Different Types of English

It is sometimes assumed that English is English and that there are no differences between different variations of English, but this is not the case. American English is in general quite different from UK English. The main differences relate to use of certain words and to spelling. American English is much more phonetic than UK English and a ‘z’ is often used where an ‘s’ would be used in English.

Words can vary in different types of English as well. An ‘estate agent’ in UK English is someone who works in ‘real estate’ in the US. British people talk of ‘rubbish’: the Americans call this ‘garbage’. The UK English have ‘bins’, the Americans have ‘dumpsters’.

The differences may be small, but it is worth taking the time and effort to ensure that any message you are trying to get across either to UK English speakers or to American English speakers is geared towards how they use the language in day to day speech.

The differences between these ways of using English makes translating any works into English a difficult business. There are translation packages available via the internet, but these can often translate words in a very literal way and the end result is a sentence that has actually lost its meaning.

The best way of translating any written piece of work into the English language is to first decide what kind of English you want the piece to be translated into: for example, if it is for a British market, then UK English. For best results, always use some kind of spell and grammar checker, so that you can ensure that you are using the appropriate terms, spelling and vocabulary.