6. Grammatical Differences between BrE and AmE
6.1. Verb forms and functions: be: ain’t /eɪnt/ ‖ ent/ (used as a contracted form for am not, isn’t, aren’t, hasn’t and haven’t) is often considered substandard in both BrE and AmE, but some educated speakers use it informally, especially in AmE: It ain’t nothin’ (‘It’s nothing’). Ain’t nothin’ can also be used, especially in AmE,as an informal variant of ‘there is nothing’, e.g. the refrain in the song ‘Gone Hollywood’ of the famous rock group ‘Supertramp’: “Ain’t nothin’ new in my life today / Ain’t nothing true it’s all gone away.” (‘There is nothing new… / There is nothing true …’). Aren’t I /ˈɑ:nt aɪ/ is widely used in questions in standard BrE (there seems to be no generally acceptable contracted form for am not in declarative sentences). It is considered now naturalized in AmE.
get / get/ vt, vi; pt got /gɒt/, pp got or gotten /ˈgɒt.ən/ ‖ get /gɛt/ got /gɑ:t/ gotten /ˈgɑ:.tən/or got:
According to John Algeo (‘British or American English’, Cambridge UP, 2006), in BrE the form gotten is ‘dialectal and occasionally used interchangeably with got: Haven’t you gotten your key? =
Don’t you have your key?’ AmE uses both participles, but usually in different senses. Got is typically used for static senses like a) “possess”: I’ve got a new car = “I possess one” and b) “be required”: I’ve got to go = I must go. Gotten is mainly used in spoken GA for dynamic senses like a) “acquire”: I’ve gotten a new car = “I’ve bought one” and b) “be permitted” or “have the opportunity’: I’ve gotten to go = “I have become able to go”. Compare also: I’ve got a cold = “I have a cold” and I’ve gotten a cold = “I’ve caught a cold”. There are other dynamic senses in which the two varieties use different participle forms, e.g. “cause’ sb/sth to become/come: Ron obviously realized that he’d got Harry into trouble (Rowling J.K. Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azcaban. L.: Bloomsbury, 1999. US ed. gotten); “become; come to be”: I’ve got quite used to it. (AmE gotten); “procure, obtain”: A typical high street price is about 50p to 60p…but they [strawberries] can be got for half that (AmE gotten) etc
have: Like do, have is both a main verb and an auxiliary. The available British and US corpora (or ‘corpuses’ sg. corpus /ˈkɔ:.pəs ǁ ˈkɔ:r-/ (technical) a large collection of written and/or spoken texts, often in digitized form, that are used for studying a language) show that have occurs with similar frequency in the two national varieties. The uses of have seem, however, to be different in BrE and AmE. As a main verb (= “possess”), have is sometimes constructed in BrE as an auxiliary. AmE prefers the do -construction: I haven’t any books (esp BrE). I don’t have any books (AmE/BrE). On the other hand, the BrE texts of CIC (Cambridge International Corpus) have six times as many cases of don’t have a as of haven’t a and 10 times as many cases of don’t have any as of haven’t any. Nevertheless, the do -less forms still remain typically British because CIC AmE texts have a ratio of 55: 1 for don’t have versus haven’t a and 60: 1 for don’t have any versus haven’t any.
When used as an event or dynamic verb in the sense of ‘receive, take, experience’ etc, the main verb have normally has the do -construction in both AmE and BrE: Does he have coffee with his breakfast? Did you have any difficulty getting there? It is also required in such expressions as: Did you have a good time? BrE has traditionally made a distinction between have and have got, using have for habitual or repeated events or states and have got for single events or states: They have appointments on Mondays, don’t they? They have got an appointment today, haven’t they? AmE does not make this distinction. This has given rise to the following joke about an American talking to an Englishwoman: “Do you have children?” – “Not oftener than every nine months”. This British distinction, however, seems to be less observed now.
have no appears to be the favorite negative form in BrE and is twice as frequent as its closest BrE
rival don’t/doesn’t have. The latter is the prevailing form in AmE, where it is used more than twice as often.
Have sb do sth vs get sb to do sth: In BrE a sentence like I’ll have someone fax you the information
is rather formal. In spoken British English it is less formal to say I’ll get someone to fax you the information.
