Sorry to address a question to one person but I'm intrigued. Somebody once said that Britain and America were two countries separated by a common language- I'm just realising quite how true that is!
131269
We say flat tire, but the spare is (in some vehicles)smaller then the normal tires and they are called donuts.  I'm not world traveller, but I am an American.
125471
2 reasons:\n\n1. In many former colonies, 'English is used to dfine the imperial British empire, while 'British' is used to define the current, friendly 'United Kingdom'. THis can get especially funny here in America, where britian is both our greatest ally and the people we shot at to become a country.\n\n2. Before and during the change from 'Britian' to the 'United Kingdom' it was considered 'polictally correct' to refer to oneself as 'British', an inisuation that the old ethnities (irish, Welsh, Brition, Scottish, etc.) were no longer important, but that everyone belong to the unitied kingdom's 'british' ethnicithy. This backfired in the scottish and irish cultures and the use of the term 'English' is often seen as assoiciating oneself with the old, imperial empire.\n\nAmericians have a simliar issue with the term 'conferate' or 'southern dixie'.
53861
yes, I am certainly aware of this.  North America has 3 countries, Central America has 7 or 8 (I forget) and South America has a lot (sorry, I don't know that either).\n\nI think it all started when we called ourselves The United States of America.  We were already refered to as "The Americans" in England (since England owned the Colonies and Canada I guess it was a natural thing to do when refering to the far away place.  We still do it today when we speak of African or Asian people).\n\nIt isn't so much of a stereotype as it is a missuse of words.
219031
I think it was Noah Webster who when writing his dictionary decided to simplify several spellings in the English Language.  \nSome took, some didn't.  Some even changed the way Brits and Canadians and Aussies spell the word (musick is now music for instance).  \n\nI have never heard of a concentrated effort by the American Government to differentiate their language from British English and it doesn't sound like something that a limited federal government (pre-civil war) would really want to do.     More likely, English, given its ability to evolve quickly branched off because people liked the spelling in the US and a different spelling in the UK.
349449
Excellent.  I don't normally answer questions from the US, as it's not my culture and I wish US residents would refrain from advising Brits on legal matters as if our laws were identical.  We're different.\n\nBut this is clever and ironic, love it.
40317
Well all business letters either brit or Americans look the same it is type of english that is in them that is distinct. Remember we americans killed english..lol
434422
Well... We have a bond of friendship that goes back almost three centuries, and I for one hope it continues.  The current political situation aside, I think most people recognize that our two countries should remain allies for a long time.  \n\nMy mother is from England, came over to the U.S. after WWII.  All my relatives from England are wonderful people.
657814
i have no problem with americans, im english by the way, we are all the same, i dont care much for the bush administration especially on foreign policy but hey blair aint no better thats just politics, i judge people on who they are not where they come from, the world is only a small place and we are the same. i like the way you mention how we think americans are disrespectful i dont know about all americans but john s seems to be, not just disrespectful but ignorant also, we fought in those wars aswell john, and you were only our allies, allies that played a small part only in the war against hitler, we dont blame america for our misfortunes, we blame ourselves and colonialism where we exhausted ourselves giving the world "freedom" the same sort of "freedom" mr bush and mz rice are handing out now to the middle east, and we did that round about the same time that your ancestors john moved over to america from one of our (probably britain) nations, but anyway back to the question i dont dislike americans at all, i find myself disliking john s but thats just one american
517146
Well, they were on the same side in World War I and II.  France and Britain have often been on the same side - united against a common enemy e.g. Spain.  Sorry, can't help with the American Revolutionary War.
585612
Because United Kingdom, as its name implies, is a unified group of nations.... Northern Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales.  Just as "Russia" is really a collection of several republics and the US is a collection of states.\nEngland is only one of these (but the most powerful).
340999
I agree with you. But polls show that 2 out of 3 English people want England and the UK in a politically united Europe a European Union. It may be worth your while to consider supporting a withdrawal from the worst aspects of the treaty of Rome and consider closer links with the English speaking world, a English Speaking Union
338388
Yes, there's quite a lot of us from the UK, although we don't all still LIVE there, some of us are in other countries now!\n\nThe UK link at the bottom is a bit of a waste of time ... the questions are still the same .com ones!!!\n\nAnyway, lots of people ask questions like "For Brits only - what does this mean ...??" so just go ahead and post those Qs!!
674198
The Brits dont hate you for the war...they are quite emotional about the language 'raping' as they call it and for many other reasons. But its not that bad, is mostly the older generations that have issues. In my university (London, UK) Americans and English are always into one group, they see each other as cousins some might say. \nDont worry, not everyone hates you....the only ones hated are the blind patriots who think that war is great and that there is no place on earth than the US...people hate their ignorance not their origin.\nTake care!
94184
When I lived in England, my friends mocked my American accent all the time.  It was all in good fun.  Now I work with two Brits; they mock our accents occasionally.  My "accent" is a kind of generic east coast one, leaning toward New York; some Brits I know can exactly duplicate it.  There are plenty of Brits who have traveled in the US, and they understand the regional differences.
434579
Can't be done.  You'd have to say what origins you are including, not just which ones you are excluding.  There's really no such thing as English, historically speaking.  That's a comparatively recent development.  All the way back to way before Chaucer, which is used as an exercise in reading really old English, there was Latin mixed in.  There were words from Celtic, Angles, Saxons, and plenty of others.  You're about a thousand years too late to sort them out now.
597771
There were actually FOUR main regional migrations during the colonial period, each mainly from a distinct part of the British Isles, and each bringing the accent (and other 'folkways') of their home area.\n\nEach of these made their own contribution to what has become known as "General American English".\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_American\n\nAn excellent study of these four groups and their distinctive folkways is David Hacket FIscher's book *Albion's Seed*.\n\nFor an overview of the distinctives of each of these four regional DIALECTS, and the contribution each dialect made to "General American English" see:\nhttp://pandora.cii.wwu.edu/vajda/ling201/test3materials/AmericanDialects.htm\n\nFor a broader overview of how the various dialects of BOTH British English and American English developed, see:\nhttp://pandora.cii.wwu.edu/vajda/ling201/test3materials/USdialectsoverhead.htm
549439
It is called a Cheat Sheet in American English.  I think the British might be a Crib Sheet.  Hope this helps!