3 Common Differences between Australian English and American English

There are many different forms of English around the world, whether it is the way a word is spelled, or how it is pronounced. There are even differences in the grammar if you are not careful.

You may be curious as to how different is Australian English from American English, here are 3 common differences that they have.

So let’s begin.

Pronunciations and Accents

The big difference here between Australian and American English is the way they pronounce words and their accents. A lot of people think that the American accent is very easy to understand as opposed to the Australian accent.

Australian English is quite similar to British when compared to American English, but American English has gotten more popular in the later years in Australia, which has affected some of the Australian pronunciations.

Words like ”Tuesday” will sound like “Chewsday” when spoken by an Australian and not by an American.

Although words such as, “Daughter” and “ Little” are both pronounced the same in Australian and American English with a “d” sound - “Daughder”, and “Liddle”.

The main Australian accent that we may have heard from movies like “Crocodile Dundee” isn’t what all Australians sound like. It is often said that the Australian accent is very hard to mimic and a lot of actors struggle with getting it to sound right.

For example “Car” an Australian wouldn’t say the “r” at the end, ending up with “Ka”, while an American will emphasize the “r” at the end.

Spelling and Vocabulary

Both Australian and American English have some similarities in their choice of words, like “Chips” and “Apartment”. Although the Australian has their spelling of words that is even different from the British and American, like “Lollies” instead of “Sweets” (British) and “Candy” (American).

The big difference between spelling words in Australian English is that it follows the same spelling rules as British English, Centre (not Center), Colour (not Color) Analogue (not Analog), and more.

In American spelling, instead of “s” they will have a “z” for words like “apologize” or “realize”, while the Australian follows the British way of using an “s” instead of a “z”.

When it comes to writing down a date, like a birthday for example. Australia writes the day, month, and year, rather than the American way of month, day, and year, which can be confusing.

The Grammar Rules and Slang

Probably not as noticeable unless you are reading something in both Australian and American forms of English.

In an American text “I’d forgotten” would be “I’d forgot” in Australia, following the British in this case, but often enough some grammatical rules Australia does follow the American.

“The class is happy” is used in both Australian and American, while the British will write “are” instead of “is”.

In slang words, Australia does have quite a few creative ones, some that even British English use as well.

“Mate” means friend in both Australian and British English and most likely won’t be used by an American, instead they may say “buddy” or “bud” as the term “mate” is not used the same way as the Australians and British.

“How's it going?” in American Slang is the same as “How ya going?” in Australia.

Conclusion

It can get tricky when you are learning English with all the different kinds of dialects and forms of the language. Whatever version of English you are learning or want to learn, they can all understand each other, regardless of the differences that they may have.

Always be sure to look up words in online dictionaries, which will tell you both the American and Australian/British ways of spelling.