Comparison of American and British

English
The English language was first introduced to the Americas by British colonization, beginning
in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The language also spread to numerous other parts of
the world as a result of British trade and colonization and the spread of the former British
Empire, which, by 1921, included about 470–570 million people, about a quarter of the world's
population. Written forms of British and American English as found in newspapers and
textbooks vary little in their essential features, with only occasional noticeable differences.[1]

Over the past 400 years, the forms of the language used in the Americas—especially in
the United States—and that used in the United Kingdom have diverged in a few minor ways,
leading to the versions now often referred to as American English and British English.
Differences between the two include pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary
(lexis), spelling, punctuation, idioms, and formatting of dates and numbers. However, the
differences in written and most spoken grammar structure tend to be much less than in other
aspects of the language in terms of mutual intelligibility. A few words have completely
different meanings in the two versions or are even unknown or not used in one of the versions.
One particular contribution towards formalizing these differences came from Noah Webster,
who wrote the first American dictionary (published 1828) with the intention of showing that
people in the United States spoke a different dialect from those spoken in the UK, much like a
regional accent.[2]

This divergence between American English and British English has provided opportunities for
humorous comment: e.g. in fiction George Bernard Shaw says that the United States and
United Kingdom are "two countries divided by a common language";[3] and Oscar Wilde says
that "We have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, the
language" (The Canterville Ghost, 1888). Henry Sweet incorrectly predicted in 1877 that
within a century American English, Australian English and British English would be mutually
unintelligible (A Handbook of Phonetics). Perhaps increased worldwide communication
through radio, television, the Internet and globalization has tended to reduce regional variation.
This can lead to some variations becoming extinct (for instance the wireless being
progressively superseded by the radio) or the acceptance of wide variations as "perfectly good
English" everywhere.

Although spoken American and British English are generally mutually intelligible, there are
occasional differences which might cause embarrassment—for example, in American English
a rubber is usually interpreted as a condom rather than an eraser;[4] and a British fanny refers
to the female pubic area, while the American fanny refers to an ass (US) or an arse (UK).

There are many differences between British English and American English. But
these are all only small differences. There are also many other types of English
like Canadian English, Irish English and South African English.
The dictionary from the United States, Noah Webster's A Compendious Dictionary
of the English Language, published in 1806, included many of the differences.

Spelling
One difference between British English (GB) and American English (US) is the
spelling of some words. For example:

US and GB
color vs. colour
center vs. centre
meter vs. metre
savior vs. saviour
canceled vs. cancelled
traveled vs. travelled
vandalize vs. vandalise

Basically, re endings in British English are usually spelt er in American English.

Past tenses which have ll in British English usually have only 'l' in American
English.

Pronunciation
Another difference is in pronunciation (how to speak a word).

In the United States, for example, they pronounce the word "schedule" like "SKED-
ju-ul," while in Great Britain, they pronounce the same word like "SHED-ju-ul".

Another difference is the pronunciation of words ending with "ile" like "mobile" and
"missile". Americans usually pronounce these words as "mo-bil" and "mis-il" but
British people usually say "mo-BILE" and "mis-ILE" where "ILE" is pronounced
the same as "isle".

Vocabulary
Another difference is vocabulary.

Some common things have different names in Great Britain and the United States.
An example of this is the front part and the back part of a car. The front part of a car
that you lift to see the engine is called the bonnet in Great Britain, and the hood in
the United States. The back part of the car that you lift to store luggage is called
the boot in Great Britain and the trunk in the United States. The place where you get
water in a kitchen is called a tap in Britain but called a faucet (or the tap) in
American English.
Some differences could be a problem. In the United States pants are the clothes you
wear on your legs. In Great Britain pants are clothes that you wear under your clothes