Peculiarities of British and American variants in the English Language
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order can lead to misunderstanding. For example, 06/04/05 could mean either June 4, 2005 (if read as US format), 6 April 2005 (if seen as in UK format), or even 5 April 2006 if taken to be an older ISO 8601-style format where 2-digit years were allowed.consequence of the different short-form of dates is that, in the UK, many people would be reluctant to refer to "9/11", although its meaning would be instantly understood. On the BBC, "September the 11th" is generally used in preference to 9/11. However, 9/11 is commonplace in the British press to refer to the events of September 11, 2001.using the word of the month, rather than the number, to write a date e.g. April 21, both that and 21 April are used in the UK, but as a rule only April 21 would be seen in the U.S.such as the following are common in Britain but are generally unknown in the U.S: "A week today", "a week tomorrow", "a week on Tuesday", "a week Tuesday", "Tuesday week" (this is found in central Texas), "Friday fortnight", "a fortnight on Friday" and "a fortnight Friday" (these latter referring to two weeks after "next Friday"). In the US the standard construction is "a week from today", "a week from tomorrow" etc. BrE speakers may also say "Thursday last" or "Thursday gone" where AmE would prefer "last Thursday". "I'll see you (on) Thursday coming" or "Let's meet this coming Thursday" in BrE refer to a meeting later this week, while "Not until Thursday next" refers to one next week.24-hour clock (18:00 or 1800) is considered normal in the UK and Europe in many applications including air, rail and bus timetables; it is largely unused in the US outside of military, police and medical applications.minutes after the hour is called quarter past in British usage and a quarter after or, less commonly, a quarter past in American usage. Fifteen minutes before the hour is usually called quarter to in British usage and a quarter of, a quarter to or a quarter till in American usage; the form a quarter to is associated with parts of the Northern United States, while a quarter till is found chiefly in the Appalachian region. Thirty minutes after the hour is commonly called half past in both BrE and AmE; half after used to be more common in the US. In informal British words, the preposition is sometimes omitted, so that 5:30 may be referred to as half five. The AmE formations top of the hour and bottom of the hour are not commonly used in BrE. Forms like eleven forty are common in both dialects.greetingsChristmas is explicitly mentioned in a greeting, the universal phrasing in North America is Merry Christmas. In the UK, Happy Christmas is also heard. It is increasingly common for Americans to say Happy Holidays, referring to all winter holidays (Christmas, Yule, New Year's Day, Hanukkah, Diwali, St. Lucia Day and Kwanzaa) while avoiding any specific religious reference, though this is rarely, if ever, heard in the UK. Season's Greetings is a less common phrase in both America and Britain.differencesof wordsBrE and AmE use the expression "I couldn't care less" to mean the speaker does not care at all. Speakers of AmE sometimes state this as "I could care less", literally meaning precisely the opposite. Intonation no longer reflects the originally sarcastic nature of this variant, which is not idiomatic in BrE.both areas, saying, "I don't mind" often means, "I'm not annoyed" (for example, by someone's smoking), while "I don't care" often means, "The matter is trivial or boring". However, in answering a question like "Tea or coffee?", if either alternative is equally acceptable, an American may answer, "I don't care", while a British person may answer, "I don't mind". Either sounds odd to the other.BrE, the phrase I can't be arsed (to do something) is a vulgar equivalent to the British or American I can't be bothered (to do it). To non-BrE speakers this may be confused with the Southern English pronunciation of I can't be asked (to do that thing), which sounds either defiantly rude or nonsensical.BrE often uses the exclamation "No fear!" where current AmE has "No way!" An example from Dorothy L. Sayers:.: Wilt thou be baptized in this faith?.: No fear!
