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TheEnglish language was introduced to theAmericas bythe arrival of the English, beginning in the late 16th century. The language also spread to numerous other parts of the world as a result of British trade and settlement and the spread of the formerBritish Empire, which, by 1921, included 470–570 million people, about a quarter of the world's population. In England, Wales, Ireland and especially parts of Scotland there are differing varieties of the English language, so the term 'British English' is an oversimplification. Likewise, spoken American English varies widely across the country. 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 theAmericas—especially in theUnited 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 ofdates and numbers. However, the differences in written and most spoken grammar structure tend to be much fewer 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 integrating these differences came fromNoah Webster, who wrote thefirst American dictionary (published 1828) with the intention of unifying the disparate dialects across the United States and codifying North American vocabulary which was not present in British dictionaries.^[2]

This divergence between American English and British English has provided opportunities for humorous comment: e.g. in fictionGeorge Bernard Shaw says that the United States and United Kingdom are "two countries divided by a common language";^[3] andOscar 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, and the Internet has tended to reduce regional variation. This can lead to some variations becoming extinct (for instancethe wireless being progressively superseded bythe 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 may cause embarrassment—for example, in American English arubber is usually interpreted as acondom rather than aneraser.^[4]

• Directional suffix-ward(s): Britishforwards,towards,rightwards, etc.; Americanforward,toward,rightward. In both varieties distribution varies somewhat:afterwards,towards, andbackwards are not unusual in America; while in the United Kingdomupward andrightward are the more common options, as isforward, which is standard inphrasal verbs such aslook forward to.^[5][6][7] The forms with-s may be used as adverbs (or prepositiontowards) but rarely as adjectives: in the UK, as in America, one says "an upward motion". TheOxford English Dictionary in 1897 suggested a semantic distinction for adverbs, with-wards having a more definite directional sense than-ward; subsequent authorities such asFowler have disputed this contention.
• American English (AmE) freely adds the suffix-s today,night,evening,weekend,Monday, etc. to form adverbs denoting repeated or customary action:I used to stay out evenings;the library is closed on Saturdays. This usage has its roots in Old English but many of these constructions are now regarded as American (for example, the OED labelsnights "now chiefly N. Amer. colloq." in constructions such asto sleep nights, butto work nights is standard in British English).
• In British English (BrE), the agentive-er suffix is commonly attached tofootball to refer to one who plays the sport (alsocricket; oftennetball; occasionallybasketball andvolleyball). AmE usually usesfootball player. Where the sport's name is usable as a verb, the suffixation is standard in both varieties: for example,golfer,bowler (inten-pin bowling and inlawn bowls), andshooter. AmE appears sometimes to use the formballer as slang for a basketball player, as in the video gameNBA Ballers. However, this is derived from slang use ofto ball as a verb meaning to play basketball.
• English writers everywhere occasionally make new compound words from common phrases; for example,health care is now being replaced byhealthcare on both sides of the Atlantic. However, AmE has made certain words in this fashion that are still treated as phrases in BrE.
• Incompound nouns of the form <verb><noun>, sometimes AmE prefers thebare infinitive where BrE prefers thegerund. Examples include (AmE first):jump rope/skipping rope;racecar/racing car;rowboat/rowing boat;sailboat/sailing boat;file cabinet/filing cabinet;dial tone/dialling tone;drainboard/draining board.
• Generally AmE has a tendency to drop inflectional suffixes, thus preferring clipped forms: comparecookbook v.cookery book;Smith, age 40 v.Smith, aged 40;skim milk v.skimmed milk;dollhouse v.dolls' house;barber shop v.barber's shop.^[8]
• Singular attributives in one country may be plural in the other, and vice versa. For example, the UK uses the termdrugs problem, while the United States usesdrug problem (although the singular usage is also commonly heard in the UK); Americans read thesports section of a newspaper; the British are more likely to read thesport section. However, BrEmaths is singular, likephysics, just as AmEmath is: both are abbreviations ofmathematics.
• Some British English words come from French roots, while American English finds its words from other places, e.g. AmEeggplant andzucchini areaubergine andcourgette in BrE.
• Similarly, American English has occasionally replaced more traditional English words with their Spanish counterparts. This is especially common in regions historically affected by Spanish settlement (such as the American Southwest and Florida) as well as other areas that have since experienced strong Hispanic migration (such as urban areas). Examples of these include grocery markets' preference in the U.S. for Spanish names such ascilantro andmanzanilla overcoriander andcamomile respectively.

Several pronunciation patterns contrast American and British English accents. The following lists a few common ones.

Most American accents arerhotic, preserving the historical/r/phoneme in all contexts, while most British accents of England and Wales are non-rhotic, only preserving this sound before vowels but dropping it in all other contexts; thus,farmer rhymes withllama for Brits but not Americans. American accents tend to raise the tongue whenever the phoneme/æ/ (in words likeTRAP, DANCE, BATH) occurs before the consonants/m/ and/n/. British accents distinguish the vowel sounds inLOT,THOUGHT, andPALM, while American accents merge theLOT andPALM vowels together, and about 50% of Americans additionally merge theTHOUGHT vowel with the previous two, so for exampleodd,façade, andthawed can all rhyme. Many regional and informal accents of England, but few in North America, exhibitH-dropping. Words likebitter andbidder are pronounced the same in North America, but not England, due to a phenomenon calledflapping involving/t/ and/d/ between vowels. British accents pronounce/t/ between vowels in other ways than Americans, including with aglottal stop or with an aspirated/t/.

The familiarity of speakers with words and phrases from different regions varies, and the difficulty of discerning an unfamiliar definition also depends on the context and the term. As expressions spread withtelecommunications, they are often but not always understood as foreign to the speaker's dialect, and words from other dialects may carry connotations with regard toregister, social status, origin, and intelligence.

Words such asbill andbiscuit are used regularly in both AmE and BrE but can mean different things in each form. The word "bill" has several meanings, most of which are shared between AmE and BrE. However, in AmE "bill" often refers to a piece of paper money (as in a "dollar bill") which in BrE is more commonly referred to as a note. In AmE it can also refer to the visor of a cap,^[9] though this is by no means common. In AmE a biscuit (from the French "twice baked" as in biscotto) is a soft bready product that is known in BrE as a scone or a specifically hard, sweet biscuit. Meanwhile, a BrE biscuit incorporates both dessert biscuits and AmE cookies (from the Dutch 'little cake').

As chronicled byWinston Churchill, the opposite meanings of the verbto table created a misunderstanding during a meeting of the Allied forces;^[10] in BrE to table an item on an agenda means toopen it up for discussion whereas in AmE, it means toremove it from discussion, or at times, to suspend or delay discussion; e.g.Let's table that topic for later. Similarly, the wordmoot (andmoot point) in BrE means 'remains open to debate' whereas in AmE, it means 'of no practical significance', irrelevant.

