Varieties of English: American English

                                             

The United States was founded initially by British and Scottish Pilgrims and the Thirteen British colonies and the new country had already many languages from the natives which were incorporated in the English. Besides after Britain signed the Peace Treaty due to the American Independence War (1781) the English has not evolved as in the British Isles, so we can find vocabulary which was spoken in England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in the American English. Nowadays 65% of English native speakers live in the USA and though there are other languages widely spoken such as Spanish, the official language is English and the USA is the most influential country in the world in terms of military, economic, commercial and cultural areas so American English (AmE) is widespread due to the top-notch North American companies in relation to computers, cars, music, films, market, etc.

There are many varieties inside AmE depending on the region of this vast country, for example Pacific, North West, California, Texas, Midland, North Central, Inland, WPA (Western Pennsylvania Accent) and ENE (Eastern New England dialect in cities such as Boston, Maine, Rhode Island), Florida and New York Accent.

The grammar in the USA differs in same ways from that of the British English in the following features:

-collective nouns are treated as singular (team, family, group, etc.)

-Use of "do" in the verb "have got" as possession.

-Present Perfect Simple is hardly used.

-Simple Past tense verbs end in -ed.

-The use of "gotten" and past participles ending in -en.

-Modal verbs such as shall, should or might are hardly used in the USA.

-Simpler ending of words especially those words ending in BrE in -re or -ise in AmE changes to -er, -ize.

In the vocabulary Americans still use many English words which are outdated now in the British Isles but were used in the sixteenth century and it has adopted many words from Native Americans such as raccoon, squash, wigwam.

Also AmE has got a lot of words from immigrants that make up the country from Europe:

-Dutch: cookie, kindergarten, hamburger, wiener, hot dog, pretzel.

-French: carnival, concierge, au contraire, a la carte, cliché, chauffeur, bouquet, au pair, cul de sac.

-Spanish: guerrilla, mosquito, rodeo, adobe, tortilla, chili con carne, sierra, gusto, patio, barrio, siesta, fiesta.

-Yiddish (Jewish German): baleboste, chazerei, bubele, klutz, mishep, schomooze, bagel.

There are many American compounds for example foothill, landslide, backdrop, brainstorm and American neologism or coinage words especially in sports such as baseball, volleyball, google, spam, app, dude, awesome, cool.

In the nineteenth century it was published the first American dictionary by Noah Webster´s "

 "An American dictionary of the English Language", 1828. 

There are differences between the vocabulary between Br E and AmE as here are shown in the examples below:

American English ( Spanish translation) / British English

Fall (otoño) / autumn (BrE)

Hood  (capó de un coche) / bonnet 

gas  (gasolina)  / petrol

highway, expressway  (autopista) / motorway

garbage can  (papelera )  / dustbin

French fries (patatas fritas) / chips

eggplant (berenjena) / aubergine

diaper (pañales) / nappy

drugstore (farmacia ) / chemist

cotton candy (algodón dulce) / candyfloss

cookie, cracker (galleta) / biscuit

closet (armario) / wardrobe

cell phone (teléfono móvil) / mobile phone

bangs (flequillo) / fringe

apartment (apartamento) / flat

mailbox (caja de la correspondencia) / postbox

sneakers (zapatillas deportivas) / trainers

subway (metro) / underground

stroller (cochecito de bebé) / pushchair

vacation (vacaciones) holiday

vest (chaleco) / waistcoat

British English                                 American English

Estate car                                                             station wagon

Saloon                                                                  sedan

4 *  4                                                                   sports utility vehicle -SUV

Engine                                                                motor

Petrol                                                                 gasoline

Aerial                                                               antena

Bonnet                                                           Hood

Boot                                                                trunk

Indicator                                                       turn signal

Number plate                                             license plate

Petrol cap or flap                                       gas tank lid

Tyre                                                             tire

Windscreen                                              windshield

Wing                                                         fender

Accelerator                                             gas pedal

Gearstick/ lever                                     gear shift / stick shift

Glove compartment                              glove box

Gearbox                                                 transmisión