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Several pronunciation patterns contrast American and British English accents. The following lists a few common ones. Most American accents are rhotic, preserving the historical /r/ phoneme in all contexts, while most British accents of England and Wales are non-rhotic, only preserving this sound before vowels but dropping it in all other contexts; thus, farmer rhymes with llama for Brits but ...
In both British and American English, a person can make a decision; however, only in British English is the common variant take a decision also an option in a formal, serious, or official context. [38] The British often describe a person as tanned, where Americans would use tan. For instance, "she was tanned", rather than "she was tan". [39]
For the second portion of the list, see List of words having different meanings in American and British English: M–Z. Asterisked (*) meanings, though found chiefly in the specified region, also have some currency in the other region; other definitions may be recognised by the other as Briticisms or Americanisms respectively.
British English meanings Meanings common to British and American English American English meanings undercoat coat of paint applied prior to the top coat (US: primer) layer of fine hair close to the skin of a mammal rustproofing treatment applied to the underneath of an automobile (UK: underseal) underground
List of words having different meanings in American and British English (M–Z) Glossary of American terms not widely used in the United Kingdom; Glossary of British terms not widely used in the United States; List of works with different titles in the United Kingdom and United States
Words such as demagogue, pedagogue, synagogue, from the Greek noun ἀγωγός agōgos ("guide"), are seldom used without -ue even in American English. Both British and American English use the spelling -gue with a silent -ue for certain words that are not part of the -ogue set, such as tongue, plague, vague, and league.
The following is a handy reference for editors, listing various common spelling differences between national varieties of English. Please note: If you are not familiar with a spelling, please do some research before changing it – it may be your misunderstanding rather than a mistake, especially in the case of American and British English spelling differences.
Rhoticity – GA is rhotic while RP is non-rhotic; that is, the phoneme /r/ is only pronounced in RP when it is immediately followed by a vowel sound. [5] Where GA pronounces /r/ before a consonant and at the end of an utterance, RP either has no consonant (if the preceding vowel is /ɔː/, /ɜ:/ or /ɑː/, as in bore, burr and bar) or has a schwa instead (the resulting sequences being ...