In AmE it is more usual to say I’ll have someone fax you the information.
6.2 For the sake of convenience, other verbs with their Past Simple and Participle forms varying in BrE and AmE, are listed separately. The irregular –t forms are used more often in BrE than in AmE, but some verbs ending in - t have the regular past and participle forms in BrE whereas AmE often uses their irregular forms: broadcast/broadcast vs broadcast/broadcasted; forecast/forecasted;
broadcasted: none in BrE and rare in AmE, forecasted: 5 times more frequent in AmE than in BrE;
burn/burnt vs burn/burned: burned absolutely prevalent in AmE and 56 % in BrE;
dive/dived vs dive/dove: the CIC dived / dove ratio is 70/1 for BrE and 1.6/1 in AmE;
dream/dreamt /dremt/ vs dream/dreamed /dri:md/: dreamed 95% in AmE and 69% in BrE;
dwell/dwelt vs dwell/dwelled: CIC: dwelt/dwelled 14/1 for BrE and only 1.3/1 in AmE;
forget/forgot/forgotten vs forget/forgot: The second edition of the unabridged Oxford Dictionary of the English Language labels the participle forgot “chiefly US”. Chapter XX of T. Dreiser’s novel “Sister Carrie” contains the following example: ‘A new servant had been recently installed and had forgot the napkins.’ CIC has almost two times more cases of forgotten in BrE texts.
In AmE, this usage is grammatically restricted: participial forgot is likely to be used in perfect infinitive phrases (we must have forgot), but not in compound verbal predicates or in the passive voice (the inventor has been forgotten). In the following case, either form is possible in AmE: They must have forgotten / forgo t to send it.
lean [li:n] / leant [lent] vs lean / leaned: in CIC, lean t makes 23% of the BrE and less than 1% of the AmE past forms. leap/leapt /lept/vs leap/leaped /li:pt/: leapt makes 80% of BrE past forms and only 32% of those in AmE texts.
mow / mowed / mown vs mow / mowed: in CIC, mown occurs in BrE texts 33 times more often than in AmE texts; mowed occurs in AmE texts 2.3 times more often than in BrE texts.
prove / proved vs prove / proved / proven /ˈpru:.vən, ˈprəʊ- ‖ ˈpru:.vən, ˈproʊ-/: in CIC, the past participle proven occurs 2.4 times more frequently in AmE than in BrE texts; proven adj [only before noun] meaning “tested and shown to be true” is CE.
quit / quitted vs quit / quit: OALD, 8th ed., 2010 and LDOCE, 45h ed., 2009 along with Past Simple quit give quitted and label it“also BrE ”; CALD, 3rd ed.2008, MED and Collins COBUILD, 4th ed., 2004 all give quit. CIC has 36 times more cases of quitted in BrE texts than in AmE.
shine / shone /ʃɒn ‖ ʃoʊn/ vs shine / shined: shine= ‘polish’, e.g. ‘shine shoes’. Strictly speaking, this is not a case of national variation. Rather, when ‘shine’ means ‘to make something bright by rubbing it’, both BrE and AmE use shined as Past Simple and Past Participle of ‘to shine’.
smell / smelt or smelled vs smell / smelled: in CIS, the two past forms, smelt and smelled occur with similar frequency in BrE texts; in AmE texts smelled is nearly 21 times more frequent.
sneak / sneaked vs sneak / snuck or sneaked: in CIC, snuck is almost 3.4 times more frequent in AmE than in BrE texts.
spell/spelt vs spell / spelled: in CIC, BrE texts use spelt over 50% more often than spelled; AmE texts use spelled 136 times more frequently than spelt.
spill/spilt vs spill/spilled: British texts use spilt rather than spilled about 32% of the time as compared to American texts which use it about 2% of the time.
spit / spat or spit: in CIC, BrE texts use spat more than 50% as often as AmE texts; it appears to be a written form in both BrE and AmE, especially in the latter.
spoi l/ spoil t vs spoil/spoiled: in CIC, BrE texts use spoilt in 54% of the cases, and AmE texts use spoiled in 95%.
strive / strove / striven vs strive / strived: in CIC, BrE uses strove about two times as often and striven 6 times as often as AmE does; AmE uses strived about 50% more often than BrE.