The word "football" in BrE refers toassociation football, also known in the US assoccer. In AmE, "football" meansAmerican football. The standard AmE term "soccer", a contraction of "association (football)", is actually of British origin, derived from the ratification of different codes of football in the 19th century, and was a fairly unremarkable usage (possibly marked for class) in BrE until later; in Britain it became perceived as an Americanism.^[11] Outside North America, particularly in sports news, American (or US branches of foreign) news agencies and media companies also use "football" to mean "soccer", especially in direct quotes.

Similarly, the word "hockey" in BrE often refers tofield hockey and in AmE, "hockey" usually meansice hockey.

Words with completely different meanings are relatively few; most of the time there are either (1) words with one or more shared meanings and one or more meanings unique to one variety (for example, bathroom and toilet) or (2) words the meanings of which are actually common to both BrE and AmE but that show differences in frequency, connotation or denotation (for example,smart,clever,mad).

Some differences in usage and meaning can cause confusion or embarrassment. For example, the wordfanny is a slang word forvulva in BrE but meansbuttocks in AmE, hence the AmE phrasefanny pack isbum bag in BrE. In AmE the wordpissed means being annoyed or angry whereas in BrE it is a coarse word for being drunk (in both varieties,pissed off means irritated).

Similarly, in AmE the wordpants is the common word for the BrEtrousers and (in AmE)knickers refers to a variety of half-length trousers (though most AmE users would use the term "shorts" rather than knickers), while the majority of BrE speakers would understandpants to meanunderpants andknickers to meanfemale underpants.

Sometimes the confusion is more subtle. In AmE the wordquite used as a qualifier is generally a reinforcement, though it is somewhat uncommon in actual colloquial American use today and carries an air of formality: for example, "I'm quite hungry" is a very polite way to say "I'm very hungry". In BrEquite (which is much more common in conversation) may have this meaning, as in "quite right" or "quite mad", but it more commonly means "somewhat", so that in BrE "I'm quite hungry" can mean "I'm somewhat hungry". This divergence of use can lead to misunderstanding.

Most speakers of American English are aware of some uniquely British terms. It is generally very easy to guess what some words, such as BrE "driving licence", mean, the AmE equivalent being "driver's license". However, use of many other British words such asnaff (slang but commonly used to mean "not very good") are unheard of in American English.^[12]

Speakers of BrE usually find it easy to understand most common AmE terms, such as "sidewalk (pavement or footpath)", "gas (gasoline/petrol)", "counterclockwise (anticlockwise)" or "elevator (lift)", thanks in large part to considerable exposure to American popular culture and literature. Terms heard less often, especially when rare or absent in American popular culture, such as "copacetic (very satisfactory)", are unlikely to be understood by most BrE speakers.

Other examples:

• In the UK the wordwhilst is commonly used as a conjunction (as an alternative towhile, especially prevalent in some dialects).whilst tends to appear in non-temporal senses, as when used to point out a contrast. In AmEwhile is used in both contexts,^[13] withwhilst being much more uncommon. Other words with the-st ending are also found even in AmE as much as in BrE, despite being old-fashioned or an affectation (e.g.,unbeknownst,midst). Historically, the wordagainst falls into this category also, and is standard in both varieties.
• In the UK generally the use offall to mean "autumn" isobsolete. Although found often fromElizabethan literature toVictorian literature, the seasonal use offall remains easily understandable to BrE speakers only because it is so commonly used that way in the U.S.^[14]
• In the UK the termperiod for afull stop is not used; in AmE the termfull stop is rarely, if ever, used for the punctuation mark and commonly not understood whatsoever. For example, British Prime MinisterTony Blair said, "Terrorism is wrong, full stop", whereas in AmE, the equivalent sentence is "Terrorism is wrong, period."^[15] The use ofperiod as an interjection meaning "and nothing else; end of discussion" is beginning to be used in colloquial British English, though sometimes without conscious reference to punctuation.
• In the US, the wordline is used to refer to a line of people, vehicles, or other objects, while in the UKqueue refers to that meaning. In the US, the wordqueue is most commonly used to refer to the computing sense of a data structure in which objects are added to one end and removed from the other. In the US, the equivalent terms to "queue up" and "wait in queue" are "line up" or "get in line" and "wait in line." The equivalent term to "jumping the queue" is "cutting in line."^[16]

It is increasingly common for Americans to say "Happy holidays", referring to all, or at least multiple, winter (in the Northern hemisphere) or summer (in the Southern hemisphere) holidays (Christmas,Hanukkah,Kwanzaa, etc.) especially when one's religious observances are not known; the phrase is rarely heard in the UK. In the UK, the phrases "holiday season" and "holiday period" refer to the period in the summer when most people take time off from work, and travel; AmE does not useholiday in this sense, instead usingvacation for recreational excursions.

In AmE, the prevailing Christmas greeting is "Merry Christmas", which is the traditional English Christmas greeting, as found in the English Christmascarol "We Wish You a Merry Christmas", and which appears several times inCharles Dickens'A Christmas Carol.^[17] In BrE, "Happy Christmas" is a common alternative to "Merry Christmas".

Generally in British English, numbers with a value over one hundred have the word "and" inserted before the last two digits. For example, the number 151, when written in words or spoken aloud, would be "One hundredand fifty-one", in British English. In American English, numbers are typically said or written in words in the same way, however if the word "and" is omitted ("One hundred fifty-one"), this is also considered acceptable (in BrE this would be considered grammatically incorrect).

Likewise, in the US, the word "on" can be left out when referring to events occurring on any particular day of the week. The US possibility "The Panthers won the game Sunday" would have the equivalent in the UK of "Manchester City won the match on Sunday."

Both BrE and AmE use the expression "I couldn't care less", to mean that the speaker does not care at all. Some Americans use "I could care less" to mean the same thing. This variant is frequently derided as sloppy,^[18] as the literal meaning of the words is that the speakerdoes care to some extent.

In both areas, saying, "I don't mind" often means, "I'm not annoyed" (for example, by someone's smoking), while "I don't care" often means, "The matter is trivial or boring". However, in answering a question such as "Tea or coffee?", if either alternative is equally acceptable an American may answer, "I don't care", while a British person may answer, "I don't mind". Either can sound odd, confusing, or rude, to those accustomed to the other variant.

"To beall set" in both BrE and AmE can mean "to be prepared or ready", though it appears to be more common in AmE.^[19] It can also have an additional meaning in AmE of "to be finished or done", for example, a customer at a restaurant telling a waiter "I'm all set. I'll take the check."

