Lesser-known differences between British and American English

Heath Pulliam
A group of friends sat outside smiling and talking
Reading time: 5 minutes

Heath Pulliam is an independent education writer with a focus on the language learning space. He’s taught English in South Korea and various subjects in the United States to a variety of ages. He’s also a language learning enthusiast and studies Spanish in his free time.

British and American English are two well-known varieties of the English language. While the accent is often the first difference people notice, there are also subtle distinctions in vocabulary, grammar and even style. Many know about how Brits say boot and lift, while Americans would say trunk and elevator, but what about a few lesser-known differences?

Here, we take a look at a few of the more obscure differences between British English (BrE) and American English (AmE).

Note: British English is underlined and American English is italicized.

1. Footballer and football player

Along with the well-known difference of how in the U.S., football refers to American football, while football in Britain is what Americans like me call soccer, Americans also use player after the sport to denote someone who plays the sport. In British English, the sport with an added -er suffix is more common, like footballer and cricketer, not football player or cricket player.

This is not universal, though. For some sports, the -er suffix is used in both dialects. Both Brits and Americans use the term golfer, not golf player. There are also sports where the -er suffix is never used, like for tennis, cycling and gymnastics. Nobody says tenniser, tennis player is used instead.

People who cycle are cyclists and people who do gymnastics are gymnasts. Sometimes, badminton players are even called badmintonists. Overall, there aren’t really any concrete rules for what to call each player of a sport. Each sport has its own way of calling someone who participates in that sport.

2. I couldn’t care less and I could care less

The American version (I could care less) means the same thing. Although technically incorrect, it is still widely used in North America as an idiom and will be interpreted as not caring at all about something. Although popular, both variations can be heard in North America. Regardless, miscommunications do happen surrounding this phrase.

“I could care less about who Harry Styles is dating right now.”

“Oh, I didn’t know you were interested in tabloid news.”

“I’m not! I just said I didn’t care about it.”

“No, you said that you could care less, meaning that it is possible for you to care less about who he’s dating.”

“Ugh! What I mean is that I couldn’t care less. Happy?”

3. American simplification

Both British and American dialects are filled with many minuscule differences in spelling and phrasing. For example, the words plough (BrE) and plow (AmE) mean the same thing, but are spelled differently.

When two words differ, American English generally favors the simpler, more phonetic spelling. Hey, there’s another one! Favour (BrE) and favor (AmE). It’s apparent in pairs like analyse (BrE) and analyze (AmE), and neighbour (BrE) and neighbor (AmE).

Many of these small spelling differences can be attributed to Noah Webster, author of Webster’s Dictionary, who sought to distinguish American from British English by simplifying many of the words.

Some of his simplifications to American English are swapping the s for z, (specialised to specialized), dropping the u in words ending in our, (colour to color), and changing words ending in -tre to -ter (theatre to theater).

4. Courgette and zucchini

The history of this vegetable, whatever you may call it, tells us why zucchini is used in American English and courgette is used in British English. If you’ve studied languages, you can probably guess what country each name originated from. England was introduced to this cylinder-shaped vegetable in the 19th century by its French neighbors, while Americans were introduced to it in the early 20th century by the large influx of Italian immigrants.

The word zucchini is something of a mistranslation from Italian, however. What Americans use (zucchini) is the plural masculine form of the proper Italian word, (zucchino).

5. Anticlockwise and counterclockwise

These terms mean the same thing, the rotation against the way a clock runs. In British English, this movement would be called anticlockwise, and in the U.S., they use counterclockwise. The prefixes anti- and counter- mean similar things. Anti- means against, and counter- means contrary or opposite to.

You should use antibacterial soap in order to stop the spread of germs. Buying cheap clothes that only last you a few months is counterproductive in the long term.

Can you guess how they described this movement before the invention of clocks with hands and circular faces? English speakers this long ago used sunwise. This direction at the time was considered auspicious and the opposite of the other direction.

6. Have and take

Have and take are used often before nouns like shower, break, bath, rest and nap. In the U.S., people take showers and take naps, while in the U.K., people have showers and have naps. Another example of this is how Americans take a swim and Brits have a swim. These are called delexical verbs and we use them all the time in English, both British and American.

Although often different, both groups of English speakers have arguments, make decisions and take breaks.

7. Quite

This word is spelled the same in both American and British English, but means something different. In the U.S., quite is typically used as an intensifier, like the word very. In the U.K., it’s normally used as a mitigator, like the word somewhat.

It can also mean completely if it modifies certain adjectives. (e.g., It’s quite impossible to learn a language in one month.)

American English: That Mexican food we had yesterday was quite spicy.

Translation: That Mexican food we had yesterday was very spicy.

In British English, quite means something more on the lines of kind of, or a bit.

British English: Thank you for the meal, it was quite good.

Translation: Thank you for the meal, it was somewhat good.

8. Clothing differences

The category of clothes is one of the richest, with differences between the two English variants. How about those pants that people used to only wear at the gym and around the house, but now wear them everywhere?

Brits call them tracksuit bottoms and Americans call them sweatpants. What about a lightweight jacket that protects from wind and rain? Brits might call this an anorak (derived from the Greenlandic word), but Americans would call it a windbreaker. Both variants also use raincoat for this article of clothing.

9. Torch and flashlight

As an American, I’ve been confused before when coming across the word torch while reading the work of an English author.

To Americans, a torch is a piece of wood with the end lit on fire for light. What Brits are referring to when they use the word torch is a flashlight (AmE), a small, battery-run electric lamp.

10. Needn’t and don’t need to

Ah, the English contraction. Many English learners don’t particularly love learning these, but they are an essential and everyday part of the language. Needn’t, however, is one that I don’t think I’ve ever heard another American say.

In the U.K., this contraction is fairly common. Needn’t, when separated, becomes need not.

British English: “You needn’t come until Tuesday night.”

Americans would say the relatively simpler don’t need to.

American English: “You don’t need to come until Tuesday night.”

Don’t be fooled into thinking British English has necessarily more difficult contractions than the U.S., though. Just come to the American South and prepare to hear famous (or infamous) contractions like y’all (you all) and ain’t (am not, is not, are not)!

Conclusion

There are hundreds of differences between British and American dialects, we’re only scratching the surface here. Some of these make more sense than others, but luckily, both Brits and Americans can usually understand the meaning of any English word through context.

Some people would even say that Brits speak English while Americans speak American. Although each dialect from across the pond seems very different, they have far more similarities than differences.

Read our posts 'Understanding dialects in the English language' and 'What are the most spoken languages in the world?'

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