Our TEFL courses are tailored more towards British English but we have plenty of people who speak American English enrolling on and completing the course with as much as ease as those who are more used to British English. Speakers of British English can find it easier to adapt to American English than American to British due to the large amount of American TV shows and films the British public watch. However, some schools in Asia may prefer American English because it better suits the market there.

In Europe, British English is usually wanted over American English. Unfortunately, that is down to where you are and what your employers want you to teach your students. the movie theater is catty-corner to the store. This means it is diagonally opposite to something, i.e. Similarly, a common description in American English is for something to be catty-corner. Naff is used to describe something uncool or silly-looking (That dress is so naff!). One common British word (and one that comes up in my vocabulary a lot, I will admit!) is naff. Sometimes words exist in British English but not American English and vice versa. Chips in the UK are fries in the USA while chips in the US are crisps back in Blighty. For example, pants are used in the United States while trousers are used in Britain. Words can be different for the same thing or the same word for different things. Looking at the phonetic spellings of these two words, we can see that they are pronounced differently mom being “ mα m” and mum being “m ɐ m”. For instance, mom and mum are both words used as a shortened version for mother mom being more present in American English and mum in British English.

Many words in American English and British English are spelt differently and are pronounced slightly differently too. A quick search of the internet will bring up many more if you wish to find them. These are just some of the differences in spelling present in American and British English. One of the most common differences between American and British English uses the letter u.Īnother difference comes in words that end in re. Different spellings, different pronunciations and even different words for the same thing it can get confusing. Since English spellings did not become standardised until the eighteenth century on both sides of the Pond (more commonly known as the Atlantic Ocean!) many words are the same but some are different.

For two countries who speak the same language, there could not be more difference between American and British English.

American english to british english