American and British English differences

Slight lexical differences

• Miscellaneous lexical differences between British and American English
• Verb past tenses with -t: Commonwealth dreamt, leapt, learnt, spelt; American dreamed, leaped, learned, spelled. As with the "tre" words, the t endings are occasionally found in American texts. The forms with -ed are also common in Commonwealth usage, and preferred by many as they are weak verbs. (The two-syllable form learnèd {{IPA|/'lɜːnɪd/}}, usually spelled simply as learned, is still used to mean "educated", or to refer to academic institutions, in both British English and American English.)
• Other verb past tense forms: Commonwealth fitted, forecasted, knitted, lighted, wedded; American fit, forecast, knit, lit, wed. The distinction is, however, not rigorous as the Commonwealth forms are also found in American, and both lit and forecast are standard in Commonwealth English.
  Also, the past participle gotten is rarely used in modern British English (although it is used in some dialects), which generally uses got (as do some Americans), except in old expressions such as ill-gotten gains. Commonwealth usage retains the form forgotten, though. Furthermore, according to the Compact Oxford English Dictionary, "The form gotten is not used in British English but is very common in North American English, though even there it is often regarded as non-standard."
  Fitted is used in both conventions as an adjective ("fitted sheets" are the same size as the mattress) and as the past tense of fit ("to suffer epilepsy", for example, "Leavitt fitted" in The Andromeda Strain); however fit and fitting do not denote epileptic seizure in ordinary British use (though that usage is common within medical circles), as the same effect is achieved by to have a fit or to throw a fit.
  The past participle proven is frequently used in American English, although careful speakers usually avoid it, and it remains proved in British English (except in adjectival use; and usage is different in Scots law). American English further allows other irregular verbs, such as thrive (throve–thriven) or sneak (snuck), which remain regular in Commonwealth English, and often mixes the preterite and past participle forms (spring–sprang (U.S. sprung)–sprung), sometimes forcing verbs such as shrink (shrank–shrunk) to have a further form, thus shrunk–shrunken. (The Associated Press Stylebook in American English treats some irregular verbs as colloquialisms, insisting on the regular forms for the past tense of dive, plead and sneak.)
  See also: .
• Directional suffix -ward(s): English forwards, towards, rightwards, etc.; American forward, toward, rightward. The forms with -s are only used as adverbs or prepositions. In American English, the -s forms are fast disappearing, except afterwards. In British English, there is a semantic difference in the usage of the two possible forms. The Oxford English Dictionary states the following about forward and forwards: "/.../ the latter expresses a definite direction viewed in contrast with other directions. In some contexts either form may be used without perceptible difference of meaning; the following are examples in which only one of them can be used: 'The ratchet-wheel can move only forwards'; 'the right side of the paper has the maker's name reading forwards'; 'if you move at all it must be forwards'; 'my companion has gone forward'; 'to bring a matter forward'; 'from this time forward'."
• Verbs in British English that are spelt with -ise, such as organise, legalise, are spelt with -ize in American English. The -ise forms became more widespread in British English under 19th-century French influence, partly displacing the older -ize (which continues to be used by Oxford University Press and is listed first in most British Dictionaries.)The same goes for the nouns and adjectives derived from those verbs: organisation -> organization, //etc//. The verb to analyse is spelt to analyze in American English.
• In British English the word sat is often colloquially used to cover sat, sitting and seated: "I've been sat here waiting for half an hour." "The bride's family will be sat on the right side of the church." This construction is not often heard outside Britain. In the 1960s, its use would mark a speaker as coming from the north of England but by the turn of the 21st century this form had spread to the south. Its use often conveys lighthearted informality, as many speakers intentionally use an ungrammatical construction they would probably not use in formal written English. This colloquial usage is widely understood by British speakers. Similarly stood can be used instead of standing. To an American these usages may imply that the subject had been involuntarily forced to sit or stand.
• A few "institutional" nouns take no definite article when a certain role is implied: for example, at sea , in prison . Among this group, Commonwealth English has in hospital and at university , where American English requires in the hospital and at the university. (A nurse, visitor, etc. would be in the hospital in both systems.) On the other hand, American English distinguishes in back of from in the back of; the former is unknown in Britain and liable to misinterpretation as the latter. Both however distinguish in front of from in the front of.
• Commonwealth English allows agentive -er and attributive -ing suffixes for football (also cricket; often netball; occasionally basketball). American English always uses football player rather than footballer. Where the sport's name is usable as a verb, the suffixation is standard: for example, golfer.
• English writers everywhere occasionally make new compound words from common phrases; for example, health care is now being replaced by healthcare on both sides of the Atlantic. However, American English has made certain words in this fashion which are still treated as phrases in Commonwealth countries. For example, Americans write "trademarks," but some other countries write "trade-marks" or "trade marks."
• In compound nouns of the form <noun>, sometimes American English favours the bare infinitive where British English favours the gerund. Examples include: fry pan / frying pan; jump rope / skipping rope; racecar / racing car; rowboat / rowing boat; sailboat / sailing boat; swimsuit / bathing suit. In each of these pairs, the former term is more common in America than Britain and the latter more common in Britain than America (although it is not necessarily the case that the former is more common than the latter within America or the latter more common than the former within Britain).