American words and phrases are being used more and more by people in the UK, according to an article in the Daily Mail newspaper.

For someone learning English, is this a good or a bad thing? Well, the author has definitely made his mind up! It talks about the ‘[terrible] adjective that had just arrived in London’ and ‘ugly Americanisms’. And it continues: ‘Nowadays, people have no idea where American ends and English begins’.

But it certainly can’t be all bad, can it? The article does, in fact, have some good things to say about the situation: ‘Sometimes, the language can be improved by the imports. The British would never be able even to define the deficit had we not adopted the American billion (a thousand million) to replace our old hardly used billion (a million million).’

Have things really changed that much? After all, ‘the success of English comes from its adaptability and the British have been borrowing words from America for at least two centuries.’ The fact that British English is adopting some American words and phrases is something that most English speakers already know. ‘Yet no one seems to care. The stern old type of English teacher has died out.’

Certainly, it is easier to communicate if we all use a similiar accent and vocabulary. As learning English is a necessity for lots of people, and a tool, many would welcome anything that makes it easier to communicate in English. If we do settle on a common dialect, which one should it be? Is there a ‘best English’?

‘Check out’ the following articles for some nice examples of the differences between American and British English:
Say no to the get-go! Americanisms swamping English, so wake up and smell the coffee
Britain declares war on words that snuck into our skedule…

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