(a) wake – (a) woke – (a)woken: in CIC, wake (up) is used 6 times more often than awake in BrE texts, and 9 times more in AmE texts.
6.3 Tenses: 6.3.1 BrE uses the perfect aspect more than does AmE by a ratio of about 4:3. The present perfect is normally used in BrE with adverbs like already, ever, just and yet with reference to the recent indefinite past: Have you eaten (yet)? I’ve studied your report (already). For such sentences, there is a tendency for AmE to use the Past Simple tense: Did you eat yet?
6.3.2 LDOCE, 5th ed.: Speakers of BrE usually say It is a long time/two weeks etc since … and
speakers of AmE it has been a long time/two weeks etc since …, but both uses are correct: It’s weeks
(BrE) / It ’s been weeks (AmE) since I saw Grandma.
6.4 The indefinite infinitive or gerund after verbs a) ‘to like’ and ‘to love’: OALD, 8th ed. cites My dad loves going to football games, (especially BrE) and I love to go out dancing (especially NAmE).
b) ‘to meet’ (‘to see and know sb for the first time; to be introduced to sb’), according to OALD, 8th ed., 2010 is more frequent with the indefinite infinitive in BrE: (especially BrE) Pleased to meet you and with the gerund in the US and Canada: (especially NAmE) Nice meeting you. On the other hand, lexicographers’ team of LDOCE, 5th ed., 2009 does not regard this opposition in terms of national
variation but views the difference as the result of semantic constraint: nice/pleased to meet you (=used to greet someone politely when you have just met them for the first time) ‘This is my niece, Sarah.’ ‘Pleased to meet you.’ | (it was) nice meeting you (=used to say goodbye politely to someone you have just met for the first time).
6.5 The mandative subjunctive in that -clauses after expressions with demand, require, insist,
suggest, be necessary, obligatory, etc is more common in AmE than BrE, where the construction is restricted to rather formal contexts: She is insistent that he leave (this is the norm in AmE and a frequent choice in BrE, especially in passive constructions: They suggested that Smith be dropped from the team). She insists that he should leave (this is a frequent choice in BrE; it is acceptable but little used in AmE). It is imperative that he leaves (the indicative option is as frequent in BrE as the modal with should, but it is very rare in AmE).
6.6 Modal verbs: certainty or logical necessity.
In the sense “must’ have/has got to is about a third more frequent in BrE than in AmE:
You’ ve got to be joking! (BrE). You have to be joking! (AmE)
6.7 Notional concord. We find that the singular form of a group noun like government can be treated as plural in: The government have / has broken all their / its promises. This is called notional concord (agreement), since the verb agrees with the idea of plural in the group rather than the actual singular form of the noun.
Group nouns occur with either grammatical or notional concord in examples such as:
The public are/is tired of demonstrations. The audience were/was enjoying every minute of the show.
Our Planning Committee have/has considered you request.
The vast majority of the students need/needs increased financial support.
When the group is being considered as a single undivided body, the singular is used:
The public consists of you and me. The audience was enormous.
My company is opening a new factory.
The plural verb after a group noun is more characteristic of BrE, the singular of AmE. However, the semantic category of the noun may be an important factor (sports, business, government and political, military, media and publishing, public service organizations all vary).
6.8 Linking verb + noun phrase: In BrE a linking verb such as look or seem can be followed by a noun phrase: It looks a nice evening. She seemed a competent pilot. She seemed to be a competent pilot. The following patterns are also possible: It looks like a nice evening. It looks to be a nice evening. She seemed like a competent pilot. She seemed to be a competent pilot.
In AmE a noun phrase is not used as a complement after look or seem. Instead AmE prefers look like, seem like or seem to be: It looks like a nice evening. She seemed like a competent pilot.
But a noun phrase can be used in AmE after be or become: She became a competent pilot.
6.9 Do with the imperative: In BrE the emphatic do can be used with an imperative, although it is old-fashioned: (Do) have a piece of cake.
This usage is less common in the US: Have a piece of cake.
The British can use Don’t let’s … as well as Let’s not …: Let’s not / Don’t let’s invite them.
Americans avoid Don’t let’s …: Let’s not invite them.
6.10 Do for an action: In BrE do can be used to avoid repeating a notional verb: He practices the piano, but not as often as he might (do). You should reply if you haven’t (done) already.
