英国英语和美国英语区别大总结
初中生作文题目-阿飞正传经典台词
关于英国英语和美国英语的区别多有讨论，今天我给大家来个简单的总结吧。在总结
前有
三句话说在前头：
1.
倒退三四百年世界上没有所谓的标准英语，标准的英音和美音是上流社会经济和文
化的产物。
2. 英式英语和美式英语沟通不存在问题，所以学那种都可以。
3.
英音和美音各有自己的特点，所以学那种都可以，不存在说美音的人听不懂英音的
情况。
今天就给大家看几篇西方人对英美英语的区别的总结。
第一篇
是位教书有10年的英国教师的总结
There are many well-
known differences between British and American
English, but these
differences won't cause you
any serious problems if you come and work in
Britain.
First, there are a few
noticeable GRAMMAR differences between British and
American
English: I'll talk about the two most
important ones.
First of all, when
Americans make sentences using 'just', 'already'
or 'yet', they normally use
the past simple
tense, while in Britain, we use the present
perfect.
So an American, for example,
might say:
already had lunch.
And a British person would say:
I've already had lunch. - That's
lunch.
Or... hasn't arrived yet.
Also, in Britain we often use 'have got' or
'has got' when we talk about possession, while
Americans generally just use 'have' or 'has'.
So, for example, in American English
we might say:
In British English
it's more normal to say:
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The meaning's the same, there's just a
small grammatical difference that you might
notice.
There are these and a few other
very small differences, but to be honest, these
differences
almost never make it difficult for
us to understand each other.
On the
other hand, the differences in VOCABULARY between
American English and British
English are
stronger than the grammatical differences, but
again, these very rarely cause
serious
problems.
A lot of the words which are
different are informal or slang words...
For example, I think many Americans would be
unfamiliar with the British slang word 'naff',
which means 'un-cool' or 'poor-quality'.
On the other hand, a Brit (a British person)
might be very confused by a sentence like:
This means that the café is
diagonally opposite to the pharmacy, but we don't
have the
word'kitty-corner' in British
English.
Another example would be
telling the time...
If we want to
describe 2:45 in Britain, we might say:
to
three3:15 would be past three
On the other
hand, in America, these might be:
of
three2:45, or after three3:15.
It's
another small difference, but it's one that's not
going to cause serious problems - it's
quite
easy to get used to.
There are also
some differences in SPELLING which I should
mention.
One example of this is the verb
'to practise':
In British English, this is
spelt with an 'S', so that's
P-R-A-C-T-I-S-E.
In American English, it's spelt with two 'C's,
so in American English it's
P-R-A-C-T-I-C-E.
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And there are lots
of other examples of slight difference of
spelling, but about 99% of the
time, British
and American people can understand each other
without any trouble at all. In
Britain we
watch lots of American films and TV programs, and
we listen to lots of American
music, so
American English is generally very familiar to us.
This is probably not quite so true for an
American coming to Britain. Americans, I think,
don't
watch quite so much British TV or
British movies.
I should also point out
that regional English can be an important thing to
think about. Not
everyone in Britain talks
like James Bond. There are some regional accents
in Britain which
you don't hear so often in
the movies, and these might be a bit more
difficult to get used to.
However, I'd
like to finish by saying that many, many Americans
live and work in Britain, and
they don't have
any serious language problems at all. So,
Brittney, my advice to you is: don't
worry
about the language, you'll be fine!
第二篇 关于两种拼写 牛津在线词典给了详细的说明
British
and American spelling
There are several areas
in which British and American spelling are
different. These are the
main ones to be aware
of.
Words ending in –re
British English words that end in -re often
end in -er in American English:
British
centre
fibre
litre
theatre
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US
center
fiber
liter
theater or theatre
Words ending in
-our
British English words ending in
-our usually end in -or in American English:
British US
colour color
flavour flavor
humour humor
labour labor
neighbour
neighbor
Words ending in -ize or
-ise
Verbs in British English that can
be spelled with either -ize or -ise at the end are
always
spelled with -ize at the end in
American English:
British US
apologize or apologise apologize
organize
or organise organize
recognize or recognise
recognize
Words ending in -yse
Verbs in British English that end in
-yse are always spelled -yze in American English:
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British
analyse
breathalyse
paralyse
US
analyze
breathalyze
paralyze
Words
ending in a vowel plus l
In British
spelling, verbs ending in a vowel plus l double
the l when adding endings that begin
with a
vowel. In American English, the l is not doubled:
British
travel
travelled
travelling
traveller
fuel
fuelled
fuelling
Words
spelled with double vowels
British
English words that are spelled with the double
vowels ae or oe are just spelled with
an e in
American English:
fuel
fueled
fueling
US
travel
traveled
traveling
traveler
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British
leukaemia
manoeuvre
oestrogen
paediatric
US
leukemia
maneuver
estrogen
pediatric
Note that in American English,
certain terms, such as archaeology, keep the ae
spelling as
standard, although the spelling
with just the e (i.e. archeology) is usually
acceptable as well.
