England have won the cup. Which is correct? England has won the cup. England have won the cup. ISCRESPO

CONTRASTS AND SIMILARITIES & AMERICAN ENGLISH BRITISH ENGLISH CONTRASTS AND SIMILARITIES BY IRMA SHERYL CRESPO

DEFINITIONS GRAMMAR – the study of morphology and syntax MORPHOLOGY – word formation; deals with morphemes SYNTAX – sentence construction; involves words, phrases, clauses and sentences ISCRESPO

-ize/-ise: organize (AmE) / organise (BrE) ISCRESPO SPELLING -or/-our: honor (AmE) / honour (BrE) -er/-re: center (AmE) / centre (BrE) -log/-logue: dialog (AmE) / dialogue (BrE) z -ense/-ence: license (AmE) / licence (BrE) -ize/-ise: organize (AmE) / organise (BrE) -tion/-xion: inflection (AmE) / inflexion (BrE) e/oe & ae: fetus (AmE) / foetus (BrE) gynecology (AmE) / gynaecology (BrE)

For verbs ending in –ed and –ing : SPELLING For verbs ending in –ed and –ing : l/ll: traveled, traveling (AmE) travelled, travelling (BrE) Long words shortened: fulfill (AmE) , fulfil (BrE) skillful (AmE) , skilful (BrE) willful (AmE) , wilful (BrE) Both AmE and BrE spell complexion with –xion . ISCRESPO

SEMANTICS mail/post valve/tube vacation/holiday AmE: “go on vacation”, Happy Holidays, Holiday Season BrE: “go on holiday”, holiday cottages mail/post AmE: The letters would be in the mail this evening. BrE: The letters would be in the post this evening. AmE and BrE: the same meaning for e-mail valve/tube AmE: radio sets have tubes BrE: radio sets have valves AmE and BrE: television sets have tubes ISCRESPO

[d] or [t] after voiced consonants [i] and [d] or [e] and [t] STRUCTURE Verb Forms Past Tense and Participles [d] or [t] after voiced consonants AmE: learned, learned; smelled, smelled; spelled, spelled BrE: learnt, learnt; smelt, smelt; spelt, spelt [i] and [d] or [e] and [t] AmE: dreamed, dreamed; kneeled, kneeled BrE: dreamt, dreamt; knelt, knelt Other forms AmE: dove, dived; proved, proven; got, got/gotten BrE: dived, dived; proved, proved/proven; got, got ISCRESPO

Subject/Verb Agreement Collective Nouns AmE: The government has decided. BrE: The government have decided. AmE and BrE: staff and police take plural agreement Pronouns pertaining to collective nouns AmE: The team has a lot of confidence in their players. BrE: The team have a lot of confidence in their players. The generic pronoun, one AmE: One must be careful about his investments. BrE: One must be careful about one’s investments. (AmE is moving towards the BrE form for political correctness.) ISCRESPO

Determiners The Modal Shall Not a and an AmE and BrE: The a is used before a consonant. The an is used before a vowel. a bottle , an apple the AmE: My son is at the university. / Das is in the hospital. BrE: My son is at university. / Das is in hospital AmE: in the fall BrE: in (the) autumn The Modal Shall Not AmE: shall not (formal) BrE: shan’t ISCRESPO

CONCLUSION The features presented are just a few of the predictable comparisons of American English and British English. American English may find its roots in British English but when Americans acquired independence, history bestowed a place of its own. John Witherspoon, a Scottish - born American statesman, confirms this autonomy in 1781, “ Americanisms…different from the use of the same terms or phrases, or the construction of similar sentences, in Great Britain.” ISCRESPO

Which is American? Which is British? England has won the cup. England have won the cup. ISCRESPO

References Biber, Douglas; Conrad, Susan; Leech, Geoffrey 2002. Longman Student Grammar of Spoken and Written English, Harlow: Pearson Education Limited. Biber, Douglas; Conrad, Susan; Finegan, Edward; Johansson, Stig; Leech, Geoffrey 1999. Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English, Harlow: Pearson Education Limited. Hundt, Marianne 1998. New Zealand English Grammar:Fact or Fiction, Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Quirk, Randolph; Greenbaum, Sidney; Leech, Geoffrey; Svartvik 1985. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language , London/New York: Longman Group Limited. Tottie, Gunnel 2002. An Introduction to American English,Malden/Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Inc. Tsardanelis, Georgios; Wong, Wai Yi Peggy 2001.Language Files, Ohio: The Ohio State University. ISCRESPO

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