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| History of English |
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| Differences between American English and British English |
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The two main differences between these two languages are accent and vocabulary. The first is self-explanatory and most differences in accent are not marked enough to create an inability to understand or be understood. The differences in vocabulary however are a more complex issue. Firstly spelling can vary, for example British English uses a 'u' in words such as 'colour' and 'honour', whereas in American English this letter is omitted. The British use 're' instead of 'er' in words such as 'theatre' and 'centre'. Secondly different words are used in America and Britain for the same object which can often lead to great misunderstanding! Some examples are 'queue' (BE) = 'line' (AE), 'chemist' (BE) = 'drugist' (AE), and 'flyover' (BE) = 'overpass' (AE). Such differences are covered in the Business English Course.
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| And Finally... |
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The spread of the English language over the world's surface is phenomenal. It has a vocabulary more than twice the size of any other language and it is spoken as a national language by a greater number of nations than any other. Is it the language of the future?
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