Nouns ending
with –ence
Some nouns that end with
-ence in British English are spelled -ense in
American English:
British
defence
licence
offence
pretence
Nouns ending with –ogue
Some nouns
that end with -ogue in British English end with
either -og or -ogue in American
English:
British US
US
defense
license
offense
pretense
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analogue
catalogue
dialogue
analog or analogue
catalog or
catalogue
dialog or dialogue
The
distinctions here are not hard and fast. The
spelling analogue is acceptable but not very
common in American English; catalog has become
the US norm, but catalogue is not
uncommon;
dialogue is still preferred over dialog.
Aside from spelling differences, many
items and practices have different names in
British
and American English. To explore
further, see British and American terms.
第三篇 这位老师给了更详细的一个说明
Introduction
Speakers of American English generally use the
present perfect tense (havehas + past
participle) far less than speakers of British
English. In spoken American English it is very
common to use the simple past tense as an
alternative in situations where the present
perfect would usually have been used in
British English. The two situations where this is
especially likely are:
(i) In sentences
which talk about an action in the past that has an
effect in the present:
American English
British English
•
Jenny feels ill. She
ate too much.
•
Jenny feels ill. She's
eaten too much.
•
I can't find my keys.
Did you see them anywhere?
•
I can't find
my keys. Have you seen them anywhere?
(ii) In
sentences which contain the words already, just or
yet:
American English British English
•
A: Are they going to the show tonight?
•
B: No. They already saw it.
•
A: Are
they going to the show tonight?
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•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
B: No. They've already seen it.
A: Is Samantha here?
B: No, she just left.
A: Is Samantha here?
B: No, she's just
left.
A: Can I borrow your book?
B: No, I
didn't read it yet.
A: Can I borrow your book?
B: No, I haven't read it yet.
1.
Verb agreement with collective nouns
In
British English collective nouns, (i.e. nouns
referring to particular groups of people or
things), (e.g. staff , government, class,
team) can be followed by a singular or plural verb
depending on whether the group is thought of
as one idea, or as many individuals, e.g.:
My
team is winning.
The other team are all
sitting down.
In American English collective
nouns are always followed by a singular verb, so
an American
would usually say:
Which team
is losing?
whereas in British English both
plural and singular forms of the verb are
possible, as in:
Which team isare losing?
2. Use of delexical verbs have and take
In
British English, the verb have frequently
functions as what is technically referred to as a
delexical verb, i.e. it is used in contexts
where it has very little meaning in itself but
occurs
with an object noun which describes an
action, e.g.:
I'd like to have a bath.
Have is frequently used in this way with nouns
referring to common activities such as
washing
or resting, e.g.:
She's having a little nap.
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I'll just have a quick
shower before we go out.
In American English,
the verb take, rather than have, is used in these
contexts, e.g.:
Joe's taking a shower.
I'd
like to take a bath.
Let's take a short
vacation.
Why don't you take a rest now?
3. Use of auxiliaries and modals
In
British English, the auxiliary do is often used as
a substitute for a verb when replying to a
question, e.g.:
•
•
A: Are you
coming with us?
B: I might do.
In American
English, do is not used in this way, e.g.:
•
•
A: Are you coming with us?
B: I
might.
In British English needn't is often
used instead of don't need to, e.g.:
They
needn't come to school today.
They don't need
to come to school today.
In American English
needn't is very unusual and the usual form is
don't need to, i.e.:
They don't need to come
to school today.
In British English, shall is
sometimes used as an alternative to will to talk
about the future,
e.g.:
I shallwill be
there later.
In American English, shall is
unusual and will is normally used.
In British
English shall I we is often used to ask for
advice or an opinion, e.g.:
Shall we ask him
to come with us?
In American English should is
often used instead of shall, i.e.:
Should we
ask him to come with us?
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4. Use of prepositions
In British English,
at is used with many time expressions, e.g.:
at Christmasfive 'o' clock
at the weekend
In American English, on is always used when
talking about the weekend, not at, e.g.:
Will
they still be there on the weekend?
