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American English versus British English

by GetEnglishLessons on 18/01/12 at 8:06 am

If you are thinking: How to teach ESL students the difference between AE and BE.

If you are having trouble in teaching your students the difference between British and American English these might be useful:

1.  Use the following drop-down list to find the American English equivalent of these British Expressions. How do you say truck in British English?

American English British English what’s the word?

2. Show this video where Hugh Laurie paid a house call to Ellen, and they played an exciting game of American slang versus English slang.

Charlie has a go at speaking in his best American accent.

3. List of words words related to cars and driving, different when you cross the Atlantic. In the United States, it’s a trunk, while in Britain you will probably hear boot. Here are some variations:

American English versus British English related to cars and driving – PDF FREE DOWNLOAD

Image via Wikipedia

4. Answer an On line quiz on the difference of American English and British English:

It’s hard to draw a precise line between AE and BE, but there are definitely cases where the vocabulary of the two languages diverges. For reasons of fair play the quiz tries to strike a balance between AE- and BE-centred questions .

Fun Trivia

5. Point Out that Spelling in American English and British English can be different too:

Go to this link to find a great explanation on words ending in -er/re, -yse/ -ise, -our/or, etc…

British x American

Related articles

• What Should America Steal From British English? (gawker.com)
• Another English lesson (istillfeelunusual.wordpress.com)
• David Crystal’s The Story of English in 100 Words (virtuallinguist.typepad.com)