A number of English idioms that have essentially the same meaning show lexical differences between the British and the American version; for instance:

* In the US, a "carpet" typically refers to afitted carpet, rather than a rug.

Lexical items that reflect separate social and cultural development.

The US has a more uniform nationwide system of terms than does the UK, where terminology and structure varies among constituent countries, but the division by grades varies somewhat among the states and even among local school districts. For example,elementary school often includes kindergarten and may include sixth grade, withmiddle school including only two grades or extending to ninth grade.

In the UK, the US equivalent of ahigh school is often referred to as a "secondary school" regardless of whether it is state funded or private. US Secondary education also includesmiddle school orjunior high school, a two- or three-year transitional school between elementary school and high school. "Middle school" is sometimes used in the UK as a synonym for the youngerjunior school, covering the second half of the primary curriculum, current years four to six in some areas. However, inDorset (South England), it is used to describe the second school in the three-tier system, which is normally from year 5 to year 8. In other regions, such asEvesham and the surrounding area inWorcestershire, the second tier goes from year 6 to year 8, and both starting secondary school in year nine. InKirklees,West Yorkshire, in the villages of theDearne Valley there is a three tier system: first schools year reception to year five, middle school (Scissett/Kirkburton Middle School) year 6 to year 8, and high school^[28] year 9 to year 13.

Apublic school has opposite meanings in the two countries. In American English this is a government-owned institution open to all students, supported by public funding. The British English use of the term is in the context of "private" education: to be educated privately with a tutor.^[29] In England and Wales the term strictly refers to an ill-defined group of prestigiousprivate independent schools funded by students' fees, although it is often more loosely used to refer to any independent school. Independent schools are also known as "private schools", and the latter is the term used in Scotland andNorthern Ireland for all such fee-funded schools. Strictly, the termpublic school is not used in Scotland and Northern Ireland in the same sense as in England, but neverthelessGordonstoun, the Scottish private school, is sometimes referred to as apublic school, as are some other Scottish private schools. Government-funded schools in Scotland and Northern Ireland are properly referred to as "state schools" but are sometimes confusingly referred to as "public schools" (with the same meaning as in the US), and in the US, where most public schools are administered by local governments, astate school typically refers toa college or university run by one of theU.S. states.

Speakers in both the United States and the United Kingdom use several additional terms for specific types of secondary school. A USprep school orpreparatory school is an independent school funded by tuition fees; the same term is used in the UK for aprivate school for pupils under 13, designed to prepare them for fee-paying public schools. In the US,Catholic schools cover costs through tuition and have affiliations with a religious institution, most often aCatholic church or diocese. In England, where the state-fundededucation system grew from parish schools arranged by the localestablished church, theChurch of England (C of E, or CE), and many schools, especiallyprimary schools (up to age 11) retain a church connection and are known aschurch schools,CE schools orCE (aided) schools. There are alsofaith schools associated with the Roman Catholic Church and other major faiths, with a mixture of funding arrangements.In Scotland, Catholic schools are generally operated as government-funded state schools for Catholic communities, particularly in large cities such asGlasgow.

In the US, amagnet school receives government funding and has special admission requirements: in some cases pupils gain admission through superior performance on admission tests, while other magnet schools admit students through a lottery. The UK hascity academies, which are independent privately sponsored schools run with public funding and which can select up to 10% of pupils byaptitude. Moreover, in the UK 36 local education authorities retain selection by ability at 11. They maintaingrammar schools (state funded secondary schools), which admit pupils according to performance in an examination (known as the 11+) and comprehensive schools that take pupils of all abilities. Grammar schools select the most academically able 10% to 23% of those who sit the exam. Students who fail the exam go to asecondary modern school, sometimes called a "high school", or increasingly an "academy". In areas where there are no grammar schools the comprehensives likewise may term themselves high schools or academies. Nationally only 6% of pupils attend grammar schools, mainly infour distinct counties. Some private schools are called "grammar schools", chiefly those that were grammar schools long before the advent of state education.

In the UK a university student is said to "study", to "read" or, informally, simply to "do" a subject. In the recent past the expression 'to read a subject' was more common at the older universities such as Oxford and Cambridge. In the US a studentstudies ormajors in a subject (although a student'smajor,concentration or, less commonly,emphasis is also used in US colleges or universities to refer to the major subject of study).To major in something refers to the student's principal course of study;to study may refer to any class being taken.

BrE:

"She read biology atCambridge."
"She studied biology at Cambridge."
"She did biology at Cambridge." (informal)

AmE:

"She majored in biology atHarvard."
"She studied biology at Harvard."
"She concentrated in biology at Harvard."

At university level in BrE, eachmodule is taught or facilitated by alecturer ortutor;professor is the job-title of asenior academic (in AmE, at some universities, the equivalent of the BrE lecturer is instructor, especially when the teacher has a lesser degree or no university degree, though the usage may become confusing according to whether the subject being taught is considered technical or not; it is also different from adjunct instructor/professor). In AmE eachclass is generally taught by aprofessor (although some US tertiary educational institutions follow the BrE usage), while the position oflecturer is occasionally given to individuals hired on a temporary basis to teach one or more classes and who may or may not have a doctoral degree.

The wordcourse in American use typically refers to the study of a restricted topic or individual subject (for example, "a course in Early Medieval England", "a course in integral calculus") over a limited period of time (such as a semester or term) and is equivalent to amodule or sometimesunit at a British university. In the UK, acourse of study or simplycourse is likely to refer to the entire curriculum, which may extend over several years and be made up of any number ofmodules, hence it is also practically synonymous to a degree programme. A few university-specific exceptions exist: for example, atCambridge the wordpaper is used to refer to amodule, while the whole course of study is calledtripos.

Adissertation in AmE refers to the final written product of a doctoral student to meet the requirement of that curriculum. In BrE, the same word refers to the final written product of a student in an undergraduate or taught master's programme. A dissertation in the AmE sense would be a thesis in BrE, thoughdissertation is also used.

Another source of confusion is the different usage of the wordcollege. (See a full international discussion of the various meanings atcollege.) In the US, it refers to a post-high school institution that grants either associate's or bachelor's degrees, and in the UK, it refers to any post-secondary institution that is not a university (includingsixth form college after the name in secondary education for years 12 and 13, thesixth form) where intermediary courses such asA levels orNVQs can be taken andGCSE courses can be retaken. College may sometimes be used in the UK or in Commonwealth countries as part of the name of a secondary or high school (for example,Dubai College). In the case of the universities of Oxford, Cambridge,Aberdeen,London,Lancaster,Durham,Kent andYork, all members are also members of a college which is part of the university, for example, one is a member ofKing's College, Cambridge and hence of the university.

