Differences in American and British English grammar

An article by Kerry Maxwell (BuzzWord author, and MED Magazine contributor) and Lindsay Clandfield (English
language teacher trainer, international conference speaker and award-winning author ) on recognizing
grammatical differences between American and British English.

Introduction | 1. Verb agreement with collective nouns | 2. Use of delexical verbs have and take | 3. Use of
auxiliaries and modals | 4. Use of prepositions | 5. Past tense forms | 6. Implications for teaching

Introduction

Speakers of American English generally use the present perfect tense (have/has + 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?
 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 is/are 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.

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 shall/will 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?

4. Use of prepositions

In British English, at is used with many time expressions, e.g.:

at Christmas/five '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 from/to anything I've seen before.

In American English from and than are used with different, e.g.:

This place is different from/than 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.

Simple past Simple past Past participle Past participle

Infinitive
(UK) (US) (UK) (US)
burned/ burned/ burned/ burned/
burn
burnt burnt burnt burnt
bust bust busted bust busted
dove/
dive dived dived dived
dived
dreamed/ dreamed/ dreamed/ dreamed/
dream
dreamt dreamt dreamt dreamt
get got got got gotten
leaned/ leaned/
lean leaned leaned
leant leant
learned/ learned/
learn learned learned
learnt learnt
pleaded/ pleaded/
plead pleaded pleaded
pled pled
proved/
prove proved proved proved
proven
sawn/
saw sawed sawed sawn
sawed
smelled/ smelled/
smell smelled smelled
smelt smelt
spilled/ spilled/
spill spilled spilled
spilt spilt
spoiled/ spoiled/ spoiled/ spoiled/
spoil
spoilt spoilt spoilt spoilt
stank/
stink stank stunk stunk
stunk
woke/
wake woke woken woken
waked

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've got two brothers
(= you have two brothers)
You've gotten taller this year You've got taller this year

6. Implications for teaching

The two major varieties of English

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 better/easier to understand/clearer etc. While it may be true for that particular
individual, 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 coursebook
(see point 3 above about using your own variety).

Other differences

Some of British words have different meanings, some are spelled differently, but grammar is the "glue"
that holds a language together. Grammar, therefore, is virtually the same wherever English is spoken.
The only significant difference I can think of is that the British sometimes treat collective nouns as plural
whereas the Americans treat them as singular.
Examples:
UK: "The government are announcing an important decision." (Speaking of specific people in the
government).
"The government is a constitutional monarchy." (Speaking of the government as an institution)
US: "The government is announcing an important decision."
"The government is a republic."
Some British tend to be more particular about split infinitives and prepositions at the end of a sentence,
but those "rules" came from Latin and have little relevance in English. It was, in fact, Sir Winston Churchill
who set up the "preposition cannot end a sentence” rule, with his famous rejoinder that placing the
preposition at the end of a sentence is "something up with which we will not put!" Of course, that was
much more awkward than saying "something I will not put up with."

Single and double Quotation Marks:

The American rule is that double quotation marks are the standard form, and single quotation marks (what
the British call "inverted commas") are normally used only  to enclose a quotation within a quotation. Also,
the punctuations inside of them:

I always had bad experiences in relationships and I talked about it with my friend yesterday, he said “my
mother always used to say ‘life is like a box of Chocolats, you never know what you’re going to get.’ And i
think it’s true.” After saying that, he left.

The British usually, but not always, reverse this order, using single quotation marks first, and then double
quotation marks to enclose quotations within quotations and the punctuations outside of them:

I always had bad experiences in relationships and I talked about it with my friend yesterday, he said ‘my
mother always used to say “life is like a box of Chocolats, you never know what you’re going to get”. And i
think it’s true’. After saying that, he left.

This last case is indeed the case with novels, but all the other publications use double quotation marks first
and singles for quotations inside quotations. The British preference for single quote marks in novels is
simply because novels often has a lot of reported speech.