She'll be
coming home on weekends.
In British English,
at is often used when talking about universities
or other institutions, e.g.:
She studied
chemistry at university.
In American English,
in is often used, e.g.:
She studied French in
high school.
In British English, to and from
are used with the adjective different, e.g.:
This place is different fromto anything I've
seen before.
In American English from and than
are used with different, e.g.:
This place is
different fromthan anything I've seen before.
In British English to is always used after the
verb write, e.g.:
I promised to write to her
every day.
In American English, to can be
omitted after write, i.e.:
I promised to write
her every day.
5. Past tense forms
Below is a table showing verbs which have
different simple past and past participle forms in
American and British English. Note that the
irregular past forms burnt, dreamt and spoilt are
possible in American English, but less common
than the forms ending in -ed.
Infinitive
Simple past
(Br)
Simple past
(Am)
Past participle
(Br)
Past participle
(Am)
burn burned burned burned burned
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Infinitive Simple past
(Br)
Simple past
(Am)
Past
participle
(Br)
Past participle
(Am)
burnt burnt burnt burnt
bust bust busted
bust busted
dive dived dove
dived
dived dived
dream dreamed
dreamt
dreamed
dreamt
dreamed
dreamt
dreamed
dreamt
get got got got gotten
lean leaned
leant
leaned leaned
leant
leaned
learn learned
learnt
learned learned
learnt
learned
plead pleaded pleaded
pled
pleaded
pleaded
pled
prove proved proved proved
proved
proven
saw sawed sawed sawn sawn
sawed
smell smelled
smelt
smelled
smelled
smelt
smelled
spill spilled
spilt
spilled spilled
spilt
spilled
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Infinitive
Simple past
(Br)
Simple past
(Am)
Past participle
(Br)
Past participle
(Am)
spoil spoiled
spoilt
spoiled
spoilt
spoiled
spoilt
spoiled
spoilt
stink stank stank
stunk
stunk stunk
wake woke woke
waked
woken woken
Note that have got is
possible in American English, but is used with the
meaning 'have', gotten is the usual past
participle of get, e.g.
American English
British English
You've got two brothers
(=
you have two brothers)
You've got two brothers
You've gotten taller this year
6.
Implications for teaching
The two major
varieties of English
You've got taller this
year
The two varieties of English most widely
found in print and taught around the world are
British and American - it is therefore
important for teachers to be aware of the major
differences between the two. And while lexical
differences are the easiest ones to notice, a
knowledge of grammatical and phonological
differences can be useful not only for teachers
to be aware of, but also to be able to deal
with should they come up in class.
Which is
better?
An important point to make is that
different doesn’t mean wrong. Comments such as
“American English is inferior to British
English”, or “American English is better than
British
English” have no solid basis other
than the speaker’s opinion. The truth is that no
language
or regional variety of language is
inherently better or worse than another. They are
just
different. Students will often have very
firm beliefs on which English they think is
bettereasier to understandclearer etc. While
it may be true for that particular individual,
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there is no evidence to
suggest that one variety is easier to learn or
understand than the
other.
Materials and
varieties
If you are an American English
speaker teaching with a British coursebook or vice
versa,
what do you say when the book is
different from your English? The answer here is to
point
out the difference. The differences are
not so numerous as to overload the students and
often can be easily dealt with. For example,
if you are an American English speaker using a
lesson that has just included “at the weekend”
it takes very little time to point out that in
American English people say “on the weekend”.
Accept either from your students then. If
you
decide to go along with the book and say “at the
weekend” yourself, you’ll probably
sound
unnatural, and “on the weekend” might slip out
anyway!
Exams and essay writing
In most
international exams, both varieties of English are
accepted. However, while writing
for an
international exam (or writing in English
generally) students should try to remain
consistent. That means if they favour (or
favor) American spelling and grammar, they should
stick to that convention for the whole piece
of writing.
What role do other varieties of
English have in the classroom?
Although
British and American varieties are the most
documented, there are of course many
other
varieties of English. Scotland, Ireland, South
Asia, Canada, Australia, New Zealand,
West
Africa, the Caribbean, South Africa all have their
own regional variations of English. The
decision whether or not to highlight aspects
of these Englishes would depend on two factors:
if the students are going to live, or are
already living, in one of these places - in which
case
the need to understand specific aspects
of that English is clear; or
if the teacher is
from one of those places and therefore speaks a
regional variation of English.
In this case it
could be useful to occasionally point out
differences between your English and
that of
your Anchor Point:bottomcoursebook (see point 3
above about using your own
variety).
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