What makes American English so different from the British one?
By Any Name
@ritwik17c (387)
India
July 16, 2016 2:49am CST
When I type on my computer, it doesn't accept many spellings, which I learned at school to be correct. I write 'labour' and can see a red line under it. If I write 'travelled', the same thing happens. Why is 'realise' underlined red when I know that it's correct (and the dictionary also shows it to be right). I am using MS Office and the operating system is still Windows 7 (Ultimate). Is there any alternative to customise it in the setting to show the British version? I am facing this difficulty because I learned at school the British variety. The same thing happens when I write on this platform too. Does it mean that American variety is only accepted in the internet? Does American English differ from the British variety in expressions too, apart from certain spellings? My knowledge is only limited to the changes that happen in the '-our' (to 'or'), 'ise' (to 'ize') and '-elled' (to 'eled') syllables. I have heard that some nouns that are used in British English are not used in the American variety. Is the British variety looked down upon by the Americans?
9 people like this
12 responses
@maezee (41988)
• United States
16 Jul 16
I wouldnt say its looked down upon but it is definitely different frOM American English. I met a feq brits while travelling a year ago and sometimws if they falked fast it seemed like they were speaking a different language combined with the accent and the slang. They probably feel the same way about Americans though. Lol!
3 people like this
@topffer (42156)
• France
16 Jul 16
I do not think so : there are strong local accents all over UK, and they have the same difficulties than you to understand someone from a different area of UK
. In France we need subtitles for French Canadians, but I never had a real problem to understand English Canadians.
. In France we need subtitles for French Canadians, but I never had a real problem to understand English Canadians.1 person likes this
@topffer (42156)
• France
16 Jul 16
@garymarsh6 I have assisted to a discussion between a Yorkie and a Cornish, and they were hardly understanding each other.
.2 people like this
@garymarsh6 (23404)
• United Kingdom
16 Jul 16
@topffer Haha you try phoning a call centre in Glasgow and you won't understand a word they say! 
2 people like this
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
16 Jul 16
You can customise which language your computer recognises. In MS Word, you need to change which default dictionary the program uses for spell checking. If you don't have the British Engliah dictionary installed, you will either need to load it from your installation disk or download it. It's a while since I used Word (I use OpenOffice) and it depends on which version you have on where you find the setting. Use 'Help' and search for 'Dictionary' or 'Spellchecker'.
If you have a spellchecker in your browser which is also underlining words you type, you will need to change the settings for that, too.
3 people like this
@ritwik17c (387)
• India
16 Jul 16
@owlwings The information will be useful to me. I will find out. Does OpenOffice have all the features that MS Office have?
1 person likes this
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
16 Jul 16
@ritwik17c OpenOffice and LibreOffice have pretty nearly all the features of MS Office. However, it retains the old menuing style of Office 2003 rather tnan the newer ribbon style interface, so if you are used to any version of MS Office after about 2011, it may seem a little unfamiliar and 'retro'.
It can read and save in the MS .doc format and most Word documents will open without any change to the format though there are one or two advanced features of MS Office which can sometimes cause problems.
1 person likes this
@ritwik17c (387)
• India
16 Jul 16
@owlwings You are very much computer savvy. Can you tell me if there is a way to save and close multiple word documents with one hotkey?
1 person likes this
@CaptAlbertWhisker (32748)
• Calgary, Alberta
16 Jul 16
In the US when you say Biscuit, it is a short bread you will eat with meat stews and soups. In the UK when you say biscuits, you are talking about sweet cookies.
1 person likes this
@CaptAlbertWhisker (32748)
• Calgary, Alberta
16 Jul 16
@ritwik17c In the UK an elevator is a lift. A flashlight is called a torch and a vacuum cleaner is called a hoover.
1 person likes this
@ritwik17c (387)
• India
16 Jul 16
@CaptAlbertWhisker My goodness! So much difference !!! It will be horrible to speak in the West with any amount of certainty... Are there more such differences? 
@ritwik17c (387)
• India
16 Jul 16
@CaptAlbertWhisker Wonderful... where do you learn all these? Can you give a few more examples... where to get these? 
@CaptAlbertWhisker (32748)
• Calgary, Alberta
16 Jul 16
Majority of White Americans are of German descent and I just realized some German people in Germany have accent similar to Americans.
