Writing Tips: British for Americans
To anyone who has read something by J.K. Rowling, Terry Pratchett, or Agatha Christie, or watched a show like Doctor Who, Torchwood, or even Top Gear, the major differences between British and American English are fairly obvious. However, even though there is a significant amount of British literature and entertainment media available to writers in the US, and much American culture is readily available in the UK, allowing those on the other side of the pond to understand what you're writing no matter how American the expression, there are still many little things which will immediately make your reader think, or say, "that's written by a bloody septic!"
As was suggested in a previous fandom_grammar feature intended to help Brits write like an American, the best way to catch issues with Americanisms showing up in your writing of British characters is to find a beta who is British. As an Australian who writes for American TV shows, I am living proof that having a beta who "speaks the lingo" is the best way to avoid an embarrassing faux pas. Another suggestion from that feature was that if you're having trouble making your character sound "right", make a list of the expressions they use, and try and stick to those. That way, Rose will most appropriately be reaching for her bum bag, and not her fanny pack, the latter of which would have produced a most undesired response from your British and Commonwealth readers.
So, to help you avoid these troublesome situations and stop reviewers commenting that your Harry Potter sounded more like Sam Witwicky than an attendee of Hogwarts, here are some examples of things where the language may change, with examples from Torchwood and Criminal Minds.
Word Differences
Vocabulary
The most obvious difference between American and British English is in their differing vocabularies. For example, someone who is British would say lift instead of elevator, bonnet instead of hood, boot instead of trunk, and foyer instead of lobby. But there are many more differences than these commonly known ones. A good, and very amusing, resource for some of these differences is The Septic's Companion, which describes itself as "an A-to-Zed dictionary of British Slang words and phrases, written by a Scotsman living in America". (For those of you who may have used it in the past, this used to be called the English-to-American Dictionary.) About.com also offers a useful British vs. American English Vocabulary tool, where you can select the American word from a list, then click to see the British "translation".
Spelling
Coupled with the differences in vocabulary, there are also spelling differences between British and American English. Most writers are generally aware of colour being used instead of color, and neighbour instead of neighbor, but less well known is the fact that someone in Britain would write a cheque and not a check. As a general rule, words ending in -or in American English will end in -our in British English. Typically, words ending in -ize in American will end in -ise in British English, though the -ize spelling is becoming more generally accepted. There are various British dictionaries online which can help you with this, and a good example is the Macmillan Dictionary, which informs the user that flavor is the American spelling of flavour. An easy way to make sure you get these spellings correct is to set the dictionary in your word processor to be "English (U.K.)" when you're writing for a British audience.
Auxiliaries
British English uses the word shall much more commonly than American English, which uses will. And although shan't is becoming less common in British English, it is still often used in place of won't or am not going to."Where shall we meet, Gwen?"
versus
"Where will we meet, Morgan?"
Prepositions
The British tend to do things at the weekend, rather than on the weekend, and play in a team rather than on a team. In Britain you will always jump off something, not off of something, which is more commonly said in America. British English also indicates that someone will talk to another person, and not talk with them, though both forms are used in American English. For example:"Stay here, Gwen. I'm going to talk to the bigwigs at Canary Wharf."
versus
"Stay here, Dave. I'm going to talk with Strauss."
Past Participles
British English more commonly uses the irregular form for past participles, while the regular form is seen most often in America, even though both are generally accepted.
"Have we learnt anything from this?" Owen said.
versus
"Have we learned anything from this?" Emily said.
Compounds
British English uses towards, upwards, afterwards, leftwards, etc., while American English uses toward, upward, afterward, leftward. While not seeming to be a major difference, informal discussion among British writers indicates that this seems to be a difficult change to grasp for American writers.Jack strode off towards the sound of shooting.
Suddenly confronted with a large alien in the middle of the road, Gwen veered rightwards in order to avoid a collision.
In contrast, while American English adds the -s suffix to day, night, evening, Wednesday, etc., this is not done in Britain, except in the case of someone's job being described as working nights."These attacks all occur on a Monday."
versus
"These attacks all occur on Mondays."
Use of Tense
In British English, the present perfect tense is used to express an action which has occurred in the recent past, while in American English either the present perfect or simple past is acceptable."Feel like grabbing some tea, Tosh?"
"Sorry, Gwen, I've already eaten."
versus
"Feel like getting some dinner, Spence?"
"Sorry, JJ, I already ate."
There is a preference in British English for the present perfect tense over simple past tense, so that should be used whenever possible.