Spelling Differences
Grammar Slammer does not deal specifically with spelling questions except as they relate to grammar. It
does use American spelling in its presentation. Actually the differences between UK and US spelling are
also quite trivial.
Norman-derived words that end in -our in the UK end in -or in the USA. Saviour and glamour are preferred
spellings in both places.
UK: colour, honour, favourite
US: color, honor, favorite
Some Norman-derived words that end in -re in the UK end in -er in the US.
UK: centre, theatre
US: center, theater
The verbs that end in verb-forming suffix -ise in the UK end in -ize in the US. This applies to the few verbs
ending in -yse and -yze as well. One exception is chastise which is the same in both places.
UK: realise, theorise, socialise, analyse,
US: realize, theorize, socialize, analyze
A few other words that end with an s or z sound before a final vowel differ also.
UK: cosy, rase (raze is becoming more common), practise (verb; noun is practice)
US: cozy, raze, practice (both noun and verb)
A few words that end in -nse in the U.S. end in -nce in the U.K.:
UK: defence, licence (noun; verb is license)
US: defense, license (noun and verb)
A few other words are spelled differently. A few common examples follow.
UK: waggon, gaol (jail is becoming more common), mould, moult, manoeuvre, encyclopaedia, furore
US: wagon, jail, mold, molt, maneuver, encyclopedia, furor
There is not much else that differs. Some differences in doubling of final consonants before adding roots
are mentioned in Adding Suffixes Beginning with Vowels.

Suffixes and spelling rules

Remember suffixes are small words that we add to the end of words to make new words or change the
grammar.
Sometimes we have to change the root word and sometimes double up letters so let's have a look at some
rules around adding suffixes.
First we need to understand what vowel and consonant suffixes
are for this part

vowel suffix
-ance
-er
-ing
-able/-ible
-est
-ed
-ation

consonant suffix
-ly
-less
-y
-ship
-ment
-ness
-ful
-s 

Summary of some key rules ( but like all spelling rules there are always exceptions)

1.  Y to i rule with words ending in consonant + y.

a. Change the y to i before vowel suffixes (except -ing) 

carry + ed =  carried 
carry + er = carrier
carry + age = carriage

BUT carry + ing = carrying (can't have two i's carriing!!!!! But exceptions see rule 5)

happy + er = happier

happy + est = happiest
supply + ed = supplied
supply + er = supplier
supply + es = supplies

BUT supplying
deny - denied, denial BUT denying
marry - married, marries BUT marrying
rely - reliable, reliant, relied, relies BUT relying
comply - compliance, compliant, complied, complies, BUT complying
 

b. Change the y to i before consonant suffixes

beauty + ful = beautiful
beauty + fy = beautify
happy + ness = happiness
happy + ly = happily
angry - angrily, angriness
ordinary - ordinariness, ordinarily
lonely - loneliness
empty - emptiness
plenty - plentiful
likely- likeliness, likelihood
necessary = necessarily
busy - business, busily
hungry - hungrily

c. exceptions - dryer, drying, dryish, dryness, slyness

dry + ly = dryly or drily 

d. Changing ie to y

die + ing = dying

tie + ing = tying
lie + ing = lying
 
e. y remains if the word ends in a vowel + y

buy - buyer, buying, buys

employ - employer, employee, employable
enjoy - enjoying, enjoyed, enjoyable, enjoyment
joy - joyful, joyous, enjoyable, joys

2. Drop the 'e' rule before a vowel suffix

a. Words ending in silent 'e'  + vowel suffix

love - loving, lover, loved, lovable (or loveable)

make - making, maker
use - using, usable, user, used
have - having
adore- adorable
care - cared, carer, caring
move - movable, moving, mover
 
b. Exceptions - words ending in 'ce' or 'ge' keep the 'e' before -ous and -able ( because it softens the 'g', 'c'
sound)
manage - manageable  (BUT  drop the 'e' with -ing, -ed, er  managing, managed, manager)
notice - noticeable  (BUT drop the 'e' with -ing etc noticing, noticed)
courage - courageous
service - serviceable
changeable
gorgeous

 c. Also keep the 'e' with the following:

likeable, saleable, hireable, blameable, sizeable nameable ( but drop the 'e' with -ing)
 
d. Also drop the 'e' with -is
analyse + is = analysis,  paralyse = paralysis

Keep the 'e' rules:

