American English
American English or U.S. English is the dialect (or rather, the variety of dialects) of English language spoken in the United States. It is different in some ways from other variations of English, such as British English. Historically, many types of American English can be found in old local dialects of England.
Many people today know about American English even if ay live in the country where another form of English is spoken. This is partly because people hear and read American English via the media, for example CNN television, and the Internet, where the most common form of English is American English.
Because people all over the world hear and read American English as well as other versions of English we may find that the English language starts to take on new words. English has been changing for centuries, adding new words to its vocabulary. For example, the English language spoken in India, which has more than one billion people, will add more American English words to go along with its British English base and many other words adopted into English usage in India from Indian languages such as Hindi.
Sometimes people will learn American English as it is spoken in America - for example, in telephone call centers in India and other places, people often learn American English in order to sound more like air customers who call India from America. These people often continue to use American English in everyday life.
Many word definitions are different in American English. Most changes in the language start with small things like this - for instance Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese all came from Latin due to many small changes in use over centuries.
Spelling in American English[edit]
Compared to British English, in American English:
- doughnut is spelled "donut"
- centre is spelled "center"
- colour is spelled "color"
- draught is spelled "draft"
- honour is spelled "honor"
- gaol (uncommon) is spelled "jail"
- neighbour is spelled "neighbor"
- plough is spelled "plow"
- realise is spelled "realize"
- summarise is spelled "summarize"
There are also some words in American English that are the bit different from British English, e.g.: