From the Big Ben to the Big Apple

10 Differences Between American And British English

Image: Nick Fewings

Picture in your mind a conversation between a New Yorker, someone raised in the American Midwest, and someone from the Deep South. You can probably imagine a rich tapestry of accents, regional variations, and idiomatic expressions. All within the borders of the United States. Now, the Atlantic Ocean is vast. Over time, American English and its counterpart from across the pond have grown apart, sometimes evolving in completely different ways. From pronunciation and vocabulary to spelling, here are 10 differences between American and British English.

Image: Diana Polekhina

Most of the words that end in -our in British English are spelled -or in American English. You'll find examples in words like flavor, armor, and color. These are words of Latin origin that have found their way into English either directly or through some intermediary, particularly French.

For some time, both variations were widely accepted. However, when the time came to make a final decision, Americans decided to stick closer to the original Latin spelling of the words, while the British favored a more French-influenced spelling, keeping the extra u.

Image: Jon Tyson

In Old English, the suffix -weard was used to specify direction, and it's the origin of words such as toward, forward, backward, etc. However, in a quirk of language that has stumped linguists for years, for every -ward word there is a -wards counterpart with the same meaning.

There's no consensus regarding where the extra s came from, but -wards has been the preferred British spelling since at least the 20th century, while most American writers agree that it's unetymological.

Image: Diomari Madulara

British speakers call zed what Americans call zee. It seems that Americans chose the latter pronunciation because of its similarity to bee, cee, dee, etc. But, when it comes to the letter z, the differences run deeper than just naming conventions.

Most verbs that end in -ize in American English are spelled -ise in British English. In a similar fashion to the -or/-our words, both spellings were once accepted until American 20th-century dictionaries standardized the -ize spelling. Apparently, the British then decided to keep the -ise termination as a matter of national identity.

Image: Jad Limcaco

In words like center, fiber, and theater, British writers prefer to use the -re termination, again influenced by their French neighbors. In these cases, Americans showed their practicality and chose a spelling that better reflects the way these words are pronounced with an American accent.

As we saw in previous entries, it wasn't until very recently that these norms were formalized. The pattern of favoring the -er termination in American English solidified itself with the 19th-century publication of Webster's Dictionary.

Image: Gilly

We step out of the realm of spelling quirks and dive into the world of diverging vocabulary with a well-known classic: Open a bag of Lay's in the UK and they'll call them crisps. However, ask for chips and they'll serve you fries.

To add to the confusion, some British speakers accept the term fries, but consider fries and British chips to be different products, based on the thickness of the cut. In any case, we would rather put the matter to rest and agree that any and all fried potato varieties are delicious, whatever you choose to call them.

Image: Hernan Lucio

Generally speaking, flat is a British term, while apartment is an American term. They both refer to a housing unit that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story.

However, for some speakers, there's further distinction: the word apartment is reserved for more luxurious units, sometimes occupying more than one floor; while flat applies to more economical apartments, exclusively arranged on a single level–hence the name.

Image: Robert Gramner

Another classic example when it comes to the differences between British and American English, this one could cause some embarrassment if it catches you off guard. In the UK, the word pants refers to underwear, particularly boxer shorts. For pants, they use the word trousers.

Pants is the shortened form of pantaloons, which itself derives from Pantaloon, the name of a stock character in Italian theater. Pantaloon had skinny legs and wore long pants to cover them. Trousers, on the other hand, comes from trews, a form of traditional men's garment from the Scottish Highlands.

Image: Rémi Müller

The source of endless battles among English speakers, football means two completely different things for American and British audiences. The debate around the nature of true football is heated, and it involves quite a bit of national pride. As a matter of fact, both sports are related: They share a common ancestor, and football is their last name.

Soccer is derived from association, and association football is the full name of the sport. In the UK, it's called just football. It's extremely popular worldwide and, since 2009, the UEFA Champion's League men's final has been the most watched sports event in the world.

Outside the United States, most English-speaking countries refer to the sport played during Super Bowl Sunday as American football. The term gridiron football is also sometimes used, albeit seldomly, based on the characteristic marks on the playing field.

Image: Matt

Both autumn and fall are used to refer to the season between summer and winter in which leaves fall and pumpkin spice lattes blossom. However, autumn is much preferred for British speakers, while Americans usually refer to it as fall.

Both terms are quite common and, even if it's just from hearing it in movies, most people in the UK will understand if you use the word fall to talk about the season, even if it takes a few tries.

Image: Jan Kahánek

This might come as a surprise, but British and American speakers have different terms for that little dot that marks the end of a sentence. The period, as it's called in America, is referred to as a full stop across the pond. It's one of those unexpected differences between these two branches of English, and one that can actually hinder fluid communication if you are not aware of it.