Britains use have got or have for possession, and have got to and have to as the modal for necessity, the form without got being used in more formal situations. Americans will more often use the form without got, and may also informally use got as a verb."What do you need, Ianto? I've got to go," Gwen said urgently.
versus
"What do you need, kid? I got to go," Morgan said urgently.
In addition, gotten will never be used in British English as a past participle, and even the American English use of got is often very colloquial and not at all correct. For more information, see our response on using got versus gotten.
Punctuation
Abbreviations and contractions
British English follows the rule that a full stop is only used when the last letter of the full word is not used in the abbreviation, and this is called a contraction. So Mr is not written with a full stop, while etc. and e.g. should be - though most other abbreviations are commonly written without a full stop.
Quotation marks
Style guides in America are consistent in their definition of when and how quotation marks should be used. This is not the case in Britain, where the usage will depend on the publication's house style. The one significant difference is that in Britain, punctuation used not to be included inside the quotation marks unless it was part of the original quote."Hurry it up, Owen. As Shakespeare said, ‘brevity is the soul of wit'."
versus
"Hurry it up, Reid. As Shakespeare said, ‘brevity is the soul of wit.'"
However, at many schools, the American usage is becoming more common.
The definitive article
As was mentioned in our previous feature American for Brits, institutional nouns take no definitive article when a certain role is implied, so at the University in America becomes at University in Britain. Beyond these examples though, British English differentiates between the expression in future, meaning "from now on", and in the future, meaning "at some future time". American English uses in the future for both meanings.
In Britain, numbered highways usually use the definitive article, so you will have "the M2" and "the A1". This is not common in America save for certain regional exceptions.
Dates in Britain will also include a definitive article in spoken English."The first time we picked up traces of this element was on May the fifteenth."
versus
"The first time the unsub struck was on May fifteenth."
There are many other differences between British and American English, including the grades at school, which as an Australian I find just as confusing most Americans do, so it's definitely best to ask a native if you're going to make any sort of reference to that in your fanfic. Also take note of the fact that while Americans may graduate from everything from Kindergarten through 12th Grade, the only thing that you graduate from in Britain, and most Commonwealth countries, is University. Also, a college in Britain refers to education for 16 to 19 year olds, or adult education, and the word university is only used for an actual university, commonly abbreviated to ‘uni'.
While this article specifically applies to British English, it can generally be applied to other regional English variants - Australian, Canadian, New Zealand, etc. However, those variants are not always the same, so care should definitely be taken when writing with an English-speaking cast which has regional variations.
The resources listed below offer more information on the differences between British and American English, and I would definitely recommend reading them if you are interested, but hopefully this article gives you a good starting point.
Resources
About.com
Wikipedia
The Septic's Companion
As was suggested in a previous fandom_grammar feature intended to help Brits write like an American, the best way to catch issues with Americanisms showing up in your writing of British characters is to find a beta who is British. As an Australian who writes for American TV shows, I am living proof that having a beta who "speaks the lingo" is the best way to avoid an embarrassing faux pas. Another suggestion from that feature was that if you're having trouble making your character sound "right", make a list of the expressions they use, and try and stick to those. That way, Rose will most appropriately be reaching for her bum bag, and not her fanny pack, the latter of which would have produced a most undesired response from your British and Commonwealth readers.
So, to help you avoid these troublesome situations and stop reviewers commenting that your Harry Potter sounded more like Sam Witwicky than an attendee of Hogwarts, here are some examples of things where the language may change, with examples from Torchwood and Criminal Minds.
Word Differences
Vocabulary
The most obvious difference between American and British English is in their differing vocabularies. For example, someone who is British would say lift instead of elevator, bonnet instead of hood, boot instead of trunk, and foyer instead of lobby. But there are many more differences than these commonly known ones. A good, and very amusing, resource for some of these differences is The Septic's Companion, which describes itself as "an A-to-Zed dictionary of British Slang words and phrases, written by a Scotsman living in America". (For those of you who may have used it in the past, this used to be called the English-to-American Dictionary.) About.com also offers a useful British vs. American English Vocabulary tool, where you can select the American word from a list, then click to see the British "translation".
Spelling
Coupled with the differences in vocabulary, there are also spelling differences between British and American English. Most writers are generally aware of colour being used instead of color, and neighbour instead of neighbor, but less well known is the fact that someone in Britain would write a cheque and not a check. As a general rule, words ending in -or in American English will end in -our in British English. Typically, words ending in -ize in American will end in -ise in British English, though the -ize spelling is becoming more generally accepted. There are various British dictionaries online which can help you with this, and a good example is the Macmillan Dictionary, which informs the user that flavor is the American spelling of flavour. An easy way to make sure you get these spellings correct is to set the dictionary in your word processor to be "English (U.K.)" when you're writing for a British audience.