1 person likes this
@CaptAlbertWhisker (32748)
• Calgary, Alberta
16 Jul 16
@MALUSE You maybe using British English but the Standard American accent came from German accent. It evolved there over centuries. German accent is different from the standard American accent but there is similarities with pronunciations.
Many German Celebrities who never been to the US sounds a bit American when they speak English. I also encountered many English speaking Germans who sounded similar to Americans when they speak English. I do follow English Singing German musical Artist like Asher Lane and Fool's Garden. Their accent have more similarities with Americans than Brits will have to Americans.
American accent have no similarity with British accent but British accent have similarities with Australian and New Zealander accent.
@ritwik17c (387)
• India
16 Jul 16
@CaptAlbertWhisker What does it mean? Is there a German variety of English too?
@ritwik17c (387)
• India
23 Jul 16
@JaboUK That's a good idea. But it won't work for me. Sometimes I need help with spellings...
1 person likes this
@xFiacre (13117)
• Ireland
16 Jul 16
@ritwik17c It's such a pity that the English language has been so cruelly polluted and diluted. The place where correctness has been preserved is in Dublin strangely where the educated classes speak so properly.
2 people like this
@ritwik17c (387)
• India
16 Jul 16
@xFiacre Why do you say that it has been polluted and diluted? What's the proof? Do you want to say that the more the varieties, the more diluted and polluted a language will be? There are probably more than 36 varieties of English Encarta (McMillan) World English Dictionary has enlisted. Is this the reason?
@cupkitties (7421)
• United States
16 Jul 16
There is a whole lot that makes it different. Not only the spelling, but the meaning as well. British English even uses words that we in America don't have. We don't look down upon it, We think it's quite unique. It's just that we've been using the form of English we use for a long time now and we're sort of used to it.
1 person likes this
@ritwik17c (387)
• India
23 Jul 16
@cupkitties Yes, it seems to me now that both are two very distinctive varieties...
1 person likes this
@ScribbledAdNauseum (104628)
• United States
16 Jul 16
I wouldn't say the British Variety is looked down upon. Just simply, that we do not use it. Color versus Colour for example or Realized versus Realised? I am not even sure if the realised IS the British spelling to be quite honest with you.
However, as for this website, it is based out of Illinois, USA and thus would use spell checking resources available for websites in America.
1 person likes this
@ritwik17c (387)
• India
16 Jul 16
@ScribbledAdNauseum As @MALUSE has pointed out and as far as we learned at school 'realise' is the Brit. version...
@pgntwo (22408)
• Derry, Northern Ireland
24 Jul 16
You have some good answers below, hopefully your use of myLot is eased with the correct language settings in your browser. I switch between English, German and French dictionaries sometimes in the same response, it is fairly easy to do in my smartphone.
1 person likes this
@pgntwo (22408)
• Derry, Northern Ireland
24 Jul 16
@ritwik17c The little globe at bottom-left of the screenshot does it for me. It is nice, if injecting a word or phrase from another language, to be able to have the spelling and any accentuation correct (I think, anyway). Have I understood your question correctly?
@ritwik17c (387)
• India
24 Jul 16
@pgntwo That sounds quite wonderful. But how do you do it?
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (341752)
• Rockingham, Australia
18 Jul 16
@ritwik17c Sometimes you can change the settings to 'British English' but maybe that's in Word.
1 person likes this
@ritwik17c (387)
• India
18 Jul 16
@JudyEv Yea I am trying to do that also..But I need something more concrete. Maybe someone will help me in person... Thanks.
1 person likes this
@ritwik17c (387)
• India
17 Jul 16
I too do the same but am presently looking for some other trick so that I don't have to see the red line...
1 person likes this
@responsiveme (22926)
• India
16 Jul 16
Ha ha , thats true because we use the British variety.You can continue to type ignoring the red line.
1 person likes this
@responsiveme (22926)
• India
16 Jul 16
@MALUSE Yes , there isa historical contact with British English.Now it has metamorphosed into Indian English.
@ritwik17c (387)
• India
16 Jul 16
@MALUSE Sometimes one who doesn't know much English points out to the red line and says to me, 'Hey, you have made a mistake there!' just because they feel that Computer can never be wrong. It is useless to try even to explain a point to them !!
2 people like this
@ritwik17c (387)
• India
16 Jul 16
@MALUSE Yes, initially. But now many youngsters mix up Brit. and Am. varieties. Many of do it unconsciously. Some of them don't care to use only one variety...