from A Catechism for Pre- and Post-Christian Anglicansusage may confuse users of AmE, who are likely to interpret and even use "No fear!" as enthusiastic willingness to move forward.Idiomsnumber of English idioms that have essentially the same meaning show lexical differences between the British and the American version; for instance:EnglishAmerican Englishtouch something with a bargepolenot touch something with a ten-foot poleunder the carpetsweep under the rugwoodknock on woodthe wood for the treessee the forest for the treesa spanner (in the works)throw a (monkey) wrench (in the works)in the cupboardskeleton in the closethome from homea home away from homeone's trumpetblow (or toot) one's horndrop in the oceana drop in the bucketin a teacuptempest in a teapota dead horsebeating a dead horse't (got) a cluedon't have a clue or have no cluenew lease of lifea new lease on lifethe cap fits (wear it)if the shoe fits (wear it)of the landlay of the landsome cases, the "American" variant is also used in BrE, or vice versa.and headlines, the words in titles of publications, newspaper headlines, as well as chapter and section headings are capitalized in the same manner as in normal sentences. That is, only the first letter of the first word is capitalized, along with proper nouns., publishers sometimes require additional words in titles and headlines to have the initial capital, for added emphasis, as it is often perceived as appearing more professional. In AmE, this is common in titles, but less so in newspaper headlines. The exact rules differ between publishers and are often ambiguous; a typical approach is to capitalize all words other than short articles, prepositions, and conjunctions. This should probably be regarded as a common stylistic difference, rather than a linguistic difference, as neither form would be considered incorrect or unusual in either the UK or the US. Many British tabloid newspapers (such as The Sun, The Daily Sport, News of the World) use fully capitalized headlines for impact, as opposed to readability (for example, BERLIN WALL FALLS or BIRD FLU PANIC). On the other hand, the broadsheets (such as The Guardian, The Times, and The Independent) usually follow the sentence style of having only the first letter of the first word capitalized.
Conclusion
the early part of the seventeenth century English settlers began to bring their language to America and another series of changes began to take place.settlers borrowed words from Indian languages for such strange trees as the hickory and persimmon, such unfamiliar animals as raccoons and woodchucks. Later they borrowed other words from settlers from other countries - for instance, chowder and prairie from the French, scow and sleigh from the Dutch. They made new combinations of English words, such as backwoods and bullfrog, or gave old English words entirely new meanings, such as lumber (which in British English means approximately junk) and corn (which in British means any grain, especially wheat). Some of the new terms were needed, because there were new and un-English things to talk about. Others can be explained only on the general theory that languages are always changing, and American English is no exception.from the new vocabulary, differences in pronunciation, in grammatical construction, and especially in intonation developed. If the colonization had taken place a few centuries earlier, American might have become as different from English as French is from Italian. But the settlement occurred after the invention of printing, and continued through a period when the idea of educating everybody was making rapid progress. For a long time most of the books read in America came from England, and a surprising number of Americans read those books, in or out of school. Moreover, most of the colonists seem to have felt strong ties with England. In this they were unlike their Anglo- Saxon ancestors, who apparently made a clean break with their continental homes.good many Englishmen and some Americans used to condemn every difference that did develop, and as recently as a generation ago it was not unusual to hear all Americanisms condemned, even in America. It is now generally recognized in this country that we are not bound to the Queens English, but have a full right to work out our own habits. Even a good many of the English now concede this, though some of them object strongly to the fact that Americanisms are now having an influence on British usage.are thousands of differences in detail between British and American, and occasionally they crowd together enough to make some difficulty.you read that a man, having trouble with his lorry, got out his spanner and lifted the bonnet to see what was the matter, you might not realize that the driver of the truck had taken out his wrench and lifted the hood. It is amusing to play with such differences, but the theory that the American language is now essentially different from English does not hold up. It is often very difficult to decide whether a book was written by an American or an English man. Even in words it would be hard to prove that national differences are greater than some local differences in either country. On the whole, it now seems probable that the language habits of the two countries will grow more, rather than less, alike, although some differences will undoubtedly remain and others may develop.also seems probable that there will be narr