Vocabulary

Grammar

The article English grammar describes the grammar of English.

Although the Standard Englishes of the various Anglophone countries are very similar, there are nonetheless often minor grammatical differences between them. In American and Australian English, for example, "sunk" and "shrunk" as past tense forms of "sink" and "shrink" are beginning to become acceptable as standard forms, whereas standard British English still insists on "sank" and "shrank".^[6] In South African English, the deletion of verbal complements is becoming common. This phenomenon sees the objects of transitive verbs being omitted: "Did you get?", "You can put in the box".^[7] This kind of construction is non-standard in most other forms of standard English.

A common feature of spoken Australian English is the use of hypocoristic words, which are formed by either shortening or the addition of a particular ending, or by a combination of these two processes. Examples are "G'day" (good day), "medico" (medical practitioner), "blockie" (someone farming a block of land), "ump" (umpire).

Further information: Comparison of American and British English

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