In both the US and UKcollege can refer to some division within a university that comprises related academic departments such as the "college of business and economics" though in the UK "faculty" is more often used. Institutions in the US that offer two to four years of post-high school education often have the wordcollege as part of their name, while those offering more advanced degrees are called auniversity. (There are exceptions:Boston College,Dartmouth College andthe College of William & Mary are examples of colleges that offer advanced degrees, whileVincennes University is an unusual example of a "university" that offers only associate degrees in the vast majority of its academic programmes). American students who pursue abachelor's degree (four years of higher education) or anassociate degree (two years of higher education) arecollege students regardless of whether they attend a college or a university and refer to their educational institutions informally ascolleges. A student who pursues a master's degree or a doctorate degree in the arts and sciences is in AmE agraduate student; in BrE apostgraduate student althoughgraduate student is also sometimes used. Students of advanced professional programmes are known by their field (business student,law student,medical student). Some universities also have aresidential college system, the details of which may vary but generally involve common living and dining spaces as well as college-planned activities. Nonetheless, when it comes to thelevel of education, AmE generally uses the wordcollege (e.g., going to college) whereas BrE generally uses the worduniversity (e.g., going to university) regardless of the institution's official designation/status in both countries.

In the context of higher education, the wordschool is used slightly differently in BrE and AmE. In BrE, except for the University of London, the word school is used to refer to an academic department in a university. In AmE, the word school is used to refer to a collection of related academic departments and is headed by a dean. When it refers to a division of a university, school is practically synonymous to a college.

"Professor" has different meanings in BrE and AmE. In BrE it is the highestacademic rank, followed by reader, senior lecturer and lecturer. In AmE "professor" refers to academic staff of all ranks, with (full) professor (largely equivalent to the UK meaning) followed by associate professor and assistant professor.

"Tuition" has traditionally had separate meaning in each variation. In BrE it is the educational content transferred from teacher to student at a university. In AmE it is the money (the fees) paid to receive that education (BrE:tuition fees).

In both the US and the UK, a studenttakes an exam, but in BrE a student can also be said tosit an exam. When preparing for an exam studentsrevise (BrE)/review (AmE) what they have studied; the BrE idiomto revise for has the equivalentto review for in AmE.

Examinations are supervised byinvigilators in the UK andproctors (or(exam) supervisors) in the US (aproctor in the UK is an official responsible for student discipline at the University of Oxford or Cambridge). In the UK a teacher firstsets and thenadministers exam, while in the US, a teacher firstwrites,makes,prepares, etc. and thengives an exam. With the same basic meaning of the latter idea but with a more formal or official connotation, a teacher in the US may alsoadminister orproctor an exam.

BrE:

"I sat my Spanish exam yesterday."
"I plan to set a difficult exam for my students, but it isn't ready yet."

AmE:

"I took my exams atYale."
"I spent the entire day yesterday writing the exam. I'm almost ready to give it to my students."

In BrE, students are awardedmarks as credit for requirements (e.g., tests, projects) while in AmE, students are awardedpoints or "grades" for the same. Similarly, in BrE, a candidate's work is beingmarked, while in AmE it is said to begraded to determine what mark or grade is given.

There is additionally a difference between American and British usage in the wordschool. In British usage "school" by itself refers only to primary (elementary) and secondary (high) schools and tosixth forms attached to secondary schools—if one "goes to school", this type of institution is implied. By contrast an American student at a university may be "in/at school", "coming/going to school", etc. US and British law students and medical students both commonly speak in terms of going to "law school" and "med[ical] school", respectively. However, the wordschool is used in BrE in the context of higher education to describe a division grouping together several related subjects within a university, for example a "School of European Languages" containingdepartments for each language and also in the term "art school". It is also the name of some of the constituent colleges of the University of London, for example,School of Oriental and African Studies,London School of Economics.

Among high-school and college students in the United States, the wordsfreshman (or the gender-neutral termsfirst year or sometimesfreshie),sophomore,junior andsenior refer to the first, second, third and fourth years respectively. It is important that the context of either high school or college first be established or else it must be stated directly (that is,She is a high-school freshman.He is a college junior.). Many institutes in both countries also use the termfirst-year as a gender-neutral replacement forfreshman, although in the US this is recent usage, formerly referring only to those in the first year as a graduate student. One exception is theUniversity of Virginia; since its founding in 1819 the terms "first-year", "second-year", "third-year", and "fourth-year" have been used to describe undergraduate university students. At theUnited States service academies, at least those operated by the federal government directly, a different terminology is used, namely "fourth class", "third class", "second class" and "first class" (the order of numbering being the reverse of the number of years in attendance). In the UK first-year university students are sometimes calledfreshers early in the academic year; however, there are no specific names for those in other years nor for school pupils; “freshers’ week” or simply “freshers” is colloquially, but increasingly commonly, used to refer to the first few weeks of the academic year, typically when students get to know the university's campus, join extra-curricular clubs and associations, and even going out for the night for drinking and to go to night clubs. Graduate and professional students in the United States are known by their year of study, such as a "second-year medical student" or a "fifth-year doctoral candidate." Law students are often referred to as "1L", "2L" or "3L" rather than “nth-year law students"; similarly, medical students are frequently referred to as "M1", "M2", "M3" or "M4".

While anyone in the US who finishes studying at any educational institution by passing relevant examinations is said tograduate and to be agraduate, in the UK only degree and above level students cangraduate.Student itself has a wider meaning in AmE, meaning any person of any age studying any subject at any level (including those not doing so at an educational institution, such as a "piano student" taking private lessons in a home), whereas in BrE it tends to be used for people studying at a post-secondary educational institution and the termpupil is more widely used for a young person at primary or secondary school, though the use of "student" for secondary school pupils in the UK is increasingly used, particularly for "sixth form" (years 12 and 13).

The names of individual institutions can be confusing. There are several high schools with the word "university" in their names in the United States that are not affiliated with any post-secondary institutions and cannot grant degrees, and there is one public high school,Central High School of Philadelphia, that does grant bachelor's degrees to the top 10% of graduating seniors. British secondary schools occasionally have the word "college" in their names.

When it comes to the admissions process, applicants are usually asked to solicitletters of reference or reference forms from referees in BrE. In AmE, these are calledletters of recommendation or recommendation forms. Consequently, the writers of these letters are known asreferees andrecommenders, respectively by country. In AmE, the wordreferee is nearly always understood to refer to an umpire of a sporting match.

In the context of education, for AmE, the wordstaff mainly refers to school personnel who are neither administrators nor have teaching loads or academic responsibilities; personnel who have academic responsibilities are referred to as members of their institution'sfaculty. In BrE, the wordstaff refers to both academic and non-academic school personnel. As mentioned previously, the termfaculty in BrE refers more to a collection of related academic departments.

