Neither version is more correct than the other; which version you should use depends on who your primary audience is. Here are some of the most common differences between British and American academic English.
Perhaps the two most iconic English varieties in the world are British and American accents. Both of them have a form of “general” accent which is perceived as more educated or correct than the other varieties, as if having an accent-free speech was a sign of social status.
American English. There are many differences between British and American punctuation, spelling, and grammar. Neither version is more correct than the other; which version you should use just depends on who your primary audience is.
Number of Speakers Worldwide
Around 250 million people speak with an American English accent, while around 60 million people speak with a British English accent. If you want to go with the numbers alone, you would be much better off learning American English.
British English is 'correct' where it is spoken, and American or Australian English is correct in those areas of the world. While it might not seem clean and neat to have so many 'correct' versions of a language, that's just the way it is. Of course, all of these versions of English are perfectly interchangeable.
The US and UK have a rather different style of politeness. You'll learn about them both in this video. In American English it's often important to show warmth and friendliness. That's true in British English too, but there we sometimes place more emphasis on not intruding or interfering.
UK English is the preferred variant in most European countries as well as in English-speaking countries in Africa and South Asia (i.e. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh).
Australia was colonised two centuries later, which explains why the accent of Australian English is more similar to British English compared to American English. However, American English became very popular in Australia later in history, which affected their pronunciation.
Generally speaking though, it can be said that the Welsh accent is probably closest to an Australian one. This is due to their similarities in terms of pronunciation and vocabulary choices – both Welsh and Australians tend to end words on a 'v' sound rather than an 'r' sound like other English speakers do.
Australian English can be described as a new dialect that developed as a result of contact between people who spoke different, mutually intelligible, varieties of English. The very early form of Australian English would have been first spoken by the children of the colonists born into the early colony in Sydney.
While there are certainly many more varieties of English, American English and British English are the two varieties that are taught in most ESL/EFL programs. Generally, it is agreed that no one version is "correct," but there are certainly preferences in use.
The standard British accent is something called received pronunciation, or RP. Geographically, people who speak with this accent live in the southeastern part of England.
People born in England are called English or British and can say that they live in England, Britain and/or the UK.
The results revealed that women and men find different accents attractive, and the only common accents on both lists were Australian and Southern. While men desired Israeli and Colombian accents the most, this was not mirrored amongst the women who were surveyed, who ultimately preferred British and Spanish accents.
The General Australian accent serves as the standard variety of English across the country. According to linguists, it emerged during the 19th century. General Australian is the dominant variety across the continent, and is particularly so in urban areas.
#1 The British accent
The accent proved particularly popular in countries like China, Sweden, India and the USA.
Article Talk. Strine, also spelled Stryne /ˈstraɪn/, describes a broad accent of Australian English.
Three main varieties of Australian English are spoken according to linguists: broad, general and cultivated. They are part of a continuum, reflecting variations in accent. They can, but do not always, reflect the social class, education and urban or rural background of the speaker.
#1 The Australian accent is non-rhotic
This is a key feature that only occasionally has exceptions. Sometimes native speakers will pronounce the /r/ sound at the end of the word if linking two words closely but only if the next word contains a vowel sound at the start.
Australian English is most similar to British English in spelling and sentence construction, although its accent and vocabulary are very distinct from the UK.
The most common verbal greeting is a simple “Hey”, “Hello”, or “Hi”. Some people may use Australian slang and say “G'day” or “G'day mate”. However, this is less common in cities. Many Australians greet by saying “Hey, how are you?”.
The closest language to English is one called Frisian, which is a Germanic language spoken by a small population of about 480,000 people. There are three separate dialects of the language, and it's only spoken at the southern fringes of the North Sea in the Netherlands and Germany.
The United States and India have the most total English speakers, with 306 million and 265 million, respectively. These are followed by Pakistan (104 million), the United Kingdom (68 million), and Nigeria (60 million).
It is believed that there are around 230 million native speakers in the United States, making it the largest English-speaking country, while the United Kingdom has approximately 60 million native speakers.