are generally used after salutation, with colons in Britain and semicolons in America.

There are many polite closures at the end of letters, which are equivalent to "salute", "salute" and "Shun 'an" used at the end of letters in China. The most typical American writing style is sincere and best greetings, and the typical English expressions are Yours sincerely (an acquaintance or someone who knows his name), best wishes, cordial greetings and yours faithfully (whose name is unknown). In addition, British polite expressions have special polite formats, but they are no longer used except in special circumstances.

5. Differences between American English and English idioms.

American English and English also have obvious differences in idioms. For example, British English often adds should to virtual forms, while American English mostly doesn't. In English, have/have not got and in America, have/not have are used to express the meaning of "yes" or "no". What "have to" and "have to" do, in English, is to do something, while in America, it just means to do something; ; Holiday jobs is used for English and summer/temporary jobs; Used in American English. The English expression of "renting a computer" is computer hire, and the American expression is ComputerRental. "Graduated from a certain school" has different expressions in Britain and America. In the United States, the word "graduate" can be used in any kind of school, such as university/school graduation, while in English, graduate is limited to university graduation and leaving; It's for high school graduation. When talking about the low salary of a company, the usual expression in English is that its salary is very low, while the expression in the United States is that its salary is not very high; ; The English expression "I get along well with my boss" means that I get along well with my boss, but American English uses got have instead of got on. "raise prices" in English means put up prices and raise prices in the United States; The English expression of "taking a computer course" means taking a computer course, while the American expression means taking a computer course.

6. When talking on the phone, Britain and America also have different expressions. If you are a clerk such as an office secretary or an operator, and you are not the person the other party is looking for, we often say "please wait a moment". The idiom in English is please don't hang up, and American English usually uses hold on；; If you ask the other party (such as the operator) to transfer it to the manager, the English expression is, can you put me through to the manager? In American English, the preposition "to" is often used instead of "with" in sentences.

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The difference between standard modern British English (English for short) and standard American English (American English for short) is big or small, but there is no substantive problem in mutual understanding. The purpose of this paper is to make a general comparison between the two, which can be used as a reference for interested friends, but not as a teaching material for learning another accent. Among them, there are many loopholes. Please correct me if you have anything to say.

Vowel: One of the biggest differences between British and American pronunciations lies in the treatment of vowels (schwa, inverted e,). In English, voiced vowels often appear in some monosyllabic unstressed short sounds A (such as about) and er (such as computer). Er in American English is rarely voiced, and sometimes voiced vowels are used for short sounds I (such as sentimental and realistic) and U (such as wuss), and even short sounds oo (such as hooker). (The pronunciations of these four examples in English are [i], [i], [u:] and [u] respectively. The pronunciation of voiced vowels is uncertain, but it sounds almost like a hurried pronunciation between "Russia" and "ah".

The most representative difference between English and American English is the pronunciation of er. In English, the short voiced er is the voiced vowel mentioned above, while the long voiced er is just an elongated voiced vowel, which sounds like an exaggeration between "Russian" and "ah". In American English, er sounds like "er" (except for vowels in some common sayings).

Ar: Except for short sounds (such as singular) and vowels followed by vowels (such as clarity), All English Ars are unified long sounds [a:], while in American it is "al". In fact, whenever there is an R at the end of a syllable, American and British pronunciations are usually different, such as tour (English: spit, beauty: spit), tear (English: kick, beauty: kick) and pair (English: pe, beauty: pe). Even in the clarity just mentioned, English ['kleriti] and America [' kler(er)ti].

There is another important difference in the pronunciation of vowels. First, [O] sound: The short sound of O (such as oft) is pronounced as the shortened long sound of O (such as or) in English, while the short sound of American O sounds very similar to the short sound of English [/\]. At the same time, if the long sound of o is followed by r, it is usually children's as mentioned in the previous paragraph, and if it is not (such as plain, apply), it will automatically become. In addition, the vowelization of vowel combinations such as U and I has been mentioned before, and the rest depends on your understanding.

Consonants: English consonants are basically the same as American consonants, but there are some differences in usage habits. Only the following two are more important:

R: The letter R represents almost all the differences between Britain and America. It's everywhere. When pronouncing consonants, the difference is that when R is at the end of the first word and the second word begins with a vowel, English takes R as a vowel, while American takes R as the consonant of the initial vowel of the next word. For example, the phrase "clear animation" is pronounced as "clear animation" in English and "clear animation" in America.

Another obvious difference is D and T. In some unstressed syllables (such as paddle, rattle and realistic), English will clearly pronounce these two letters, but in American English, D and T are often blurred into an inexplicable sound. Compared with other languages, if you know Spanish or Italian, it is very close to the short r; If you know Japanese, the consonants of らりるれろ are very similar. If you don't know, the closest explanation is the side tone L, but it depends on whether you understand it or not.

