DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BRITISH AND AMERICAN ENGLISH

As you probably know, the English from Britain and the United States varies with regards to lexis, semantics, spelling, grammar and pronunciation. The English language was first introduced to America in 1607 in Virginia and since then has diverged in a few ways. Below are some examples of changes with respect to the lexis, pronunciation and spelling.

Changes in Lexis

A lot of the words in British English and American English vary, or take different meanings. For example, when you use “football” in American English you are referring to the sport American Football.

British English	American English
Biscuit	Cookie
Bum bag	Fanny pack
Courgette	Zucchini
Full stop	Period
Garden	Yard
Lift	Elevator
Petrol	Gas
Sweets	Candy
Football	Soccer

Changes in Pronunciation

Changes in Spelling

Most changes in spelling between the two forms of English mentioned derive respectively from two dictionaries produced in the two countries. A lot of the spellings from British English are influenced by French.

British English	American English
Colour	Color
Centre	Center
Practice	Practise
Realise	Realize
Dialogue	Dialog

BACK FROM GERMANY

We are back from the third edition of our School Exchange with Germany. This time we were there for 11 days from November 10th until 20th and we have visited important cities like Munich or Stuttgart, gone trekking, ice-skating, sightseeing, etc.
 We can say that it has been a very successful experience and we are looking forward to welcoming the German group in Huelva next May.
Danke für alles!!

8 WEIRD FACTS ABOUT THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

English is a strange language due to its history and influences. It is a West-Germanic language which was further influenced by the Anglo-Saxons and the Normans. Here are 8 weird and wonderful facts about the language:

1.     A pangram sentence is one which contains every letter in the language. A very common example of this in English is “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” When I was at school we had to write this lots of times to practice our handwriting.

2.     English is the language of the air – every pilot in the world has to speak English whilst flying no matter where they’ve come from!

3.     The longest word in the English dictionary is ‘pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis’ which is a lung disease contracted from breathing in ash.

4.     4000 words are added to the dictionary every year with some of the latest additions being fro-yo (frozen yoghurt), YOLO and Brexit.

5.     The first dictionary was written in 1755 by Samuel Johnson and helped to standardise the spelling of the language.

6.     The letter E is the most common letter in the language, appearing 11% of the time.

7.     Shakespeare invented over 1700 words which we use in the language such as majestic, tranquil, gloomy and torture.

8.     The oldest noun in the English language which is still in use is “town”.

MORE APPS TO LEARN ENGLISH

No doubt thanks to the Internet, and new technologies in general, it is so easy to learn new languages.  Logically, it is our students who are more into these technologies and today talking to them, they have suggested this post.

Here are some apps they recommend for you to keep learning English:

- Hi native! is a free app where you can ask questions to native speakers if you have some doubts.
- 6 minutes English is offered by BBC and has a high standard of quality for audio recordings on different topics that will help you practice your listening skills.
- English pills is another app that offers daily bits of English in different ways (phrasal verbs, proverbs, news, etc.)
- Memrise, not only English but other languages are available on this app to make language learning as fun as possible.
- Wlingua offers you more activities to learn English from A1 to B2

The sky is the limit. Now there is no excuse to improve your English 24/7.