Grammar

Extensive usage of have got instead of have.

Oh, look Potter. Youve got yourself a girlfriend.
I havent got a clue.
Ive got to go to the bathroom.

Shall (as opposed to will) is frequently use by the British.

The dark lord shall rise again.
No student under the age of seventeen shall be allowed to put forth
their name for the tournament.

Often uses the present perfect tense rather than simple

past tense.
Shes eaten too much.
A: Is Samantha here?
B: No, she's just left.
Grammar
Different usage of prepositional
verbs.
He studied international relation at
university.
Shell be coming home at the weekend.
I promised to write to her every day.
She enrolls on a course.

Multiple negation (Cockney English)

I aint never done anything.
Aint no one gonna get past Fluffy.
Grammar
Collective nouns can take either singular or plural
verb forms.
Which team is/are losing?
The committee was/were unable to agree.

Use of delexical verb (occurs with an object noun

which describes an action)
Id like to have a bath vs. Id like to take a bath
Shes having a nap vs. Shes taking a nap

The past tense and past participle of the verb

learn, spoil, spell, burn, dream can be either
irregular (learnt, spoilt, burnt) or
regular (learned, spoiled, burned)
Grammar
In case of two separate activities,
speakers of BrE would usually use (to
go and) plus bare infinitive.
Ill go and have a shower.
Come and see us next week.

Dates usually include a definite article

in UK spoken English, such as
the 20th of December or December the 20th
instead of December 20th
Lexicon
Lexical borrowings from Latin and French.
- Latin
nota (noted)
pictura (picture)
antiqua (antique)

- French
helicopter (hlicoptre)
chlorophyll (khlros)
oxygen (principe oxygne)
cinema (cinmatographe)
 Lexicon
Directional suffix -ward(s): forwards, towards, rightwards

Words end with -our instead of -or

behaviour
colour
neighbour
rumour
Flavour

Uses -ise spelling instead of -ize

Apologise
Authorise
Organise
Recognise
 Lexicon
Usage of gerunds in compounding nouns.
racing car (racecar)
rowing boat (rowboat)
sailing boat (sailboat)

Uses a lot of expressions.

belt up (shut up)
She told the students to belt up because they were making noise.

blimey (exclamation surprise)

Blimey, that's one big woman!

bobs your uncle (and thats it)

You want to go to the stadium? Go straight on until you reach the park,
take the first left, and Bobs your uncle - you're there!.

cheerio! (goodbye!)
 Lexicon
Consist a lot of British slangs (a type of language that consists of words and
phrases that are regarded as very informal)

mate (buddy, pal)

Alright, mate.

lads (boy, male)

Come on lads, lets get outta here.

lass (girl, female)

What a nice lass she is, eh?

scrummy (delicious)
Mrs Walkers pie was absolutely scrummy.

brilliant (something exciting/wonderful)

Youve got the job? Thats brilliant!

hunky-dory (everything is okay)

 References
30 Awesome British Slang Terms You Should
Start Using Immediately. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/
30-awesome-british-slang-terms-you-should-
start-using-immediately.html
Crystal,D. (1995).The Cambridge encyclopedia
of the English language. Cambridge [England:
Cambridge University Press.
Ronowicz,E., & Yallop,C. (1999). English around
the world. InEnglish: One language, different
cultures(pp.24-42). New York: Cassell.