In the UK, political candidatesstand for election, while in the US, theyrun for office. There is virtually no crossover between BrE and AmE in the use of these terms. Additionally, the document which contains a party's positions/principles is referred to as aparty platform in AmE, whereas it is commonly known as aparty manifesto in BrE. (In AmE, using the termmanifesto may connote that the party is an extremist or radical association). The termgeneral election is used slightly differently in British and American English. In BrE, it refers exclusively to a nationwide parliamentary election and is differentiated from local elections (mayoral and council) andby-elections; whereas in AmE, it refers to a final election for any government position in the US, where the term is differentiated from the termprimary (an election that determines a party's candidate for the position in question). Additionally, aby-election in BrE is called aspecial election in AmE.

In AmE, the termswing state,swing county,swing district is used to denote a jurisdiction/constituency where results are expected to be close but crucial to the overall outcome of the general election. In BrE, the termmarginal constituency is more often used for the same andswing is more commonly used to refer to how much one party has gained (or lost) an advantage over another compared to the previous election.

In the UK, the termgovernment only refers to what is commonly known in America as theexecutive branch or the particularadministration.

A local government in the UK is generically referred to as the "council," whereas in the United States, a local government will be generically referred to as the "city" (or county, village, etc., depending on what kind of entity the government serves).

In financial statements, what is referred to in AmE asrevenue orsales is known in BrE asturnover. In AmE, having "high turnover" in a business context would generally carry negative implications, though the precise meaning would differ by industry.

A bankrupt firmgoes into administration or liquidation in BrE; in AmE itgoes bankrupt, orfiles for Chapter 7 (liquidation) orChapter 11 (reorganisation), both of which refer to the legal authority under which bankruptcy is commenced. An insolvent individual or partnershipgoes bankrupt in both BrE and AmE.

If a finance company takes possession of a mortgaged property from a debtor, it is calledforeclosure in AmE andrepossession in BrE. In some limited scenarios,repossession may be used in AmE, but it is much less common compared toforeclosure. One common exception in AmE is for automobiles, which are always said to berepossessed. Indeed, an agent who collects these cars for the bank is colloquially known in AmE as arepo man.

In BrE, the termCV — as an abbreviation ofcurriculum vitae, that is used infrequently — is used to describe the document prepared by applicants containing their credentials required for a job. In AmE, the termrésumé is more commonly used, withCV primarily used in academic or research contexts, and is usually more comprehensive than arésumé. As AmE has a severe aversion to the use of accented letters,résumé is often written just as "resume", which in BrE is often misinterpreted as to "carry on from where left off" thus causing much confusion.

AmE distinguishes betweencoverage as a noun andcover as a verb; an American seeks to buy enough insurance coverage in order to adequately cover a particular risk. BrE uses the word "cover" for both the noun and verb forms.

AmE speakers refer totransportation and BrE speakers totransport.^[30] (Transportation in the UK has traditionally meant the punishment of criminals bydeporting them to an overseas penal colony.) In AmE, the wordtransport is usually used only as a verb, seldom as a noun or adjective except in reference to certain special objects, such as atape transport or amilitary transport (e.g., a troop transport, a kind of vehicle, not an act of transporting).

Differences in terminology are especially obvious in the context ofroads. The British termdual carriageway, in American parlance, would bedivided highway or perhaps, simplyhighway. Thecentral reservation on amotorway ordual carriageway in the UK would be themedian orcenter divide on afreeway,expressway,highway orparkway in the US. The one-way lanes that make it possible to enter and leave such roads at an intermediate point without disrupting the flow of traffic are known asslip roads in the UK but in the US, they are typically known asramps and both further distinguish betweenon-ramps oron-slips (for entering onto a highway/carriageway) andoff-ramps orexit-slips (for leaving a highway/carriageway). When American engineers speak ofslip roads, they are referring to a street that runs alongside the main road (separated by a berm) to allow off-the-highway access to the premises that are there; however, the termfrontage road is more commonly used, as this term is the equivalent ofservice road in the UK. However, it is not uncommon for an American to useservice road as well instead offrontage road.

In the UK, the termoutside lane refers to the higher-speedovertaking lane (passing lane in the US) closest to the middle of the road, whileinside lane refers to the lane closer to the edge of the road. In the US,outside lane is used only in the context of a turn, in which case it depends in which direction the road is turning (i.e., if the road bends right, the left lane is the "outside lane", but if the road bends left, it is the right lane). Both also refer toslow andfast lanes (even though all actual traffic speeds may be at or around the legal speed limit).

In the UKdrink driving refers to driving after having consumed alcoholic beverages, while in the US, the term isdrunk driving. The legal term in the US isdriving while intoxicated (DWI) ordriving under the influence (of alcohol) (DUI). The equivalent legal phrase in the UK isdrunk in charge of a motor vehicle (DIC) or more commonlydriving with excess alcohol.^[31]

In the UK, ahire car is the US equivalent of a rental car. The term "hire car" can be especially misleading for those in the US, where the term "hire" is generally only applied to the employment of people and the term "rent" is applied to the temporary custody of goods. To an American, "hire car" would imply that the car has been brought into the employment of a company as if it were a person, which would sound nonsensical.

In the UK, a saloon is a vehicle that is equivalent to the Americansedan. This is particularly confusing to Americans, because in the US the termsaloon is used in only one context: describing an old bar (UK pub) in the American West (aWestern saloon).Coupé is used by both to refer to a two-door car, but is usually pronounced with two syllables in the UK (coo-pay) and one syllable in the US (coop).

In the UK,van may refer to a small lorry (UK), whereas in the US,van is only understood to be a very small, boxy truck (US) (such as amoving van) or a long passenger automobile with several rows of seats (such as aminivan). A large, long vehicle used for cargo transport would nearly always be called atruck in the US, though alternate terms such aseighteen-wheeler may be occasionally heard (regardless of the actual number of tires (UK tyres) on the truck).Truck, in the UK, is normally used for smaller heavy vehicles — always non-articulated — with specific roles, such as abreak-down truck, whereas a large long vehicle is alorry orHGV (heavy goods vehicle), which will be anartic (an abbreviation of articulated — though this is often confused with the name "Arctic").