One more thing, you may find that the pronunciation of O (a voiced vowel) is in brackets in many phonetic symbols. In Britain, influenced by classical Chinese, English likes to omit this O, while in America, this O is often pronounced. If you are interested in classical Chinese or poetry, you will find that many letters of voiced vowels are expressed in single quotation marks, that is, omitted.

Spelling:

There are only the following differences between English and American spelling:

-re and -er: some words ending in re in American English end in er, such as Meter, cm/cm, Theater/ theater, Centre/ center, etc.

Background: All these words come from French (mè tre, centimè tre, thé a tre, centre). Most other re words are, such as genre, ma -d 'oeuvre and so on. But the spelling of these words hasn't changed.

Our and or: The English part of our is spelled as or in American English, for example:

Color/color, favorite/favorite, etc.

Background: Most of these words also come from French, but they are not so obvious, and many of them have changed because of time. For example, colors are colored, and favorites are favorites.

-ise and ize: English verb -ise is spelled -ize in America, such as: organize/ organize, realize/ realize, realize/ realize.

The source of these words has changed accordingly: organization organization.

Background: These words still come from French, that is, organiser, actualiserr and réaliser (but due to the evolution of language, the meanings of these words in French are not exactly the same as those in English. For example, actualise now means "realize" and implementer means "upgrade and make it obsolete"; Realize now means "realize", while réalizer becomes "realize").

There are other special changes. I can't think of all the conventional reforms at once. If there are any omissions, please add them.

Words:

Some common meanings of the same words in English and American English are different, or the same thing is said in different words, which are mostly related to cultural customs, but have no substantive influence on communication. For example, the word jumper can refer to sweaters in Britain, but Americans rarely use this word to make clothes (it is an outdated word), but use sweater to make sweaters. Another example is jerseys, casual pants, trousers and so on. There are many examples that I can't remember at the moment. Welcome to add.

Common sayings and slang:

These are too many! Even in different parts of the United States, different parts of Britain and different times, they are all different, so I won't give examples one by one. However, the word that can be mentioned is the usage of the word bloody by the British. In the old society where the word f-ck did not exist at all (in the past, it was necessary to add an asterisk F * * to print this word in books, otherwise it would be a crime), the word bloody was as obscene as the word F now. But now times have changed. British children can use it, but Americans don't. But in some other English-speaking countries (such as Egypt and India). ), be careful when using bloody.

Tone: English people speak in a cadence and high tone, which is quite similar to French (but they won't admit it). British people laugh at Americans for speaking weakly, loosely and without rhyme.

Americans speak in a steady and low voice, and sentences are usually in a falling tone, and their speech speed is slow. On the other hand, Americans like to laugh at the hysterical and feminine tone of the British.

Others:

Australian accent: Most Australian accents are similar to British accents, but Australians pronounce [ei] as [ai], that is, even their most commonly used word mate is called [mait] (like may).

Egyptian accent: English with an Egyptian accent sounds like Arabic with an Egyptian accent. In addition, R.

Indian accent: Indian accent is similar to British accent, a little muddy, but now Indians are beginning to admire American accent (Indians worship foreign things, and the movies are full of rich and beautiful young Indian immigrants from developed countries).

Hong Kong accent: I didn't mean to denigrate Hong Kong compatriots, but the Hong Kong accent sounds similar to Cantonese, with a strong pronunciation and a British accent. Many people can't pronounce the th sound, but they can't say three and say freedom.

South African accent: Never heard of it.

British local accent: There are many accents in Britain, but the common feature of * * * is that H is often silent and has many syllables.

American Northern Accent: It is famous for its exaggerated O sounds, such as talk, walk, off and coffee. People in new york will pronounce it as: two, wok, woff and kwoffee (where O is the long sound "Oh").

American southern accent: The biggest feature is to pronounce [ai] as [ae]. For example, if I want a light beer, southerners will say ae'd laek a laet beer. Meanwhile, speak slowly.

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There is a great difference between English and beauty. Today, we are going to learn the differences in pronunciation.

First, when the letter R appears in the vowel combination, North American English is tongue-rolling;

[ar]_ Far-distance vehicle charging intelligence

[IR]_ Clear my dear fears and cheer here.

[3r] _ where does air dare to go?

[ar]_ More doors fall before

[jur]_ Make sure that the poor are cured less.

【e； R]_ It's her turn to learn words first.

[air]_ Jinglei and other swindler buyers

[aur]_ Hour Flour Shower Power Tower

[oir]_ Destroyer Enjoyor

Two:

The vowel a in English; Used for t; a； Before s or nasal sounds, the English pronunciation is [ae], but before letters. Lm, the pronunciation does not change to [a:].

Half bath general question

Constant: a calm palm

Third; Vowel discrimination

English o: becoming an American a

Bought a talking ball and caught a legal saw.

Four: vowel differences

English became American English.

Five: Compared with the E in English, the E in American English is slightly larger on both sides. Dead in bed, guessing the neck is red