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American English is the form of English used in the United States. It includes all English dialects used within the United States of America. British English is the form of English used in the United Kingdom. It includes all English dialects used within the United Kingdom. Differences between American and British English include pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary (lexis), spelling, punctuation, idioms, and formatting of dates and numbers.
Differences in the use of Prepositions

There are also a few differences between British and American English in the use of prepositions. For example: While the British would play in a team, Americans would play on a team. Another example: While the British would go out at the weekend, Americans would go out on the weekend.

Differences in Vocabulary
While some words may mean something in British English, the same word might be something else in American english and vice versa. For example, Athlete in British English is one who participates in track and field events whereas Athlete in American English is one who participates in sports in general.

Rubber in British English: tool to erase pencil markings.
Rubber in American English: condom.

There are also some words like AC, Airplane, bro, catsup, cell phone etc. which are common in American English and not used very often in British English. Some words widely used in British English and seldom in American English are advert, anti clockwise, barrister, cat's eye.

Differences in Spelling
There are many words that are spelt differently in both forms of English. Some examples are:

American English spelling British English spelling
color colour
fulfill fulfil
center centre
analyze analyse
aging ageing
dialog dialogue
anesthesia, anaesthesia

A majority of the spelling differences between American and British English fall into the following categories:

Latin-derived spellings
-our (British) and -or (American). e.g. colour vs color
-re (British) and -er (American). e.g. centre vs center
-ce (British) and -se (American). e.g. defence vs defense

Greek-derived spellings
-ise (British) and -ize (American). e.g. centralise vs centralize
-yse (British) and -yze (American). e.g. analyse vs analyze
-ogue (British) and -og (American). e.g. dialogue vs dialog
Simplification of ae and oe in American English. e.g. gynaecology vs gynecology
Differences in Verb usage

American and British English may also use a base verb in different manners. For example: For the verb " to dream", Americans would use the past tense dreamed while the British would use dreamt in past tense. The same applies to "learned" and "learnt". Another example of differing past tense spellings for verbs in American and British English is "forecast". Americans use forecast while the British would say forecasted in simple past tense.

Differences in Pronunciation
Some words that are pronounced differently in American vs British English are controversy, leisure, schedule etc. There are also some words like Ax (Axe in British) and Defense (Defence in British) which have the same pronunciation but different spellings in both languages.

Time telling in British vs American English
Both languages have a slightly different structure of telling the time. While the British would say quarter past ten to denote 10:15, it is not uncommon in America to say quarter after or even a quarter after ten.

Thirty minutes after the hour is commonly called half past in both languages. Americans always write digital times with a colon, thus 6:00, whereas Britons often use a point, 6.00.

Differences in Punctuation
While the British would write Mr, Mrs, Dr, the Americans would write Mr., Mrs., Dr.
There is an old saying that America and Britain are "two nations divided by a common language."

No one knows exactly who said this, but it reflects the way many Brits feel about American English. My British friend still tells me, "You don't speak English. You speak American."
But are American and British English really so different?

Vocabulary
The most noticeable difference between American and British English is vocabulary. There are hundreds of everyday words that are different. For example, Brits call the front of a car the bonnet, while Americans call it the hood.

Americans go on vacation, while Brits go on holidays, or hols.

New Yorkers live in apartments; Londoners live in flats.

There are far more examples than we can talk about here. Fortunately, most Americans and Brits can usually guess the meaning through the context of a sentence.

Collective Nouns
There are a few grammatical differences between the two varieties of English. Let's start with collective nouns. We use collective nouns to refer to a group of individuals.

In American English, collective nouns are singular. For example, staff refers to a group of employees; band refers to a group of musicians; team refers to a group of athletes. Americans would say, "The band is good."

But in British English, collective nouns can be singular or plural. You might hear someone from Britain say, "The team are playing tonight" or "The team is playing tonight."

Auxiliary verbs
Another grammar difference between American and British English relates to auxiliary verbs. Auxiliary verbs, also known as helping verbs, are verbs that help form a grammatical function. They "help" the main verb by adding information about time, modality and voice.

Let's look at the auxiliary verb shall. Brits sometimes use shall to express the future.
For example, "I shall go home now." Americans know what shall means, but rarely use it in conversation. It seems very formal. Americans would probably use "I will go home now."
In question form, a Brit might say, "Shall we go now?" while an American would probably say, "Should we go now?"

When Americans want to express a lack of obligation, they use the helping verb do with negative not followed by need. "You do not need to come to work today." Brits drop the helping verb and contract not. "You needn't come to work today."

Past Tense Verbs
You will also find some small differences with past forms of irregular verbs.
The past tense of learn in American English is learned. British English has the option of learned or learnt. The same rule applies to dreamed and dreamt, burned and burnt, leaned and leant.

Americans tend to use the -ed ending; Brits tend to use the -t ending.
In the past participle form, Americans tend to use the -en ending for some irregular verbs. For example, an American might say, "I have never gotten caught" whereas a Brit would say, "I have never got caught." Americans use both got and gotten in the past participle. Brits only use got.

Don't worry too much about these small differences in the past forms of irregular verbs. People in both countries can easily understand both ways, although Brits tend to think of the American way as incorrect.

Tag Questions
A tag question is a grammatical form that turns a statement into a question. For example, "The whole situation is unfortunate, isn't it?" or, "You don't like him, do you?"
The tag includes a pronoun and its matching form of the verb be, have or do. Tag questions encourage people to respond and agree with the speaker. Americans use tag questions, too, but less often than Brits.

Spelling
There are hundreds of minor spelling differences between British and American English. You can thank American lexicographer Noah Webster for this. You might recognize Webster's name from the dictionary that carries his name.
Noah Webster, an author, politician, and teacher, started an effort to reform English spelling in the late 1700s.
He was frustrated by the inconsistencies in English spelling. Webster wanted to spell words the way they sounded. Spelling reform was also a way for America to show its independence from England.
You can see Webster's legacy in the American spelling of words like color (from colour), honor (from honour), and labor (from labour). Webster dropped the letter u from these words to make the spelling match the pronunciation.
Other Webster ideas failed, like a proposal to spell women as wimmen. Since Webster's death in 1843, attempts to change spelling rules in American English have gone nowhere.
Not so different after all

British and American English have far more similarities than differences. We think the difference between American and British English is often exaggerated. If you can understand one style, you should be able to understand the other style.

With the exception of some regional dialects, most Brits and Americans can understand each other without too much difficulty. They watch each other's TV shows, sing each other's songs, and read each other's books.

They even make fun of each other's accents.

reference:
Adam Brock wrote this article for VOA Learning English. Jill Robbins and Kathleen Struck were the editors.

Word in This Story
collective noun - n. a word which refers to a collection of things taken as a whole.
auxiliary verb - n. a word used in construction with and preceding certain forms of other verbs, as infinitives or participles, to express distinctions of tense, aspect, mood, etc
modality- n. expressing ability, necessity, possibility, permission or obligation.
lexicographer - n. someone who writes dictionaries
inconsistency - n. the quality or fact of not staying the same at different times
exaggerate - v. to think of or describe something as larger or greater than it really is.