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Wednesday, April 6, 2011

British English versus American English

(Language Laughs)

As an American I've always pictured the British as being so perfectly proper. It seems that over the years we Americans have been messing up their lovely English language.

Here's a quick primer on how convert our bastardized American words to their British correctness. For the most part we just need to throw in an extra letter or two. Instead of a simple O, they use OU. Color, favorite, and honor become colour, favourite, and honour. G becomes GUE. So analog, dialog, and catalog become analogue, dialogue, and catalogue. K becomes QUE so bank and check become banque and cheque. It's often good to throw in an E for good measure so aging, argument, and judgment become ageing, arguement, and judgement. Instead of using a simple E it is often good to go with AE such that words like encyclopedia and medieval become encyclopaedia and mediaeval. Then there are other random cases where you toss in extra letters such that jewelry, draft, plow, and program become jewellery, draught, plough, and programme.

Learning how to spell like the British is great, but in order to really entrench oneself in the British language the American must also come to grips with their different usage of words. For example, we might 'ride an elevator' but in England the would 'take the lift'. We 'take a vacation' from work while they 'go on holiday'. If you ask to see a football game you'll be shown a soccer match. Two weeks is a fortnight. If someone needs quid they're just asking for money. You live in a flat and use a torch (flashlight) if the lights go out.

I hope you all have had a jolly good time learning British English. Cheerio.

I used the following page to get the British Word Spellings.

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