In the UK, a silencer is the equivalent to the USmuffler. In the US, the wordsilencer has only one meaning: an attachment on the barrel of a gun designed to decrease the volume of the gunshot to either ear-safe levels or at least lower levels depending on the caliber; although they are popularly believed to completely hide the sound of the gunshot.^[32]

Specificauto parts and transport terms have different names in the two dialects, for example:

There are also differences in terminology in the context ofrail transport. The best known israilway in the UK andrailroad in North America,^[a] but there are several others. Arailway station in the UK is arailroad station in the US, whiletrain station is used in both; trains havedrivers (often calledengine drivers) in the UK, while in America trains are driven byengineers; trains haveguards in the UK andconductors in the US, though the latter is also common in the UK; a place where two tracks meet is called a set ofpoints in the UK and aswitch in the US; and a place where a road crosses a railway line at ground level is called alevel crossing in the UK and agrade crossing orrailroad crossing in America. In the UK, the termsleeper is used for the devices that bear the weight of the rails and are known asties orcrossties in the United States. In a rail context,sleeper (more often,sleeper car) would be understood in the US as a rail car with sleeping quarters for its passengers. The British termplatform in the sense "The train is at Platform 1" would be known in the US by the termtrack, and used in the phrase "The train is on Track 1". The American term for the Britishreturn journey isround trip. The British termbrake van orguard's van is acaboose in the US. The American English phrase "All aboard" when boarding a train is rarely used in the UK,^{[citation needed]} and when the train reaches its final stop, in the UK the phrase used by rail personnel is "All change" while in the US it is "All out", though such announcements are uncommon in both regions.

For sub-surface rail networks, whileunderground is commonly used in the UK, only theLondon Underground actually carries this name: the UK's only other such system, the smallerGlasgow Subway, was in fact the first to be called "subway".^[49] Nevertheless, bothsubway andmetro are now more common in the US, varying by city: in Washington D.C., for example,metro is used, while in New York Citysubway is preferred. Another variation is theT in Boston.

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Traditionally, ashow on British television would have referred to a light-entertainment programme (AmEprogram) with one or more performers and a participative audience, whereas in American television, the term is used for any type of program. British English traditionally referred to other types of programme by their type, such as drama, serial etc., but the termshow has now taken on the general American meaning. In American television the episodes of a program first broadcast in a particular year constitute aseason, the entire run of the program—which may span several seasons—is called aseries. In British television, on the other hand, the wordseries may apply to the episodes of a programme in one particular year, for example, "The 1998 series ofGrange Hill", as well as to the entire run. However, the entire run may occasionally be referred to as a "show".The termtelecast, meaning television broadcast and uncommon even in the US, is not used in British English. A television program(me) would bebroadcast,aired orshown in both the UK and US.

Along-distance call is a "trunk call" in British English, but is a "toll call" in American English, though neither term is well known among younger people. The distinction is a result of historical differences in the way local service was billed; theBell System traditionally flat-rated local calls in all but a few markets, endowing local service by charging higher rates, or tolls, for intercity calls, allowing local calls to appear to be free.British Telecom (and the British 'Post Office Telecommunications' before it) charged for all calls, local and long distance, so labelling one class of call as "toll" would have been meaningless.

Similarly, atoll-free number in America is afreephone number in the UK. The term "freefone" is a BT trademark.

In British English, the name of a river is usually placed after the word (River Thames) however there are a small number of exceptions such asWick River. This matches the naming of lakes (e.g.Lake Superior,Loch Ness) and mountains (e.g.Mont Blanc,Mount St. Helens). In American English, the name is placed before the word (Hudson River).

In American English (AmE),collective nouns are almost always singular in construction:the committee was unable to agree. However, when a speaker wishes to emphasize that the individuals are acting separately, a plural pronoun may be employed with a singular or plural verb:the team takes their seats, rather thanthe team takes its seats. Such a sentence would most likely be recast asthe team members take their seats.^[50] Despite exceptions such as usage inThe New York Times, the names of sports teams are usually treated as plurals even if the form of the name is singular.^[51]

In British English (BrE), collective nouns can take either singular (formal agreement) or plural (notional agreement) verb forms, according to whether the emphasis is on the body as a whole or on the individual members respectively; comparea committee was appointed withthe committee were unable to agree.^{[52]: 23 [53]} The termthe Government always takes a plural verb in British civil service convention, perhaps to emphasize the principle ofcabinet collective responsibility.^[54] Compare also the following lines ofElvis Costello's song "Oliver's Army":Oliver's Army is here to stay / Oliver's Army are on their way. Some of these nouns, for examplestaff,^[52]: 24 actually combine with plural verbs most of the time.

The difference occurs for all nouns of multitude, both general terms such asteam andcompany and proper nouns (for example where a place name is used to refer to a sports team). For instance,

BrE:SuperHeavy is a band that shouldn't work orFirst Aid Kit are a band full of contradictions;^[55][56] AmE:The Clash is a well-known band.
BrE:FC Red Bull Salzburg is an Austrian association football club; AmE:TheNew York Red Bulls are an American soccer team.

Proper nouns that are plural in form take a plural verb in both AmE and BrE; for example,The Beatles are a well-known band;The Diamondbacks are the champions, with one major exception: in American English,the United States is almost universally used with a singular verb. Although the constructionthe United States are was more common early in the history of the country, as the singular federal government exercised more authority and a singular national identity developed (especially following theAmerican Civil War), it became standard to treatthe United States as a singular noun.^[57]

Generally, a non-restrictive relative clause (also called non-defining or supplementary) is one containing information that is supplementary, i.e. does not change the meaning of the rest of the sentence, while a restrictive relative clause (also called defining or integrated) contains information essential to the meaning of the sentence, effectively limiting the modified noun phrase to a subset that is defined by the relative clause.^[58]

An example of a restrictive clause is "The dog that bit the man was brown."

An example of a non-restrictive clause is "The dog, which bit the man, was brown."

In the former, "that bit the man" identifies which dog the statement is about.

In the latter, "which bit the man" provides supplementary information about a known dog.

A non-restrictive relative clause is typically set off by commas, whereas a restrictive relative clause is not, but this is not a rule that is universally observed.^[58] In speech, this is also reflected in the intonation.^[59]

Writers commonly usewhich to introduce a non-restrictive clause, andthat to introduce a restrictive clause.That is rarely used to introduce a non-restrictive relative clause in prose.Which andthat are both commonly used to introduce a restrictive clause; a study in 1977 reported that about 75% of occurrences ofwhich were in restrictive clauses.^[60]

H. W. Fowler, inA Dictionary of Modern English Usage of 1926, followed others in suggesting that it would be preferable to usewhich as the non-restrictive (what he calls "non-defining") pronoun andthat as the restrictive (what he calls defining) pronoun, but he also stated that this rule was observed neither by most writers nor by the best writers.^[61] He implied that his suggested usage was more common in American English.^[62] Fowler notes that his recommended usage presents problems, in particular thatthat must be the first word of the clause, which means, for instance, thatwhich cannot be replaced bythat when it immediately follows a preposition (e.g. "the basic unitfrom which matter is constructed")^[63] – though this would not prevent a stranded preposition (e.g. "the basic unitthat matter is constructedfrom").^[64]

