Which is easier to master? American English or British English?

This includes all native slang.

If you ask an American, I'm sure they'll say theirs, same with a Brit.

LOL they're pretty straightforward if you already know English

oh fack off

Wad u say u bloody wanker ;) Did I do it right?

Including native slang? American English. British English is so much more complex this has way more than one type of slang, and many of it regional and based on cities. Not to mention half of them aren't even similar in anyway shape or form.

Erm, about the same I guess. Though British > American when it comes to cursing and it just sounds better with an English accent.

Well if mastering includes all of those obscure Cajun dialects...

American English is far more difficult.

@handyjayjr: Close enough ;p

Aren't they the same, accept with the British word you just say the C-word a lot?

Probably about the same

@thekillerklok: would you even include those? Most of those are French in origin.

Aside from minor details spelling like

• gray vs. grey
• color v. colour
• favorite vs. favourite

there's not that big of a difference.

As a non-native English speaker, I have to say that spoken British English is harder to understand than the American version.

@mysticmedivh: Get those "u"s outta there!

Because it is still english lol.

@thekillerklok: it's not. It's a hybrid language. It's not short language e.g. Slang. It's a mix of American English, and to quote what you linked "our vocabulary is full of enough francophone words and mistranslated English phrases". That alone is not shortened language or informal language. It is a whole other language which take parts from other languages. This would be the equivalent of saying Spanish is American English language because of how widely used it is in America. Or welsh is British English because it is part of Britain.

This would be the equivalent of saying Spanish is American English language because of how widely used it is in America

No that comparison is off. There is a diffrence between Cajun French and Cajun English.

Cajun english is english at it's base just ruined with partial french pronunciation.

@thekillerklok: yes there is, one is the original language of the Cajun people (the French) the other is what it has become due to influence of that language and the English language, so saying it is a hybrid is true. It is filled with French words. You realise that when you go down that article it has a section on frequently used French words?

I wasn't disagreeing with the fact that language was/is a hybrid.

You do realize that french cajun is a dying language right? and over time people have switched from the french to english...

of course the article links french words... You need to learn to think with portals(Time)

There are cajuns speaking english... while a few french words may be occasionally thrown about they are still speaking english now...

@thekillerklok: if you agree that the language is a hybrid, then it is not American English. It is a hybridisation of classic American English with French Cajun. Two distinctly different languages made into one with roots in both. It doesn't make the language English, nor French. To include it in American English just because it has similarities with English at points, never mind the fact of the French pronunciations.

I'm aware it is a dying language. Just like the Welsh language is in decline, and Gaelic in Scotland/northern Ireland is almost completely eradicated. The people who speak both of those speak English, and it's not uncommon to hear them use those words when speaking English. It doesn't make it English.

The French pronunciation included take the language away from English, or even informal English and onto something else.

American English i barely understand British english

Define British English? Do you just mean the English spoke in England?

yes I believe that's what OP meant. They really aren't the same; Rosetta Stone even has separate programs for american & english(british)

They also do the same thing with Spanish (latin america & spain)

that said, American would prolly be much more difficult. We have too many exceptions and loop holes in our language & even words that we pronunciate totally wrong are said wrong by the majority of us (americans)........British is like "proper" english

British English seems to only be spoken in Britain. Almost everywhere else, even in Europe, seems to lean more towards a American accent than a British one.

@jonny_anonymous: with the comment on slang I'd assume it encompasses the whole of Great Britain. While we use the same English in Scotland, we have completely different slang. So the language would be the same, but the slang is different.

No, you sound like an uneducated 20 year old chav.

@redxiii18881990: What confuses me is what you guys call the land mass. Is Great Britain a term for just the island while united Kingdom describes Ireland as well?

Don't know what a chav is but cheers ol' chap.

@captain_inverse:

Well if we are talking all of Britain and not just England then that's an entirely different thing that goes beyond just slang. I mean Scots is technically "British English" but it's so different from the English spoke in England that it's classed as an entirely different dialect.

It's the difference between Scottish English and Scots language.

For any Americans or other non-British people reading this thread, here's an example of our very confusing ways.

@the_stegman: the correct term would be the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The land mass that connects Scotland, England, and wales is Great Britain, and United Kingdom is including Northern Ireland. The Republic of Ireland is not connected to U.K in a political sense.

@jonny_anonymous: I would agree that they are totally different dialects, and in some occasions totally different languages, but I wouldn't class them as British English or slang in the language.

Britain refers to the area that covers England and Wales. It gets its name from Britannia, the name the Romans gave it when it was a province of the Empire. Scotland is not included here because the Brittonic Celtic tribes didn't live beyond Hadrian's Wall and was never fully absorbed into the Empire because of the Resistance from the Picts, this land was named Caledonia. Later when referring to Britain and Caledonia together the term Greater Britain was used (although technically inaccurate). When the Union of the Crowns happened between Scotland and England the state was called the United Kingdom, and then later the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Then most of Ireland broke away and only Northern Ireland remained and the official term became The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

So to sum up:

Britain = England & Wales

Great Britain = England, Wales & Scotland

United Kingdom = England, Wales, Scotland & Northen Ireland

To clarify some points tho; the United Kingdom IS NOT A COUNTRY. It is a Union between countries.

"British" is pretty much an accepted shorthand for a citizen of the United Kingdom even though it's technically not accurate. People from Scotland and Ireland don't need to identify as British to be from the United Kingdom.

"The British Isles" is a term sometimes used to refer to Great Britain, Ireland and the smaller surrounding islands like the Isle of Mann, however, it's an old inaccurate imperialistic term usually used by assholes. If you do need a term for the geographical region rather than the nations use Anglo-Celtic Isles or Islands of the North Atlantic (IONA).

I don't think it matters. Except for the British overusing the letter "u" and saying "lift" instead of "elevator", the languages are almost identical.

@mrmonster: while mostly identical, you are underestimating the number of differences.

BB

@billy_batson: I wish I could posts pictures. You'd have got a mortal kombat finish him. Just imagine I've done that.

@jonny_anonymous: @redxiii18881990: Ah, that clarifies things!

@handyjayjr: Google it.

Fun Fact: The reason American English words are spelt differently and are missing all there U's is because Noah Webster (the guy who wrote Websters Dictionary) wanted to assert the US's cultural Independence from the British Empire after the Revolution.

American definitely. British English has so many words that aren't spelled as they sound.

Think about the pronunciation of the words or & our.

Humour - Pronounced like hum-or. Not hum-our.

Honour - Pronounced like hon-or. Not hon-our.

Now think about the pronunciation of words ending with er & re.

Metre - Pronounced like meet-er. Not meet-tree.

Fibre - Pronounced Fi-ber. Not fib-re.

The spelling of American English is more phonetic, and therefor easier for me. :P

It really depends on which particular accent, I catch on to pronunciation pretty quickly but I grew up qouting movies and moved around a lot as a kid.

I actually like British english more then american, even though i am american, though I can't tell you which british accent I like or find easier.