American and British English grammatical differences: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia


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==Miscellaneous grammatical differences==

{{Reduce trivia|date=May 2017}}

* In names of American rivers the word ''river'' usually comes after the name (for example, ''the [[Colorado River]]''), whereasbut for British rivers it comes before the name (as in ''the [[River Thames]]''). Exceptions in BrE include the ''[[Fleet River]]'', which is rarely called the ''River Fleet'' by [[Greater London|LondonLondoners]]ers outside official documentation, andor also where thea river name that is an adjective (''the [[Yellow River]]''). Exceptions in the US are the ''[[River Rouge (Michigan)|River Rouge]]'' and the ''[[River Raisin]]'', both in [[Michigan]] and named by the [[French people|French. The American convention is used in Australia, whilebut convention is mixed in some Commonwealth nations, wherein which both arrangements are often seen.

* In BrE speech, some descriptions of offices usually do not become titles (''Margaret Thatcher, the Prime Minister'' and ''Mr Jones, the team's coach''), while they dounlike in AmE (''Prime Minister Thatcher'' and ''Coach Jones''). However, the AmE pattern is sometimes found in BrE, usually in journalism.

* In BrE, the word ''sat'' is often colloquially used to cover ''sat'', ''sitting'', and ''seated'': ''I've been sat here waiting for half an hour. The bride's family will be sat on the right-hand side of the church''. ThisThat construction is not often heard outside the UK. In the 1960s, its use would mark a speaker as coming from the north of[[Northern England]], but by the turn of the 21st century, this formit had spread to the south[[Southern England]]. Its use often conveys lighthearted informality, whenin which many speakers intentionally use a dialect or colloquial construction they would probably not use in formal written English. ThisThe colloquial usage is widely understood by British speakers. Similarly, ''stood'' canmay be used instead of ''standing''. To an AmericanAmericans and still to many Britons, thesethose usages are passive and may imply that the subject had been involuntarily forced to sit or to stand or directed to hold that location.

*Nearly 40% of participants in a national survey of the United States claimed that they may useused the phrase ''Are you coming with?'' to mean ''Are you coming with us?'' or ''Are you coming along?'', althoughbut it is rarely used in writing and linguists particularly associate the phrase with the upper [[Midwestern United States]].<ref>Vaux, Bert (2003). [https://www4.uwm.edu/FLL/linguistics/dialect/staticmaps/q_51.html Harvard Dialect Survey].</ref> ''Come with'' is used as an abbreviation of ''come with me'', as in ''I'm going to the office – come with'' by speakers in [[Minnesota]] and parts of the adjoining states, which had a large number of [[Scandinavian American|Scandinavian]], [[Dutch Americans|Dutch]], and [[German Americans|German immigrants]], who, when; speaking English, they translated equivalent phrases directly from their own languages.<ref>[http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/ct-tribu-words-work-midwest-20101208-story.html What's with 'come with'?], ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'', December 8, 2010</ref> German and Dutch have [[separable verbverbs]]s meaning to "come with", ''mitkommen'', and ''meekomen''. It is similar to [[South African English]], wherein thewhich expression comes from [[Afrikaans]], a language of Dutch origin.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=IgsLAQAAMAAJ&dq=south+african+english+%22coming+with%22&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=%22coming+with%22 ''Africa, South and Southeast Asia''], Rajend Mesthrie, Mouton de Gruyter, 2008, page 475</ref> TheseThose contractions are rarely used by nativein BrE speakers.

* SomeAmE Americanssometimes useuses the word ''also'' at the end of a sentence (just as ''as well'' and ''too'' are used in both dialects) but not so commonlyrarely in BrE, although it is encountered in [[Northern Ireland]]. Additionally, theThe sentence-ending ''as well'' is also more formal in AmE than in BrE.

* Before some words beginning with a pronounced (not silent) ''h'' in an unstressed first syllable, such as ''hallucination'', ''hilarious'', ''historic(al)'', ''horrendous'' and ''horrific'', some (especially older) British writers prefer to use ''an'' over ''a'' (''an historical event'', etc.).<ref name="New Oxford">New Oxford Dictionary of English, 1999, usage note for ''an'': "There is still some divergence of opinion over the form of the indefinite article to use preceding certain words beginning with '''h'''- when the first syllable is unstressed: ‘'''a''' historical document’ or ‘'''an''' historical document’; ‘'''a''' hotel’ or ‘'''an''' hotel’. The form depends on whether the initial h is sounded or not: '''an''' was common in the 18th and 19th centuries because the initial h was commonly not pronounced for these words. In standard modern English the norm is for the '''h''' to be pronounced in words such as '''hotel''' and '''historical''' and therefore the indefinite article '''a''' is used; however the older form, with the silent '''h''' and the indefinite article '''an''', is still encountered, especially among older speakers."</ref> ''An'' is also preferred before ''hotel'' by some writers of BrE, (probably reflecting the relatively recent adoption of the word from French, wherein which the ''h'' is not pronounced, thoughbut it also fits the stress rule described—itdescribed since it is the second syllable that is stressed).<ref name=Peterspg1>[[Brown Corpus]] and [[Lancaster-Oslo-Bergen Corpus]], quoted in Peters (2004: 1)</ref> The use of "an" before words beginning with an unstressed "h" is moreless common generally in BrE than AmericanAmE.<ref name=Peterspg1/> Such usage would now be seen as affected or incorrect in AmE.,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/determiners/determiners.htm#articles |title=Articles, Determiners, and Quantifiers |publisher=Grammar.ccc.commnet.edu |access-date=7 November 2010}}</ref> American writerswhich normally useuses ''a'' in all these cases. According to the New Oxford Dictionary of English, such use is also increasingly rare in BrEthe tooUK.<ref name="New Oxford"/> Unlike BrE, however, AmE typically uses ''an'' before ''herb'', since the ''h'' in this word is silent for most Americans.

*The adverb ''well'' may be used in colloquial BrE only with the meaning "very" or "extremely" to modify adjectives. For example, "I'm ''well'' tired" or "He was ''well'' famous".

*The British often say ''tanned'', wherealthough Americans would say ''tan''. For instance, "she was tanned", rather than "she was tan".

*In both BritishBrE and American EnglishAmE, a person can ''make a decision''; however, only in British and Commonwealth English is the common variant ''take a decision'' also an option.

== See also ==