This use of do is not found in AmE: He practices the piano, but not as often as he might. You should reply if you haven’t already.
However, do so is used in both BrE and AmE: You should reply if you haven’t done so already.
6.11 Question tags (an auxiliary plus a pronoun added to the end of a statement chiefly to ask for explicit confirmation). In BrE tag questions are quite common. The British use them not only when they expect agreement, but also to persuade or argue: Mary likes tea, doesn’t she? You’ll just have to try harder, won’t you?
In AmE question tags are used much less often than in BrE. Americans use them when they expect agreement: Mary likes tea, doesn’t she? They don’t use them as often to persuade or argue. Instead
they frequently use the tags right? and OK?: You’re going to meet me, right? We’ll take the car, OK?
6.12 Indefinite use of pronouns: one, you, they
In BrE and formal AmE, one is used to point back to a previous use of one; in formal AmE, he can also be used instead. In informal AmE you is used: One should always look after one’s (BrE and formal AmE) money.
One should always look after his (formal AmE) money.
One should always look after your (informal AmE) money. (You should always look after your money).
J. Algeo remarks that ‘recent sensitivity to gender neutrality’ has contributed to an occasional wider use of one, though ‘Americans as a whole seem to be uncomfortable with it’. B.A. Garner in his ‘Dictionary of Modern American Usage’ refers to the indefinite use of one as “extremely formal”.
6.13 Prepositions:
6.13.1 the preposition is sometimes omitted directly before days of the week:
I’ll see you Saturday. Sundays we go into the country. This is especially common in informal AmE.
6.13.2 about and around in informal English often have a vaguer meaning of ‘in the area of’ or ‘in various positions in’: The guests were standing about/around the room. There aren’t many shops about/around here. In AmE, about is rarer and more formal than in this sense than around.
6.13.3. (be) nervous about sth meaning ‘anxious about sth or afraid of sth’ is used in both BrE and AmE. ‘Nervous of ’is used in BrE. OALD, 8th ed. treats the two prepositions as interchangeable: ~ (about/of sth). However, the example sentence in the entry for ‘nervous’ indicates the opposite: The horse may be nervous of cars. The corresponding entry in LDOCE, 5th ed. clearly differentiates between the two, limiting the usage with about to ‘anxious’ and that with of to ‘afraid’: She was so nervous about her exams she couldn’t sleep. | [+of] We were all a bit nervous of him at first. (=frightened of him).
6.13.4 In BrE you protest about/against/at sth: Students took to the streets to protest against the decision. In AmE the verb tajes a direct object: They fully intend to protest the decision.
6.13.5 BrE: They’re at church (=attending a church service) ◊ AmE: They’re in church.
6.13.6 at the weekend is used in BrE, but in AmE on the weekend.
6.13.7 BrE: Open your books at page 14. AmE: Open your books to page 14. But in Britain soldiers stand to attention, in the USA they stand at attention.
6.13.8 The noun ‘auction’ is used with the preposition at both in BrE and AmE: The house was sold at auction. (LDOCE, 5th ed.). On the other hand, ‘British English, A to Zed’ and CALD, 3rd ed. cite by as
BrE alternative: The painting will be sold at / UK ALSO by auction next week.
6.13.9 at school: When the noun ‘school’ denotes “the process of learning in a school” or “the time during your life when you go to a school”, in BrE it is used with the preposition at: We’ve got two children at school, and one at university; the equivalent AmE expression for enrollment is in school. On the other hand, in Standard English at school can also mean ‘in the school building’, and in AmE at school can refer to a college or university.
6.13.10 CE: different from; BrE: different to; AmE: different than. Longman Guide to English Usage says that different from ‘is the safest choice for serious writing. Different to is a British alternative … in casual speech and writing’. B.A. Garner says that “ different than is sometimes idiomatic, and even useful”, since different from often cannot replace it, e.g. “Life for Swann,…is a lot different than it was for him in Lynn.” Likewise, LGEU points out that different than “has the advantage that it can introduce a clause: He wears different clothes on Sunday than he does on weekdays ”. However, in ‘Roses are different from/to violets’ than is not used.
