One of the most noticeable features is the different sound for the ‘i’ in words like ‘night’ and ‘like’. Therefore, the river mentioned above would be called the River Darling.Īustralian English vs American English truly takes on a life of its own when it comes to the pronunciation of words and this is why most people with Australian accents sound so distinctive. Yet, in Southern Australia, the British naming system is used, with the word ‘River’ appearing first, as with the River Thames. To give an Australian example, it would be the Darling River. For most of Australia, the American naming convention is used, so the word ‘River’ appears last, as with the Hudson River or the Mississippi River. Interestingly, the naming of rivers follows either American or British conventions, depending on where in the country you are. For example, both Australians and Americans would say “the football team has scored a goal”, whereas in British English, they would say “the football team have scored a goal”.
When dealing with collective nouns, Australian English has more in common with the American version of the language. However, like with American English, Australians are more likely to say numbers like 1,100 as “eleven hundred”, rather than “one thousand, one hundred”. Much like with British English, Australian English has irregular past tense and past participles of verbs like ‘spell’ and ‘smell’, so they become ‘spelt’ and ‘smelt’, respectively. Furthermore, even though the British English spelling of ‘labour’ is most common, the Australian Labor Party’s name has an Americanised spelling instead. The word ‘inquire’ is often used instead of ‘enquire’, which resembles American English, while the word ‘program’ is used instead of the British English ‘programme’. Yet, there are plenty of exceptions to this. For example, in terms of spelling, Australian English most closely resembles British English. The ‘u’ is retained in words like ‘colour’ and the ‘ise’ ending is used instead of the Americanised ‘ize’ suffix on words like ‘realise’/’realize’. Grammatical features of Australia EnglishĪustralian English’s reputation as an amalgam of British and American English can be understood more clearly when you look at its grammatical features. So, with that in mind, here is our quick guide to Australian English. Learning the specific features can be beneficial to anyone planning on travelling to the country, or anyone hoping to find work in the country in future. However, it is important to understand that there are a number of unique features as well, including exclusive vocabulary. Generally speaking, Australian English takes features from both British and American English, so it is sometimes considered a combination of the two variations. Linguistic features of Australian English
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