Differences between American & British English

Ok, that's great for Spanish. But in English, most people won't understand P.D. And in French it'll raise a smile.

It is easy to understand American english but British english cannot

Xatufan,

I've never heard anybody write learnt, etc. Except for burnt, for example: My steak is burnt. I would come to a conclusion that burnt, learnt, etc. are spoken language. Most people write it as learned, and burned but say it as learnt, burnt. In my above message I was defending President Bush from a previous remark in the beginning of the forum.

Xatufan,
I'm interested, what country are you from?

I'm from Atlanta, Georgia

Who is this Peter Pan? What are you Michael Jackson (he thinks he's peter pan)? I do agree with you on the part that you said about how British say cart as caht, etc. I think, however, that English is English wherever it is from. It really doesn't matter. I do think that the coolest accent is the southern U.S. accent (country accent). I live around many people who speak with that kind of accent. I don't talk like that though. Southern accents get a bad rep cuz the yankees think it sounds unintelligent. There are a lot of intelligent southerners with big vocabs, though.

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I agree with kevin in that there are many differences between u.s. dialects. Im from denver, but i like the southern accent. it seems like a very peaceful accent. I also know some southerners and they, like kevin said, have big vocabularies. I don't really like how Lainie said that people hate the way 'red-necks' talk. After all, our President, President Bush, is very intelligent and he's from the south (Crawford, Texas).

What drugs are you on? President Bush isn't intelligent. he's the exact opposite. Maybe it is true when they say that Americans are unintelligent because you must be unintelligent in thinking that Bush is intelligent.

I've used 'learnt' before...

American English is turning into E-bonics, beware. I'm American and I'm disgusted by how dumb people are getting over here. I wish I were English. I'd also have a kick arse accent and say "arse" all the time.

I don't think American English is turning into Ebonics necessarily, though I would say that many working-class urban areas of America have developed a dialect very much influenced by Black Vernacular English (hence Eminem's accent, which sounds nothing like a Michigander).

There are many different accents within britain and whenever Americans do a British accent they always make it sound posh which is not the case. I can think of many accents in BRitain which do not sound posh such as liverpudlian, Glaswegian, Welsh, Geordie and many more. I also don't get why Americans spell words differently to the English language. Afterall the English language was invented here so the spelling of words should follow the English dictionary.

Amy,

See the other thread on English/American spelling and Kirk provides a good explanation as to why there are differences in spelling. Other than Noah Webster's desire to be different, the vast majority of the words are spelled the same so I don't think it's a big deal.

As far as the language and how it's spoken...of course it's going to change as is the case with French, Spanish, Portuguese in the New World.

The English language wasn't "invented" in England as one would invent some type of device or gadget. It developed in England and as it spread, it developed in the other Anglophone countries as well.

I am British and have visited the US before. I love the americans. They are so nice. We do like american shows especially The Simpsons. It is always on television in England. I think English in Britain is easier to speak because we developed the language. Although we say chips instead of fries, crisps instead of potato chips and toilet instead of bathroom and restroom. I love you americans! From a British citizen.