6.13.11 From … to are used to identify a period by its beginning and end: from nine to five; from June to September. In AmE, from … through are used to make clear that the whole period includes the second period named; thus from June through December means ‘…up to and including December’. Up to normally specifies that the longer period does not include the period named:
He worked up to Christmas (i.e. but not over Christmas).
6.13.12 for specifying the position of something relative to a street, BrE generally uses in, and AmE on. When the street is referred to as a shopping location, BrE uses on or in: in/on the High Street. Naturally, the expression the man/woman in the street (an average or ordinary person) (BrE) becomes the man/woman on the street (AmE). With reference to the players who must prevent the other team from scoring, BrE has She plays in defence, whereas AmE typically requires on defence. Another case is the noun ‘place’. BrE: He lost his place in the team; AmE: He lost his place on the team.
6.13.13 When someone is a member of a group, club or organisation, the noun ‘membership’ is used with the preposition of in BrE: Greece first applied for membership of the EU in 1975. AmE: [+in] I forgot to renew my membership in the sailing club.
BrE: be in two minds about sth/doing sth AmE: be of two minds about sth/doing sth
6.13.14 OALD, 8th ed.: BrE: She did well in her exams. ◊ AmE: She did well on her exams. BrE: cheat in / AmE: cheat on an exam/ a test. In formal BrE the verb ‘to sit’ can mean ‘to do an exam’: Candidates will sit the examinations in June. (especially NAmE) ~ for sth He was about to sit for his entrance exam. It should be noted that the views of lexicographers who make learner’s dictionaries differ. For example, ‘sit for an exam’ is not labelled for national variation in LDOCE, and CALD, 3rd ed. labels the usage AUSTRALIAN: I sat for my exams today.
6.13.15 BrE: When things go badly, try to look on the bright side. ◇ AmE: Look at the bright side – you can spend more time at home.
6.13.16 (CALD, 3rd ed.) BrE: I’d love you to come to dinner some night. AmE: I’d love for you to come to dinner tonight.
6.14 Articles: a) BrE: go to university; AmE: go to the university b) in certain expressions of time, BrE may use the definite article where AmE would have none: all (the) afternoon/morning/evening; tell (the) time (say what time it is) c) BrE: Bring the soup to the boil, then allow it to simmer for five minutes ◊ AmE: Bring the soup to a boil. BrE: (OALD, LDOCE, etc) if the ˌworst comes to the ˈworst; NAmE also if worst comes to worst. c) at the weekend (BrE) – on weekends (AmE) d) until recently, the Congo, the Sudan and the Ukraine were standard in both BrE and AmE. Now, however, the forms without the are normal or frequent, especially in AmE.
6.15 structural lexical variants – words differing in derivational affixes (prefixes and suffixes) but identical in lexical meaning: see 7.3.6 The suffix – wards [in adverbs]is the preferred form in BrE; the form with -ward is labelled especially AmE in OALD, 8th ed., LDOCE, 5th ed. and CALD, 3rd ed..
6.16 To show that a negative statement is also true about another thing or person: BrE: ‘I don’t like it.’
‘ Neither do I ’ ◊ AmE (informal or spoken): ‘ Me either ’.
6.17 possessive (also genitive) in BrE word formation, e.g. ˈ kids [ЖиН1] [ЖиН2] [ЖиН3] [ЖиН4] [ЖиН5] ’ stuff, life’s ˈ work (OALD, 8th ed. noun [sing.] the main purpose or activity in a person’s life, or their greatest achievement), corresponds to compound words in AmE, written separately or as a single word: ˈkid stuff, lifework
6.18 Times and dates: BrE: at a quarter past five AmE: at a quarter after five BrE: at a quarter to six AmE: at a quarter of six. The date can be written entirely in figures: 6.1.2007. In BrE this means January 6, 2007. In AmE it means June 1, 2007 since the number of the month is written before the day. When the British people say the date they add the: January the sixth, or the sixth of January (BrE); but January sixth (AmE). LDOCE, 5th ed., 2009 labels on 6th August BrE: He arrived at Berwick on 6th August 1823. In its turn, August 6 is labelled AmE.
Questions and Tasks
dates?
[ЖиН1]
[ЖиН2]
[ЖиН3]
[ЖиН4]
[ЖиН5]
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