Dành cho ai thích tiếng Anh của người Mỹ

The American speak “English”. However “the English” of the British colonists whose first immigration to American occurred more than 300 years ago has continuously changed thanks to busy lives and new immigration waves of many people from other countries. Since the 1950’ of this century, especially during and after the World War II, there has been a tremendous change in American English used in the United States as a result of the catching up with the Second Industry Revolution. The number of new word, phrase, idiom is so many and diversified that there came what so–called Americanisms ( American English Dictionary ) which was firstly published in 1962. At that time it had more than 60,000 words. I. Differences between British English and American English ( a dialect of British English) : Generally speaking, they are not very different from each other. Most of the time when a British person converses with an American person they can understand each other although they may have their own attitudes toward their partner’s English (to be mentioned latter). 1) Lexical differences : A British person rarely says “I will go to the bookstore” but instead he says “I will go to the bookshop”. When an American person sees a film in which British English is used, he finds the word “flat” really strange and cannot understand it. Latter on he realizes that “flat” means “apartment”. The number of words having different word–form that carry the same meaning in British English and American English is many. Here are some of them : A : American English B : British English Airman (A) – aviator (B) Attorney(A)–barrister, solicitor(B) Bookstore(A) – bookshop (B) Automobile(A) – Motor car (B) Calling card (A) –visiting card (B) Candy (A) –Sweet (B) Elevator (A) – Lift (B) Gas / Gasoline (A) – Petrol (B) Kerosene (A) –Parrafin (B) Fall (A) – Autumn (B) Railroad (A) – Railway (B) Sidewalk (A) –Pavement (B) First name / Given name (A) – Christian name (B) Street car (A) – Tramcar (B) Fresh paint ! (A) – Wet paint ! (B) Grade (A) – Form (B) Flat (A) – Apartment (B) Film director (A) – Film producer (B) Traveling salesman (A) – Commercial traveller (B) Reùsumeù (A ) – Curriculum vitae (B) However, there are some words of the same word–form that have different meaning in British English and its dialect – American English : • Prep school (A) : a school that prepares srtudents for for college. Prep school (B) : a school for pupils between 7 and 13 years old. • Workhouse (A) : a corrective school. Workhouse (B) : a public institution where very poor people were sent to live and given work to do. • Avenue (A) : any wide streets. Avenue (B) : wide streets lined with trees or tall buildings. • Dormitory (A) : a room for several people to sleep in in a school or an institution. Dormitory (B) : a building at a college, university containing students’ rooms for living and sleeping. 2) Spelling and grammar differences: + Ending letters – ER : (A) center, (B) centre + Ending letters – OR : (A) labor, (B) labour (exception : (A) saviour, glamour). + (A) : traveler, totaled . . . (B) : traveller, totalled . . . (!) but : (A) : fulfill, installment. (B) : fulfil, instalment. + Ending –M (A) : program Ending –MME (B) : programme + Ending –ECTION (A) : connection, deflection, inflection. + Ending –EXION (B) : connexion, deflexion, inflexion. + Ending – IZE (A) : analyze, advertize. . . + Ending – ISE (B) : analyse, advertise . . . (!) But both the American and the British say : surprise, devise, advise. And sometimes we can find certain differences in grammar and the way of expressing in American English and British English. For example, a British person says “Go and bring that book back” while an American person won’t use “and” but says “Go bring that book back” . In American English , GOOD is preffered to WELL ( “look/feel good” instead of “look/feel well” ). To HAVE ( in negative and interogative form ) in American English is often used with DO “We don’t have any information” whereas the same meaning is expressed as follows “We haven’t got any information”. A British person may call it a surprise when he hears someone says : “We all aim to do the nice thing” because as a British person he will use AIM + at doing something not AIM + to do something, or he may acquire the similar feeling when he accidentally finds the preposition used after the adjective DIFFERENT is THAN not TO as usual. (our opinions are different than yours). PLEASE in American English always ends a request (Could you help me, please? ), but in British English it introduces or ends a request. 