Style guides by Americanprescriptivists, such as Bryan Garner, typically insist, for stylistic reasons, thatthat be used for restrictive relative clauses andwhich be used for non-restrictive clauses, referring to the use ofwhich in restrictive clauses as a "mistake".^[58] According to the 2015 edition ofFowler's Dictionary of Modern English Usage, "In AmEwhich is 'not generally used in restrictive clauses, and that fact is then interpreted as the absolute rule that onlythat may introduce a restrictive clause', whereas in BrE 'eitherthat orwhich may be used in restrictive clauses', but many British people 'believe thatthat is obligatory'".^[65]

Thesubjunctive mood is more common in colloquial American English than in colloquial British English.^[66]

Before the early 18th century there was no standard forEnglish spelling. Different standards became noticeable after the publishing of influentialdictionaries. For the most part current BrE spellings follow those ofSamuel Johnson'sDictionary of the English Language (1755), while AmE spellings follow those ofNoah Webster'sAn American Dictionary of the English Language (1828). In the United Kingdom, the influences of those who preferred the French spellings of certain words proved decisive. In many cases AmE spelling deviated from mainstream British spelling; on the other hand it has also often retained older forms. Many of the now characteristic AmE spellings were made popular, although often not created, by Noah Webster. Webster chose already-existing alternative spellings "on such grounds as simplicity, analogy or etymology".^[67] Webster did attempt to introduce somereformed spellings, as did theSimplified Spelling Board in the early 20th century, but most were not adopted. Later spelling changes in the UK had little effect on present-day US spelling, and vice versa.

There have been some trends of transatlantic difference in use of periods in some abbreviations. These are discussed atAbbreviation § Periods (full stops) and spaces. Unit symbols such as kg and Hz are never punctuated.^[68]

In British English, "( )" marks are often referred to as brackets, whereas "[ ]" are called square brackets and "{ }" are called curly brackets. In formal British English and in American English "( )" marks areparentheses (singular: parenthesis), "[ ]" are called brackets orsquare brackets, and "{ }" can be called eithercurly brackets or braces.^[69] Despite the different names, these marks are used in the same way in both varieties.

British and American English differ in the preferredquotation mark style, including the placement of commas and periods. In American English, " and ' are called quotation marks, whereas in British English, " and ' are referred to as either inverted commas or speech marks. Additionally, in American English direct speech typically uses the double quote mark ( " ), whereas in British English it is common to use the inverted comma ( ' ).^[70][71]

American newspapers commonly use a comma as a shorthand for "and" in headlines. For example,The Washington Post had the headline "A TRUE CONSERVATIVE: For McCain, Bush Has Both Praise, Advice."^[72]

There are many differences in the writing and speaking ofEnglish numerals, most of which are matters of style, with the notable exception of different definitions forbillion.

The two countries have different conventions forfloor numbering. The UK uses amixture of the metric system andImperial units, where in the US,United States customary units are dominant in everyday life with a few fieldsusing the metric system.

Monetary amounts in the range of one to two major currency units are often spoken differently. In AmE one may saya dollar fifty ora pound eighty, whereas in BrE these amounts would be expressedone dollar fifty andone pound eighty. For amounts over a dollar an American will generally either drop denominations or give both dollars and cents, as intwo-twenty ortwo dollars and twenty cents for $2.20. An American would not saytwo dollars twenty. On the other hand, in BrE,two-twenty ortwo pounds twenty would be most common.

It is more common to hear a British-English speaker sayone thousand two hundred dollars thana thousandand two hundred dollars, although the latter construct is common in AmE. In British English, the "and" comes after the hundreds (one thousand, two hundredand thirty dollars). The termtwelve hundred dollars, popular in AmE, is frequently used in BrE but only for exact multiples of 100 up to 1,900. Speakers of BrE very rarely hear amounts over 1,900 expressed in hundreds, for example,twenty-three hundred. In AmE it would not be unusual to refer to a high, uneven figure such as 2,307 astwenty-three hundred and seven.

In BrE, particularly in television or radio advertisements, integers can be pronounced individually in the expression of amounts. For example,on sale for £399 might be expressedon sale for three nine nine, though the fullthree hundredand ninety-nine pounds is at least as common. An American advertiser would almost always sayon sale for three ninety-nine, with context distinguishing $399 from $3.99.^[73] In British English the latter pronunciation implies a value in pounds and pence, sothree ninety-nine would be understood as £3.99.

In spoken BrE the wordpound is sometimes colloquially used for the plural as well. For example,three pound forty andtwenty pound a week are both heard in British English. Some other currencies do not change in the plural; yen and rand being examples. This is in addition to normal adjectival use, as ina twenty-pound-a-week pay-rise (USraise). Theeuro most often takes a regular plural-s in practice despite the EU dictum that it should remain invariable in formal contexts; the invariable usage is more common in Ireland, where it is the official currency.

In BrE the use ofp instead ofpence is common in spoken usage. Each of the following has equal legitimacy:3 pounds 12 p;3 poundsand 12 p;3 pounds 12 pence;3 poundsand 12 pence; as well as just8 p or8 pence. In everyday usage the amount is simply read as figures (£3.50 = three pounds fifty) as in AmE.

AmE uses words such asnickel,dime, andquarter for small coins. In BrE the usual usage isa 10-pence piece ora 10p piece or simplya 10p, for any coin below £1,pound coin andtwo-pound coin. BrE did havespecific words for a number of coins beforedecimalisation. Formal coin names such ashalf crown (2/6) andflorin (2/-), as well as slang or familiar names such asbob (1/-) andtanner (6d) for pre-decimalisation coins are still familiar to older BrE speakers but they are not used for modern coins. In older terms liketwo-bob bit (2/-) andthrupenny bit (3d), the wordbit had common usage before decimalisation similar to that ofpiece today.

In order to make explicit the amount in words on a check (BrEcheque), Americans writethree and24⁄100 (using thissolidus construction or with a horizontal division line): they do not need to write the worddollars as it is usually already printed on the check. On a cheque UK residents would writethree pounds and 24 pence,three pounds ‒ 24, orthree pounds ‒ 24p since the currency unit is not preprinted. To make unauthorised amendment difficult, it is useful to have an expression terminator even when a whole number of dollars/pounds is in use: thus, Americans would writethree and00⁄100 orthree andno⁄100 on a three-dollar check (so that it cannot easily be changed to, for example,three million), and UK residents would writethree pounds only.^[74]

Dates are usually written differently in the short (numerical) form. Christmas Day 2000, for example, is 25/12/00 or 25.12.00 in the UK and 12/25/00 in the US, although the formats 25/12/2000, 25.12.2000, and 12/25/2000 are now more common then they were beforeY2K. Occasionally other formats are encountered, such as theISO 8601 2000-12-25, popular among programmers, scientists and others seeking to avoid ambiguity, and to makealphanumerical order coincide withchronological order. The difference in short-form date order can lead to misunderstanding, especially when using software or equipment that uses the foreign format. For example, 06/04/05 could mean either June 4, 2005 (if read as US format), 6 April 2005 (if seen as in UK format) or even 2006 April 5 if taken to be an older ISO 8601-style format where 2-digit years were allowed.

