Difference Between British And Standard English

The English language is among the most common native languages in the world. Officially used in 60 sovereign entities and widely chosen as the second language in many aspects of life such as education, business, entertainment etc. and in the Internet, English is now one of the factors that contribute to the trend “globalization”. However, the way English is used in each country is different in terms of grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation or even punctuation. This essay will analyze some lexical differences between two types of Standard English which are Standard British English and Standard American English.
The Standard English is English found in books and newspapers, widely used in the mass media and taught in most schools. Both British and

The British people and the American People tend to use different words for several similar concepts. This happens in many groups of vocabulary in English. For example, the British can say ‘I watch the telly whilst lying on the settee’ but Americans only use ‘I watch TV while lying on the sofa’. In Britain, whilst is another word for while, telly or box can be used to call television and also couch/ settee to call sofa but Americans only use TV/ television, while, sofa. The British use ‘Bobby’ to call their police men because ‘Bobby’ is the nickname of the one who founded the police force in Britain. However, if we say ‘Bobby’ in the U.S, people may mistake it with a proper name. To talk about money, British people use ‘quid’ as a slang for ‘pound’ and American people use ‘bucks’ as a slang for US dollar. Similarly, the British use ‘dust bin’, ‘wardrobe’, ‘tap’, ‘garden’,…instead of ‘trash can’, ‘closet’, ‘faucet’ or ‘yard’ like Americans. The difference of word choice is various and probably uncountable because it depends on each culture. Most of the cases, British English vocabulary is considered quite old-fashioned and complicated in the eyes of Americans. On the other hand, American English has always been said to be freer and not as delicate as British

One thing we can be sure is that this list is not complete, and it will never be complete because language is developed by the human beings as a mean of communication and it will certainly continue to develop in the future. There will possibly be more or less differences and all the current or future differences are related to the culture and the mindsets of people. That is why we have many varieties of the hard-to-define term “Standard English”. In conclusion, it is necessary for us to understand the differences between each Standard Language in order to avoid misunderstandings, to use the language properly and show our respect to the mother culture of that