Article for translators: British vs. American English

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British vs. American English

Language article reprinted with permission of
www.english-to-french-translation.com

By J. McCorquodale

Legal Translator

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George Bernard Shaw famously said that the British and the Americans were "two nations separated by a common language".

Below are some examples of different usage in British and American English. You may already be aware of some of these differences, others may surprise you.

French	UK	US
Jour férié	bank holiday	legal holiday
15 jours	Fortnight	two weeks
assemblée générale ordinaire/extraordinaire	Ordinary/extraordinary general meeting (of the shareholders)	regular/special shareholders' meeting
statuts	(memorandum and) articles of association	(articles of incorporation and) bylaws
compte de résultats	profit and loss account	income statement
Président	Chairman	President/Chairman
Directeur général	managing director	chief executive officer
agent immobilier	estate agent	realtor
bureau de change	bureau de change	currency exchange
Immobilier	Property	real estate
code postal	post code	zip code
prison/maison d'arrêt	Prison	Penitentiary
poser sa candidature (politique)	stand (for office)	run (for office)
fonds (FCP)	unit trust	mutual fund
Chèque (bancaire)	Cheque	Check
Compte courant	current account	checking account

These are just a few examples. It is often worthwhile establishing whether your audience / the recipients of your document would prefer British or American terminology, as although many US terms may be understood by a British person and vice versa others may cause confusion and a need for time to be spent on further explanations/clarifications.

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