When using the name of the month rather than the number to write a date in the UK, the recent standard style is for the day to precede the month, e. g., 21 April. Month preceding date is almost invariably the style in the US, and was common in the UK until the late twentieth century. British usage normally changes the day from an integer to an ordinal, i.e., 21st instead of 21. In speech, "of" and "the" are used in the UK, as in "the 21st of April". In written language, the words "the" and "of" may be and are usually dropped, i.e., 21 April. The US would say this as "April 21st", and this form is still common in the UK. One of the few exceptions in American English is saying "the Fourth of July" as a shorthand for the United StatesIndependence Day. In the US military the British forms are used, but the day is read cardinally, while among some speakers ofNew England andSouthern American English varieties and who come from those regions but live elsewhere, those forms are common, even in formal contexts.

Phrases such as the following are common in the UK but are generally unknown in the US: "A week today", "a week tomorrow", "a week (on) Tuesday" and "Tuesday week"; these all refer to a day which is more than a week into the future. ("A fortnight Friday" and "Friday fortnight" refer to a day two weeks after the coming Friday). "A week on Tuesday" and "a fortnight on Friday" could refer either to a day in the past ("it's a week on Tuesday, you need to get another one") or in the future ("see you a week on Tuesday"), depending on context. In the US the standard construction is "a week from today", "a week from tomorrow", etc. BrE speakers may also say "Thursday last" or "Thursday gone" where AmE would prefer "last Thursday". "I'll see you (on) Thursday coming" or "let's meet this coming Thursday" in BrE refer to a meeting later this week, while "not until Thursday next" would refer to next week. In BrE there is also common use of the term 'Thursday after next' or 'week after next' meaning 2 weeks in the future and 'Thursday before last' and 'week before last' meaning 2 weeks in the past, but not when referring to times more than 2 weeks been or gone or when using the terms tomorrow today or yesterday then in BrE you would say '5 weeks on Tuesday' or '2 weeks yesterday'.

The24-hour clock (18:00,18.00 or1800) is considered normal in the UK and Europe in many applications including air, rail and bus timetables; it is largely unused in the US outside military, police, aviation and medical applications. As a result, many Americans refer to the 24-hour clock asmilitary time. Some British English style guides recommend the full stop (.) when telling time,^[b] compared to American English which uses colons (:) (i.e., 11:15 PM/pm/p.m. or 23:15 for AmE and 11.15 pm or 23.15 for BrE).^[79] Usually in the military (and sometimes in the police, aviation and medical) applications on both sides of the Atlantic0800 and1800 are read as (oh/zero)eight hundred andeighteen hundred hours respectively. Even in the UK,hundred followstwenty,twenty-one,twenty-two andtwenty-three when reading2000,2100,2200 and2300 according to those applications.

Fifteen minutes after the hour is calledquarter past in British usage anda quarter after or, less commonly,a quarter past in American usage. Fifteen minutes before the hour is usually calledquarter to in British usage anda quarter of,a quarter to ora quarter 'til in American usage; the forma quarter to is associated with parts of theNorthern United States, whilea quarter 'til ortill is found chiefly in theAppalachian region.^[80] Thirty minutes after the hour is commonly calledhalf past in both BrE and AmE;half after used to be more common in the US. In informal British speech, the preposition is sometimes omitted, so that 5:30 may be referred to ashalf five; this construction is entirely foreign to US speakers, who would possibly interprethalf five as 4:30 (halfway to 5:00) rather than 5:30. The AmE formationstop of the hour andbottom of the hour are not used in BrE. Forms such aseleven forty are common in both varieties. To be simple and direct in telling time, no terms relating to fifteen or thirty minutes before/after the hour are used; rather the time is told exactly as for examplenine fifteen,ten forty-five.

In sports statistics, certain percentages such as those forwinning or win–loss records andsaves in field or ice hockey and association football are almost always expressed as a decimal proportion to three places in AmE and are usually read aloud as if they are whole numbers, e.g. (0).500 or five hundred,^[81] hence the phrase "games/matches over five hundred", whereas in BrE they are also expressed but as true percentages instead, after multiplying the decimal by 100%, that is, 50% or "fifty per cent" and "games/matches over 50%" or "...50 per cent". However, "games/matches over 50%" or "...50 percent" is also found in AmE, albeit sporadically, e.g., hitting percentages in volleyball.^[82]

The American practice of expressing so-called percentages in sports statistics as decimals originated withbaseball's batting averages, developed by English-born statistician and historianHenry Chadwick.

• American and British English grammatical differences
• American and British English pronunciation differences
• American and British English spelling differences
• British and American keyboards
• List of dialects of the English language
• Lists of words having different meanings in American and British English

• Algeo, John (2006).British or American English?. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.ISBN 0-521-37993-8.
• Hargraves, Orin (2003).Mighty Fine Words and Smashing Expressions. Oxford: Oxford University Press.ISBN 0-19-515704-4.
• McArthur, Tom (2002).The Oxford Guide to World English. Oxford: Oxford University Press.ISBN 0-19-866248-3.
• Murphy, Lynne (2018).The Prodigal Tongue: The Love-Hate Relationship Between British and American English. London. Oneworld Publications.ISBN 1-786-07269-6.
• Peters, Pam (2004).The Cambridge Guide to English Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.ISBN 0-521-62181-X.
• Trudgill, Peter and Jean Hannah (2002).International English: A Guide to the Varieties of Standard English, 4th ed. London: Arnold.ISBN 0-340-80834-9.

• Davies, Christopher (2007).Divided by a Common Language: A Guide to British and American English.Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.ISBN 978-0547350288.
• Moore, Erin (2015).That's Not English: Britishisms, Americanisms, and What Our English Says About Us. Avery.ISBN 978-1592408856.

• Word substitution list, by theUbuntu English (United Kingdom) Translators team
• Linguistics Issues List of American, Canadian and British spelling differences
• Map of US English dialects
• The Septic's Companion: A British Slang Dictionary
• American English, is it really different?
• Selected Vocabulary Differences Between British and American English at theWayback Machine (archived 1 July 2016)
• British English-American English Vocabulary Quiz

• American and British English differences
• Language comparison between countries
• Comparison of forms of English
• Internationalization and localization
• United Kingdom–United States relations

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