Grammatical difference between American and British English

These two varieties of English are very similar that most American and British speakers can understand each other without great difficulty. There are, however, a few differences of grammar. The following information is meant to point out the principal differences between American English (AE) and British English (BE).

Tenses: present perfect.

In British English the present perfect is used to express an action that has occurred in the recent past that has an effect on the present moment. For example:

In British English the above would be considered incorrect. However, both forms are generally accepted in standard American English. Other differences involving the use of the present perfect in British English and simple past in American English include already, just and yet. In British English the past participle of get is got. In American English the past participle of get is gotten, except when have got means have.

The following general categories of difference between standard American English and standard British English each have their own socialistic value:

There are two forms to express possession in English. Have or Have got

While both forms are correct (and accepted in both British and American English), have got (have you got, he hasn't got, etc.) is generally the preferred form in British English while most speakers of American English employ the have (do you have, he doesn't have etc.)

Will/Shall

In British English it is fairly common to use shall with the first person to talk about the future. Americans rarely use shall.

In American English it is particularly common to use subjunctive after words like essential, vital, important, suggest, insist, demand, recommend, ask, advice etc. (Subjunctive is a special kind of present tense which has no -s in the third person singular. It is commonly used in that clauses after words which express the idea that something is important or desirable.) In British English the subjunctive is formal and unusual. British people normally use should + Infinitive or ordinary present and past tenses.

Collective nouns like jury, team, family, government etc., can take both singular and plural verbs in British English. In American English they normally take a singular verb.

Distinctions in grammar, syntax, a punctuation and the general use of a word

In British English it is common to use do as a substitute verb after an auxiliary verb. Americans do not normally use do after an auxiliary verb.

Although many textbooks and dictionaries clearly list specific irregular verb forms as "American" or "British," Englishpage.com's research has clearly shown that very few irregular verb forms are exclusively British or American.

Most of our research has shown that virtually every irregular verb form traditionally listed as "British" frequently shows up in American media and web texts. The frequency of these occurences excludes the possibility that these texts have been produced by British English speakers living in the United States. In addition, virtually every "American" form tested not only showed up in British media sources and web texts, but in most cases, they actually showed up more frequently than the traditionally "British" forms.

This is not to say that there are no significant differences in irregular verb usage between American and British English speakers. However, our research does indicate that these differences tend to be highly exaggerated. For more specific information on our conclusions, visit the following links:

T- Forms:

T-forms include: burnt, clapt, crept, dealt, dreamt, dwelt, felt, leant, leapt, learnt, meant, spelt, smelt, spilt, spoilt, stript, vext

T-forms can be divided into two categories: those with a vowel change and those without a vowel change.

T-forms with a vowel change include: crept, dealt, dreamt, felt, leapt, meant

The t-forms with a vowel change are still very common in modern English. In fact, crept, dealt, felt and meant are the only accepted forms. In the case of dreamt and leapt, although dreamt and leapt are still quite common and acceptable in both written and spoken English, the regular forms dreamed and leaped seem to be more popular in modern usage.

T-forms without a vowel change include: burnt, clapt, dwelt, leant, learnt, spelt, smelt, spilt, spoilt, stript, vext

The t-forms without a vowel change are slowly disappearing from the language. Dwelt is the only form in this category which is more frequently used than the regular -ed form. Burnt, leant and learnt are still relatively common in spoken English and fairly common in written English. Spelt, smelt, spilt and spoilt are quickly disappearing. Stript, clapt and vext are rarely used in contemporary English. For this reason, they are only listed in our Extended Irregular Verb Dictionary.

It should be noted that although many t-forms are listed in texts as distinctly "British" forms, our research indicates they are disappearing in British English as well.

Bet / Betted, Quit / Quitted and Wet / Wetted:

Betted, quitted and wetted are often listed as "British" forms. In reality, our research indicates the irregular forms bet, quit and wet are more common than the regular forms in both American and British English. Although the irregular forms are preferred, the regular forms betted, quitted and wetted are still used in contemporary English in both America and, more commonly, in Britain.

Clothed / Clad:

Most English speakers use the form clothed as the simple past and past participle of to clothe. However, clad is still often used as an adjective to mean "dressed in." Our research turned up many such examples:
bikini clad
iron clad
rubber clad
towel clad
clad in protective clothing

Fit vs. Fitted - Two Options:

One of the few significant differences that we found between American irregular verbs and British irregular verbs was with the form fitted.

In British English, the form fitted seems to be preferred.

In American English, the situation appears to be more complicated. Our research indicates that Americans generally prefer the simple past and past participle form fit. However, when the verb fit is used to mean "to tailor," they seem to prefer fitted.

Shined vs. Shone:

With the verb shine, the form shined is preferred in everyday English, possibly because shone sounds too much like the form shown, which is the past participle of show. However, in Internet searches the form shone occurs quite frequently because of its use in literary English.

Gotten vs. Got as Past Participle

For the verb got, gotten is often listed as the American past participle and got as the British past participle. Our research shows that gotten is actually more common than got in British English. This is also true for the verb forget.

The situation is complicated by the fact that have got is often used to mean "to have" or "must" such as in the following examples:

I've got five dollars.

I've got to go soon.[31]