English: England Vs America | Daily Shite. Barton-Confusing And Embarrassing Differences between American and British English. The Internet TESL Journal We speak English in the UK.So do you in the US.But yet we don't speak the same language. David BartonDept. of Geological Sciences, Durham University, South Road,Durham, United Kingdom, DH1 3LEd.j.barton [at] durham.ac.uk David Barton maintains an extensive list ofWords That Could Be Confusing And Embarrassing In The UK & USSee the complete list at It was said by Sir George Bernard Shaw that 'England and America are two countries separated by the same language'.
My first personal experience of this was when I worked as a camp counsellor for two months in 1993 in a Summer Camp run by the Boy Scouts of America, as part of an international leader exchange scheme. Before I went, all the participants in the scheme were given a lecture by an American woman in Baden Powell House (the world headquarters of the Scout Movement) in South Kensington, London. My research into the subject led me to several conclusions. Billion. Bomb. Z. Crazy English. Crazy English from Beautiful Perth. 1. The bandage was wound around the wound. 2. The farm was used to produce produce. 3. The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21.
Let's face it - English is a crazy language. And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which an alarm goes off by going on.
The confusion of English words that result in malapropisms and how to avoid such errors.