What are the important differences between the American and British English?
People have built lists. There are hundreds of vocabulary differences. That may sound like a lot, but it is only a small fraction of the size of a normal person’s vocabulary. Most people use about 30,000 words regularly, so 300 words of difference is only 1% of the vocabulary. Admittedly, many of the differences are in common words, like “lorry” for “truck”, or “crisp” for “potato chip” so the differences can be more obvious than that 1% figure might indicate. The ones that cause the most embarrassment and amusement are the words that have different meanings. There’s a British expression for being very thorough: “that’s a real belt-and-braces approach”, and which has an American equivalent of “belts-and-suspenders”. But, “suspenders” (British) are “garters” (American), a slightly obsolete item of ladies’ underwear, so the Brits can perhaps be excused for laughing when an unsuspecting American uses this phrase. I suppose it creates some odd mental images… In the other direction, “Belts
