Prepositions

　　介词

　　The differences below are only a general rule. American speech has influenced Britain via pop culture, and vice versa. Therefore, some prepositional differences are not as pronounced as they once were.

　　下面举例的区别只是一般规则。美国人的讲话方式通过流行文化影响到了英式英语，反之亦然。因此，有些介词上的区别并不是像它们曾经那样明显了。

　　Past Simple vs Present Perfect一般过去时和现在完成时

　　Americans tend to use the past simple when describing something that has recently occurred, while people in the UK are more likely to use the present perfect.

　　美国人倾向于使用一般过去时去描述刚刚发生的事情，而英国人则更可能使用现在完成时来描述过去刚刚发生的事情。

　　The past participle of getGet的过去分词区别

　　In the UK, “gotten” as the past participle of “get” is considered archaic and was abandoned long ago in favor of “got” .However, in the US people still use “gotten” as the past participle.

　　在英国，用“gotten”作为“get”的过去分词形式是被认为很老派的，并且在很久之前就使用“got”来取代“gotten”了。然而，在美国，人们仍然使用“gotten”做为“get”的过去分词。

　　Collective nouns: singular or plural?集合名词：单数还是复数?

　　In British English, a collective noun (like committee, government, team, etc.) can be either singular or plural, but more often tends toward plural, emphasizing the members of the group. Collective nouns in the US, by comparison, are always singular, emphasizing the group as one whole entity.

　　在英式英语中，集合名词(比如committee, government, team等等)作为单数和复数都是可以的，不过更多的情况下往往是倾向于复数，用来强调小组里的成员们。相比之下，在美国，集合名词总是单数形式，强调群体作为一个整体。

　　Regular or irregular verbs?规则动词和不规则动词

　　This is a subtle difference that can be easily overlooked in speech, but is much more apparent in written form. Many verbs that are irregular in the preterite in Britain (leapt, dreamt, burnt, learnt) have been made regular in America (leaped, dreamed, burned, learned).

　　在口语中，规则动词和不规则动词的微妙区别是很容易被忽视的，不过在书面形式中会比较明显。许多动词在英国的过去时态中是不规则的(leapt, dreamt, burnt, learnt)，到了美国就是规则动词了(leaped, dreamed, burned, learned)。

　　作为全球最常讲的第二语言，英语应该是一个很灵活的语言。毕竟，它不仅仅是在只在美国和英国两个国家使用的。所以，不论你使用的是美式英语还是英式英语，都不会妨碍你跟其他人进行交流。

（编辑：何莹莹）