--- title: British and American words — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «British and American words», a lesson of the language course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Neither side is wrong: "colour" is right in Britain and "color" is right in America, just as "lift" and "elevator" are both proper words for t --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/21-british-and-american-words/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Language](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/) / British and American words # British and American words Lesson 21 of the language course of Mova's primary school: 13 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/language/21-british-and-american-words/). - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/21-british-and-american-words/2/) — Neither side is wrong: "colour" is right in Britain and "color" is right in America, just as "lift" and "elevator" are both proper words for the same machine. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/21-british-and-american-words/3/) — Some "American" words are really old British ones: "fall" for autumn and "soccer" for football both started in England and simply stayed alive across the ocean. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/21-british-and-american-words/4/) — The trick is to know both words and use the one your listener knows, like a kid who speaks two kinds of English. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/21-british-and-american-words/5/) — British "chips" are American "fries"; British "crisps" are American "chips". - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/21-british-and-american-words/6/) — In America "pants" means trousers; in Britain "pants" means underwear, so an American praising your "pants" means your trousers. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/21-british-and-american-words/7/) — The path beside a road is a "pavement" in Britain and a "sidewalk" in America. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/21-british-and-american-words/8/) — American spelling dropped the u from words like "color" and "favorite", helped by Noah Webster's dictionary of 1828; Britain kept "colour" and "favourite"; both spellings are correct in their own country. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/21-british-and-american-words/9/) — A British "biscuit" is an American "cookie"; an American "biscuit" is a soft bread roll a bit like a scone. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/21-british-and-american-words/11/) — "Soccer" was made up by students in England in the 1800s, from "association football"; Americans kept it to tell it apart from American football. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/21-british-and-american-words/13/) — The letter Z is "zed" in Britain, Ireland, Canada, Australia and most English-speaking places, and "zee" in the USA. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/21-british-and-american-words/14/) — More pairs, British first: lift and elevator, torch and flashlight, queue and line, petrol and gas, holiday and vacation, flat and apartment. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/21-british-and-american-words/15/) — Britain, Ireland and Australia say "maths"; the USA and Canada say "math"; both are short for "mathematics". - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/21-british-and-american-words/16/) — In America the "first floor" is the floor at street level; in Britain that is the "ground floor", and the British "first floor" is one floor up. - ← previous: [Is there one proper English? The big arguments](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/20-is-there-one-proper-english/) - next →: [Where English came from](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/22-where-english-came-from/) - ↑ back to [Language](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/language/)