Two varieties of English
Although U.S. English and British English
are mutually understandable languages,
there are quite a few differences. One
difference is spelling. Some words are
spelled one way in the United States but
spelt another way in Great Britain. A person
goes to a British
theatre but to a U.S.
theater.
In U.S. schools, students
theorize,
analyze and
socialize, whereas British students
theorise,
analyse
and
socialise. A second area of difference is vocabulary.
For example, the word
college names two very different types of schools in the United
States and Great Britain: university level in the United States and pre-university level in Great
Britain. Also, British university students live in
halls on campus and in
flats off campus, but
U.S. students live in
dormitories on campus and in
apartments off campus. Finally, there are
many differences in pronunciation. In Great Britain, the sound of a in the words
path,
laugh,
aunt, plant and
dance is like the a in
father. In contrast, in the United States, the
a sound
in the words is like the
a in
cat. All in all, though there are differences between the English
spoken in the United States and the English spoken in Great Britain, they understand each
other most of the time.