3) Pronunciation differences: In American English and British English, there are a lot of words of the same word-form but of the different pronunciation. We can name some : advertisement, inquiry, mobile, solitaire, mafia . . . It is generally easy to distiguish American pronunciation from British English one and other dialects’. Most kinds of American English do not have a vowel like British . Therefore should be pronounced in the same way as . The american say “r” sound very clearly unlike the British. However, perhaps the feature that makes American pronunciation easily recognized is its “nasal pronunciation”. It seems that there is an adding “ng” sound in most of the words uttered by the American. II. Why are there differences between American English and British English ? Firstly, it is geographical factor that makes the differences. It’s somehow like the differences between Chinese of the Chinese living in China and that of the Chinese in Taiwan or in Viet Nam. It is logical if there are changes in English of America. Secondly, the 18 th century of the English settlements on this new continent witnessed the birth of a new nation in conflict between the colonists and the mother country. The American wanted to independent, so they divorced English models. Language may not be an exception. Thirdly, thanks to the increasing status of the USA, American English has gradually developed with its own features. To The American : Time is money so they don’t want to waste their precious time. This leads to the change in American style of business letter –writing. The American want their letters to simple and they rarely use punctuation in their writing, which really contradicts British writing style of strictly –observed grammar. They tend to say more simply and quickly, that’s why they use a lot of weak forms and short forms in their utterance such as “Wanna make a call? or I gotta see the manager t’morrow”, or even the fact they pronounce the sound “t” like “d” is a good explanation. All this trend is now preferred by most of the businessperson in the world. What’s more is that the USA is a hub of attention for it is one of the most powerful countries in the world. People want to get information about this nation, to do so they have to know words used by the American. There are many American words or slang which are so popular that are used by other English –speaking people (they forget those words or slang are of American origin). Some of them are : ABC warfare, AIDS, airport, attorney, barbecue, best – seller, blues (a kind of music), blue –jean, Britisher, call-girl, Campus, citizen, column, close up, deadline, do and don’t, fake, freshman, grade school, hifi, highjack, high school, hot film, jeans, ku klux klan, kowtow, Main street, make a living, middle name, O.K, play –boy, quiz, rock’ n’roll, skyscraper, film star, sugar daddy, swak (seal with a kiss), taxi girl, thriller( impressive film), teenager, T –shirt, Uncle Sam, VIP, Wall street, yankee, Yes man . . . III. How do people think about American English ? To every language or dialect, there are often 2 opposite attitudes : negative and positive. 1) Negative attitudes to American English : Some Englishmen have very strong prejudices about Americanisms. The locution “I guess”, for example, to a British writer is the form of Americanisms which is “a threat to the British Way of Life.” And he strongly condemn “I guess” as an American important and its use by any British writer as a betrayal of the traditions of his/her national group. To him, such condemnation sometimes seems virtous because he wants to show his loyalty to the national group. Some Englishmen are proud of their RP (received pronunciation), and have negative attitudes toward others. They believe RP speakers are more intelligent, industrious, self –confident and determined than regional –accented speakers. Some people consider American English lawless, which means somehow “careless”. They believe the American “over-freely” speak and write. The don’t observe any rules (grammar rules. . .). Some Englishmen have up to now never accepted the free style of letter writng of the American, nor have they accepted using the word “washer” in stead of “washing machine” . Some say that the American are too much lazy in speaking, and they give out the proof that the American overuse weak forms and that pronounce “t” sound somewhat like “d” sound. Even in the USA, there are some places (Boston, for example) where people pronounce words like Englishmen. 2) Positive attitudes toward American English : Some people consider American English “a language of a nation” though it’s a dialect of English language. They believe that American English has its own features which must be respected. Simplicity and “freedom” in writing and speaking of American English are appreciated. Some foreign students feel that American accent is like “music rhythm”. When listening to an American person speaking, they have the feeling that he/she is “singing a song”. This might be true. One of the very first lesson for students who wants to get American accent training is the lesson of pronunciation, intonation, liaison. . . with rubber bands in students’ hands which make it like a music lesson. For that reason, they are more confident in conversation, interview. . .  . English : • Prep school (A) : a school that prepares srtudents for for college. Prep school (B) : a school for pupils between 7 and 13 years old. • Workhouse (A) : a corrective school. Workhouse. (A) – Autumn (B) Railroad (A) – Railway (B) Sidewalk (A) –Pavement (B) First name / Given name (A) – Christian name (B) Street car (A) – Tramcar (B) Fresh paint ! (A) – Wet paint ! (B) Grade (A). a surprise when he hears someone says : “We all aim to do the nice thing” because as a British person he will use AIM + at doing something not AIM + to do something, or he may acquire the similar