New Yorkers live in apartments; Londoners live in flats.
Americans go on vacation, while Brits go on holidays, or hols.
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?”
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.
Մարիամ Շախվերդյան 