Even if it's not immediately understood as the name of the punctuation mark, the word period, as an interjection meaning "that's all," is slowly winning territory in British everyday language.

From page to big screen

Who wrote this? 9 romantic films inspired by literary classics

Many are quick to dismiss the Romantic film genre as superfluous, unrealistic, or shallow. There is a widespread belief that the scripts of romantic comedies are filled with cliches, and that they all follow the same formula, making them predictable and depth-lacking**.** On the other hand, romantic dramas don’t always receive better criticism. While this might be true for some movies, there are plenty of romantic films with good scripts. In fact, many beloved films from this genre are based on known literary works. Let’s go through some romantic films you might not know were based on a classic!

Let’s start with a bona fide classic of the '90s. Here, instead of Regency-era rich and spoiled Emma Woodhouse and her matchmaking meddlings, we have ‘90s fashionista Cher, also rich and spoiled, also meddling, but this time in high-school drama.

_Emma_’s country soirees might be changed for pastel colors and Beverly Hills, but Austen’s core idea remains: Well-intentioned good deeds might not always be what others need from us.

In Easy A, the literary text works both as inspiration and as a plot device. With her "good reputation" in shambles due to a white lie and a series of out-of-control rumors, teenager Olive Penderghast decides to own up to her bad reputation and wear a red letter A on her chest, inspired by Hawthorne’s depiction of a single mother in a 17th-century Puritan community.

While _Easy A_’s story is more lighthearted than the one in The Scarlet Letter, both showcase the results of hypocrisy, rumors, and public shaming.

Another cult classic from the ‘90s, this time reversioning a comedy by William Shakespeare. In The Taming of the Shrew, the suitors of Bianca, unable to marry until her ill-tempered sister Kate does, pay Petruccio to wed her.

The 90s version is set in high school, so there are no marriages in sight. Instead, the prize is being able to date Bianca and take her to prom, something Kate has no interest in doing herself.

While not everyone has read Shaw’s Pygmalion and its tale of turning a low-class florist into a high-class lady, everyone knows its most famous film adaptation, My Fair Lady (originally a musical). But did you know that the 90s also have their own version?

In this RomCom classic, popular boy Zach bets he can turn anyone into the school’s prom queen. His chosen target? Not-so-popular, artsy, low-profile Laney.

This Civil War romantic drama is the film adaptation of a novel by Charles Frazier, but the plot is not necessarily original: a young man left the woman he loves behind when he went to war, and the journey back is treacherous, hard, and filled with danger. Rings any bells?

That’s right, Inman’s journey back to Ada is a retelling of Homer’s Odyssey, but using a real-life character. The protagonist, W. P. Inman, was Frazier’s great-granduncle.

This musical romantic drama is known for its eclectic soundtrack, its cast, and its tragic history. Many people recognize the opera La Boheme as one of the inspirations behind Christian and Satine’s tragic history, and they are not wrong. However, director and writer Baz Luhrmann has also pointed to a French literary classic as a source.

The Lady of the Camellias (also known as Camille) is a novel by Alexandre Dumas fils (not the one who wrote about musketeers, but his son). It tells the story of the affair between Marguerite, a courtesan who suffers from tuberculosis, and young Armand. Like its film adaptation, Dumas' story is both romantic and tragic.

Some could say that A Knight’s Tale doesn’t really count as a romantic comedy, but the romantic element is important enough to make it part of this list. If you saw the film, you might remember William’s friend Geoffrey Chaucer, played by Paul Bettany. He was a real person and one of the most important writers of English literature.

A Knight’s Tale is a reinterpretation of Chaucer’s The Knight’s Tale, from the Canterbury Tales: it tells the story of two knights who duel for the hand of a woman. In the film’s end, everything comes full circle when Chaucer decides to write the story down.

In the comedy by Shakespeare, we see John Falstaff (a drunkard, gambler, and a recurring character in various plays by the Bard) wooing several married women for financial gain, but the tables are turned on him when the women realize his plan and join forces to get revenge.

How does this translate to a 2000s teen comedy? Another John (now John Tucker), a popular high school athlete, is dating several girls at once. When the girls find out, they plan to make him fall in love with one of their friends, and then break his heart and publicly humiliate him.

Cyrano de Bergerac has been the source of several romantic films, both tragic and comedic, with different takes on big-nosed Cyrano and his letters. In this ‘80s version, Cyrano is Charlie (also big-nosed and ashamed of it), in love with beautiful Roxanne.

Believing Roxanne is interested in Charlie’s coworker Chris, he starts coaching him on how to woo her and writes Roxanne letters under Chris’s name. Luckily for everyone involved, this version has a less tragic ending than the original play.