e. Keep the 'e' with consonant  suffixes

Keep the 'e' before -ful
care+ ful = careful
hopeful, peaceful, useful, wasteful
BUT change words ending in consonant + Y to i
plenty + ful = plentiful, beauty + ful - beautiful
BUT not joyful  = vowel + y

 f. Keep the 'e' when the word ends in ee or ye 

agree - agreeing
eye- eyeing
see - seeing
guaranteeing, foreseeing, decreeing

 g. Keep the 'e' before -ly

accurate+ ly = accurately, like + ly = likely, love+ ly = lovely, definite + ly = definitely
lively, rarely, homely, desperately, approximately, entirely, completely
BUT due - duly, subtle = subtly, true - truly

g. Keep the 'e' before -ment  

achieve + ment = achievement, advertisement, arrangement, excitement, involvement, replacement
BUT drop the 'e' with argue + ment = argument.
Also acknowledgement or acknowledgment can be spelt either way.
judgement usually keeps the 'e' but lawyers spell it without the 'e' judgment
 
3. 1:1:1 rule:
a. Words of 1 syllable ending in 1 vowel+ 1 consonant - double the last letter before a vowel suffix
shop - shopped, shopping, shopper
plan - planned, planning, planner
fat - fatter, fatten, fattest, fatty
pot - potting, potted, potter, pottery
slip - slipped, slipping, slipper, slippery
 
Do not double last letter if it's a w, x, y - tax - taxed, stay - staying, towed...
Do not double if two vowels - heat - heating, sleeping, sleeper...
Do not double if two consonants - sharp- sharpen, fasting, turned...
 
BUT qu- is classed as one consonant because we can't have q without the u
quit - quitting, quitter, quitted
quiz - quizzed, quizzing, quizzer
 
b. Words of more than 1 syllable ending in 1 vowel + 1 consonant when the stress is on the last syllable
double up the last letter.
regret - regrettable, regretting, regretted
forget - forgettable, forgetting (past: forgot - forgotten)
occur - occurring, occurrence, occurred
begin - beginning, beginner
commit - committing, committee, committed
forbid - forbidden, forbidding

BUT
prefer - preferring, preferred (BUT preference, preferable, preferential- the stress moves)
refer - referred, referring (BUT reference, referee- the stress moves)
confer - conferred, conferring (BUT conference)
(No change if stress not on last syllable - (stress on first syllable) target - targeted, limit - limited, limiting,
budgeting, marketing, marketed)

BUT focus can be both - focusing or focussing, focused or focussed

ALSO  input - inputted, inputting

kidnap - kidnapped, kidnapping, kidnapper (American kidnaped, kidnaping, kidnaper)
output - outputted, outputting
worship - worshipping, worshipper, worshipped ( American - worshiped, worshiper, worshiped)
handicap - handicapped, handicapping, handicapper

4. Double the last L

Words of more than 1 syllable ending in 1 vowel + L always double up the L before a vowel suffix (except
after -ity and -ise). American spelling don't double up. 

travel - travelled, traveller, travelling) (American - traveled, traveler, traveling)

cancel - cancelling, cancelled, cancellation (American - canceling, canceled, cancelation)
label - labelling, labelled (American - labeled, labeling)
model - modelled, modelling, modeller (American - modeled, modeling, modeler)
marvel - marvellous, marvelled, marvelling (American - marvelous, marveling, marveled)
signal - signalling, signalled, signaller signally (American - signaled, signaler, signaling)
quarrel - quarrelling, quarrelled, quarreller (American - quarreling, quarreled, quarreler)
enrol - enrolling, enrolled (enrols) (American enroll - enrolling, enrolled, enrolls)
expel - expelled, expelling, expeller, expellable (American the same)

BUT: devil - devilish, loyal - loyalist, parallel - paralleled, paralleling, travel - travelogue

Do not double when two vowels - appeal - appealing, appealed

5. Words ending in vowels   - no change with vowel suffixes.

echo - echoed, echoer, echoing
henna - hennaed
mascara - mascaraed
radio - radioed
ski - skied, skier, skiing
taxi - taxied, taxiing
video - videoed, videoing
These words are from other languages or new words like video, radio.