Auxiliaries
British English uses the word shall much more commonly than American English, which uses will. And although shan't is becoming less common in British English, it is still often used in place of won't or am not going to."Where shall we meet, Gwen?"
versus
"Where will we meet, Morgan?"
Prepositions
The British tend to do things at the weekend, rather than on the weekend, and play in a team rather than on a team. In Britain you will always jump off something, not off of something, which is more commonly said in America. British English also indicates that someone will talk to another person, and not talk with them, though both forms are used in American English. For example:"Stay here, Gwen. I'm going to talk to the bigwigs at Canary Wharf."
versus
"Stay here, Dave. I'm going to talk with Strauss."
Past Participles
British English more commonly uses the irregular form for past participles, while the regular form is seen most often in America, even though both are generally accepted.
"Have we learnt anything from this?" Owen said.
versus
"Have we learned anything from this?" Emily said.
Compounds
British English uses towards, upwards, afterwards, leftwards, etc., while American English uses toward, upward, afterward, leftward. While not seeming to be a major difference, informal discussion among British writers indicates that this seems to be a difficult change to grasp for American writers.Jack strode off towards the sound of shooting.
Suddenly confronted with a large alien in the middle of the road, Gwen veered rightwards in order to avoid a collision.
In contrast, while American English adds the -s suffix to day, night, evening, Wednesday, etc., this is not done in Britain, except in the case of someone's job being described as working nights."These attacks all occur on a Monday."
versus
"These attacks all occur on Mondays."
Use of Tense
In British English, the present perfect tense is used to express an action which has occurred in the recent past, while in American English either the present perfect or simple past is acceptable."Feel like grabbing some tea, Tosh?"
"Sorry, Gwen, I've already eaten."
versus
"Feel like getting some dinner, Spence?"
"Sorry, JJ, I already ate."
There is a preference in British English for the present perfect tense over simple past tense, so that should be used whenever possible.
Britains use have got or have for possession, and have got to and have to as the modal for necessity, the form without got being used in more formal situations. Americans will more often use the form without got, and may also informally use got as a verb."What do you need, Ianto? I've got to go," Gwen said urgently.
versus
"What do you need, kid? I got to go," Morgan said urgently.
In addition, gotten will never be used in British English as a past participle, and even the American English use of got is often very colloquial and not at all correct. For more information, see our response on using got versus gotten.
Punctuation
Abbreviations and contractions
British English follows the rule that a full stop is only used when the last letter of the full word is not used in the abbreviation, and this is called a contraction. So Mr is not written with a full stop, while etc. and e.g. should be - though most other abbreviations are commonly written without a full stop.
Quotation marks
Style guides in America are consistent in their definition of when and how quotation marks should be used. This is not the case in Britain, where the usage will depend on the publication's house style. The one significant difference is that in Britain, punctuation used not to be included inside the quotation marks unless it was part of the original quote."Hurry it up, Owen. As Shakespeare said, ‘brevity is the soul of wit'."
versus
"Hurry it up, Reid. As Shakespeare said, ‘brevity is the soul of wit.'"
However, at many schools, the American usage is becoming more common.
The definitive article
As was mentioned in our previous feature American for Brits, institutional nouns take no definitive article when a certain role is implied, so at the University in America becomes at University in Britain. Beyond these examples though, British English differentiates between the expression in future, meaning "from now on", and in the future, meaning "at some future time". American English uses in the future for both meanings.
In Britain, numbered highways usually use the definitive article, so you will have "the M2" and "the A1". This is not common in America save for certain regional exceptions.
Dates in Britain will also include a definitive article in spoken English."The first time we picked up traces of this element was on May the fifteenth."
versus
"The first time the unsub struck was on May fifteenth."
There are many other differences between British and American English, including the grades at school, which as an Australian I find just as confusing most Americans do, so it's definitely best to ask a native if you're going to make any sort of reference to that in your fanfic. Also take note of the fact that while Americans may graduate from everything from Kindergarten through 12th Grade, the only thing that you graduate from in Britain, and most Commonwealth countries, is University. Also, a college in Britain refers to education for 16 to 19 year olds, or adult education, and the word university is only used for an actual university, commonly abbreviated to ‘uni'.
While this article specifically applies to British English, it can generally be applied to other regional English variants - Australian, Canadian, New Zealand, etc. However, those variants are not always the same, so care should definitely be taken when writing with an English-speaking cast which has regional variations.
The resources listed below offer more information on the differences between British and American English, and I would definitely recommend reading them if you are interested, but hopefully this article gives you a good starting point.
Resources
About.com
Wikipedia
The Septic's Companion